Chapter 52 - Jeremiah an Ending

The final chapter of the book of Jeremiah is a recounting. It is a recounting of destruction. It is a kind of parallel to chapter 39. Why recount such destruction and terror? 
There is something in the naming of devastation. “Here.” “This is what happened. This terrible thing has happened, and now those of us who remain, live on the other side of the loss which would have been unspeakable, except that it happened, so it must be spoken.” 

Jeremiah ends and Lamentations begins. Lamentations is a structured cry, a prayer. There are five chapters in Lamentations. Chapters 1 and 2 and 4 and 5 each contain 22 verses. This corresponds to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3 contains 66 verses, the structure being AAA, BBB, CCC, etc.. The middle chapter, the centre of the lament has in its centre verses we have heard before. These verses exist as a tether to the other words of the book which are words naming destruction and directing mourning and grief. The middle of the lament is a reminder of God’s love; 

They are easily the most memorable words that Jeremiah ever wrote; 

“Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; 

his mercies never come to an end; 
they are new every morning great is your faithfulness, 
‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul, 
therefore I will hope in him.” 

Now, in the life of Jeremiah, in the history of Jerusalem, in the completion of the book, we are in the aftermath. 
Now, in the history of our world, in much of our lives, we are entering the aftermath. The aftermath surveys the damage and destruction. It is preamble to new life. 

And this we call to mind and therefore we have hope; 

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases …” 

Jeremiah – A Community of “Not Listening”

The chapters towards the end of the book of Jeremiah have a feeling of futility to them. The people and the leaders have not listened, and they will not listen. 
Their “not listening” is marked by a refusal to consider what God has for them. They choose instead of exile to Babylon, a supposed and hoped for refuge in Egypt.  
We make this error over and over again in faith. We think that God must want for us what we want for ourselves. I can picture (and there were such voices) people who called themselves faithful saying, “Don’t listen to Jeremiah. If you just believe that God will bless you, you will be blessed in Egypt.” The people could not consider that God might want for them what they did not want for themselves. 
I remember reading once that true faith does not pray, “if it be Your will.” Of course, this is crap. The ignorant statement was made by a prosperity gospel leader (by many such leaders) saying that if you say “if it be your will” then you don’t truly believe. 
It’s the giveaway. Such ignorance is not faith at all, but a kind of transaction. It is not walking humbly with God, it is demanding, childish and utterly self-centred.  

I may well pray, “How could you want exile for me, dear God?” I may well pray, “I hate what is happening even as I trust in you.” Jesus prays in the garden, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will, but thy will be done.” Jesus would be a terrible follower of prosperity gospel. He never would have gone to the cross if he listened to any of these hucksters. They’d congratulate him for avoiding the cross and tell him that he could be blessed with riches if only he would believe.  

Thank God that he didn’t.  And we ought not to either. 

Amen. 

Jeremiah Towards the End

Inserted below is a portion of a column in the NYT after the Democratic National Convention. It has to do with a speech of Barack Obama during the convention. I thought, given our time this summer in the book of Jeremiah, that it was interesting to note that when more than one political commentator heard the speech, they thought of Jeremiah. 
Note the word “jeremiad”. This has become a term used even to this day to describe a speech of warning.  
We are at a turning in the book again. Jerusalem has been virtually destroyed. Most of the people of Judah have been taken into exile in Babylon. Some, defying Jeremiah’s warnings, have fled to Egypt still hoping for some military defeat of Nebuchadnezzar.  
This would be a good time to read the book of Lamentations. These are the words that Jeremiah wrote at the fall of the city. The words have been taken up again through history in times of war and in times of disaster. “How deserted lies the city!” said Jeremiah, “My city of ruins”, sung Bruce Springsteen after 9/11 in NYC. 
Things do come apart. Empires collapse. Nations fall, even our own eventually. May we know what it means, even now, particularly now, to “trust not in princes”. May out trust be in the love of Jesus Christ himself who is before all history and in whom all things hold together. AMEN. 

