If you recall, chapter 1 was Jeremiah’s calling. GOD called him to be a prophet to the nations & warned him that he would have to preach judgment to his apostate nation. In chapter 2, we read Jeremiah’s first sermon which was like a court hearing, it was like divorce court, & GOD laid out His case against His unfaithful, covenant people. Though He never went through with it, GOD revealed that He could legally file for divorce. He presented enough evidence to prove that although He was always a faithful husband, His people, like an adulterous bride, dumped Him after the honeymoon & prostituted themselves to other gods, the gods of the surrounding pagan nations.
Chapter 3 was the invitation to come back home. “Return to Me thou backsliding Israel; for I am merciful,” GOD pleaded with His people throughout chapter 3. Yet these pleadings at best only produced a temporal, superficial response. And thus, with increasing sorrow Jeremiah realizes that the call to repentance may never be heeded. And if it is not, then the outpouring of the boiling pot of judgment (1:13-14), like a blazing fire which none can quench (4:4), became increasingly inevitable. The sheer terror of this coming judgment fills the remaining chapters of Jeremiah’s earliest preaching. What is going on? The sun is now setting on the day of GOD’s grace. GOD has been more than patient, He has extended His offer of mercy time & again, but the people refused to repent of the sin that they might be saved. They reject the call to come back home. Therefore, GOD tells Jeremiah to sound the alarm – Judgment is on the way.
