Jeremiah 18:15

CONSEQUENCES OF JUDAH'S CHOICE

"For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient ways, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up; to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone that passeth by shall be astonished, and shake his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity."

"The ancient ways ..." (Jeremiah 18:15). "These were the way of loyalty to God's covenant, the `good way' mentioned in Jeremiah 6:16."[18] The false prophets, false priests, false rulers and false gods of Israel had mined the nation; and, as a consequence, God would scatter the nation as with an east wind; their land shall be destroyed, deserted, and an astonishment to all who see it! These were terrible words of denunciation, and such a prophecy as this was well calculated to arouse fierce and implacable opposition and hatred from the false community leaders.

"The back, and not the face ..." (Jeremiah 18:17). This signifies God's withdrawal of his favor from the people at the very time when their calamity would come and their need of him would be the most acute; but, after all, the people themselves had given their God this very same treatment (See Jeremiah 2:27). Now it would be God's turn to turn his back upon them.