The whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. (Jeremiah 9:26)The message delivered to Judah is an indictment of its arrogance and stubbornness. Even animals have the sense to know to whom they are accountable for the seasons and for sustenance (8:7). But of Judah it is said the people are too stiffnecked to know when they are beaten (7:26), following the stubborn inclinations of their hearts (7:24).
According to Rabbi Abraham Heschel, God's anger is always measured and for a purpose. There is no divine anger for anger's sake. It's meaning is . . . instrumental: to bring about repentance; its purpose and comsummation is its own disapperance. [1]
The point is that people should have the good sense, when confronted by God's anger or discipline, to change their ways, but Jeremiah says that too often we doggedly march on to our own destruction when a simple change of course would make all the difference. Physical circumcision was only supposed to be a symbol of the inward circumcision of the heart – resulting in submission of the whole person to the sovereignty of God.
[1] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), 286.
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