Jeremiah 2:30
In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
God struck His children to correct them, but the stroke was in vain because they would not learn or turn from evil, and with their own violence they killed the prophets sent to warn them, like a destroying lion. This was spoken to Judah in its grievous, willing backsliding before the Babylonian captivity, a wickedness worse than that of the heathen. The church was espoused to the Lord as a pure bride to her husband, but she broke that espousal by unlawful attachment to the world, for any union of the church with the world or with the state is fornication and adultery against God. When His people turn from their Divine Spouse to lean upon Egypt and Assyria and the nations, they go after other lovers and are blinded by selfish desire to His warnings, and confusion and spoiling follow. His discipline by sorrow and affliction is meant to bring them back, yet they may resist it to their own hardness, and still He pleads with backsliders to return and promises to heal them, so that none are beyond His call.
Meaning and Historical Setting
God's smiting of His children was in vain because His correction through punishment failed to turn them back, for they refused correction and would not learn or turn from evil. Their own sword devoured their prophets like a destroying lion, meaning their own violence turned against and killed the prophets sent to warn them. The verse belongs to the prophet's declarations about Judah's grievous backsliding before the Babylonian captivity, and to the description of backslidden Judah and Israel. It is part of the account of Israel's willing, wicked departure from God, described as worse than that of the heathen.
Israel's backsliding went so far by stages, beginning with building altars to Jehovah on the high places. Then they grew lenient toward false worship, and then had fellowship with it. Then they built altars to Milcom and Chemosh and Baal and Ashtoreth and a multitude of gods, until altars to false gods stood in the very house of Jehovah. Looking to the hills and mountains for help meant looking to the worship of false gods and hoping for help from false gods.
Spiritual Adultery with World
Jeremiah 2 pictures what should have been the pure, unsullied bride turning from the instruction of her Divine Spouse to seek other lovers among worldly powers and nations. She leaned upon Egypt and failed, then turned to Assyria and was spoiled and made naked. Blinded by selfish desires to the pure precepts of God and the solemn warnings of His Word, she went on blindly to destruction. The Jewish church is pictured as espoused to the Lord, but she broke that espousal and became unfaithful through unlawful attachment to the world.
Any union between the church and the world, or between the church and the state in any way, is fornication and departing from God. That union of His backslidden church with the world is named by God as fornication and adultery against Him. Departure from Him and fellowship with other powers are likened to spiritual fornication. Because God is married to His church as a husband to a wife, her joining herself to the world breaks that marriage and is unfaithfulness to Him.
When God's people turn from Him to the nations instead of to God their husband, they become spiritually unfaithful and confusion follows. When the daughter of Zion so turns to the nations of the world, she becomes a harlot, the daughter of Babylon, committing fornication with the kings of the earth.
Discipline and Call to Return
Affliction is sent to correct those who suffer it and to draw them back, yet it can fail of its purpose when they resist it and receive no good from it. Sorrow and hardship are to lead to correction, not to leave the sufferer harder and farther from God.
Though the chapter lays bare a willing and wicked departure from God, it holds out His call to His backsliding people to return with the promise that He will heal them. It is filled with strong pleas to backsliders, making plain that turning away does not put a person beyond the reach of His call to return.