◄ Jeremiah 5:30 ►
A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land.
Study Bible
A horrible and shocking thing
The phrase "a horrible and shocking thing" in Hebrew is "שַׁמָּה וּמְשַׁעֲרוֹת" (shammah u-mesha'arot). The word "shammah" often denotes desolation or something appalling, while "mesha'arot" implies astonishment or horror. This combination suggests an event or situation that is both devastating and unexpected. In the context of Jeremiah's prophecy, it reflects the spiritual and moral decay of Judah, which was meant to be a beacon of God's covenant. The use of these words underscores the gravity of the people's departure from God's ways, highlighting the profound disappointment and betrayal felt by God. Historically, this period was marked by rampant idolatry and social injustice, which were indeed shocking given Israel's unique relationship with God.

has happened
The phrase "has happened" indicates an event that has already occurred, suggesting that the consequences of Judah's actions are not just future warnings but present realities. This immediacy serves as a wake-up call to the people, emphasizing that the time for repentance is now. The historical context reveals that Jeremiah was prophesying during a time when the Babylonian threat was looming, and the moral and spiritual corruption of the people had reached a peak. The use of the perfect tense in Hebrew conveys a sense of completed action, indicating that the people's sins have already set in motion the divine judgment that Jeremiah warns about.

in the land
The term "in the land" refers specifically to the land of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel. This land was not just a geographical location but a place of divine promise and covenant. It was the land given to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a land meant to be holy and set apart for God's purposes. The mention of "the land" serves as a reminder of the covenantal relationship between God and His people, and the expectations that came with it. The historical context of this period shows that the land was suffering due to the people's unfaithfulness, with threats from foreign powers and internal corruption. This phrase underscores the tragedy of the situation, as the land that was supposed to be a testament to God's faithfulness had become a witness to the people's rebellion.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jeremiah
A prophet called by God to deliver messages of warning and hope to the people of Judah. His ministry spanned the reigns of several kings and was marked by his deep emotional connection to his people and his unwavering commitment to God's truth.

2. Judah
The southern kingdom of Israel, which was facing imminent judgment due to its persistent sin and rebellion against God. Jeremiah's prophecies were directed primarily at this kingdom.

3. The Land
Refers to the land of Judah, which was experiencing moral and spiritual decay. The "horrible and shocking thing" indicates a significant departure from God's ways.
Teaching Points
Recognition of Sin
The "horrible and shocking thing" serves as a call to recognize and acknowledge the sin in our own lives and communities. We must be vigilant in identifying areas where we have strayed from God's commands.

Spiritual Leadership Accountability
Just as the leaders in Jeremiah's time were held accountable, today's spiritual leaders must ensure they are guiding their congregations according to biblical truth, not personal or cultural preferences.

Call to Repentance
The shocking state of the land is a reminder of the need for repentance. We are called to turn back to God with sincere hearts, seeking His forgiveness and guidance.

God's Righteous Judgment
The passage underscores the reality of God's judgment on sin. It is a sobering reminder that God is just and will not overlook persistent rebellion.

Hope in Restoration
While the verse highlights a dire situation, the broader context of Jeremiah includes promises of restoration for those who return to God. This offers hope and encouragement for believers today.
Bible Study Questions
1. What are some "horrible and shocking" things in today's world that parallel the situation in Jeremiah's time, and how should Christians respond?

2. How can we ensure that our spiritual leaders are held accountable to biblical standards, and what role do we play in this process?

3. In what ways can we personally and collectively repent and return to God, as called for in the book of Jeremiah?

4. How does understanding God's righteous judgment influence our daily walk with Him and our interactions with others?

5. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's restoration after a period of spiritual decline. How can this experience encourage others in their faith journey?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Isaiah 1:4
This verse describes a sinful nation, laden with iniquity, similar to the condition of Judah in Jeremiah's time. Both passages highlight the people's rebellion against God.

Ezekiel 22:25-28
These verses describe the corruption among the prophets and priests, paralleling the "horrible and shocking thing" in Jeremiah, where spiritual leaders were leading the people astray.

