A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” series lesson of Jeremiah 2:1-13 for Sunday, June 11, 2023, with the title “Judges.”

(A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: Ask your group:  ??? “Is there something in your life that you USED to do, that you wish you were still doing now”???  

(Maybe a habit, an exercise, a hobby. EX: I was swimming 45 minutes a day at the Angleton Rec Center until COVID hit and the gym closed, and I’ve never gotten back to it.)

You/your group can discuss that for a while, then I’d say: in today’s lesson we’ll see how God’s people in Judah used to follow Him, but they were not doing it any longer.

CONTEXT:
We’ve just gotten into our study of Jeremiah. Last week we saw how God called him to his ministry of preaching to His people. Now in Chapter 2 God gives him his first message, on how His people have turned away from Him.

OUTLINE:
I.   Leaving Your First Love (:1-3)

II.  Forgetting the Lord  (:4-8)

III. Making a Poor Trade  (:9-13)

I. LEAVING THEIR FIRST LOVE (:1-3)

:1 begins with an important statement: “Now the word of the LORD came to me saying …”. 

??? Why would this be an important statement???

(Because these are not just “Jeremiah’s thoughts.” These are GOD’S WORDS!  As II Tim. 3:16 says, “All scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable …”. These aren’t just “good thoughts” to be considered, or Jeremiah’s personal opinions to be pondered; they are GOD’S words to be listened to and obeyed! That always needs to be our attitude towards scripture.)

So what then does God say?

:2 God says to Jerusalem: “I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals, your following after Me in the wilderness …”

— The word “devotion” is the Hebrew “chesed,” love, lovingkindness, grace” of your youth. 

— “Betrothal” is like our “engagement.” 

So what’s He saying? God says, I remember how you were towards Me at first: the LOVE you had for Me when you were young; the love you had when we were first “engaged.”

But what’s the implication? That things have changed. That you DON’T love Me now like you did then; that you’ve changed since those early days. 

The picture here is of a spouse: we’ve all probably heard married people say things like: “You don’t seem to love me like you did” or “You didn’t used to treat me like this when we were first married,” and so on. 

So GOD is basically saying that to His people here. Throughout the Bible, God gives us the picture of Him as the Bridegroom, and we as His people as the Bride. 

— Isaiah 54:5 “For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the Lord of hosts”

— Isaiah 62:5 “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

— In Ephesians 5 the Bible talks about the relationship of the husband and his wife: “A man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” and then it says: “I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” So it’s saying Jesus is like the husband, and we are like His bride. 

— Revelation 19:7 “the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready” So again, Jesus is the bridegroom, we as the church are the bride.

And there are numerous other examples of this in the Bible: God uses this picture of Himself/Jesus as the Bridegroom, and we as His people as His bride.

But what He says of His people here, is that in the relationship the have with their “husband,” God, it is not as it was. He said you don’t love Me like you used to. 

This is just what Jesus said in Revelation 2:4, where He told the church at Ephesus: “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” To me, that is exactly what God is saying to Jerusalem here in Jeremiah 2. If we want to know what Jesus meant there in Rev. 2, look no farther than Jeremiah 2:2. Your love for Me is not what it used to be when you were young/when we first had this relationship.

Now, one exercise you could use here for some discussion might be to ask (hopefully without getting too personal/too much into complaining!) ??? What might be some signs that a husband and wife had lost their first love???

(Not spending time together; not dating any more; not holding hands like they used; not sitting close in the truck (like the old joke where the wife says to the husband, “Why don’t we sit close together in the truck like we used to?” and the man says: “I ain’t moved!”)  You/your group can think of many things — just don’t let it get out of hand/turn into a gripe session!

BUT THEN I would make the spiritual application here and ask:

??? What might be some signs that a person has “left our first love” towards the Lord??? See what you/your group can come up with. 

(EX: Not wanting to go to worship; or going to worship but just “going through the motions.”  Not having a hunger to read God’s word like we once did. Not singing to God for the pure joy of it. Not sharing Jesus with anyone. Not inviting people to church. Not wanting to give. Not loving His people. Not serving like you used to …)

Then I’d talk about how if you look back, and see some things you “used to” be doing for the Lord, that you are not doing now, it may be time to rededicate yourself to Him. (I’ve said that Psalm 42:4 may be some of the saddest words in the Bible: “I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God.” I USED TO! Are there some godly things you USED TO do for the Lord, that you are not doing now?  Jesus says to Ephesus in Rev. 2 (who had left their first love) to “remember, repent, and do the deeds you did at first.” 

The Lord shows us 3 good things to do if we have left our first love:

1. Remember. Some of us need to remember: what are some things you used to do for the Lord that you are not now? Maybe you haven’t thought about that, but you need to! The Lord will bring some things to mind.

2. Repent. Means “after/to think.” Change your mind. Determine you’re going to make some changes in these areas.

3. And then DO IT! “Do the deeds you did at first.” Get back to those things in your life that you were doing when you were closer to the Lord than you are today.  

II.  FORGETTING THE LORD (:4-8)

Again, Jeremiah says in :4, “Hear the word of the LORD” — this GOD’S message, not just his!  And what does He say? 

:5 “Thus says the LORD, ‘What injustice did your fathers find in Me, that they went far from Me and walked after emptiness and became empty?’”   So He says they went away from the Lord — but then notice what it says in :6:

:6 “they did NOT say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up out of the land of Egypt …”. They DIDN’T say “Where is the LORD?”

They didn’t seek God; it’s like they just forgot Him — who brought them out of Egypt, who led them through the wilderness, who (:7) brought them into the Promised Land — God did all this, but they didn’t appreciate it. They walked away and forgot Him.

