Chapter 8 - The Summer is Ended, and We are Not Saved
“My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me.”
“They don’t know their times”, “They say that they are wise and that the way of God is within them, but their scribes use pens that lie”, “They turn to their own course like a horse stupidly going towards the battle”.
Such are the ways of the people.
And Jeremiah, speaking the word God has given says describes their fate;
“They shall fall among the fallen.”
The people themselves seem to finally be hearing at least a note of the warning and they themselves say that they are doomed to perish. Jeremiah says that it will be as if God has sent serpents and adders that cannot be charmed.
Then, now fully eight chapters in, we see Jeremiah lamenting under the weight of the word and of the pain of his people.
“My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me.”
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved.”
“For the wound of my people is my heart wounded.”
“I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.”
We will see, in this book, that the word of the Lord is conveyed by Jeremiah not even most strongly in words, but in his mourning and in his pain. Jeremiah is a mediator, standing between the holiness of God and the failure of the people. Jeremiah shows us that it is in fact God’s heart that breaks. Jeremiah, in this, prefigures Jesus Christ.
Dear God; The words of Jeremiah in sorrow for the people are almost too much to take. But I hear them over the world still. Even in this pandemic time. We so often think that nothing bad will happen to us, not in our time. We think that whatever pain we might encounter will be quickly gone. I hear Jeremiah’s words, “the harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved”. A few weeks becomes five months, seasons change and we still are not assured that everything is okay. I ask you, Heavenly Father, to show me that your heart breaks over our sin. We treat each other so callously. We fail to see the humanity in other people, particularly people who are different than us. Grant that I would hear Jesus himself weeping over the city and over the world. Let me know the hope that is in Christ. Amen.
As side note, a comment on the text, notice the powerful poetry of the book.
In Jeremiah’s lament there are poetic devices that emphasize the sorrow.
Verses 18 and 20, holding the lament together both have a three part structure (joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me) and (harvest past, summer ended, we are not saved). The language, though utterly sorrowful, has a tempo to it that helps us to see it and feel it.
