Deceit & Judgment

The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. Who can understand it? - Jeremiah 17:9 (NET)

The God of Israel, through His prophet Jeremiah, sends forth stinging words against His people. Before attributing an incurably bad and deceitful mind to His own people, He accuses them of placing “trust in mere human beings” (17:5b). He says that He will curse His people that do such things, “who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength” (17:5c), because in that, they demonstrate that their “hearts have turned away from the Lord” (17:5d). Of course, when we read of curses in such ways, our thoughts must be immediately caused to dwell upon the curses to be found in Deuteronomy, that are especially pronounced against idolatry, in juxtaposition to the blessings to be enjoyed for faithfulness to the covenant and proper worship and recognition of the covenant God

The statement about the human mind found here in Jeremiah is specifically connected to trust in human beings, so it is a reference to idolatry. Jeremiah is in the midst of communicating judgment and exile to God’s people, and lets them know that their idolatry is the key component of that judgment. Rather than being a light and directing the nations to the worship of the one and only God, they had instead imitated the other nations and gone after their idols. Because of that, “The Lord said, ‘So I will let them know My mighty power in judgment. Then they will know that My Name is the Lord’.” (16:21) Backing up to the fifteenth chapter, we learn that God’s punishment for this idolatry will be severe, as God speaks about His people and says, “I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses. I will make all the people in all the kingdoms of the world horrified at what has happened to them” (15:3b-4a). Kingdoms being horrified stands in glaring contrast to what God had intended for His covenant people.

When was this fate of the people sealed? We find that it “because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem” (15:4b). As we routinely find, the king stands for and represents the people, with the people subject to cursing because of him. Later, we will find another King that stands for and represents the people, through Whom the people of God become blessed. With this clear presentation of idolatry as the reason for judgment, we can go on to read about children that “are always thinking about their altars and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, set up beside green tress on the high hills and on the mountains and in the fields” (17:2-3a). Following that, God says, “I will give your wealth and all your treasures away as plunder” (17:3b). So here we have a connection between idolatry and material wealth. Before we reach that point however, we stumble across some words that help to properly shape our conception of the true problem of idolatry that was being presented here by the people of Judah.

In the sixteenth chapter, when God gives Jeremiah an answer to give to the people that might find themselves questioning the reason for the judgment and disaster that was going to befall them, He says to tell them, “It is because your ancestors rejected Me and paid allegiance to other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected Me and not obeyed My law” (16:11). That sounds pretty bad, but it does not end there. God continues His answer with “And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you have followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed Me” (16:12). What do we have in that statement? What we have is, effectively, self-idolatry---the same old sin from the time of the garden---which always seems to get a far harsher reaction and treatment from God than the simple worshiping of wood and stone. It is with this conception of self-idolatry that we can move back to God’s statements about the human mind and its deceit and incurable “badness.” Following that statement we read, “I, the Lord, probe into people’s minds. I examine people’s hearts. I deal with each person according to how he has behaved. I give them what they deserve based on what they have done” (17:10).

What does this have to do with idolatry or self-idolatry. Well, connecting the idolatry and wealth and treasures found just a few verses before, we go on to read in the next verse about “The person who gathers wealth by unjust means” (17:11a). This is what follows talk of the human mind being more deceitful than anything else and incurably bad. It could be said that the person who gathers wealth by unjust means is guilty of self-idolatry, especially in light of the statement in Deuteronomy that the Lord “is the One Who gives ability to get wealth” (8:18b). Surely, it can be said that a God-granted ability to get wealth will see wealth accumulated by just means, and will therefore result in proper worship of the God that gave the ability, and Who therefore gave the wealth. Wealth gained by unjust means will result in worship of what provided for the accumulation of wealth, which is the deceitful and corrupted heart and mind that came about because of the desire on the part of the first humans to be like God. Because of this, we can surmise that not only was idolatry, along with its companion of self-idolatry, the reason for the judgment that came upon God’s people, but we can also see that the gathering of wealth by unjust means, which will generally be connected with idolatry and with the extension of suffering and oppression, was a reason for God’s judgment as well.