Israel, however, did not obey the commandment to utterly destroy the idol worshippers. Instead, they spared them and did not wipe them out. As a result, Israel could not fully possess the good land.
Because Israel spared the idol worshippers, there was war again and again between Israel and the people in the land. This war is described in the book of Judges. The judges were the strong ones, the leading ones, who fought for Israel against the idol worshippers. After the period of the judges, David, who was brought in by Samuel, fought all the inhabitants of the land and gained nearly the entire land. Although David was not allowed to build the temple, he received the design of the temple from God and prepared the materials and the temple site on Mount Moriah, the place where Abraham offered Isaac (1 Chron. 28:11-12, 19; 29:1-2; 21:18-26; 2 Chron. 3:1). Following the design which his father received from God, Solomon, David's son, built the temple in approximately 1000 B.C. That was the highlight of the nation of Israel.
Solomon was a wise king. He was so wise that the queen of Sheba visited him in order to prove his wisdom (2 Chron. 9:1-12). However, Solomon did not remain in a good spiritual condition for his entire life. In his old age he was led by his many heathen wives to worship idols (1 Kings 11:1-8). He took the lead to depart from God and to degrade from His revelation. Nearly all of Solomon's descendants continued his apostasy.
This apostasy continued until the time when Jeremiah was charged by God to prophesy. Jeremiah began to prophesy in 629 B.C., twenty-three years before Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar. God charged Jeremiah to condemn Israel's sins in forsaking God and becoming wicked in their conduct. They had forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, and, hewing out broken cisterns, they had turned to idols and were worshipping them (Jer. 2:13). Furthermore, society was filled with murder, fornication, greed, lying, and stealing. Even the king was greedy, for, as we will see, he commanded the people to build him a palace but did not pay them for their labor. The people were not faithful either to God or to one another. For instance, in 5:7 and 8 Jehovah says, "Why should I pardon you? / Your children have forsaken Me / And sworn by those who are not gods. / When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery / And trooped to the house of harlots. / Like well-fed horses they roam about, / Each one neighing after his neighbor's wife."
Before the time of Jeremiah, Isaiah prophesied against Israel, saying that Israel had become like Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa. 1:9-10). However, Israel did not change but continued in her wickedness until Jeremiah's time. Nevertheless, through Jeremiah God spoke to Israel as her loving, sympathetic, and compassionate Husband, saying that He remembered the love of her bridal days (Jer. 2:2). God sighed over Israel and longed for her to return to Him. Israel had forsaken Him as the unique Husband and had gone to many other husbands. Moreover, the people were evil to one another, killing, fornicating, lying, and stealing.
Israel was so corrupt that it was difficult for God to find a prophet to speak for Him. The princes, priests, and prophets were all corrupt. Where could God find a faithful, honest prophet? Unable to find such a prophet in Jerusalem, God went to the city of Anathoth in the land of the small tribe of Benjamin, and there He called a young man named Jeremiah and commissioned him to speak for Him. When Jeremiah excused himself by saying that he was a youth and that he did not know how to speak, Jehovah said to him, "Do not say, I am a youth; / For everywhere I send you, you shall go; / And everything I command you, you shall speak. / Do not be afraid of their faces, / For I am with you to deliver you" (1:7-8). Jehovah went on to say that He would make Jeremiah into a fortified city, into an iron pillar, and into walls of brass against the whole land. The kings, princes, priests, and people would fight against him, but they would not prevail against him (vv. 18-19). Those who fought against Jeremiah were actually fighting against Jehovah. He was Jehovah's one-person army. No one would defeat him because Jehovah was with him. Thus, Jeremiah could not escape God's commission but was constrained to accept it.