GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (52) Divine Justice, part II

 

“The word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon…by the prophet Jeremiah …out of the north a nation has come up against her; it shall make her land a desolation, and no one shall live in it; both humans and animals shall flee away.  In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the people of Israel shall come, they and the people of Judah together; they shall come weeping as they seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, and they shall come and join themselves to the Lord by an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.” (Jer. 50.1-5)

     We have seen how Yahweh’s justice was based on his covenant with his people and had two sides – it could take the form both of judgment of Israel if she was unfaithful to the covenant as well as judgment of Israel’s enemies (=Israel’s salvation) once these enemies had “served their purpose” of being the agent of Yahweh’s judgment of his people and when their arrogance and imperial evil had become intolerable.  In Jeremiah chapters 50—51, we see the second side of the divine justice, whereas (with the exception of chapters 30—33) the entire rest of the book had been focused on the first aspect, i.e., Yahweh’s judgment of his people.  In chapters 50—51, not only is Babylon’s fall foretold, but the resulting restoration of the people of God is beautifully and evocatively portrayed.  When Yahweh deploys his justice in favour of his people, it becomes obvious that divine justice is not merely punitive, but also restorative (cf. Is. 40.1-11).

     In Jer. 50.4-8, four elements of the restoration of the people of God are described: the reunification of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah (divided since the death of Solomon: cf. 1 Kings 12), the return of the people of God to Zion (i.e., Jerusalem = end of exile), the establishment of a (new) eternal covenant (cf. Jer. 31.31-36; 33.14-22) and the gathering of the people of God, who are described as sheep without a shepherd (cf. Ez. 34; Is. 40.10-11).  As Jeremiah had declared 7 times in his “book of hope” (chapters 30—33), Yahweh will “restore the fortunes” of his people (Jer. 30.3, 18, etc.).  However, according to the exilic prophets, not only will the fall of Babylon herald the restoration of the people of God (accompanied by a new covenant), but it will also hail the renewal of all creation (cf. Is. 55.1-13; 65.17-25).

     The fate of the entire cosmos is inextricably linked with the fate of Israel.  The result of the salvation of the people of God, say the prophets, will be nothing less than a new creation.  Yahweh’s covenant-justice, his faithfulness to his promises to Israel, his justice which involves both the judgment and the salvation of his people, will not be satisfied until all evil has been overcome and his creation is made new (cf. Rev. 21.1-5).  This is the breathtaking scope of the justice of the Creator, which is the putting-into-action of his love for his world.  The God of the Bible is absolutely and irrevocably committed to his creation and to his people.  The calling of Abraham to be the father of the chosen people had never been merely about Israel getting special treatment; au contraire, the reason God chose Israel as his people was so that they would be his instrument of salvation, for the benefit of the entire cosmos (cf. Rom. 4.13; Gn. 12.1-3).  This was the gravity and the glory of the vocation to be the people of Yahweh, to be a “kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (Ex. 19.5-6).  The stakes had always been unfathomably high for Israel (and for Yahweh, who had staked everything on his covenant relationship with this nation).  Ultimately, this would lead to Yahweh becoming an Israelite and fulfilling the covenant in person… (cf. Rom. 8.1-4).  The covenant had always existed as the means for the renewal of creation, through the establishment of the kingdom of God.  Creation, covenant and kingdom – these themes rush together in the prophetic oracles about the return from exile in Babylon (cf. Is. 40.1-11; 52.1-12).

     The prophets provide us with a panoramic view of the Creator’s purposes (as described in Scripture).  They constantly make reference to the previous “chapters” of the story of God, his world and his people.  God creates a good world, evil invades and establishes the rule of human empire (beginning with Babel), God then responds by forming a people who will be loyal to him and his rightful rule of the world (i.e., his kingdom), Israel is bound by the terms of the covenant, which provides the means to hold the people of God accountable lest they should betray their vocation and choose to serve the forces of evil and thus become just like all the other nations.  Israel’s faithfulness to the covenant would result in the salvation and renewal of creation, in the defeat of evil and the undoing of the curses resulting from humanity’s fall in Genesis 3 (compare Gn. 3.17-19 with Is. 55.12-13).  Of course, as we have seen, it was Jeremiah’s personal vocation to spend 40 years proclaiming the inevitable consequences of Israel’s failure to be faithful, thus resulting in the people of God experiencing the covenant curses of defeat and exile.  The events of 587 B.C. (the “fall” of Jerusalem) were the equivalent of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden.  Just as the primeval pair had been exiled from Eden, so Israel was exiled from the land.  Later, in his letter to the Romans, Paul will make the argument that Israel had always been “in Adam” (i.e., the people of God had always shared the rebellious nature of the rest of humanity), and that this is why a “Second Adam” (i.e. Jesus), himself a member of the people of God, had been required to fulfill the covenant and thus save both Israel and the world (cf. Rom. 1—8). 

     All this to say that Jeremiah was called to witness to the moment of Israel’s history that proved that the people of God, left to their own devices, were incapable of fulfilling their God-given mandate to be the Creator’s agent of salvation in the world.  As the prophets make clear in their promises of the restoration of both Israel and the world, this renewal will not be the result of any merely human effort, but will be the result of the Creator-and-covenant God acting in person as the shepherd-king of his people, who lays down his life for the sheep (cf. Is. 40, 52; Ez. 34; Jer. 50.1-7; cf. Jn. 10).  Jeremiah “prepared the way of the Lord” in the sense that his message of both judgment and hope made two things absolutely clear – firstly, Israel had failed miserably in her mission to be the people of God, to be a light to the nations, to be the salt of the earth (cf. Mt. 5.13-16); secondly, the infidelity of his people did not invalidate the faithfulness of God.  Yahweh promised to, somehow, fulfill both sides of the covenant – both that of the initiator and that of the respondent.  Yahweh’s love would ensure that his justice – both to condemn evil and to rescue his people and his world – would be done.