Hosea 4:1-2
Hosea speaks of a lack of faithfulness and knowledge of God in the land, which aligns with the spiritual state described in Jeremiah 5:30.
Sermons
A Question for the BeginningA. Maclaren, D. D.Jeremiah 5:26-31
God's People Love to have it SoArthur Ritchie.Jeremiah 5:26-31
Think About the EndJ. J. Ellis.Jeremiah 5:26-31
What Will Ye Do in the End ThereofJ Ogle.Jeremiah 5:26-31
What Will Ye Do in the End?T. Binney, D. D.Jeremiah 5:26-31
Wicked Professors the Bane of the ChurchHelps for the PulpitJeremiah 5:26-31
Wickedness Rampant in the CityJeremiah 5:26-31
Mutual Helpers in Wrong-DoingD. Young Jeremiah 5:30, 31
People
Jacob, Jeremiah
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Appalling, Astonishing, Committed, Fear, Horrible, Pass, Shocking, Wonder, Wonderful
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 5:30-31

     7774   prophets, false

Library
A Question for the Beginning
'What will ye do in the end?'--JER. v. 31. I find that I preached to the young from this text just thirty years since--nearly a generation ago. How few of my then congregation are here to-night! how changed they and I are! and how much nearer the close we have drifted! How many of the young men and women of that evening have gone to meet the end, and how many of them have wrecked their lives because they would not face and answer this question! Ah, dear young friends, if I could bring some of the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Storming the Battlements
Jerusalem had sinned against God; she had rebelled against the most High, had set up for herself false gods, and bowed before them; and when God threatened her with chastisement, she built around herself strong battlements and bastions. She said "I am safe and secure. What though Jehovah hath gone away, I will trust in the gods of nations. Though the Temple is cast down, yet we will rely upon these bulwarks and strong fortifications that we have erected." "Ah!" says God, "Jerusalem, I will punish …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

God's Barriers against Man's Sin
I am slowly rallying. My great struggle now is with weakness. I feel as if my frail bark had weathered a heavy storm which has made every timber creak. Do not attribute this illness to my having laboured too hard for my Master. For his dear sake, I would that I may yet be able to labour more. Such toils as might be hardly noticed in the ramp for the service of one's country, would excite astonishment in the church for the service of our God. And now, I entreat you for love's sake to continue in prayer …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

Tithing
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. 3:10). Down deep in the heart of every Christian there is undoubtedly the conviction that he ought to tithe. There is an uneasy feeling that this is a duty which has been neglected, or, if you prefer it, a privilege that has not been …
Arthur W. Pink—Tithing

How those who Fear Scourges and those who Contemn them are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 14.) Differently to be admonished are those who fear scourges, and on that account live innocently, and those who have grown so hard in wickedness as not to be corrected even by scourges. For those who fear scourges are to be told by no means to desire temporal goods as being of great account, seeing that bad men also have them, and by no means to shun present evils as intolerable, seeing they are not ignorant how for the most part good men also are touched by them. They are to be admonished …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus.
God Spelling Himself out in Jesus: change in the original language--bother in spelling Jesus out--sticklers for the old forms--Jesus' new spelling of old words. Jesus is God following us up: God heart-broken--man's native air--bad choice affected man's will--the wrong lane--God following us up. The Early Eden Picture, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: unfallen man--like God--the breath of God in man--a spirit, infinite, eternal--love--holy--wise--sovereign over creation, Psalm 8:5-8--in his own will--summary--God's …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Purposes of God.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What I understand by the purposes of God. Purposes, in this discussion, I shall use as synonymous with design, intention. The purposes of God must be ultimate and proximate. That is, God has and must have an ultimate end. He must purpose to accomplish something by his works and providence, which he regards as a good in itself, or as valuable to himself, and to being in general. This I call his ultimate end. That God has such an end or purpose, …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

"And Hereby we do Know that we Know Him, if we Keep his Commandments. "
1 John ii. 3.--"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." This age pretends to much knowledge beyond former ages, knowledge, I say, not only in other natural arts and sciences, but especially in religion. Whether there be any great advancement in other knowledge, and improvement of that which was, to a further extent and clearness, I cannot judge, but I believe there is not much of it in this nation, nor do we so much pretend to it. But, we talk of the enlargements of …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

"If So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is None of His. "
Rom. viii. 9.--"If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 2 Chron. vi. 18. It was the wonder of one of the wisest of men, and indeed, considering his infinite highness above the height of heavens, his immense and incomprehensible greatness, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and then the baseness, emptiness, and worthlessness of man, it may be a wonder to the …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Acceptable Sacrifice;
OR, THE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART: SHOWING THE NATURE, SIGNS, AND PROPER EFFECTS OF A CONTRITE SPIRIT. BEING THE LAST WORKS OF THAT EMINENT PREACHER AND FAITHFUL MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST, MR. JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD. WITH A PREFACE PREFIXED THEREUNTO BY AN EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN LONDON. London: Sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgates, 1692. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. The very excellent preface to this treatise, written by George Cokayn, will inform the reader of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Of the Nature of Regeneration, and Particularly of the Change it Produces in Men's Apprehensions.
2 COR. v. 17. 2 COR. v. 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. THE knowledge of our true state in religion, is at once a matter of so great importance, and so great difficulty that, in order to obtain it, it is necessary we should have line upon line and precept upon precept. The plain discourse, which you before heard, was intended to lead you into it; and I question not but I then said enough to convince many, that they were …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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