"Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns"; circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your hearts (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 4:3–4).

This Scripture reminds me of an old song by the Christian band Petra, "Don't Let Your Heart Be Hardened," written by Bob Hartman. It prays that our hearts would stay tender, childlike, and broken before Jesus — compassionate, forgiving, and humble — and it closes by asking that God's love would rain down and break up the fallow ground until only tenderness is found.

This section of Jeremiah begins with the Lord's counsel: "If you return, O Israel," declares the Lord, "to me you should return" (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 4:1).

What was the problem? The next chapter gives the answer: they refused to take correction; they made their faces harder than rock and refused to repent (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 5:3).

The people of Judah had made the soil of their hearts hard, so that nothing could grow in it (cf. Jeremiah 5:23). The context suggests they had surrounded themselves with leaders and teachers who told them what they wanted to hear rather than what they needed to hear (cf. Jeremiah 5:12–13, 30–31; 6:13–14). They had made themselves morally foolish, ignorant of righteousness, and desensitized to evil. God says His people are foolish; they do not know Him; they are "wise in doing evil" but do not know how to do good (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 4:22). Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, "they did not know how to blush" (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 6:15).

It is in this condition that God tells them to break up the fallow ground of their hearts. Otherwise they would be like those who have eyes but do not see and ears but do not hear (cf. Jeremiah 5:21).

Friends, what lesson can we take from this oracle of judgment spoken to Judah just before its destruction by Babylon?

It is not simply to acknowledge God's righteous commands — though there is that. It is something more basic: to plow our hearts, so that their soil may be fertile and not fallow. If the soil of our hearts is hard, and we are unteachable and wise in our own eyes, how can God's Word take root and bear fruit in us?

We learn this truth also from Jesus' parable of the soils, one of the few parables that appears in all three Synoptic Gospels (cf. Matthew 13:1–23; Mark 4:1–20; Luke 8:4–15) and certainly the most extensively explained. In it Jesus teaches the importance of a heart receptive to the planted Word of God. The heart deceived by Satan's schemes will not be fruitful. The heart swayed by popular opinion will not be fruitful. The heart more concerned with worldly cares and gain will not be fruitful. It is the heart that hears God's Word, understands it, and accepts it — that soil and that heart will be fruitful.

Therefore, friends, let us humble ourselves before God's Word. Let us not be found manipulating it to serve our own ends. Let us not hear only what we want to hear and ignore the rest, but seek to understand the whole counsel of Scripture. Let us not be wise in our own eyes so that we refuse correction. Let us not confuse worldly peace with the peace of God. Let us not mistake our own thoughts for God's Word. Let us not entrust our eternal destinies and Christian walk to pastors, teachers, or anyone else, but take responsibility ourselves to read and understand God's Word properly. When we receive preaching and teaching, let us test every word and verify from Scripture that it is true. And let us train our hearts to hear and do, not simply to hear and nod in agreement.

It is by taking responsibility for learning God's Word and training our hearts in consistent obedience to it that we break up the fallow ground of our hearts.

If you find this hard, be encouraged, dear friends, for we have the Lord's promise that, whatever our progress, God will complete the work He began in us in the fullness of time (cf. Philippians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24). But let us not for this reason grow lazy in doing good.

AI-Expanded Reflection

"Fallow ground" in Jeremiah 4:3 is land that has lain unplowed and grown hard and weedy. Hosea used the same image a century earlier: break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, "that he may come and rain righteousness upon you" (Hosea 10:12) — which is exactly the picture in the song the comment recalls. The farmer cannot make rain fall, but he can break up the ground so that when rain comes, it soaks in.

The companion image of heart circumcision (4:4) goes back to Moses: "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn" (Deuteronomy 10:16), and then, strikingly, the promise that "the Lord your God will circumcise your heart" (Deuteronomy 30:6). The command and the promise sit together in the Law itself, and Paul picks them up in Romans 2:29: true circumcision "is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit." The comment's closing — that we labor to break up the ground, while trusting God to complete the work — captures that same pairing.

Jeremiah 6

14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.

The Bible does speak of healing, praying for healing, but 'healing' is not a blanket statement for closing a wound or repairing the body. Prophetic language, the Bible’s style of speaking, should be recognized to help discern what is being spoken. For example, people are compared to grass, speaking of their short stay here.