(We’ll skip now towards the end of the book for final reflections this week. If you are reading through, note the happenings as Jeremiah is taken to Egypt. Note what he says about those who have gone to Egypt instead of into exile. Note God’s sovereignty over all the nations, even Babylon.) 

From the NYT Column: 

On Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020, standing in front of an exhibition about the Constitution in Philadelphia, Barack Obama fully became an American Jeremiah. 

Unlike that Hebrew prophet, Mr. Obama did not shatter the earth, nor predict the destruction of all our temples, nor see our Jerusalem quite yet in its deserved ruin. He did not tell us that collectively our “clothing is stained with the blood of the innocent and the poor,” as Jeremiah did. But he came close, even as he delivered a moving reassertion of American “ideals” and “creeds.” 

Such is the purpose of the tradition of the “jeremiad,” in substance and style a rhetorical method born of Puritan sermons in the 17th and 18th centuries, and perfected by America’s greatest writers and some of its politicians in the 19th century. 

Chapter 39

In Jeremiah 39 prophecy and history converge. It is a devastating, clinical account of the end of the “reign” of the last king of Judah. We are told the day, the number of years into the reign, the month. We are told which of the Babylonian military leaders are present. We are told that the city is taken over and that king Zedekiah flees but is captured. The brutality is terrible. Zedekiah is chained. His sons are brought before him and killed by the Babylonians. Then Zedekiah’s eyes are gouged out so that the last thing he sees is the murder of his sons. The Babylonians (like all nations held up by violence) practice a military, terrorizing violence. There is this note in the chapter. After we hear that the people of the land are taken into exile, we are told that a few remain. Some of the poor people just stay and Nebuchadnezzar grants them land. We are told that previously these people owned nothing at all.  

The second half of the chapter tells us what happens to Jeremiah in the midst of all of this. He is taken by Babylonians, but Nebuchadnezzar gives instructions that Jeremiah be looked after well. He is not to be harmed. 
What are we to do with the word of the Lord? Jeremiah who has spoken God’s warning over the city for so many years is not living the days of the destruction. He has been beaten and left for dead by his own people and now he is held in safety by a brutal, relentless military nation. In some ways he has given his life for his people who have not heard or listened. Again, in the midst of all of this, (vs. 15) “The word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah …" 
God says that the destruction of the city will be accomplished, but that Jeremiah himself will be saved. Then God says something that sounds to me like life itself, like breath. Jeremiah is utterly undone. We know what he is feeling because he writes the book of Lamentations in the midst of all of this. He is utterly undone. And God says, “I know that you have put your trust in me.” 

Dear God; 
History itself can spin like a hurricane. We can sometimes barely keep track of the turnings of our own lives let alone the events of the world around. But I long to hear, as life itself, that I have put my trust in you.

Chapter 38 – And Jeremiah Sank in the Mud

We have reached the shadow of the utter conquest of the city. There is no bread left in the city.
Jeremiah is still speaking the word of God which is word of warning and judgment. Zedekiah does not want to hear such a word. Those who are tired of hearing of Jeremiah look for a way to silence him. The struggle against Jeremiah reaches a peak here. Jeremiah is thrown into a pit, a cistern. The desolation of the city is further demonstrated by the description, “There was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.” 
An Ethiopian eunuch, a worker in the house of the king hears about Jeremiah’s fate and works to save him. Rags and worn-out clothes (all that remains in the desolation) are taken and lowered to Jeremiah. He is pulled out of the cistern. Zedekiah sends for him again hoping to hear now a good and positive word from the prophet. Jeremiah speaks truth instead. Destruction is imminent. Jeremiah remains captive in the court of the guard until the destruction of the city. 

The next chapter contains the story of the fall. 

