The Rot from Within and the God Who Sees Text: Jeremiah 5:26-31
Introduction: The Sweet Poison of Consent
We live in a time when the greatest sins are not merely committed, but celebrated. And not only celebrated, but subsidized. And not only subsidized, but made mandatory. Our culture has moved far beyond the simple, grubby sins of personal weakness and into the high-handed, defiant sins of institutionalized rebellion. We have a leadership class that excels in deeds of evil, and a populace that, for the most part, loves to have it so. This is a deadly combination, a toxic synergy that precedes the judgment of God every time it appears in history.
Jeremiah is a prophet sent to a people who had mastered the art of looking religious while being functionally atheistic. They had the temple, they had the sacrifices, they had the priests, but their houses were full of deceit and their hearts were far from God. They had become fat and sleek on the proceeds of their corruption. And the most damning indictment of all was not simply that the leaders were corrupt, but that the people loved the corruption. They preferred the smooth lies of the false prophets to the jagged, uncomfortable truths of a man like Jeremiah.
This passage is a divine diagnosis of a terminal spiritual cancer. It is a spiritual autopsy performed on a nation that was still walking around, pretending to be alive. God pulls back the skin and shows the prophet, and us, the disease that was consuming Judah from the inside out. And as we look at this ancient diagnosis, we must have the courage to ask if we don't see the same symptoms, the same spiritual sickness, in our own land. For the principles of God's justice do not change. What He hated in the gristle, He will not approve in the green.
The central horror described here is a conspiracy of wickedness that involves every level of society. The wicked rich, the lying prophets, the corrupt priests, and the complicit populace are all woven together in a tapestry of rebellion. And God, the holy and just God, looks down upon it all and asks a series of rhetorical questions that ought to make the blood run cold. Shall I not punish for this? Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation?
The Text
For wicked men are found among My people; They watch like fowlers lying in wait; They set a trap; They catch men. Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich. They are fat, they are sleek; They also excel in deeds of evil; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the orphan, that they may succeed; And they do not render justice for the poor. Shall I not punish these people?’ declares Yahweh, ‘On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?’ “A horrible and appalling thing Has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy with lying, And the priests have dominion by their own hand; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?
(Jeremiah 5:26-31 LSB)
The Predator Class (v. 26-28)
God begins His indictment by identifying the corrupt elite within His own covenant people.
"For wicked men are found among My people; They watch like fowlers lying in wait; They set a trap; They catch men. Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich. They are fat, they are sleek; They also excel in deeds of evil; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the orphan, that they may succeed; And they do not render justice for the poor." (Jeremiah 5:26-28)
Notice first where the problem is located: "among My people." This is not an external threat from Babylon or Egypt. This is internal rot. The most dangerous enemies of the church are never the persecutors on the outside, but the traitors and apostates on the inside. These men are wicked, but they are camouflaged. They are part of the visible covenant community.
Their method is predatory. God compares them to fowlers, to bird-catchers. They are patient, they are cunning, and their goal is to ensnare other men. This is not about common street crime. This is about systemic, calculated exploitation. They set traps. This refers to the perversion of justice, corrupt business practices, and the leveraging of power to ruin the weak. They are not just catching birds; they are catching men. They are destroying lives for profit.
The result of this predation is that their houses are "full of deceit" just as a fowler's cage is full of trapped birds. Deceit is the currency of their kingdom. And what does this deceit purchase for them? It makes them "great and rich." Their social standing and their wealth are built on a foundation of lies and injustice. This is the opposite of the righteous man in Psalm 1, whose prosperity comes from delighting in the law of the Lord. This is the prosperity of the wicked, which is a curse and a snare.
And what does this ill-gotten wealth do to them? "They are fat, they are sleek." This is not a comment on their physical appearance so much as their spiritual condition. It speaks of a self-satisfied, indulgent, and decadent lifestyle, completely insulated from the suffering of others. Their prosperity has made them morally obtuse. They are so sleek that the arrows of conviction just slide right off. Their conscience is cauterized. They not only commit evil, they "excel in deeds of evil." They have made a craft of it. They are artisans of wickedness.
And here is the acid test of their corruption: they neglect the most vulnerable. They do not plead the cause of the orphan or render justice for the poor. True justice, biblical justice, is not the Marxist-inspired "social justice" of our day, which is little more than institutionalized envy and theft. Biblical justice is rooted in the character of God, who defends the fatherless and the widow. It means applying God's law impartially to all, regardless of social status. These men had no interest in that. Why? Because there was no profit in it. Defending the orphan doesn't pay. Their entire system was geared toward personal enrichment, and true justice was an obstacle to that. So they ignored it, and in so doing, they revealed their utter contempt for the God whose law demanded it.
The Divine Response (v. 29)
After this searing description of their sin, God asks a question that is really an affirmation of His own character.
