The way of imagination

       After an extended period of prophesying while people plotted to take his life (cf. 11.18-23; 18.23) and publicly threatened and shamed him (20.1-2), Jeremiah now utters the last and darkest of his prayers of lament.      Jer. 20.13 is a bit of a mystery; it seems out of place.   But actually, it fits with vv. 7-12, completing the common 4-step method of prayer in ancient Israel: complaint/trust/petition/praise.   Jeremiah cannot find satisfaction in the public arena, nor in social relations.   He is finally driven to face the theological reality of his life and vocation.   He is driven to God as his “only source of comfort and strength”.   In the face of God, he is made aware of the deep, inescapable problematic of his life.   Finally, the move from complaint to praise is the only form of “prevailing” that is available to Jeremiah – and to Israel. [1] Structure of Jeremiah’s 6 th lament (20.7-13): -Compl...

       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 ...