Chapter 37 – Prison Again

Zedekiah had been made “king” in the land by the Babylonian occupiers, by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah had spoken words of warning to Zedekiah and other leaders of Judah and they had not listened. Now Judah was being defeated by Babylon. Jeremiah was among those remaining and as he set to go to his own land he was arrested and imprisoned and beaten. He was accused of desertion to the Babylonian side. Jeremiah spent days in the “dungeon cells” before Zedekiah sent for him. Jeremiah pleaded before Zedekiah pointing out that he well could have told lies, things that would be easier for Zedekiah to hear, but he had only spoken the truth. 
We can imagine a leader who would choose to hear comforting lies rather than difficult truth. Such blindness could negatively impact an entire nation. 
After Jeremiah’s appeal Zedekiah kept him in captivity, but in the temple guard rather than the dungeon cells. 

Dear God; 
I know what it means to seek after comforting lies rather than troubling truth. Help me to see that knowing you and your presence is life, even when that truth is devastating to all that I have held as central to my comfort. 

Amen 

Chapter 36 – Take Another Scroll

God’s word comes to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is to write down all that God has said to him in the years of his hearing. Jeremiah calls his secretary administrator. Baruch takes dictation from Jeremiah. Jeremiah tells Baruch to go and speak the words at the temple. Jeremiah is banned from the temple. Baruch does as Jeremiah says. The people who hear the words take then to heart. Perhaps the nation will relent and change their ways. The officials hear the words. Eventually the scroll is read before the king and the king does not take the words to heart. He burns them. God says to Jeremiah; “Take another scroll …" 

Chapter 35 – The Rechabites

This is something of an interlude chapter. God calls Jeremiah and tells him to invite some people over and to have some wine ready for them. The people (the Rechabites) come over, but they refuse the wine. They don’t feel right about drinking when things are so rough and besides that, they have been instructed by leaders not to drink. It’s not a chapter so much about drinking or not drinking. 
Rather, God lets Jeremiah see that there are still some people left who get it. There are still some people left who seek guidance and who determine to listen. 
There is a great little line in here as well. The Rechabites say that their listening and decision making is so that they will live many days “in the land of our sojourn”.  
That’s a beautiful description. 
There is something tangible and physical in it, but something spiritual as well. 
“The land of our sojourn”. 

Amen. 

Chapter 34 – Liberty

Chapter 34 starts amidst the tumult of war. Babylon, led by King Nebuchadnezzar is laying siege to the city and Zedekiah, king in Judah, is resisting, trying to stand up against Babylon. The word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is told to tell Zedekiah that Judah will be defeated and Zedekiah himself will be taken captive, but that he will not die by the sword, but rather in peace. As events are cascading there must be the sense that nothing is certain, that everything may be coming apart. There is also possibly the assumption that if God is present, there will be victory. Then comes the word of the Lord, “You will be defeated. And I am with you.” 

The remainder of the chapter is a reminder that God frees the oppressed and the enslaved. His judgment is upon the people, because, although they are descendant from slaves, they have come to enslave people themselves. God will not abide this. Then or now, or ever, God will not abide this. 

Chapter 33 - The Promise of Peace

Chapter 33 opens with Jeremiah hearing the word of God again. He heard God’s word while he was “shut up in the court of the guard”.
God is always doing something bigger than the work of one life. Faith can become very self-centred, perhaps particularly in the culture in which we live. We can measure the presence of God by how we are feeling or how things are working out for us. In this chapter there are great promises of peace and blessing, but Jeremiah’s particular circumstance is anything but enviable. Would it be okay with you to say that God is good even if you are not feeling good? Such consideration calls for maturity.  
If we can grow up, we can hear the words of God; words as in this chapter. This chapter describes the eternal covenant, the renewed covenant of God and people. God himself will remove the iniquity of the people. 

The language is beautiful – God says that the covenant between himself and people is as certain as God’s covenant between himself and the day, between himself and the night. 

Did the night become day again? That is to be a reminder of God’s faithfulness. Even if you are shut up in the court of the guard. 

Dear God; 
Give me eyes to see. Grant that I would grow up and know what it means to see past myself and my needs and my feelings to your goodness all around. It was a beautiful morning this morning. And you are good. 
Amen. 