"Shall I not punish these people?’ declares Yahweh, ‘On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?’" (Jeremiah 5:29 LSB)
This is the Lord of Hosts speaking. This is the covenant God of Israel, Yahweh, reminding them who He is. The question is rhetorical because the answer is absolutely certain. Of course He will punish. Of course He will avenge Himself. To do otherwise would be to deny Himself. A god who is indifferent to the exploitation of the weak and the perversion of justice is not the God of the Bible. He is a figment of a sentimentalist's imagination.
God's holiness demands a response to such high-handed sin. His justice is not an abstract concept; it is an active attribute of His character. When men build a society on deceit and the oppression of the poor, they are not merely breaking some impersonal rules. They are offending a personal God. They are storing up wrath for the day of wrath.
The word "avenge" here is not about a petty, vindictive rage. It is the righteous, covenantal response of a holy God to the violation of His covenant. He is the ultimate vindicator of the oppressed. When human courts fail, when the rich and powerful get away with murder, we must remember that there is a higher court, and the Judge of all the earth will do right. This verse is a terrifying warning to the corrupt, but it is a profound comfort to the righteous who suffer under them. God sees. God knows. And God will act.
The Unholy Trinity of Corruption (v. 30-31)
The chapter concludes by revealing the full scope of the spiritual rot. It is not just a few bad apples in the economic and political realm. The spiritual leadership is the source of the infection.
"A horrible and appalling thing Has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy with lying, And the priests have dominion by their own hand; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?" (Jeremiah 5:30-31 LSB)
God calls this situation "horrible and appalling." The Hebrew words here convey a sense of astonishment and horror, of something that causes the hair to stand on end. What is this shocking state of affairs? It is a three-fold cord of corruption that cannot be easily broken.
First, "The prophets prophesy with lying." The prophets were supposed to be God's mouthpiece. Their job was to declare, "Thus says the Lord." But these men were declaring, "Thus says my wallet," or "Thus says the king," or "Thus says the spirit of the age." They were telling the people what they wanted to hear. They prophesied peace when judgment was at the door. They were the ancient equivalent of the mainline liberal pastor who denies the authority of Scripture, or the prosperity preacher who promises health and wealth to coddle the greed of his congregation.
Second, "the priests have dominion by their own hand." The priests were supposed to rule according to God's law. They were to be servants of the Word. Instead, they ruled by their own authority, for their own benefit. The phrase "by their own hand" can also be translated "at their direction," meaning the priests were in league with the false prophets, giving their blessing to the lies. They were using their spiritual authority to build their own little kingdoms, accumulating power and control.
And third, the most damning indictment of all: "And My people love it so!" The people were not innocent victims here. They were willing accomplices. They preferred the lies. They enjoyed the corrupt system. Why? Because true prophets like Jeremiah demand repentance, and repentance is hard. It means changing your life. It means giving up your idols. It is far more comfortable to listen to a prophet who tells you that you are fine just the way you are, and that God's primary business is to make you happy and prosperous. The people traded the hard truth that leads to life for the soft lie that leads to destruction, and they considered it a bargain.
This is the state of our own nation. We have political leaders who lie with impunity. We have a media that functions as a prophetic class, telling us lies about what a man is, what a woman is, what marriage is, and what justice is. We have compromised church leaders who refuse to speak a clear word against the spirit of the age. And we have a populace that is addicted to comfort, entertainment, and lies. They love to have it so.
And so God ends with a final, chilling question: "But what will you do at the end of it?" All this prosperity, all this comfort, all this sleek self-satisfaction built on lies, it has an expiration date. The end is coming. The judgment of God is not a "maybe." It is an inevitability. When the Babylonian armies are at the gates, when the economy collapses, when the lies stop working, when the bill for all this rebellion comes due, what will you do then? Who will you turn to? The false prophets will have no answers. The corrupt priests will have no comfort. Your wealth will not save you. There will be nothing left but a fearful expectation of judgment.
Conclusion: The Only Escape
This passage is a mirror. And when we look into it, we see our own reflection. We see a society that has grown fat and sleek on deceit. We see a leadership class that excels in evil and neglects true justice. We see a church where false prophets and compromised priests are a dime a dozen. And we see a people who, by and large, love to have it so.
The question, "What will you do at the end of it?" still hangs in the air. For us, the "end of it" is not just a historical judgment like the Babylonian exile. It is the final judgment before the throne of God. What will you do on that day?
The only answer, the only escape, is found in the true Prophet, the true Priest, and the true King who did not come to tell us what we wanted to hear, but what we needed to hear. Jesus Christ came into a world full of lies and declared Himself to be the Truth. He came to a world full of corrupt priests and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, once for all. He came to a world of predatory rulers and established a kingdom of perfect justice.
He did not come to the fat and sleek, but to the poor in spirit. He did not come to defend the powerful, but to plead the cause of the spiritual orphan. He did not offer a comfortable lie, but a hard truth: "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). But with that hard truth came a glorious promise: "Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
The only way to escape the judgment that is coming upon a nation like this is to abandon our love for the lies and flee to the one who is the Truth. It means repenting of our complicity in the corruption and trusting in the one who is utterly incorruptible. The end is coming. Let us be found in Him.