Backsliding in its worst forms.
All departures from God are evil, but some are only temporary, and are quickly followed by repentance, return, and restoration. There are others, however, of a far more serious kind, and we have in these verses a great deal told us concerning them. We are told of some of—
I. THEIR CHARACTERISTICS.
1. So contrary to men's wonted ways. For when men find that they have brought evil on themselves, they will at once seek to undo such evil (Jeremiah 8:4). If a man fall, he win not lie still in the mire or in the road, but will get up again as speedily as may be. If he have mistaken his path and got on a wrong track, wilt he not, as soon as he discovers his mistake, quickly retrace his steps that he may get into the right way? That is how men act in the common affairs of life. But, though Judah and Jerusalem knew well that they had fallen, yet they showed no desire to rise, and though they could not but know they were altogether out of the right way, they showed no willingness to return.
2. Resists the strivings of God's Spirit and all his drawings of them to himself. Jeremiah 8:7 implies such God-implanted instincts in men's souls, but declares that, unlike the ever-obedient birds, man resists and refuses the call of God.
3. Becomes shameless. (Jeremiah 6:12.) This feature we have had noticed before (cf. Jeremiah 6:15); it arrested the prophet's attention as being evil exceedingly.
4. Determined and defiant. (Jeremiah 8:6.)
5. Is at last perpetual. (Jeremiah 8:5.) They have gone into an evil way, and they abide in that way, no power of Divine grace being able to draw them therefrom. So terrible is this worst form of backsliding, it is perpetual.
II. THEIR CONSEQUENCES. The evil fruit such sin bears is shown here.
1. Deep sorrow to the heart of God. How pathetic is this lament] How it echoes the anguish of those words, "How shall I give thee up!" "How often would I have gathered thee!" etc.! Such is the tone of these (Jeremiah 8:4-8). The Divine grief is audible through every part.
2. Shame to the backsliders themselves. (Jeremiah 8:9.) It is ever so. These chapters have been giving illustration upon illustration of this result. And our own observation and the experience of all who have turned from God to sin—all alike confirm what God's Word has said.
3. Utter and absolute ruin. (Jeremiah 8:10.) The dreadful sorrows of the vanquished in beholding their most beloved ones torn from them to a fate worse than death, and their lands which they had inherited from their fathers taken possession of by their conquerors,—these common incidents of war are cited as illustrative of the utter ruin which would come upon these ungodly ones. And evermore will men find it an exceeding bitter thing to depart from the living God. We are also shown some of—
III. THEIR CAUSES.
1. Deception. Jeremiah 8:5, "They hold fast deceit." How many are the falsities by which men are deceived, and to which they hold fast as if they were sure facts on which their souls might rest (cf. Jeremiah 8:8, Jeremiah 8:11; Jeremiah 7:4, Jeremiah 7:8) l
2. Dislike of God's ways. "They refuse to return." They had no desire to detect the falsity of their trust; they were glad to have any excuse for refusal.
3. Strong preference for the world's ways. Jeremiah 8:10, "Every one … given to covetousness." The ways of God suffered not such worldliness, but the ways they had chosen gave free permission. Here is ever the secret of departure from God. But can nothing be done? "Is there no balm in Gilead?" (Jeremiah 8:22). Note, then—
IV. THEIR CURE. How shall this evil spirit be cast out and the right spirit be restored? In Jeremiah 8:6 the process is shown to us. There is:
1. Realization of the results of our sin. The backslider is represented as contemplating with dismay the awful consequences of his sin, and asking, "What have I done?" It is "the conviction of sin" which is the beginning work of God's Spirit in the sinner's heart. See the prodigal contemplating the ruin he had brought upon himself. This was the first step in his "coming to himself."
2. Repentance of our wickedness. (Jeremiah 8:6.) Not general repentance, but each man seeing his own wickedness and repenting of that. The man has come to look on it as God looks on it. Formerly he loved his sin, now he hates it. One element of our Savior's atonement was this, that he in our nature and as our representative, looked upon our sin as God looked on it, and so offered to God for us a true repentance. We, however contrite in heart, could offer none such, for as it has been truly said, "Our very repentance needs to be repented of, and our tears washed in the blood of Christ." But this element of all true atonement—that he who makes such atonement looks on the wrong done as he who has been wronged looks on it—was present in Christ's atonement, and is one reason wherefore "the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin."
3. Confession. This is the "speaking aright" which is told of in Jeremiah 8:6. They had been denying, excusing, maintaining their sin heretofore, anything but speaking aright about it; but now there is heard the right language of confession: "I have sinned."
4. Practical turning from the evil way. As before each had turned determinedly to his own self-chosen course (Jeremiah 8:6), now they would turn from it. Such is the way of the backslider's return and restoration, a way up which there is no smooth easy sliding as there was down, but in which every step has to be firmly made and resolutely kept to—a way difficult indeed, but, blessed be God, not impossible.
V. THE COUNSEL. Let each wanderer from God ask himself the question, "What have I done?"
1. Such inquiry can do no harm; and:
2. Is likely to be of great advantage.
3. The time for such inquiry is lessening day by day.
4. "It is a fearful thing" for an unforgiven man "to fall into the hands of the living God."—C.