The Logic of Creation vs. The Insanity of Sin Text: Jeremiah 18:13-17
Introduction: An Unnatural Rebellion
We live in a world that has declared war on reality. Our generation has determined that it can define truth for itself, that it can identify as whatever it pleases, and that it can live in defiance of the created order without consequence. This is not a new rebellion, but it is a particularly potent and insane form of it. At the root of this rebellion is a fundamental rejection of the Creator/creature distinction. Man wants to be God, and in order to do that, he must pretend that the world God made is arbitrary, a cosmic accident that can be rearranged to suit his lusts.
But the world is not arbitrary. God has woven His logic, His character, and His glory into the very fabric of the cosmos. The creation testifies to Him. It operates according to fixed laws and patterns that He established. And because of this, the creation itself becomes a witness against our rebellion. This is precisely the argument God makes through the prophet Jeremiah. He is going to call the created order to the witness stand to testify against the unnatural, illogical, and frankly, appalling behavior of His own covenant people.
The sin of Judah is not just a moral failing; it is a cosmological absurdity. It is a violation of the way things are. It is as nonsensical as snow abandoning a mountain or a river deciding to flow uphill. God is about to lay out a legal case against His people, and His chief argument is that their sin is so bizarre, so contrary to nature, that even the pagan nations, who do not have the law of God written for them, would be shocked by it. This is a divine indictment that uses the grammar of reality to expose the insanity of sin.
In this passage, God confronts the profound spiritual amnesia of His people. They have forgotten who He is, which means they have forgotten who they are. And when you forget who you are, you begin to do monstrous and appalling things. This is a diagnosis not just for ancient Judah, but for the modern West, and for any Christian who begins to trifle with the world's worthless idols.
The Text
"Therefore thus says Yahweh, ‘Ask now among the nations, Who ever heard the like of this? The virgin of Israel Has done a most appalling thing. Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country? Or is the cold flowing water from a strange land ever uprooted? For My people have forgotten Me; They burn incense to worthless gods, And they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in bypaths, Not on a highway, To make their land an object of horror, An object of perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be horrified And shake his head. Like an east wind I will scatter them Before the enemy; I will show them My back and not My face In the day of their disaster.’ ” (Jeremiah 18:13-17 LSB)
An Unprecedented Apostasy (v. 13)
God begins His indictment with a challenge. He tells Judah to conduct a survey among the heathen.
"Therefore thus says Yahweh, ‘Ask now among the nations, Who ever heard the like of this? The virgin of Israel Has done a most appalling thing." (Jeremiah 18:13)
The Lord’s argument is this: go and poll the pagans. Ask the Gentiles, who worship stumps and stones, if they have ever seen a nation abandon the gods that have been with them for generations. The pagans were doggedly loyal to their false gods. They might add new gods to their pantheon, but they would never simply abandon their ancestral deities. Yet Israel, who had the one, true, living God, the God who brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, has done something unheard of. They have traded glory for shame.
Notice the biting irony. God calls them "the virgin of Israel." This is covenant language. She was set apart for Him, betrothed to Him at Sinai, intended to be pure and faithful. But this virgin has done a "most appalling thing." The word is one of horror and revulsion. She has committed spiritual adultery. She has played the harlot with worthless idols. This is not a small slip-up. This is a grotesque betrayal that shocks the conscience of heaven and should shock the conscience of the world.
The modern church needs to hear this. We have become so accustomed to compromise, so comfortable with worldliness, that we have lost our capacity to be appalled. We see professing Christians abandon the clear teaching of Scripture on sexuality, on creation, on the exclusivity of Christ, and we call it "dialogue" or "re-evaluating our position." God calls it an appalling thing. It is a betrayal of our covenant husband, and it is a scandal even to the unbelieving world, which, for all its rebellion, at least expects the church to believe its own book.
The Testimony of Creation (v. 14)
To demonstrate just how unnatural this apostasy is, God calls the created order to testify.
"Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country? Or is the cold flowing water from a strange land ever uprooted?" (Jeremiah 18:14)
The argument is from the lesser to the greater. God has built reliability and faithfulness into the very structure of the world. The snow on Mount Hermon in Lebanon is a constant, reliable source of water for the region. It stays on the high peaks. The cold, life-giving streams that flow from it are dependable. They follow their ordained course. Nature obeys its God. The snow does not decide one day to pack up and leave the mountain. The river does not decide to abandon its channel.
This is a beautiful picture of the Creator's faithfulness, reflected in His creation. And it is a staggering rebuke to His people. Inanimate, unthinking creation is more faithful to its created purpose than God's own covenant people are to their Creator. The snow and the streams are more reliable than the "virgin of Israel."
This is the essence of idolatry. It is a flight from reality. It is an attempt to live in a universe where things do not have a fixed nature, where we can be our own source of life and meaning. But just as a river cut off from its mountain source will dry up and vanish, so a people cut off from the fountain of living waters, which is God Himself, will wither and die. This is not a threat; it is spiritual physics.
