Did God Deceive? (Jeremiah 4)

In Jeremiah 4, it is said by the prophet Jeremiah: "Then I said, “Oh, Lord God! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; yet a sword touches the throat," (Jeremiah 4:10 NASB). Did God deceive his people? To answer this question we must look at the book of Jeremiah as a whole.

"And I will pronounce My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, since they have abandoned Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands," (Jeremiah 1:16 NASB). God repeatedly makes it clear he will bring forth judgment on his people for their sins against him. They broke their covenant with God by worshiping Baal (Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 2:13-23), and so God says he shall bring forth judgment (Jeremiah 4:4).

"Then the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every leafy tree, and she prostituted herself there. Yet I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it," (Jeremiah 3:6-7 NASB). The Lord desired his people to return to him, yet they forsake him just as they had done so many times before (Exodus 32).

God never promised any sort of peace, but brings judgment when they forsake him, but why did Jeremiah believe God would only bring peace? "The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ And those who handle the Law did not know Me; The rulers also revolted against Me, And the prophets prophesied by Baal And walked after things that were of no benefit," (Jeremiah 2:8 NASB). The people followed Baal and thus were deceived into believing the demon's lies.

God even states: “For from the least of them to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet to the priest Everyone deals falsely. They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace," (Jeremiah 6:13-14 NASB). "The false prophets were as physicians who told the man suffering from a fatal disease that he was in full health. As the previous words show, the prophet has in his mind the false encouragements given by those who should have been the true guides of the people," (Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers). Jeremiah falsely accuses the Lord of deception, just as he had done in Jeremiah 20.

References:

Ellicott's Bible Commentary, Volume 1. N.p., Delmarva Publications, Inc., 2015.

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