NOTES for Jer 11:1-23
The mildest thing one can say about the people who turned away from the Lord is that they are astonishingly frivolous. But those whom He chose do not value what they have been given, and such forgetful ingratitude is more than frivolity. Esau once sold his birthright to Jacob for lentil stew, but now Jacob's descendants have agreed to exchange something far more precious than the birthright not even for food, but for poison. Through their own ingratitude the people have now brought a curse upon themselves. Those who turn away from the Source of every blessing have no right to claim the use of those blessings.
Well, even today the proverb remains alive: “Until thunder strikes, the peasant will not cross himself.” And today, too, a man who crossed himself during a storm may forget God after it has passed. It is all too easy to begin treating the Lord pragmatically, turning to Him in need and forgetting Him when He is no longer required.
But is not such a pragmatic approach already the beginning of betrayal toward Him? A betrayal for which one will have to answer...