We often find it hard to understand how Scripture can portray Yahweh as good and praise worthy while also portraying him as a God who brings judgment and destruction upon people. We often see a disconnect between “rebellious human actions” and God’s role in bringing judgment. God’s action of judging seems arbitrary and disconnected from the human actions to which it responds.

In Scripture’s portrait of how the world works, however, there is no chasm between human rebellion and divine judgment. Human rebellion, consequences, and divine judgment are organically connected. In this post, I want to do two things: Reiterate a point I made previously: Genesis 1–6 ties together rebellion and judgment with the concept of decreation. Secondly, I want to highlight how Jeremiah 4 does the same thing.

Genesis 3–6

In Scripture, when humans choose to do what they think is good, apart from God’s instructions, these actions introduce into the world consequences. The consequences break down creation; things fall apart. I think it is helpful to speak of this dynamic as “decreative consequences.” The biblical authors have no problem portraying decreation as the result of human actions and at the same time the result of God’s judgment.

In Genesis 3–4, Adam, Eve, and Cain choose to disregard Yahweh’s instructions, and creation breaks down. Eve’s choice introduces physical pain and relational disharmony. Adam’s choice causes the ground to bring forth thorns and thistles. Ultimately, their bodies will break because they are “dust” held together by God’s breath (Gen 2:7; 3:19), and a choice to stiff arm God’s instructions is a choice to stiff arm his life-giving presence. “To dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19).

Nowhere is the connection between rebellion, consequences, and judgment more plain than in Genesis 6. I’ve written about this before so to quote a previous post,

Genesis 6:11–14 uses the vers שׁחת (to corrupt) four times to explain the organic connection between human rebellion, its effect on the land, and the cause of the flood. Humanity corrupted (שׁחת, verse 12) their way on the earth with violence, this led to the earth being corrupted (שׁחת, twice: verses 11–12), and therefore Yahweh will corrupt/destroy (שׁחת, verse 13) humanity. God allows what humanity spilled onto the land (corrupting violence) to come back upon them in the form of the chaos waters, “the deep” (תְּהוֹם, Gen 1:2; 7:11).

The use of the verb שׁחת makes the organic connection between human actions, decreation, and divine judgment very clear. The two stated reasons for the flood are united by the concept of decreation and the verb שׁחת:

1. Humanity’s actions “corrupted” (שׁחת) God’s creation, which held back the flood waters
2. God responds to humanity’s rebellion by declaring that he will destroy (שׁחת) humanity.
   

Jeremiah 4

Jeremiah 4 is similarly clear about the connection. The chapter warns Jerusalem and Judah that “disaster is coming from the north,” the Babylonian exile. Jeremiah calls for repentance (Jer 4:1–2), and he makes clear the cause of the coming destruction: It’s both the direct consequence of the people’s actions and God’s judgment.

Jeremiah 4:16 says that “besiegers come from a distant land,” and then Jeremiah 4:18 says,

Your ways and your actions are what is causing these things to happen to you.

Similar Genesis 6, Jeremiah has no problem saying the cause of exile is the people’s actions and saying that the cause is Yahweh’s judgment. Jeremiah 4:7 says, “A destroyer (מַשְׁחִית, from שׁחת) of nations has set out; he has left his place to make your land a horrific disaster.” In the same breath, the previous verse (Jer 4:6), the cause was stated:

“I am bring disaster from the north, a great breaking down.”

According to Jeremiah, the cause of exile is two-fold:

1. Human actions/rebellion (Jer 4:18)
2. Divine judgment (Jer 4:6)
   

What about the third piece of the puzzle, the concept of “decreation”? In the remainder of chapter 4, Jeremiah makes as clear as he possibly could that decreation is the concept that ties together human rebellion and divine judgment. Look at verse 23:

I looked at the land, and behold: formless and void.

I looked at the sky, and there is no light.

The result of Judah’s foolishness (4:19–22) and Yahweh’s fierce anger (4:26) is that the land is rendered “formless and void” (תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ) just like the uncreated state of Genesis 1:2. Human rebellion breaks creation, and that breaking process is God’s judgment.

Conclusion

Jeremiah 4, like Genesis 6, makes explicit that there is no chasm between human rebellion and divine judgment. The concepts are organically connected by a third concept that I’ve called “decreative consequences.” Decreative consequences flow organically from human rebellion and can at the same time be described as God’s judgment. Not every passage speaks about both causes, but I’m beginning to think that both are always in view.