A Study of Prayer in Jeremiah and 1 John
As we study the horrible downfall of Israel & Judah in the book of Jeremiah one must be in awe of both the wrath of God on sin and the faithfulness and mercy of God to His chosen covenant people. We see an incredible story of Israel’s worship of God and their ability to quickly turn from Him and chase after idols. Things begin to come to a head as we reach the major prophets as God calls His people to repentance. He requires them to turn from their wicked ways, wash their hands of sin and return to the one true God of Israel. Prophet after prophet is sent by His hand to warn this straying people. Based on the outcome there appears to be little hope. One prophet in particular, Jeremiah, relates a dark and terrible time in Israel’s journey. Can there come a point that God will not relent and take out His wrath on His elect in order to not only punish but cleanse? Will interceding through prayer make a difference when this level of sin becomes a reality?
We will focus on three verses in the Book of Jeremiah and compare them to a sobering verse in 1 John. The goal is to see if there is Biblical support for sin in a believer’s life that will lead to God’s judgment “unto death” regardless of the greatest of intercessory prayer.
In Jeremiah 7:16, God directly tells Jeremiah
“As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.”
This is a terrifying verse. It appears that God’s people have reached a level of sin that will lead to death and no amount of prayer will cause God to relent. This verse also is unique of the three we will review in that it stresses that Jeremiah is not to intercede with God. Interceding at this point is useless. The Lord explicitly forbids the prophet to intercede for his people. They were so obdurately sinful that praying for them was futile. What was particularly abominable to the Lord was the worship of the Queen of Heaven1 by the entire populace (vv.17-18).2 We see a direct attack on the one true God by His chosen people who have turned their back on Him. It appears this level of sin against the holiness of God will warrant a judgment that intercessory prayer will be useless against.
A prophet like Jeremiah, called by God, would be wasting his time praying for this people. I am reminded of Ezekiel 14:20,
“…even though Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, as I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “they could not deliver either their son or their daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.”
Here we see the people have reached a point in their sin that even if one of these three men, who the Bible called righteous, were to intercede it would be useless. Can a believer reach a point where their sin causes God to cause the death penalty without any possibility of relenting?
First, we must study a few sections of Scripture that clearly teach that a believer’s life can be taken by God if a state of sin is reached that requires cleansing of His church. God is serious about the holiness of His elect and the purity of His church, the body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes the church in Corinth about their misuse of the Lord’s Supper. We see in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 that Paul is stating that many of the believers have become sick and a number of them are dead because of their flagrant misuse of the Lord’s Supper. Because they have not assessed their sin and rightly confessed before taking of the elements (proper self-examination) God has struck them with sickness and death. This should give us pause on the holiness of God and the seriousness of unconfessed sin in the believer’s life and in the sacraments of the church. It also shows us how God views the holiness of His church. We find a similar theme in the book of Acts. In the story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11), we see a couple who holds back a portion of the proceeds of the sale of land. They outright lie to God. Through God’s power, Peter strikes both of them dead where they stood. This is a sobering lesson to all believers. Here we see how God views sin in the church and how He will let nothing stand in the way of His namesake. We can learn much from these two accounts in the New Testament.
We have seen through the account in 1 Corinthians and in Acts that God will take the life of believers whose sin reaches a point that He needs to cleanse and protect His church. Now, we need to explore if there is a point in a believer’s life that intercessory prayer will not be heard by God if that level of sin is reached.
Three times in the book of Jeremiah God tells Jeremiah that no level of prayer, intercession, pleading or crying will cause God to relent in His wrath and judgment on His chosen nation. (Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14, 14:11) His people have reached a point in their sin that must be dealt with and nothing, not even the prayer of a prophet, will cause God to relent in His judgment. What must be pointed out here is that we’re talking about Israel - God’s chosen nation. It would be one thing to not offer intercessory prayer for Babylon, Assyria or Edom but here Jeremiah is forbidden to pray for his kinsmen because it will do no good. Is this because God has already made up His mind? Does exegesis of the three verses in Jeremiah illustrate the absolute certainty of judgment or does it to show that while there was hope through prayer, Israel has now reached a state of sin “unto death”?
This is where we turn to our study of an equally terrifying passage in 1 John 5:16-17. John writes,
“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.”
John explains that there is a sin a believer can commit that will lead to death. We must rule out spiritual death here since John is writing this letter to believers showing them how they can have assurance of salvation as indicated in verse 5:13. And importantly, a true believer cannot lose their salvation as indicated in Romans 8:1. So in context, this must refer to physical death as a form of judgment for a particularly heinous sin a believer commits. There is apparently a point in a believer’s life where they can reach a state of sin that will cause God to react in capital punishment in order to spare the church of the evil or demise. In addition, according to John, praying for such a believer in the “sin unto death” is futile.
This sounds too much like the condition of Israel in Jeremiah to be overlooked. In commenting on this verse in 1 John, John MacArthur states “Such a sin could be any premeditated and unconfessed sin that causes the Lord to end a believer’s life. It is not one particular sin like homosexuality or lying, but whatever sin is the final one in the tolerance of God. No intercessory prayer will be effective for those who have committed such deliberate high-handed sin.”3 [emphasis mine]
In comparing Jeremiah and 1 John we see a close connection with God’s treatment of serious sin and the protection of the holiness of His people, the church. The Corinthian church’s treatment of the Lord’s Supper and the repercussions of such heinous sin as well as the death penalty on two early church members in the book of Acts demonstrate God’s requirements of His elect and the seriousness of sin in the life of a believer as part of the body of Christ.
The comparison of the sins leading to irreversible judgment regardless of prayer in Jeremiah and the “sin unto death” where prayer is likewise futile in 1 John are too similar to discount since they have such a similar cause and effect. While Jeremiah clearly outlines the particular sins of God’s people that cause such wrath, John is not quite as clear in 1 John 5. However, given a study of Paul’s writings in 1 Corinthians on the treatment of the Lord’s Supper and the outcome of Ananias’ and Sapphira’s “cover-up” we see a systematic context of God’s protection of the church. Whether one’s eschatological views have them believe the church replaces Israel or not, it is evident there is a similar motive in both Jeremiah’s and John’s accounts of the “sin leading to death”. That motive appears to be the purity of the church and complete devotion of God’s people to Him, His commandments and as the Westminster Catechism states “to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever”. It is truly all about God’s glory!
We can learn much from the lessons presented to us in these passages of Scripture. In the same way God held Israel’s sister Judah in greater guilt because they had witnessed the demise of Israel and refused to repent, we should take heed knowing all that has been revealed to us in Scripture about God’s holiness, His sovereignty, His wrath and His decree for His church to be a holy bride for the Risen Lamb of God.
John Owen, the 17th century teacher on the doctrine of sin, said it best - “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”4 There is evidently incredible Biblical truth in that statement with regards to sin in the life of a believer! While the regenerate will always have indwelling sin until glorification, we have God’s power through the Spirit to increasingly mortify sin in our lives through the miraculous process of sanctification. So let us walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh - working with God to eradicate that which so easily entangles us.
Soli Deo Gloria!
- This goddess was probably the Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar (cf. also 44:17)—the goddess of love and fertility; she was the planet Venus. It appears she was worshiped mainly by women (cf. ch.44, esp. vv.15-19). A female deity is foreign to OT theology; so the implication is that this cult was of non-Hebraic origin. [Taken from EBC] [↩]
- Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Accordance Bible Version; Jeremiah 16-18 [↩]
- MacArthur Bible Commentary, 2005, John MacArthur; Nelson Publishers [↩]
- Mortification of Sin in Believers, John Owen [↩]
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