Jeremiah 4:4

Changing the figure, they should make a radical and permanent change in their commitments, a change that sprang from their innermost being (cf. Jeremiah 9:25-26; Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Romans 2:28-29). Removing the foreskins of the heart means removing the evil lusts and longings of the heart. [Note: Keil, 1:104.] Unless they did this, they could count on God’s judgment-that would burn and consume them like unquenchable fire-because their deeds were so evil. Breaking the covenant carried very serious consequences.

By repenting as the Lord and His prophet urged, Judah could have experienced a postponement of divine judgment. But Isaiah, over a century earlier, had announced that the Southern Kingdom would fall to Babylon sometime in the future. The Lord had revealed to him that Judah would not repent.

This sermon clarifies that the essence of repentance is turning.

". . . the key to life is to be found in the direction in which one faces; if that direction is wrong, one must turn to seek the true direction and walk in that path of life." [Note: Craigie, p. 68.]

Gary Yates saw Jeremiah 2:1 to Jeremiah 4:4 as a single message.

"The opening message in Jeremiah 2:1 to Jeremiah 4:4 portrays Israel as an unfaithful wife, and the remainder of the book explores how Yahweh will ultimately restore that broken relationship." [Note: Gary E. Yates, "Jeremiah’s Message of Judgment and Hope for God’s Unfaithful ’Wife,’" Bibliotheca Sacra 167:666 (April-June 2010):165.]