GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (43) Prophetic Pain, part IV
Everyone has their breaking
point. Everyone is vulnerable to
psychological distress and the experience of doubt regarding the goodness of
God and of life itself. Jeremiah was indeed
well acquainted with pain. I believe
that the “painful” tone of much of Jeremiah’s writing is that of a tired
preacher, an exhausted messenger. Think
about it – Jeremiah warned his contemporaries (in vain) of coming disaster for
40 years, after which time Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed. Not only was he called to deliver a message
that no one wanted to hear, but Jeremiah also had to face hostile (and
potentially deadly) opposition, even from those people closest to him. As he experienced this solitary suffering,
Jeremiah recorded 6 “lamentations”[1],
i.e., 6 cries of distress to Yahweh, both expressing his anguish and requesting
that God defend him and avenge him on his enemies. These cries resemble those psalms in which a
righteous, innocent person is unjustly persecuted by “wicked” people and pleads
with God to take up their cause (e.g., Ps. 22).
Jeremiah’s final lament follows the account of him buying an earthenware
jug from the potter (Jer. 19.1-2; cf. 18.1-11), and then going to the Valley of
Ben-Hinnom[2]
and proclaiming things reminiscent of his sermon in the Temple in chapter 7
(cp. Jer. 7.30-34 and 19.4-6, 10-12).[3] After breaking the jug in the presence of
some elders and priests, Jeremiah returns to the Temple court and announces
judgment on Jerusalem for the people’s failure to obey Yahweh’s messages (“they
have stiffened their necks”; cf. 19.14-15; 17.23). The well-known words of Jesus in Mt. 11.28-30
could easily have been spoken by (Yahweh through) Jeremiah (cf. Jer. 6.16, 5.5,
31.18, 11.2-11). Judah/Jerusalem will not submit to Yahweh’s yoke (i.e. they
will not “hear”/obey God), and so she will not experience the shalom of
the Land. They have rejected the
fountain of living water and have contented themselves with broken cisterns
(Jer. 2.13). Judah is stupidly rebelling
against the only One who can give her life; indeed, she has chosen death (Jer.
8.1-3; 19.11; 21.8-10; cf. Dt. 30.19-20).
After telling Jeremiah to buy the jug, God tells him what to say
(19.3-9). The speech contained here is
an extended lawsuit speech in three parts: an announcement of judgment (v. 3),
the indictment (4-5) and a detailed description of the form the judgment will
take (6-9). The substance of the
judgment appeals to the old covenant curse tradition. Jeremiah is utterly a child of the tradition
of Moses. He takes to its conclusion
what has been implicit all through the tradition. Since Ex. 19.5-6, the whole of Israel’s life with
Yahweh has been governed by this uncompromising “if” (“if you obey my
voice…you shall be my treasured possession…”).
Now, says Jeremiah, the whole enterprise is finished. There is in the purview of the prophet no
hint of continuing care, no second thought on Yahweh’s part, no yearning or
wistfulness. This is the end of the tradition,
the end of all things sacred. Jerusalem
now faces the very end that the covenant tradition had anticipated for the
disobedient.[4]
Upon hearing Jeremiah preaching in the Temple, Pashhur – a temple
official – strikes (naka) Jeremiah (20.2). The same verb is used by Jeremiah in his
prophetic response to the abuse he received from Pashhur in 20.4: “Thus says
the Lord…I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon…he shall naka
them with the sword”.[5] After striking Jeremiah, Pashhur puts him “in
the stocks” (20.2). Though we cannot be
sure exactly what this device was, it was obviously uncomfortable and meant to
humiliate. Some commentators describe “the
stocks” as a pillory which forced the body into a cramped posture, which is
precisely what the word “stocks” brings to mind for a Western person (who has watched
movies set in medieval times).[6] However, physically abusing the prophet does
not accomplish its goal. Rather than
silencing Jeremiah, it brings down judgment upon the priest who ordered it[7]
(or personally carried it out[8]).
Jeremiah renames Pashhur “Terror-all-around”. The Temple (represented by Pashhur) and the
city of Jerusalem are now marked by terror and not peace. The system is under judgment and has
failed. It may mouth shalom, but
it embodies terror. It is therefore
subject to God’s terror. The very place
that is to guarantee life has become the very seat of death. The symbolic world of Jerusalem is now
effectively dismantled. The physical
dismantling is still to be accomplished by Babylonian arms[9],
but the dismantling is primarily accomplished by this prophetic word with its
power to expose, indict, and displace.[10]
After an extended period of prophesying while people plotted to take his
life (cf. 18.23) and publicly threatened and shamed him, Jeremiah now utters the
last and darkest of his prayers of lament…
[1] “They seem to be the
most direct, candid, and intimate prayers that we know about in the OT”: Brueggemann,
Walter, A Commentary on Jeremiah, Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1998, p. 114.
[2] Brueggemann doubts that
Jeremiah actually carried out the lengthy instructions that God gave him in
19.1-13, including actually going to Topheth (pace 19.14): A
Commentary on Jeremiah, p. 178; cf. Miller, Patrick
D. “The Book of Jeremiah” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: Vol. VI,
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001, p. 721, who assumes that Jeremiah did and
said precisely what Yahweh instructed, and then returned to the Temple courts
(as per 19.14-15).
[3] Some commentators deduce that Jer. 19.1-13 describes the
circumstances in which the content of 7.30-34 was proclaimed: Miller, Patrick D. “The
Book of Jeremiah”, p. 721.
[4] Brueggemann, Walter,
pp. 175-77.
[5] Cf. Brown, Michael L.
“Jeremiah” in Longman & Garland, eds. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary
7: Jeremiah-Ezekiel, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010, p. 281.
[6] Ibid, p. 282.
[8] Brown, Michael L.
“Jeremiah”, p. 282.
[9] “Babylon” is mentioned
in this passage (20.4-6) for the first (four) time(s) out of a total of 168
times in the book of Jeremiah: Miller, Patrick D. “The Book of Jeremiah”, p. 723. We all know what’s coming… The Babylonians,
under the command of the new “emperor-elect” Nebuchadnezzar defeated the
Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C. (i.e., “the fourth year of
Jehoiakim”, a very significant date in the book of Jeremiah: 25.1; 36.1; 45.1;
46.2), and came to Jerusalem following their victory – to ensure that the
Egyptian-appointed (in 609, after Josiah died in battle against Pharaoh Neco
II) King Jehoiakim knew who his new boss was.
Is this perhaps a clue as to the date of these oracles?
[10] Brueggemann, Walter,
pp. 179-80.
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