Chapter 32 – Jeremiah Buys a Field

This lengthy chapter offers something of a summary of the book. Jeremiah is again in prison for speaking words that the leadership finds upsetting. He again explains what he has heard from God. The object lesson of the purchasing of land is set out to demonstrate that land will again be bought and sold in the region, even though it is now being devastated. Again, we have a prayer of Jeremiah and again we have a lengthy word from God. 
This chapter exists within a section of the book that is often called the “Book of Comfort”. God is going ahead of the people and he promises a new heart, one heart. 
Restoration will come. 

Chapter 31 – Their Life Shall be a Well Watered Garden

This book is about exile and homecoming. We are well over halfway through now and the sounds have changed. So much of the first half of the book is marked by warning and judgment and sorrow and pain and loss. There is devastation that the people could scarcely have imagined.  
The book, in the end though, is about renewal that is in God. The language of judgment and terror is a way of showing us that God takes up all of the darkness in the world, all of it. Now, we begin to see the light in God that overcomes the darkness. There will be redemption and renewal. That redemption and renewal will be in and by the character of God.  
Here, in chapter 31 listen to these words and ask the Holy Spirit to bring to life the images, feelings, and emotion. Hear in these words the promise of life. 

“I will be their God and they will be my people.” 
“I will build you up and you shall be built.” 
“You will go forth in the dance of merrymakers.”
“A great company shall return; the blind, the lame, the pregnant woman, she who is in labour, those from the farthest parts of the earth.” 
“I will make you walk by brooks of water, in a straight path by which you will not stumble.” 
“You shall come back and sing aloud.” 
“They shall be radiant with the goodness of the Lord.” 
“Young women will rejoice in dance. Young men and old shall be merry.” 
“I will turn their mourning into joy. I will give them gladness in exchange for their sorrow.” 
“There is hope in your future.”  

Then, Jeremiah 31:31 speaks of a new covenant. We see the glory of Jesus Christ the One who renews all things.   

“I will be their God and they will be my people.” 
“No longer will each one teach his neighbour saying, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me.” 
“I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.”  

There is this beautiful little verse in the midst of this. As the chapter turns from words of comfort and promise to talk of a new and eternal covenant. It is always particular for Jeremiah. He is embodying this.  You may have experienced things like this, when you have been weary, tired, maybe anxious, maybe depressed, sleepless or too much sleep but little rest. Here is Jeremiah upon hearing this word of God’s promise; 

“At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.”  

Dear God; 
I pray for those who have not felt sleep that has been pleasant. Now, in the midst of uncertainty, may they know a rest of body and spirit that is pleasant and good because by your Spirit they have known your promise. Even now. I heard some words in an old Counting Crows song, the lyric is “Things are getting worse, but I feel a lot better and that’s all that really matters to me.” 
Could it be that even before we are through the worst of things in our lives or in the world, or due to our own mistakes that we hear your word of promise? I pray that we would. And I pray for those sleepless ones, for rest. 
Amen 

Chapter 30 – Restoration

Jeremiah is a book about exile and homecoming, about destruction and restoration. In God there is redemption and renewal. 
Jeremiah has been body weary and undone. His bones have been like fire with the word of God that has felt to him like a burden. Now God calls again and says this new thing; “Write this in a book. Write down these words that I am speaking to you. The days are coming when I will restore the fortunes of my people and I will bring them back to the land. Fear not for I will save you from far away. I am with you to save you. Your offspring shall have quiet and ease.” 
God speaks as well of the guilt and pain of the people. Their sins are real. But God says also that they will be restored to health, by God’s doing.  

It’s such a beautiful line; “Fear not for I will save you from far away.” 

