Faithless vs. Unfaithful
Jeremiah, using God’s words, continues his discourse against the people of Judah using his analogy of an unfaithful wife. He then draws the comparison between Israel and Judah (North vs. South) calling one faithless (Israel) and one unfaithful (Judah). God uses this comparison almost as a scare tactic to say, Hey Judah, if you don’t straighten up, I’m gonna let Israel have your precious Jerusalem (v. 14)–they’ll destroy your precious ark (v. 16), and live in the land that you were supposed to get (v. 18). (On a study of God’s fatherly attributes, this one should be on that list.)
The people of Judah are mildly disconcerted about the promise of God’s wrath, but show no sign of repentance (v. 5). The Israelites, on the other hand, realize their sins and admit their guilt – “We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth till this day we have not obeyed the LORD our God” (v. 25).
At quick glance, the words faithless and unfaithful could be synonyms. However, one implies that no intention of faithfulness has been given or that those intentions have been willingly rescinded. The other implies that a promise of fidelity has been made, but that promise has been broken while keeping up the intention of faithfulness. As a former teacher, the following analogy came to mind:
On the first day of class, two students walk into the classroom. The first student–let’s call him “Israel”–pronounces to the class, “I hate your stupid rules, I hate school, and I hate you… I’m not doing anything you say,” and he proceeds to do exactly that. Conversely, the other student–let’s call him “Judah”–says, “You are my favorite teacher, I will obey all that you ask of us, turn my homework in on time, and even clean your chalkboards if you like,” and he also proceeds to do exactly that. After the first month, however, while Israel is still as unruly as ever, Judah has started to disobey the teacher, turning his homework in several days late–if at all–and hanging around his football coach like he’s his best friend; they go out to eat together, the coach has him over to his house for pizza and video games. But every day, he tells his teacher that he’s his favorite and that he’ll obey every rule. The teacher, being a jealous human, announces to the class one day, “Hey Israel, why don’t you come take Judah’s seat? In fact, you can have his excellent G.P.A., his nice clothes, and–tell you what–I’ll even throw in Judah’s car and an awesome job when you get out of school.” Of course, this makes Israel feel horrible for the way he’s acted since the first day of school, so he apologizes profusely and promises to never act that way again. Judah, on the other hand, just shrugs and says, “Whatever.”
Hopefully this analogy–bad though it is–illustrates the difference between faithless and unfaithful. By this time in history, the Israelites had had a long line of kings who did not know God and therefore the nation did not even pretend to follow God, but rather worshiped whatever god the native peoples worshiped. Judah, however, kept up their rituals and feasts and just generally pretended to follow God but still chose to do things that He considers evil, especially participating in the worship of false gods. One thing that Jesus makes clear during his ministry on earth is that God hates “idle worship” (not a typo). Just “going through the motions” and pretending to love God while continuing to sin is almost worse in our Father’s eyes than simply not knowing Him at all. When the Samaritan woman at the well asked Jesus if she had to go to Jerusalem to worship, he replied, “a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:23, emphasis added).
Key Verse: Jeremiah 3:5 – “‘Will you always be angry? Will your wrath continue forever?’ This is how you talk, but you do all the evil you can.” (NIV)
Application for Men: I am going to be optimistic and assume that the majority of men reading this are faithful to their wives, particularly in the physical sense, but also in the mental sense as well. That said, the main area of fidelity that we need to focus on is our faithfulness to holiness. When you are baptized, the blood of Jesus “washes away” all of your sins past, present, and future. But as Paul asks, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2). We must be diligent, therefore, about what activities we allow ourselves to participate in, and what thoughts we allow to linger in our minds. If we go out and allow ourselves to be caught up in the world’s desires but still go to church every Sunday and keep up the appearance of loving God, we are no longer worshiping in spirit and in truth, and we deserve punishment equal to those who are willfully disobey.
Discussion Questions:
- Why is God showing more forgiveness to the faithless Israelites than to the unfaithful people of Judah?
- How would you treat 1) a co-worker that was unfaithful to the company? 2) your son who was unfaithful to your expectations? 3) your wife who was unfaithful to your marriage? Which one would hurt the worst? Why?
- What area of your life do you need the most help in maintaining faithfulness? Have you asked your brothers for help in that area yet?
Tags: Sin
