Charles Spurgeon Commentary Jeremiah 2

Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD, I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, when you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness to the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, says the LORD.

God remembered what Israel used to be in those good days when the Lord alone led them and there was no strange god among them. Now He bids them remember from where they had fallen, and repent and do their first works lest He come to them in wrath.

Oh, beloved, if you ever lived near to God—if you ever rested your head on Christ's bosom, and have now wandered away from Him and are spiritually cold and dead—begin to chide yourself, for the Lord Himself, in the word before us, does chide you.

He calls you to a sorrowful remembrance of the position from which you have descended—the heights of grace from which you have come down. Breathe the prayer that He would restore you again: Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: Thus says the LORD, What iniquity has your father found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain? (Jeremiah 2:4–5)

He asks them whether there was any fault in him—any failure in keeping his promise—or whether he had dealt unjustly or unmercifully with them, that they had thus gone away from him and walked after vanity.

Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD: I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, when you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, says the LORD.

God reminds his people of what they used to be in their first days, when they came out of Egypt. They had very sadly declined from what they then were. They were not very faithful to the Lord then, but they had fallen back even from that condition. Does not this passage come home to some of you who are not now what you once were? May the Lord graciously speak through these words to your ear, and to your heart, if you have backslidden from him in any degree!

Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: Thus says the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

What faults have you found with God, that you have left him?

What fault have you seen in the ever-blessed Christ, that your love to him should have grown cold?

Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.

It is a sad charge against anyone who forgets the care that God has taken of him in the days of his poverty and affliction. When a man becomes rich and is surrounded by earthly comforts, it is a terrible thing that he should then forget God; or that the more God does for him, the less he thinks of God. This is strangely ungrateful conduct, yet the children of Israel acted this way.

They were better in the wilderness—though they were bad enough there—they were better in the wilderness than they were in Canaan, better on the desert sand than in the land that flowed with milk and honey. And there are some nowadays who were better in their poverty than they are in their prosperity, and some who were much better in their times of sickness than they now are in their balmy days of health. Sadly, that it should be so!