Here God speaks of the false prophets closing wounds but the 'healing' is about false peace not physical wounds. The word Rophe can mean tranquil, peace, or a making whole, such as a medical or physical repair. But when we are made whole we are united with God, which is a primary promise of God, when he 'heals us.'

AI-Expanded Reflection

Jeremiah 6:14 uses the language of treating a wound to describe leaders who respond inadequately to their people's condition. The verse's force depends on the gap between the injury and the remedy. The prophets and priests announce peace while the community remains corrupted and exposed to judgment. Their reassurance does not remove the danger; it makes the danger harder to acknowledge. A soothing message can become an additional injury when it prevents a needed response.

The original correctly observes that healing language is not always a promise of bodily repair. In this passage, the wound represents the people's moral and communal condition, and the supposed treatment is the declaration that all is well. The range of translations makes the superficial character of that treatment clear. The Hebrew healing verb must be interpreted through this metaphorical setting rather than assigned every possible theological meaning at once.

That principle also works in the other direction. Because healing is metaphorical here, it does not follow that every biblical healing passage is metaphorical or that restoration to God is the dictionary meaning of every form related to the root. Gospel accounts of restored sight or mobility describe bodily events. Isaiah and Jeremiah may use similar vocabulary for national or spiritual restoration. Context determines the particular claim, and careful reading avoids both an indiscriminate physical promise and an indiscriminate spiritualization.

The repeated word shalom, peace, can encompass well-being and soundness, which makes the false assurance especially serious. The leaders are not merely predicting the absence of a battle; they are presenting the people's condition as secure when it is not. The surrounding verses connect their failure with greed, deceit, and lack of shame. Their message serves an order they have no desire to challenge.

The application reaches pastoral care, family relationships, and public leadership. Saying that a conflict is resolved while harm remains unacknowledged can protect the person with power rather than heal the injured. Urging someone to move on may be premature when truth, accountability, or restitution has been avoided. Honest peace may initially feel less comfortable because it requires naming what reassurance has concealed.

Christian hope is not opposed to such honesty. God's promise of restoration gives a reason to bring wounds into the light, not to deny their depth. A faithful response can combine a clear acknowledgment of wrong with practical steps toward repair and patient support for those affected. The goal is a peace with substance: relationships increasingly governed by truth, justice, and mercy rather than the temporary quiet produced by refusing to speak about what is broken.

"Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city. Although they say, 'As surely as the Lord lives, 'still they are swearing falsely." Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent. I thought, "These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God. So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God. "But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds. Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end? (Jeremiah 5:1–5, 21, 31 NIV)

To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it. "From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander. They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out. (Jeremiah 6:10, 13, 28, 29 NIV)

Friends, the debate surrounding election and free will is not simply about one's view of certain verses on predestination, but it also reflects one's view of oneself and mankind. If you have a high view of mankind, that there is innate righteousness in us, then you can easily accept the premise that by our own free will we can choose God and the righteousness offered in Christ. However, if you believe that no one has any innate righteousness ("not even one person"), that no one seeks the truth ("not even one person"), that people are foolish and senseless, having eyes but failing to see, ears but failing to hear, then you will understand that apart from God's sovereign election in salvation, we have no hope at all.

People that believe in free will (in salvation) must contend with verses like those above, which are reflected in New Testament passages like Romans 3:9–18 and Ephesians 2:1–10 and 1 Corinthians 2:14, which clearly say that the person without the Spirit cannot accept nor even understand spiritual truths, of which the Gospel is certainly the chief. Now, you may say that there are plenty of verses that call people to choose God. Yes, but the argument is not against people choosing, but that left to themselves, people simply WILL NOT choose God. We contend that unless God first chooses us, we would never choose Him. Unless the Spirit first works in us, even to give us eyes to see, we could never see the kingdom of God. Therefore, while all can agree that people CAN choose Christ, the biblical evidence strongly argues that no one WILL choose Christ. Why? It is because of human depravity, even a fallen nature that has corrupted the will, so that it is enslaved to a lie.

Now, the only argument that I cannot satisfactorily answer is why God does not give everyone eyes to see. Since we are all needy, why not save us all? But He chooses to justly judge the vast majority of humanity and be generous with a relatively select few. When I search the Bible for answers, I only get two somewhat disturbing ones. First, I have no business questioning God's motives, even as the clay cannot talk back to the Potter. Second, God is glorified in both the salvation of some as well as the destruction of many.

