In Jeremiah four, verses three through thirty-one, describe the desolation that would soon come upon God’s people because of their sin and apostasy; they would learn how evil and bitter it was to forsake the Lord, as in chapter two, verse nineteen, “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.”
To avoid the terrible calamity coming upon them, the people of Judah had to undergo a complete moral renewal by committing themselves to truth, justice, and righteousness. They must be open to the conviction of the Spirit, repent of their sins, and break up the hardened soil of their hearts. The evil in their hearts must be removed as surely as the foreskin was removed in physical circumcision.
Many of Judah’s prophets had spoken deceptively to God’s people by giving them false hope of peace and security, while ignoring their sinful ways. God had permitted the people to believe a lie because they had no love for the truth and instead took pleasure in sin.
Jeremiah experienced God’s agony for Judah and expressed the pain and sorrow that the Lord felt at the coming desolation. Likewise, believers should feel sorrow at the thought of men and women being taken captive and destroyed by sin and Satan. The terrible future of the lost should cause us to lament as Jesus did when He expressed intense grief over the lost condition of Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s vision of the utter devastation coming upon His people made it appear as if the whole universe had been laid waste and changed into the same foolishness it had before.