Faces Stronger Than Rock Text: Jeremiah 5:1-6
Introduction: The Divine Inquest
We live in an age that has mastered the art of the unblinking lie. Our culture has trained its face to be hard, to stare down truth, to call evil good and good evil without the slightest flicker of shame. We call the slaughter of the unborn "healthcare," we call the mutilation of children "gender affirmation," and we call the rejection of God's law "freedom." This is not a new invention. It is an ancient and damnable art form, and the prophet Jeremiah was sent to a generation of its masters.
This chapter opens with a scene that ought to terrify us. It is a divine inquest, a formal investigation. God commissions Jeremiah to act as a celestial detective, to sweep the entire city of Jerusalem, the covenant city, the place of the Temple, and see if he can find a single shred of evidence to justify mercy. God is, in effect, building a legal case for the city's destruction, and He is inviting His prophet to check His work. He says, "Go, look for yourself. See if you can find any reason at all why I should not bring this whole thing down."
This is a staggering moment. Remember Abraham's negotiation with God over Sodom? Abraham bargained God down to ten righteous men. If just ten could be found, the city would be spared. Here, God lowers the bar to the absolute floor. He is not asking for ten. He is asking for one. Find me one man. One man who does justice. One man who seeks faithfulness. And for the sake of that one man, I will pardon the entire city. The search begins, and the findings are a damning indictment not just of ancient Jerusalem, but of every society, and every human heart, that sets its face against the living God.
The Text
"Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, And see now and know, And seek in her open squares, If you can find a man, If there is one who does justice, who seeks faithfulness, Then I will pardon her. And if they say, 'As Yahweh lives,' Then they swear to a lie." O Yahweh, do not Your eyes look for faithfulness? You have struck them, But they did not weaken; You have consumed them, But they refused to receive discipline. They have made their faces stronger than rock; They have refused to repent. Then I said, "They are only the poor; They are foolish; For they do not know the way of Yahweh Or the legal judgment of their God. Let me go to the great And let me speak to them, For they know the way of Yahweh And the legal judgment of their God." But they too, altogether, have broken the yoke And torn apart the bonds. Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down; A wolf of the deserts will devastate them; A leopard is watching their cities. Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces Because their transgressions are many; Their acts of faithlessness are mighty.
(Jeremiah 5:1-6 LSB)
The Search for a Single Man (v. 1-2)
The investigation begins with God's gracious, almost desperate, offer.
"Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, And see now and know, And seek in her open squares, If you can find a man, If there is one who does justice, who seeks faithfulness, Then I will pardon her." (Jeremiah 5:1)
The command is thorough. This is not a casual glance. "Roam to and fro... see... know... seek." God is telling Jeremiah to leave no stone unturned. Check the markets, the public squares, the back alleys. The criteria are not impossibly high. God is not looking for a sinlessly perfect man. He is looking for one who "does justice" and "seeks faithfulness." He is looking for a man whose life is oriented toward God's law and God's truth. This is basic covenant living. And the offer is astounding. The fate of the entire city hangs on this one man. The corporate is bound to the individual. For the sake of one righteous man, God is willing to pardon the whole corrupt metropolis. This is a profound principle that echoes throughout Scripture, and it finds its ultimate fulfillment, as we will see, in the one Man, Christ Jesus.
But the search immediately hits a brick wall of hypocrisy.
"And if they say, 'As Yahweh lives,' Then they swear to a lie." (Jeremiah 5:2)
The first thing the investigator discovers is that the people have the right words but the wrong heart. They are full of pious talk. "As Yahweh lives" was a common oath, a declaration of allegiance to the God of Israel. But for them, it was just a phrase. It was religious varnish on rotten wood. They invoked the name of the living God to sanctify their lies. This is not simple paganism; this is something far worse. This is apostasy. They are using the truth to tell a lie. They are using their religion as a cloak for their rebellion. This is a direct, flagrant violation of the third commandment. They are bearing God's name in a vain, empty, and deceitful way. And God is not mocked.
The Hardness of Impenitence (v. 3)
Jeremiah, in his anguish, turns to God, confirming the divine diagnosis.
"O Yahweh, do not Your eyes look for faithfulness? You have struck them, But they did not weaken; You have consumed them, But they refused to receive discipline. They have made their faces stronger than rock; They have refused to repent." (Jeremiah 5:3)
Jeremiah knows God's character. God looks past the external oaths to the heart. He desires "faithfulness," or truth, in the inward parts. And God has not been passive. He has sent corrective judgment. "You have struck them... You have consumed them." These are the severe mercies of a loving Father, designed to chasten, to correct, to bring His people to their senses. Famine, drought, military defeat, these were not random misfortunes; they were covenantal warnings.