I would not proclaim the Gospel as the most reasonable or compassionate religion. It is not necessarily so. I proclaim it simply because I believe it is the truth. And if it is true, we ought to believe it. At the same time, I recognize that only those that have been given eyes to see and ears to hear will, in fact, believe it. This realization does not hinder me one bit from proclaiming the Gospel, but it removes any delusion that I am saving anyone, and it converts my motivation from saving people to simply obeying God's command.

Having the perspective of Isaiah and Paul, that "no one is righteous, not even one," makes me absolutely humble, for I would certainly not choose to be humble of myself. For I can never say, "I am a better person than that person, and that is why God saved me." I can never say that I was wiser for choosing God over someone else, who was foolish for rejecting God. But I would recognize that given the right conditions, I too could have been as bad as Hitler, as cruel as Stalin, or as warped as bin Laden. In fact, in some respects, I am as they are, and they are as I am, namely, sinful, blind, and deserving only of eternal condemnation for offending an eternal and holy God. But praise God He has saved me! And, my friends, praise God He has saved you!

This is why there is no boasting in the Gospel - none whatsoever - not in our works, not in our faith, not in anything. Our one and only boast, therefore, is the one shared by every believer, and it is simply in our Lord and God, who has chosen to save us.

AI-Expanded Reflection

Jeremiah 5–6 portrays corruption extending across social classes and religious offices. The search for someone who acts justly fails among both the poor and the powerful. Prophets speak falsely, priests exercise distorted authority, and the people welcome the arrangement. The refining image at the end of chapter 6 intensifies the diagnosis: repeated exposure has not removed the corruption. The problem is not merely a lack of religious institutions, information, or respectable leadership titles.

The original draws this diagnosis into a broader doctrine of human depravity and God's initiative in salvation. Romans 3:9–18, Ephesians 2:1–10, and 1 Corinthians 2:14 provide important New Testament material for that discussion. They exclude boasting and insist that spiritual life is not a self-generated accomplishment. The prophetic setting nevertheless deserves its own attention: Jeremiah indicts a covenant community's persistent injustice and refusal of correction. His words are more than abstract premises in a later debate about the mechanics of conversion.

The contrast between election and free will also needs careful representation. Many Christians who affirm a meaningful human response to grace do not claim that fallen people possess unaided saving righteousness. They speak instead of prior, enabling grace while differing from a Reformed account of how that grace operates. The actual disagreement should therefore not be reduced to humility versus a flattering view of human nature. Both positions must be tested by Scripture and by their handling of divine initiative, responsibility, and the universal call to repentance.

The writer's unanswered question about why God does not save everyone is an honest recognition of the limits of his account. Romans 9 calls for humility before the Creator, but Romans 10 also displays Paul's grief, longing, and prayer for the salvation of others. Submission to God's sovereignty does not require extinguishing compassion. Paul can affirm divine purpose while becoming all things to all people that by all means he might save some (1 Corinthians 9:22), without imagining himself the ultimate source of salvation.

The comparison with notorious perpetrators of evil emphasizes shared dependence on mercy, but it should not erase meaningful differences in actions, victims, and accountability. Recognizing that all need grace does not mean every person has committed equivalent harms. Repentance becomes truthful when it names our actual sins rather than relying only on dramatic comparisons with others.

The passage calls for a humility that remains morally awake. We cannot boast that superior insight earned God's favor, and we cannot use theology to excuse indifference toward those who have not believed. The gospel may be proclaimed from obedience and from love at the same time. Grace teaches gratitude for rescue, serious attention to injustice, and patient concern for people whose response we cannot control.

To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen? Their ears are closed, unable to hear; the word of the LORD is offensive to them, giving them no pleasure — yet I'm full of the LORD's wrath, and I can't hold it in (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 6:10–11). Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. From a young age, he pronounced destruction and judgment on a people who wouldn't listen. It seems like little has changed between Jeremiah's time and ours — even now, God's word is often offensive to people, giving them no pleasure. Even many regular churchgoers only want to hear sermons about God's love and blessing; we're afraid of offending people by bringing up sin and judgment. Yet by God's own calling, Jeremiah says he was full of the LORD's wrath and simply couldn't hold it in — filled with the Spirit, unable to suppress the message even at real personal cost, preaching to people who wouldn't listen. Unlike Jeremiah, we tend to only share the gospel with people we expect will actually listen. Thinking about Isaiah and Jeremiah, both preaching to people whose ears and eyes were closed, I've become more convinced that evangelism isn't really a matter of whether people will listen, but a matter of our own obedience. It's not our job to change anyone's heart — only God can do that. Our only responsibility is to obey what we've been called to do. Whether one person, thousands, or no one repents is entirely in God's hands. Our mission isn't measured by conversions, but by our own obedience — obey God's voice, and He'll be our God and we His people, walking in obedience to all He commands so that it may go well with us (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 7:23).

