Jeremiah (1-31) 2:9 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Wherefore, I will yet plead with you.’ That word ‘plead’ appears twice in the verse: ‘and with your children's children will I plead.’ The word ‘plead’ has shrunk in meaning over the years. When the King James translators used it, it had a much wider meaning. The Hebrew here, which the word plead used to fit, is this: wherefore I will yet wrangle or strive with you, and the word ‘plead’ can mean that. ‘I plead with somebody’, either because out of concern or affection I am trying to help them, or – and this was how it was used in the old days – I could plead with someone in the sense of contending with them, arguing with them, reproving them. The word ‘plead’ would stretch over those extreme cases. ‘Wherefore I will yet plead [struggle, contend] with you,’ – it is here used in a negative sense; that is obvious from the context – ‘saith the Lord.’ It isn't just a chargesheet. God is pleading, and no doubt many individuals were persuaded, though the nation as a whole never repented. Witness is a matter of pleading in both ways: positively for people to come to Christ, and to warn also. ‘For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar.’ Look at the nations around you. Is what I am about to mention ever seen in those nations? Chittim is most probably Cyprus standing for Greece, and Kedar refers to a nomadic tribe, so it is far to the east. ‘And consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. ¹¹ Hath a nation changed their gods?’ The idolaters don't change their gods ‘which are yet no gods.’ That is an amazing thing. Pagans are absolutely loyal to their gods, says Jeremiah. Haven’t you noticed? The pagan nations cling tenaciously to their useless gods. It has to be deep superstition. Their gods never worked a miracle, never delivered them in war, never blessed them and provided for them. They could call upon them endlessly; they had no evidence that their gods ever answered prayer, yet they clung to them. Isn’t it so all over the world? Generation after generation, the idolaters are loyal to the same gods. Muslims are loyal to their faith. Hindus are tenaciously loyal to their faith, so do even branches of the professing Christian church that are unsound and deviant. Roman Catholics are powerfully loyal to their traditions. But evangelical Christians, Bible believers, go wandering off trying this, trying that, leaving the blueprints, the rules of Scripture, and experimenting. So it was with the Jews. Astonishing! Whenever in trouble they turned to idols. Jeremiah's line of reasoning is this: Why is it the pagans are so loyal who have useless gods, and you who have evidence of a living God of power who hears and answers your prayer and does remarkable things; and yet you, of all people, are disloyal. The abandonment of God is even more horrific because the true God, unlike those idols, is wonderful in his nature. ‘But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit’, and there is reasoning to be gleaned from this and a powerful appeal. It's not just a charge against them; it’s his reasoning, his appealing to them.