Not long after the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt, they forgot about the things that God had done for them and began worshipping idols. Even while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the commandments from God, the people turned away from the LORD and made a golden calf. “And they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt’” (Exodus 32:4). Throughout their history, the people of Israel kept abandoning God until finally they were taken into captivity and cured of their idolatry. The prophet Jeremiah was given the task of pronouncing judgment on God’s chosen people and was told, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:9-10). The messages that Jeremiah received from the LORD foretold of an imminent disaster that would overtake the people of Judah sometime in the future. Jeremiah 1:13-16 states:

The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.” Then the Lord said to me, “Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah. And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.

The imagery of a boiling pot was intended to convey the intensity of what was going to happen. “These external circumstances and the sadness of his message, coupled with Jeremiah’s own periodic depression, contributed to the style with which Jeremiah wrote (Jeremiah 4:19-22; 20:7-18). For this reason he is called the ‘weeping prophet’” (Introduction to Jeremiah). Jeremiah’s reluctance to be God’s spokesperson was due in part to his young age. He told the LORD, “Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth” (Jeremiah 1:5), and later Jeremiah complained to God because the wicked seemed to be prospering in spite of the judgment that the LORD had told him to pronounce against them (Jeremiah 12:1-4).

Jeremiah’s account of Israel forsaking God included details of both the high and low points in Israel’s history. God said, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest” (Jeremiah 2:2-3). The LORD continued, “But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that do not profit” (Jeremiah 2:7-8). The stark contrast between Israel’s devotion to the LORD in the wilderness and the apostasy that developed after they entered the Promised Land demonstrated their unwillingness to seek God for the sake of the special relationship they had with him as opposed to the material blessings that they received as a result of being designated the heirs of God’s kingdom.

The LORD chided the people of Israel for their unfaithfulness and seemed to be mocking them when he asked:

Have you not brought this upon yourself
    by forsaking the Lord your God,
    when he led you in the way?
And now what do you gain by going to Egypt
    to drink the waters of the Nile?
Or what do you gain by going to Assyria
    to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
Your evil will chastise you,
    and your apostasy will reprove you.
Know and see that it is evil and bitter
    for you to forsake the Lord your God;
    the fear of me is not in you,
declares the Lord God of hosts. (Jeremiah 2:17-19)

The LORD said there was no fear of him in his people, meaning that they did not show him the proper respect or give him the reverence that was due to him as the person who had saved their lives by rescuing them from slavery in Egypt.

The people of Judah’s forsaking of God involved a slow, gradual process of replacing their worship of the LORD with the worship of idols. Their primary reason for forsaking God was a desire to worship as they pleased (Jeremiah 2:20, 31). The people of Judah saw the religious service that was prescribed to them in the Mosaic Law as toilsome labor rather than a joyful celebration of their liberation from slavery in Egypt (H5647). The LORD asked them:

How can you say, ‘I am not unclean,
    I have not gone after the Baals’?
Look at your way in the valley;
    know what you have done—
a restless young camel running here and there,
    a wild donkey used to the wilderness,
in her heat sniffing the wind!
    Who can restrain her lust? (Jeremiah 2:23-24)

The LORD pointed to Israel’s unfaithfulness as an explanation for the trouble that had come upon his chosen people and rebuked them for blaming him for the demise of their nation (Jeremiah 2:26-28). The LORD asked, “Why do you contend with me? You have all transgressed against me…In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion” (Jeremiah 2:29-30).

The LORD’s charges against the Israelites centered around the fact that even though they enjoyed a special relationship with God, the people had failed to acknowledge what he had done in the past and had turned instead to idols, bringing judgment on themselves as a result (note on Jeremiah 2:1-19). The LORD told Jeremiah to proclaim in Jerusalem his case against the people of Israel. Jeremiah prophesied:

Has a nation changed its gods,
    even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
    for that which does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
    be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
    the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
    broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:11-13)

God identified himself as the fountain of living water when he talked about the people of Israel forsaking him. Jesus referred to this when he told the Samaritan woman, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).

The topic of Israel forsaking God was addressed in some of Jesus’ parables, in particular the parable of the tenants. In this parable, Jesus illustrated how God, who was represented by the master of the house, had expected the people of Israel to use their possession of the Promised Land as a means of establishing Christ’s kingdom on earth. God’s prophets, who were represented in the parable by the master’s servants, were rejected by Israel. Jesus said, “And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance’” (Matthew 21:35-38). Jesus concluded his parable by asking, “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” (Matthew 21:40). The chief priests and the Pharisees that Jesus was talking to replied, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their season” (Matthew 21:41).

Paul explained in his letter to the Romans that Israel forsaking God was intended to make it possible for the Gentiles to become a part of God’s plan of salvation. Paul stated, “So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous” (Romans 11:11). Paul went on to explain that God’s chosen people were experiencing a partial hardening of their hearts so that God’s plan of salvation could be fully realized. Paul told the Romans:

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
    he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“and this will be my covenant with them
    when I take away their sins.”

As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. (Romans 11:25-32)

Paul indicated that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, meaning that God wasn’t going to change his mind about who would receive his gift of salvation. Paul indicated in his letter to the Ephesians that God decided who would be saved before the foundation of the world and predestined them to be adopted into his family through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:4-5).

The Apostle Paul was a Jew who initially opposed Christianity. Paul was making a concerted effort to get rid of the church that was beginning to be established after Christ’s ascension, when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and called him to preach the gospel (Acts 9:5, 15). Although Peter was the first apostle to preach the good news to the Gentiles (Acts 10:34-43), Paul is credited with preaching the gospel to all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, over a period of two years (Acts 19:10). Paul established several churches prior to going to Asia, one of which was located in Thessalonica. “After Paul and Silas were forced to leave Philippi, they traveled along the Egnatian Way to Thessalonica (Acts 16:39-17:1) where Paul taught in the synagogue for three sabbaths. They were forced to leave the city when antagonistic Jews, after stirring up the people of Thessalonica, brought some of the believers before the city officials and accused them of promoting treasonous ideas (Acts 17:5-10). The believers there came under great persecution following this uproar” (Introduction to the First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians).

Paul commended the Thessalonian believers for their work of faith, labor of love, and the steadfastness of their hope (1 Thessalonians 1:3), and told these Gentile believers, “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:4-5). The Thessalonians were completely convinced that Jesus had died for their sins, just as much as he had for sins of the Jews. Rather than forsaking God because of the persecution they were experiencing, the Thessalonians became an example to all believers of what it looks like to have faith in God (1 Thessalonians 1:7). Paul indicated that the Thessalonians had turned to God from idols and were serving the living and true God and waiting for Jesus’ return (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).

God told Jeremiah that he was being set over the nations and over kingdoms, “to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10). Israel’s forsaking of God was not the end of their story. “Jeremiah also received some great visions of promise, the return from captivity (chapters 25, 29), the new covenant (chapter 31), and the ultimate return of the Messiah to Jerusalem (chapter 23). These visions were meant to encourage the people of Israel to turn back to God and receive his mercy. God pleaded with the people, stating, “Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. Return, O faithless children declares the LORD, for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion” (Jeremiah 3:12-14).