The way of imagination

  “Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.  And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more… Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house .   When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body… He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever . I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me…   Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever .” (2 S...

  “…thus says the Lord concerning King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah: …They shall not lament for him, saying,   “Alas, lord!” or “Alas, his majesty!” With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried—     dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem… As I live, says the Lord, even if King Coniah son of Jehoiakim of Judah were the signet ring on my right hand, even from there I would tear you off and give you into the hands of those who seek your life, into the hands of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon…   I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. But they shall not return to the land to which they long to return.” (Jer. 22.18-19, 24-27)        598 B.C.: another traumatic “year of three kings” in Jerusalem – one member of Josiah’s family dies, a se...

  “…thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, even for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations around; I will utterly destroy them, and make them an object of horror and of hissing, and an everlasting disgrace… This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation…for their iniquity, says the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.” (Jer. 25.8-12)      In 626 B.C., an independent neo-Babylonian [1] state was established under the reign of Nabopolassar within the Assyrian empire.   Allying themselves with the Medes to the East, they began to challenge the Assyrians.   They conquered the...

  “The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.” (Jer. 1.1-3).      With its victory at Carchemish in 605 B.C., Babylon had replaced Assyria as the dominant empire of the Ancient Near East.   By now, it was a familiar scenario – the forces of the eastern empire would move westwards along the fertile crescent surrounding the Euphrates River, and then invade the Levant “from the North” as they descended along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, sometimes going so far as to invade Egypt, sometimes stopping to remind their Israelite/Judahite vassals of what was expected of...

       “The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah…   to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah…” (Jer. 1.1-3).      In the 12 th year of his reign, Josiah seems to have begun a renovation project in the Temple (2 Chr 34.3-13; 2 Kgs 22.3-7).   Six years later, the High Priest found there “the scroll of the covenant” (probably the book of Deuteronomy) [1] .   Following his listening to a reading of the scroll, Josiah sends a delegation to consult the prophetess Huldah, who tells them to inform the king that Yahweh will ensure that all the curses in the law befall Judah because of its sin, but that due to his repentant attitude, Josiah will not live to see the disaster [2] (2 Kgs 22.14-20).   Josiah then conducts a public reading of the Scroll of the Covenant in the Temple courts ...

       “The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah…   to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.” (Jer. 1.1-2).   Since the division of the United Kingdom around 930 B.C., the northern kingdom of Israel did not have a single king who honoured the covenant with Yahweh.   Judah could boast a few righteous kings, but for the most part, its monarchs were no better than their counterparts to the North.   Jeremiah’s lifetime coincided with that of both the worst and the best king Judah had ever seen (Manasseh and Josiah, respectively).   Jeremiah was born near the end of the reign of Manasseh (cf. 2 Kgs 21; Jer. 15.4), the son of Hezekiah, whose reign had been marked by the three Assyrian invasions of the Levant which resulted in the destruction/exile of the kingdom of Israel in the year 722 and the invasion of Judah/siege of Jerusalem in 701 (cf. 2 Kgs 18-19).   ...

       “The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin” (Jer. 1.1).   Jeremiah’s personal background and his prophetic vocation involved him in the liturgical and political life of the people of God – i.e., he was intimately acquainted with the Temple, the priesthood, the city of Jerusalem, and the kings of Judah.   Israel’s priesthood traced its origins to the appointment of Aaron by his brother Moses as the first High Priest (Ex. 28).   All priests were descendants of Aaron.   Once Jerusalem had been captured by King David (2 Sam. 5) and the Temple had been constructed by Solomon (1 Kings 5-8), priestly families settled in and around Jerusalem (Anathoth was located a few miles north of the capital), and fulfilled their duties in the Temple based on a rotating schedule. [1]   Interestingly, one of Jeremiah’s ancestors, Abiathar, was banished to Anathoth by King Solomon, due to his having bac...