Not only did the people of Judah fail to acknowledge the Lord as the one who not only rules over his creation and sets the boundaries of the sea, but who also set the boundaries of the covenant (Jeremiah 5:21–23), but they also stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the Lord as the one who provided the life-giving seasonal rains that produced the harvest that sustained them as a nation. The root of this behaviour is identified with the phrase, they say in their hearts.
Their hearts were not right with the Lord and so they did not revere him and act the way they should have.1 The weeks appointed for harvest
were the seven weeks between the Feast of the Passover and the Feast of Weeks. These festivals were a vital part of Israel’s calendar during which they were supposed to be reminded that it was indeed the Lord who had provided the rains and the harvest.2 The implication in these words is that Judah had instead come to trust in Baal as the one who provided the rains.3
24 They do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.’