After God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, he made a special agreement (called a covenant) with them (see Exodus 20–24). In this covenant, God gave them the Ten Commandments and other laws. The people promised to follow these laws, and God promised to bless them if they did. But the Israelites broke the terms of the covenant.
A central issue in God's relationship with Israel was whether the covenant made at Mount Sinai was still valid after the people had broken it. In ancient Near Eastern politics, covenants were common. When one of the partners in a covenant broke the terms of the agreement, the result was usually war.
The covenant was special because God was one of the partners. It followed the pattern of non-religious covenants and required both God and Israel to confirm the agreement with oaths promising to be faithful (Exodus 24:1–11; Deuteronomy 29–30; Joshua 8:30–35; 24:1–28).
God always remained faithful to his covenant, but the Israelites continued to break it. Canaanite worship of many gods tempted them away from the Lord. They worshipped idols and engaged in immoral sexual ceremonies. They treated the poor and needy badly and ignored God's rules for righteousness.
For centuries, the Israelites either worshiped God (Yahweh) or Canaanite gods. Whenever they repented and obeyed God, he mercifully accepted them back into the covenant relationship. Yet, by the mid-700s BC, the Israelites of the northern kingdom of Israel had become stubbornly committed to idol worship. So God allowed the Assyrians to destroy the kingdom and take many people into captivity.
The prophet Jeremiah’s ministry was over one hundred years later. Now Judah was committing idolatry. Jeremiah compared this situation to a marriage divorce, similar to Hosea's earlier story about Israel (Jeremiah 2–3; compare Hosea 1–2). The Scriptures compare Israel’s relationship with God to a marriage where the bride committed adultery.
God accused his people of breaking the marriage bond and behaving like a prostitute (Jeremiah 3:1). He warned them to repent or encounter destruction. God could no longer say of the Israelites, “I will be their God, and they will be My people” (see Jeremiah 31:33; see also Exodus 6:7; Hosea 1:9).
Breaking the covenant led to the northern kingdom's destruction and later the destruction of the kingdom of Judah. Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. This punishment deeply pained God. The ever-merciful God promised a new covenant to replace the Sinai covenant that Israel had broken (Jeremiah 31:31–34).
Passages for Further Study
Exodus 6:7; Jeremiah 2:1–3:10; 4:4; 22:8–9; 31:31–34; Ezekiel 16:1–63; Hosea 2:2–13; 3:1; 4:1–5:15