Dear God; 
Let me hear this over the land, over people who live in fear, over even my own sinfulness. In you is restoration and salvation and the hope of all the world. 
Amen 

Chapter 29 - “I Know the Plans I Have For You”

So we get to Jeremiah chapter 29. We arrive at one of the most poorly quoted verses in all the Bible. There are not very many people who have very many verses from the book of Jeremiah memorized. There are quite a few people who have one verse from Jeremiah memorized. People have written it in graduation cards. People have used it to tell themselves that things will be just fine and that next year is going to be a great year. People have used Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11 more like a note in a fortune cookie than a verse from the Bible. 
The verse (and remember that originally there were no verses at all in scripture, we added them for memory and study sake) is within a letter sent to the exiles in Babylon. The most heartening part of the letter is the section in verses 6 and 7. God tells the people in exile to settle in, to work for the good of the city, even the city to which they are exiled. God tells the people to plant gardens, to marry and to have children. In other words, God says, you are going to be exiled for quite a while, even for generations. 
Then 29:11 - “For I know the plans I have for you ..”  
You might know the rest – plans to prosper you, to give you hope and a future. 

Read Jeremiah 29:10 first: this exile is going to be 70 years. In other words, a lifetime. 
Jeremiah 29:11 is not a verse to apply to individuals as if what it is saying is that God is going to grant you success in whatever you set your heart to.  
The people's hearts in exile were set to get back to their home. They would not do this. They would die in exile.  

The bigger truth, however, is that God was with them, even in exile, even in pain and disappointment. If you want to properly quote 29:11 do so by saying that even when things happen to us that we would never choose, even when we fall victim to our own sin and self-focus, even when we lose what we took for granted; even then – God is with us. 
It is true that the people of God will return, but the ones who went into exile will die in exile. It will be mostly 2 generations later that will return again to the promised land. These will be people who have never lived there before. 

Dear God: 
Always, always help me to see that the world is bigger than me or my fears or my comforts. Help me to know that your goodness is greater than my lifetime. If I measure your goodness only by the span of my life I will fail to see what true redemption is. Give me eyes to see. 
Amen. 

Chapter 28 – Prophetic Showdown

Much of the nation has been exiled. Babylon has taken over. However, Nebuchadnezzar has allowed a kind of pretend government to remain. 
Jeremiah is still in the land as well and in this chapter we witness something of a showdown between prophets. 
Hananiah is a prophet who speaks for the people and leaders remaining in the land. He and the leaders continue to treat Jeremiah as if his words are the danger and not the actual events of destruction and exile. 
Hananiah “prophesies” that things are going to turn around pretty quick. The exiled leaders will come back, Babylon will exit the land and things will get back to normal. Jeremiah, who has a yoke upon his shoulders and neck as punishment from the leaders for speaking out, sarcastically agrees.  
“Oh sure. That’s right. Things’ll be back to normal pretty soon.” 
Hananiah doesn’t seem to get the sarcasm. He applauds Jeremiah and removes the yoke. Not long after Jeremiah speaks to Hananiah saying that “the Lord has not sent you”. Jeremiah says that there will be no quick return, no back to normal. As for Hananiah, he will die. Which, soon after, he does. 

Dear God; 
What are the ways in which we kid ourselves about things getting “back to normal”? What needs to be broken? What does it mean for me to humble myself before you and offer up my life?

Chapters 26 and 27

Power that is working to protect itself will often move to threaten and even take the lives of those who question or criticize that power and how it is exercised. 
Jeremiah had been prophesying for decades that the political and religious power in the land enriched those who held it and oppressed those who did not. Now, once again, Jeremiah’s very life is threatened. However, Jeremiah does not relent. He continues to speak the word from God. In verse 11 of chapter 26 we hear the words of power that is propped up by fear, denial and the criminalizing of anyone who would speak against corruption. Some among the leadership say that Jeremiah must be put to death. In other words, though the state, the nation practices violence and injustice, the leaders speak as if Jeremiah is the threat. 
This is still the way of power that is more about pretense then it is about true leadership. Vladimir Putin is a thug whose power depends on squelching all dissent. Some politicians in the United States, though the nation was born in protest, speak as if the people to fear are the ones who speak up, even when they speak up while dedicated to non-violence. In this passage of scripture, there are some leaders who stand up for Jeremiah and his right to speak and even for his faith. He is not killed. However, we see once again, that the struggle for justice, for true peace, for the way of God, often finds impact on the bodies of those who call for justice and for peace. 

