Listen to the noise
on the hilltops!
It’s the people of Israel,
weeping and begging me
to answer their prayers.
They forgot about me
and chose the wrong path.
I will tell them, “Come back,
and I will cure you
of your unfaithfulness.”
They will answer,
“We will come back, because you
are the LORD our God.
On hilltops, we worshiped idols
and made loud noises,
but it was all for nothing—
only you can save us.
Since the days of our ancestors
when our nation was young,
that shameful god Baal has taken
our crops and livestock,
our sons and daughters.
We have rebelled against you
just like our ancestors,
and we are ashamed of our sins.”

The LORD said:
Israel, if you really want
to come back to me, get rid
of those disgusting idols.
Make promises only in my name,
and do what you promise!
Then all nations will praise me,
and I will bless them.
People of Jerusalem and Judah,
don’t be so stubborn!
Your hearts have become hard,
like unplowed ground
where thorn bushes grow.
With all your hearts,
keep the agreement
I made with you.
But if you are stubborn
and keep on sinning,
my anger will burn like a fire
that cannot be put out. (Jeremiah 3:21-4:4)

God has the cure. Repentance is more than just saying “I’m sorry.” It takes both time and effort. The people began by realizing that what they’d been doing, the way they’d been living, had simply not worked and so they cried out to God. God told them that if they really wanted to come back to him, then he had a list of things they needed to do that came down to just one thing: they needed to get rid of the idols that they acknowledged hadn’t done anything for them but relieve them of their money and time. But God pointed out that they were stubborn and hard-hearted and that what they wanted—to be freed from their sins—was not going to be easy. It would be like working on unplowed ground full of thorns. Getting a good crop out of that sort of land was hard. And he warned them, unless they got to work immediately, God would have to judge them, like a fire that couldn’t be put out. Of course, carrying the imagery a bit further, if you have unplowed ground full of weeds, a fire is one of the quickest ways to get rid of them. It was an agricultural picture that his listeners, mostly farmers, would have quickly understood. Painful as it might be for the land in question, the result would be a very good thing. God did not intend to destroy them. But he did intend to fix them.

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