AI-Expanded Reflection

The distinction this comment draws — evangelism measured by obedience rather than results — is worth extending with a specific detail from Jeremiah's own commission: God tells him in advance that the people won't listen (Jeremiah 7:27), meaning Jeremiah spent decades preaching with the explicit foreknowledge that his message would largely be rejected. That's a genuinely different task than most people imagine when they think about sharing their faith, since it removes the usual, often unspoken benchmark of "success" (visible change in the hearer) entirely. If Jeremiah's decades of faithful, apparently fruitless preaching still counted as obedience in God's eyes, that reframes what this comment calls fear of offending people — the fear isn't really about the message failing, since faithful proclamation was never guaranteed to "succeed" by that measure in the first place.

These chapters bring a strong indictment against the people of Judah as their Babylonian exile approaches — God's final appeals for them to return to Him. They'd embraced His blessings and grown wealthy, but instead of trusting and obeying Him more, they grew self-confident and self-indulgent, embracing only the prophets and priests who supported their indulgence. Consider some of these indictments: God's people are foolish, not knowing Him — like silly children with no understanding, skilled in doing evil but ignorant of how to do good (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 4:22). God had struck them, yet they didn't grieve; He'd consumed them, yet they refused correction, hardening their faces like rock and refusing to return (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 5:3). Their children had forsaken Him, swearing by false gods; well-fed, they committed adultery and gathered at brothels, like well-fed stallions neighing after their neighbors' wives (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 5:7–8). Wicked men among them set traps to catch others, their houses full of deceit like cages full of birds, growing rich and fat, never defending the cause of the fatherless or needy (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 5:26–28). The prophets prophesied falsely, the priests ruled by their own authority, and the people loved it that way (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 5:31); everyone, from least to greatest, was given to dishonest gain (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 6:13). The section ends with the stark pronouncement that the LORD had rejected them (Jeremiah 6:30) — yet even in judgment, He hadn't rejected them completely, promising elsewhere that He wouldn't make a full and complete end of them (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 4:27; 5:18). A small remnant would be preserved, through whom God would still fulfill His promises to Abraham and David. That's a sobering message for us too. Among the nations of the world, with rare exception, only Israel was historically God's covenant people — yet even among them, only a small remnant proved faithful. Today may not be so different: among the nations, only Christians claim to be saved, but even among Christians, I suspect only a genuine remnant truly are. Paul writes that faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of God (a paraphrase of Romans 10:17) — and in the specific context of Romans 10, that "hearing" seems to require more than simply encountering words; it requires an inward readiness to actually receive them, which Scripture attributes ultimately to God's own gracious work. As Jeremiah writes, the LORD would bring calamity on this people because they hadn't heeded His words or His law (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 6:19), asking who could even be warned, since their ears were "uncircumcised" and they had no delight in His word at all (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 6:10). So for those of us who've been given ears to hear, let's diligently hear and heed, listen and act, read and obey — making our calling and election sure through exactly that kind of persistent faithfulness (a paraphrase of 2 Peter 1:10).

AI-Expanded Reflection

This comment moves toward a strongly monergist reading of "hearing" in Romans 10 — that genuine spiritual hearing depends entirely on a prior act of God, sometimes described as an inward "circumcision" of the ear that a person cannot bring about in themselves. As with other reflections on this theme throughout the project, it's worth noting that Christian traditions differ on exactly how to characterize that inward enabling — some emphasizing God's unconditional, particular work in the individual, others emphasizing grace made genuinely available and responsively received — while still agreeing completely that no one can manufacture spiritual hearing by sheer willpower or intellectual effort alone. What both traditions would affirm from this passage is the comment's closing practical point: since hearing rightly isn't something to be taken for granted, anyone who does find themselves actually listening has good reason to respond with diligence rather than complacency.