The funeral of American civil rights leader John Lewis took place this week. Lewis, at 25 years of age in 1965, led a peaceful march across in which he was beaten by police. Lewis would continue, for the rest of his life, to fight for justice. Listen to what Lewis had to say about battling injustice. See how he was willing to stand against those in power. I prayed prayers of gratitude this week for John Lewis. He shows us a better way.  
I think that he may have had a fire in his bones. 

Chapter 25 – 70 Years of Exile

One of the most striking parts of this chapter is God telling the people through Jeremiah that “the voice of mirth and gladness” shall be banished from the land. It might be that it is easier for us to picture this now. I watched some of a hockey game last night in which there were no fans, just fake fan noise, a pretend mirth and gladness. 
The exile will last for 7 decades. 

The second half of this chapter introduces a major theme in the book of Jeremiah; the cup of the Lord’s wrath. It is a cup of judgment and destruction that God says the nations will be made to drink. It is a cup of death. A more complete, vivid and emotional understanding of Jesus’ words, “let not this cup pass from me” prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane is possible when you know the cup that Jesus drank was as this cup described in Jeremiah 25. 

Chapter 24 - Jeremiah is Weary

He has been speaking God’s word to the people for over two decades and events have taken place as that word had said they would. Babylon has taken over. The exile has begun. Now God gives Jeremiah a simple picture; good figs and bad figs. 
The good figs are the people of Judah exiled to Babylon. The bad figs are those who have remained and tried to deny the reality of what is happening. 
God’s promises again echo in this chapter. He will set his eyes on his people. He will build them up. He will plant and he will give them a heart to know him. 
As I read this chapter I see the grace of God in speaking to a weary Jeremiah. 
He is separating produce and in doing so he hears God’s word. It is a reminder that God is with him, even in his weariness, even in exile. 

Dear God; 
We long to know that you are with us even in our pain, particularly in our pain. Give us courage to resist the lies that the evidence that you are with us is that we are comfortable. Help us to see that we know your presence by your Spirit. 
Amen 

Chapter 23 – Promise of Better Days

This chapter is one where the strains of homecoming begin to emerge. 
The opening section of the chapter are words to the people that describe God’s goodness in gathering the nation after exile. God speaks of appointing new shepherds who will care for the people. God promises that there will not be fear or dismay and people shall not be left out or left behind. These first 8 verses have what is referred to as an “eschatological” character to them. They speak of one day, when things will be better and restored and redeemed. 
The eschatological promises are connected with the particular time and experience of the people. God says that the people will not only refer to the exodus from Egypt when they speak of exile and return. They will know the reality of return in their own lives. Jeremiah is about homecoming as well as exile. Exile will not have the last say. 

Then we get another prayer, another lament from Jeremiah. There is much in this prayer, but one line stands out in angst and power,  
“My heart is broken within me; all my bones shake.” 

Dear God; 
Let me see your character in this book. I have seen idolatry and injustice, both in this book and in my own life and actions. Let me see that redemption exists not in my achievement, but in your compassion. And for Jeremiah, I close my eyes and consider what this means that he has reached such a point where his emotional and spiritual pain is such that “all of his bones shake”. 
Help me to see also that the end of all things is in redemption in Jesus Christ. 
“Come Lord Jesus”. Amen. 

Chapter 22 – Injustice

Chapter 22 is a lengthy indictment against the injustice being practiced in the nation of Judah. Jeremiah is to speak with, to prophesy to, the king. 
Verses 13 through 17 are a poetic expression of this prophetic utterance. 
The poem is like a walk through a lovely house. God is walking through the house of the king, and the houses of the rich in the land declaring words of judgment: 

“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbour serve him for nothing, and does not give him his wages.” 
“Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar?” 
“You have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence.” 
It’s a way of saying that God is not impressed by the nice things, the beautiful decorations. If they display who the homeowner is, they display negatively, not positively. 

Once again, the victims of the injustice in the land are listed as, “the refugee, the fatherless and the widow”. 

For this injustice the leaders and guilty people of the nation will be “hurled into another country” where they will die.