But look at their response. "They did not weaken." The Hebrew word can mean to grieve or feel pain. God's blows did not hurt them in the way they were intended to. They did not lead to sorrow or repentance. Instead, "they refused to receive discipline." Their response to God's loving correction was defiance. They hardened themselves against it.
The metaphor here is stark and powerful: "They have made their faces stronger than rock." A rock is hard, unyielding, and impassive. It cannot be persuaded. It feels no shame. This is the face of terminal impenitence. They have set themselves in their sin, and they refuse to be moved. Repentance is not a matter of inability, but of will. The text is clear: "They have refused to repent." It was a choice. They chose the rock face.
Universal Corruption (v. 4-5)
At this point, Jeremiah tries to find an excuse, a loophole for the people.
"Then I said, 'They are only the poor; They are foolish; For they do not know the way of Yahweh Or the legal judgment of their God.'" (Jeremiah 5:4)
This is a charitable thought. Perhaps this deep-seated rebellion is just a problem of the lower classes. They are poor, uneducated, foolish. They have not been properly catechized. They sin out of ignorance. It is a plausible theory, and so he resolves to test it by going to the other end of the social spectrum.
"Let me go to the great And let me speak to them, For they know the way of Yahweh And the legal judgment of their God." But they too, altogether, have broken the yoke And torn apart the bonds." (Jeremiah 5:5)
He goes to the "great," the educated elite, the civic leaders, the priests. Surely they know better. They have had every advantage. They have studied the Torah. They know the "legal judgment of their God." But the discovery is devastating. The corruption is not a matter of ignorance, but of arrogance. The elite are not better; they are worse. "They too, altogether, have broken the yoke and torn apart the bonds."
This is the language of conscious, willful rebellion. A yoke is an instrument of submission and direction. To break the yoke is to declare independence from the master. The leaders, who knew the law best, hated it the most. They did not sin because they did not know; they sinned because they knew, and they refused to submit. The corruption was total. It infected every level of society, from the ignorant poor to the arrogant elite. The entire nation was in open revolt.
The Inevitable Consequence (v. 6)
Because the diagnosis is terminal, the judgment is now inevitable. The word "therefore" connects the sin to the sentence.
"Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down; A wolf of the deserts will devastate them; A leopard is watching their cities... Because their transgressions are many; Their acts of faithlessness are mighty." (Jeremiah 5:6)
When God's people break His covenant, the protections of that covenant are removed. Part of the covenant promise was peace and security within their borders. Part of the covenant curse was that the beasts of the field would be unleashed upon them (Leviticus 26:22). The lion, the wolf, and the leopard are not just random animals; they are instruments of God's covenantal wrath. They represent the coming Babylonian army, which will be as fierce, as ravenous, and as cunning as these predators.
The judgment is not arbitrary. It is a direct and proportional response to their sin. The reason is given plainly: "Because their transgressions are many; Their acts of faithlessness are mighty." Notice the two descriptors. Their sins are many in number, a great quantity of rebellion. But they are also mighty in quality. This is not a case of occasional weakness or minor stumbling. This is high-handed, robust, energetic apostasy. They have sinned with all their might. And so God will judge them with all His might.
The One Man Who Was Found
The search in Jerusalem failed. Jeremiah could not find a man. The city was unpardonable on its own merits. This is a picture of the human condition. If God were to search the streets of our cities, our nations, our churches, on the same terms, what would He find? If the pardon of our community depended on finding one person who perfectly does justice and seeks faithfulness, we would all be under the same sentence of condemnation. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10).
The failed search in Jerusalem was meant to show us our desperate need. It was meant to make us look for another Man, from another city.
God's search for a man did not end with Jeremiah. God's ultimate solution was not to find a righteous man, but to provide one. He sent His own Son. Jesus Christ is the one Man who perfectly did justice and sought faithfulness His entire life. He is the one for whose sake God can pardon the city, the New Jerusalem, the Church.
Where Jerusalem made its face stronger than rock in defiance, Jesus "set his face like a flint" to go to Jerusalem to die (Isaiah 50:7). Where they refused discipline, He endured the ultimate discipline of the cross, the full force of God's wrath against sin. Where they broke the yoke of God's law, He took the yoke of perfect obedience upon Himself, saying "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30).
The pardon that Jerusalem could not obtain is the pardon that is freely offered to all who abandon their rock-like faces and turn to Him. The gospel is the good news that God has found a Man. And because of who He is and what He has done, God can be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Therefore, the call to us is simple. Refuse to repent, and the lion, wolf, and leopard of God's final judgment await. But repent and believe in the one righteous Man, and you will be pardoned for His sake.