Jeremiah 18:12: “And they said, There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices and we will everyone do the imaginations of his own evil heart.”
“If I dud it, I get a vippin,—– I dud it.” Red Skelton -Mean Little Kid
That is quite a thing for the people of Israel to say to Jeremiah. Had the people fallen that far so as to admit to an evil heart and following those evil inclinations? It is interesting to note that the word evil for evil heart is ra’a which means to be broken. The people said they will follow the imaginations of their broken heart. Do you ever feel you have a broken heart because God seemingly did not come through for you. He did not provide for that financial need or that healing and like a mean little kid you sniff and wipe your tears away and say: “Ok for you God, I’ll show you.”
What brought Judah to this state of feeling that there was no hope, that it was useless. Now I am beginning to understand why God led me to this passage. We read something like this and sigh, “Well, at least I have never reached the point of saying I am evil and I don’t care.” But maybe some of us have reached the point of saying: “There is no hope,” and feeling broken that God did not deliver us as we expected. Is Judah’s desire to follow their own devices and imaginations the result of hopelessness? What is this state of saying “No hope?”
Now some translations will render this in such a way as to suggest the people are telling Jeremiah, “Forget it, we don’t want to hear about God, we are going to go ahead and sin anyways.” Grammatically, you might render it to suggest that the people are telling Jeremiah to give it up, we will not listen. But it is also grammatically correct to render it as the people saying they are the ones feeling hopeless. The word used for hopeless is y’ash”which means to be despondent or in despair.
When I first read this verse I felt this had nothing to do with me. I would never just boldly reject God in this way. But when I consider those moments I feel in despair, I feel God is not going to come through, I have to admit, at least to myself, that I will seek my own devices and follow the imaginations of my evil heart. What about an employment application where you are tempted to fudge a little on your experience or skills. If after several months of unemployment and God did not come through with a job are you not tempted to stretch the truth a little,
I remember I had a student who had spent three years in prison. He was desperately looking for a job as he also had a wife and child to support as well as trying to stay in school. But every employment application he filled out he ran intothat that question: “Have you ever been arrested?” He became so discouraged he even came to me and said: “I am beginning to believe that I should lie on an application as it is hopeless for me to even get through the door if I mention my arrest record.”
There are many places we can safely stretch the truth and likely not get caught, like our taxes, employment applications, insurance claims etc. All the time we are saying; “Well, God sure has not provided the resources, what is so wrong with a little white lie, everyone does it, if I am caught I will just shrug my shoulders and say ‘my bad’ they won’t arrest me for a little error, I will maybe I will just get a fine or pay a penalty if caught.” That doesn’t sound as brazen as Jeremiah 18:12, but it amounts to the same thing.
That word for hopeless or despair is spelled Yod, Aleph, Shin. Hopelessness comes when we allow the shadow of the Yod (ungrounded in the Word of God) to influence us. We then let the shadow of the Aleph consume us. That shadow of Aleph is ambivalence, letting feelings of uncertainty join with the last letter for “hopelessness” the Shin which is a consuming fire. When we become ungrounded in the Word of God and face a seeming hopeless situation, we will allow that fear and uncertainty to consume us to the point where we will cling to our own devices and the imaginations of our hearts to deliver us rather than God.
In a sense the people of Judah are not much different than us. After all we have trusted God and there are times it seems He has let us down. The people of Israel basically said to Jeremiah: “Listen, we tried to trust God, it didn’t work, we have these problems and God didn’t lift a finger to help, so why should we bother with Him, we will follow our own devices (chashav – thinking’s, ideas, understandings) and the imaginations of our broken hearts. In other words, “God you didn’t come through, my heart is broken over you abandoning me, so I am going to do it may own way. I‘ll show you.”
Ok, maybe you never said anything like that, but I know I have and like a child I say, “You broke my heart, I will just break Yours, there, put that in your pipe and smoke it.” So we have two broken hearts, one loving God with a broken heart and a mean little kid getting a “vippin” because he wanted things to go his own way and make his life comfortable.
Chaim
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