The Great Forgetting (v. 15)
Here we get to the root of the problem. Why have they done this appalling, unnatural thing? The diagnosis is simple and profound.
"For My people have forgotten Me; They burn incense to worthless gods, And they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in bypaths, Not on a highway," (Jeremiah 18:15)
Amnesia is the cardinal sin of the covenant people. To forget God is not a passive mental lapse. It is an active, willful suppression of the truth. It is to look at all that God has done, all that He is, and to treat it as though it were nothing. And nature abhors a vacuum. When you forget the true God, you do not become a sophisticated secularist. You become a fool who burns incense to "worthless gods." The word for worthless here is the same word for vanity, for vapor, for a puff of smoke. They have traded the Rock of Ages for smoke.
The result of this trade is immediate. They have "stumbled from their ways, from the ancient paths." God had established a way for them to walk. This was the path of the law, the path of covenant faithfulness, the path of wisdom trod by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was a "highway," a well-defined, built-up road that leads to life and blessing. But in their foolishness, they have left this highway to bushwhack through the swamps and thickets of paganism. They have chosen treacherous, unmarked "bypaths."
This is a perfect picture of modern evangelicalism. We have been told that the "ancient paths" of biblical orthodoxy, of creedal faithfulness, of robust, God-centered worship are too restrictive, too narrow. We are encouraged to find our own path, to walk in the byways of cultural relevance and personal experience. But these bypaths do not lead to green pastures. They lead to a swamp of confusion, compromise, and ultimately, judgment.
The Inevitable Consequence (v. 16)
Choosing the bypaths has a guaranteed outcome. The destination is fixed.
"To make their land an object of horror, An object of perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be horrified And shake his head." (Jeremiah 18:16)
The land that was promised to be a blessing to the nations, a land flowing with milk and honey, will become a wasteland, an object of horror. This is a direct fulfillment of the covenant curses laid out in Deuteronomy. Sin does not just affect our souls; it has real-world, geopolitical, and agricultural consequences. When a people abandons God, their culture, their society, and their very land begins to die.
The land will become an object of "perpetual hissing." Travelers passing by the ruins of Judah will hiss. This is not a sound of sympathy, but of scorn, mockery, and astonishment. They will shake their heads in disbelief. "Is this the people who had such a great God? Is this the nation that was given so much light? How could they have thrown it all away?" The testimony of Israel was meant to be a positive witness to the nations of the blessings of following Yahweh. Instead, their apostasy will make them a negative witness, a cautionary tale of the horrors of disobeying Him.
The Divine Response (v. 17)
The passage concludes with God's own declaration of what He will do on the day of their calamity, the day they have brought upon themselves.
"Like an east wind I will scatter them Before the enemy; I will show them My back and not My face In the day of their disaster.’ ” (Jeremiah 18:17)
The east wind in Palestine was a fierce, hot, destructive wind from the desert. It was the wind of judgment. God says He Himself will be this wind, scattering His people before the Babylonian invaders. God is not a passive observer of history; He is the Lord of it. Nebuchadnezzar is His instrument, the axe in His hand.
And in that day of disaster, when they finally turn to cry out to Him, He will give them exactly what their sin has demanded. "I will show them My back and not My face." They turned their backs on Him to worship idols made of wood and stone. They preferred the creation to the Creator. So, in the day of their trouble, God will turn His back on them. This is the terrible logic of the covenant. God gives us over to what we want. If we want idols, He will give us over to the emptiness and slavery that comes with them. If we insist on turning our back to Him, there will come a day when He turns His back to us.
This is one of the most terrifying verses in Scripture. The greatest blessing is to see the face of God (Numbers 6:25). The ultimate curse, the very essence of hell, is to be hidden from His face, to be shown His back. This is the disaster that awaits all who forget Him.
Conclusion: The Highway of the Gospel
This is a grim and terrifying passage. It lays out the logic of sin and judgment with unflinching clarity. If this were the final word, we would be left in despair. But it is not the final word. This entire passage points us to the one who walked the ancient path perfectly.
Jesus Christ is the true Israel who never forgot His Father. He is the one who was not appalled by our appalling sin, but rather took it upon Himself. On the cross, He endured the ultimate horror. He became the object of hissing and scorn. Men passed by, shaking their heads and mocking Him. And on that cross, in the day of His disaster, His Father showed Him His back. "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" He endured the curse of verse 17 so that we who believe in Him would never have to.
Because of His faithfulness, God has built a new and living highway. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). He is the highway that leads us back to the Father. To be a Christian is to repent of our wandering in the bypaths of sin and self-reliance, and to get back on the highway that is Christ.
The warning of Jeremiah remains for us. Do not forget God. Do not trade the glories of Christ for the worthless idols of this age. Remember what He has done. Remember His covenant faithfulness. Stay on the ancient path, the good way, which is Christ Himself. For in Him, and in Him alone, we find that God has turned His face toward us, and we will never see His back.