“And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.”
(Jeremiah 9:13-15)
The judgment of the Lord pronounced on His people in this passage flows from one single act: “Because they have forsaken my law.” Israel did not simply stumble; they rejected the law set plainly before them. They refused to obey the voice of God. They chose another path and then wondered why the road turned bitter.
Scripture draws a clear distinction between sins of infirmity, which even the godly fall into, and a settled course of sin. Jeremiah describes it as walking after the imagination of the heart. Their problem was not confusion but defiance. God’s people closed their eyes against His light and preferred their own thoughts to His commands.
The example of Ephraim and Jeroboam demonstrates the point even further. Ephraim once held power and influence, but then presumption crept in. Strength turned into confidence in self rather than humility before God. From that confidence came idolatry. Baal is named as a symbol of what happens when people authorize themselves to decide how God ought to be served, that is to say, a religion shaped by preference rather than obedience.
Idolatry is not only the worship of statues or false deities; it is the fruit of walking after one’s own heart. Once God’s Word is set aside, superstition rushes in. Error multiplies. What begins as autonomy ends in apostasy.[1]
God removes every excuse for ignorance. The law was given, set plainly before them by Moses. The prophets echoed it. So there is no refuge in claiming ignorance or confusion. When people hear the law and do not obey it, the fault lies not in the Word but in the will.
This makes the judgment described here both severe and just. God gives them what their way of life has been producing all along. What they refused to taste in repentance, they now drink in judgment. Spiritual stubbornness leads to spiritual affliction. The bitterness of judgment matches the bitterness of rebellion.
Walking after the imagination of the heart is not harmless self-expression; it is rebellion. And rebellion, left unchecked, always ends in bitterness. The tragedy is not that God judges, but that He warned, taught, and set His law before them—and still they would not walk in it.
Contemplations:
- My habitual sin. I am forced to face the difference between falling into sin and living in it. A continued course of sin is a serious matter, and I must treat it as such.
- My resistance to clear light. I cannot say that I don’t know what God requires. I hear His Word. I read it. I understand far more than I obey. This text strips away my excuses and shows me that disobedience most often comes from preference, not ignorance.
- My trust in my own imagination. I often let my own thoughts compete with God’s voice. Yet Scripture places my imagination in direct opposition to God’s Word. If I follow my own reasoning when it contradicts Scripture, I am not on neutral ground; I’m just choosing Baal in another form.
- My response to God’s warnings. Wormwood and gall did not appear without warning. God spoke first, and then judgment came later. I need to consider how I respond to rebuke, correction, and exhortation now, before bitterness hardens into consequence.
Prayer (Confession)
Righteous and holy God, I come before You with no defense and no excuse. You have spoken clearly, and I have not always listened. You have set Your law before my face, and too often I have looked past it, explaining away what I did not want to obey. I confess that my problem is not lack of light, but resistance to it.
I confess the times in my life where sin not only appeared, but settled. There are patterns I have tolerated and habits I have excused. I have treated them as weakness when they have become willful. Forgive me for disregarding what You name plainly.
I confess that I have walked after the imagination of my own heart. I have trusted my reasoning more than Your command. I have allowed my thoughts to adjust Your Word rather than letting Your Word correct me. In doing so, I have acted as though my judgment were safer than Yours. That is pride, and I acknowledge it as sin.
I confess that I am capable of idolatry even while using religious language. When I shape obedience around comfort, preference, or convenience, I am following Baal under another name. I see how easily self-rule replaces submission, and how quickly devotion turns into invention.
I confess that I have been slow to heed Your warnings through Scripture, through conscience, through circumstances, and through the words of others. Yet I have often delayed repentance, assuming I had more time. I see now that such delay not only hardens the heart but brings bitterness.
Cleanse me from this stubbornness. Break the pattern of walking after myself. Give me a heart that trembles at Your Word and a will that bends to it. Do not leave me to drink the bitter fruit of my own ways. Restore in me a readiness to obey. And teach me to walk in Your law, not in my imagination, and to live in repentance rather than presumption.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Further Scripture References for Jeremiah 9:13–15:
Lam. 3:15; Psalm 80:5; Jer. 25:15; Rev. 8:11
[1] William Ames, Conscience with the Power and Cases Thereof, (Leyden and London: Imprinted W. Christiaens, E. Griffin, J. Dawson, 1639), 5.