In 1940, Great Britain was on the verge of being overrun by Hitler and the 3rd Reich. France & Belgium had just fallen, it looked like they were next, but Winston Churchill took over as Prime Minister of Britain, and he rallied them with his speeches that have gone down in history: “blood, toil, tears, and sweat,” and “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender …”. And they WON! Churchill led them to victory over Germany in May of 1945 — and in July of 1945 they had another election — and in one of the most amazing election results in history, Churchill was voted OUT of office, after all he had done!  It just seemed to be the height of ingratitude.

And that is what God says Israel did to HIM. After all He did for them: bringing them out of Egypt, bringing them through the wilderness with miraculous manna and water; bringing them into the Promised Land — they walked away from God and forgot Him.  

But as bad as that is, do WE “forget God” too?

— Forget to pray

— forget to read the Bible

— forget to be thankful, give thanks for so many things? We should be praying prayers of thanks all day long — do we?
I know personally many days I’m ashamed as I look back at how long it’s been since I prayed … how many hours? I’ve forgotten God!

So :6 says the people forgot God. But not only that, look at verse 8:

Verse 8 mentions 4 different kinds of leaders. ???Can you identify who they are???

(“The priests … those who handle the Law … the rulers (lit., “shepherds”) … the prophets …”

??? What did each of them do/not do?

— the PRIESTS: “did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’” (Like :6) the priests, who should have been calling the people back to God, never did. They did NOT say “Where is the LORD?” They were just as bad as the people.

— those handle the LAW: “did not know Me.” Is it possible for the very people who handle God’s word to not know Him? Absolutely. A good word for pastors, Sunday school teachers, and others. Just because you handle God’s word does not mean you know Him! 

— the RULERS (lit. “shepherds”): “transgressed against Me”

— the PROPHETS: “prophesied by Baal” instead of by Yahweh.

So there was a failure in the leadership of the people of Judah. 

We shouldn’t blame all of our problems on our religious leadership. We are responsible for our own choices. The old saying is, we usually get the kind of leadership we deserve. But the truth is, God says there WAS a failure in the religious leadership here in Jeremiah 2. Both the people, and the leaders, failed/forgot God. The people walked away from God, and the leaders did not do their duty and call them back.  We need to make sure we don’t do the same thing!  

One way to apply this scripture would be to ask your group:

??? What are some things we can do, to keep us from forgetting the Lord???

(Make sure you read His word & pray every day. Constantly give Him thanks and recognize what He has done. Keep going to church where you’ll get reminded. Use a Christian song as your alarm (my wife Cheryl has “Lord I Need You” as her wakeup alarm in the morning!) Keep your Bible by your chair/desk side, and so on.

You/your group can think of others — but let’s make sure we don’t forget God, like they did in Jeremiah 2!

III.  :9-13 MAKING A POOR TRADE!

??? Can you think of an example of a poor trade that you/someone else has made??? 

(EX: It is a consensus opinion that THE worst trade ever in Major League Baseball history was January 3, 1920, when Boston Red Sox Owner Harry Frazee sold pitcher/outfielder Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 to pay for his Broadway play, “No, No, Nanette.” Of course Babe Ruth went on to become perhaps THE greatest player in MLB history. 

— I have a friend, who, when we were in about 7th grade, traded me all his baseball cards for my model ships. He blew up the ships. Many years later I saw him again, and he said, “Do you still have those baseball cards – including Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and the Nolan Ryan rookie card?” And I said, YES I do! I think for him that was the worst trade ever!

You/your group can think of others …

But here in 2:9-13 Jeremiah describes the worst trade EVER: trading God for something else! 

:9 God says I’m going to contend with you …

:11 He says: “Has a nation changed gods … but My people have changed their glory (God) for that which does not profit.” 

:13 “For My people have committed two evils:

— they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters

— to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

??? Do you know what a “cistern” is?  

(A “cistern” is a receptacle for catching and holding water.

Here is a picture of an ancient cistern in Israel: 

*It is notable that several of the articles I read on cisterns said it was NOT safe to drink water from a cistern that had caught water!  This amplifies the picture that God is giving them here!

They’ve turned away from the fountain of living waters, to broken cisterns that you wouldn’t want to drink from anyway — but they are broken and can’t give you water!  

THE POINT IS, IT WAS A POOR TRADE! It’s the worst trade you can make: trading GOD for something else.  

Israel traded the living God for idols, the prophets tell us. 

But let’s apply this to US today: 

??? What are some examples of things that people turn to today, as substitutes for God???

(Drugs, alcohol; FOOD; false religions/religious works; sex/immorality; fame/approval; “success”; accumulation of possessions/collections; a human relationship (“my soul mate”: looking for them to do for you what only GOD can! They may be a good person, but they can’t do for you what only God can!); entertainment/tv/movies; “thrills/adrenaline”; “shopping high” …

One thing I’d point out to my group: you don’t have to be a lost person/non-Christian to do this. Even as Christians we can do this on a certain level: turn to other things instead of God. Instead of turning to worship of God to make us “emotionally high,” we turn to movies or sports instead; instead of turning to God for comfort, we turn to ice cream — or whatever! There’s a TON of ways to do it.  

(John Calvin said “the human heart is a perpetual factory of idols.” We crank out “idols” — substitutes for God — left and right.

God’s point here is: don’t make the worst trade you can ever make. Don’t trade the one true God, for things that will never satisfy you.  

I’d close my class with a prayer, asking God to help us identify any areas of our lives in which we are not as close to Him as we used to be, or any areas of our lives in which we have put other things in His place — and ask the Lord to help us “remember, repent, and DO” things differently, from this day forward! 

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