Worldview Bible Commentary: Jeremiah 2:31- Humanism/Human Depravity

Since the fall mankind has set his heart on declaring his independence from the one True God. This was a problem in Judah during the time of Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry. In chapter 2 the LORD is revealing to the prophet what He wanted Jeremiah to address to His people. In the latter part of verse 31 the LORD asks a rhetorical question:

“Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam;
We will no longer come to You’?”

In this text we find two responses from the people of God that manifest this depraved notion on the part of humanity that man is a law unto himself. First, the people declare that they are “free to roam.” I think it is interesting that the word “roam” in the Hebrew means to “wander restlessly.” The people of Judah are saying that they can do as they please with complete liberation but yet this liberation will most certainly be a “restless” attempt into state of spiritual bankruptcy which we find through Jeremiah’s writing.

Second, the people declared that they would “no longer come to” Him. This basically means that they were no longer willing to worship the one True God but would rather worship those gods that they had established for themselves under the inspiration of their own depraved minds.

Again, both of these responses are characteristic of man’s sinful need for autonomy and false sense of liberation that the god of this world so “kindly” promised at mankind’s fall.