Chapter 21 – What if God is on Their Side?

Jeremiah 21 brings a chilling turn. The people who are facing disaster go to Jeremiah and ask him to enquire of the Lord. These are some of the same people who had wished Jeremiah dead and thrown him into a pit. There is an army approaching and the leaders fear that they will be unable to stand. The army is that of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is uniformly feared. He is the king of Babylon which has become the military and political powerhouse in the world. Babylon, lead by their king is swallowing up land and Judah (the land of Jeremiah) is facing calamity. 
The leaders ask Jeremiah to enquire of God and as they do they offer a possibility; “Maybe God will show how wonderful and loving he is to us. Maybe God will turn back Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.” 

The chilling turn is that God, through Jeremiah, says that not only will Nebuchadnezzar not turn back, but God himself will be among the destroying armies. He says this, “I myself will fight against you .. in anger and in fury.” God goes on to say that the people will be carried off into exile and that those who remain will be killed in the battle or will die of pestilence. It’s not a lovely uplifting passage. 

Why this terror? 
Later in the chapter we see that the people have not executed justice. This is the crime of injustice towards the outsider and the poor that has been noted so often in this book.  

The leaders of the nation have oppressed and maligned and blamed and hurt the poor and the needy. While they have done this they have claimed to be particularly close to God. 
They are now about to see God, who they had invoked in their injustice, on the side of their destroyers. 

Dear God; 
In your mercy help me to see where I make such terrible assumptions. I can assume that you would protect my way of life, my comfort all while some of the ways in which I live contribute to injustice in the world. Open my eyes to the humanity of all people, including those who are so easily forgotten and dehumanized. 
And Dear God, allow me to see where leaders, even Christian leaders, particularly Christian leaders, have come to protect a way of life, have come to line their own pockets, have come to deceive others into thinking that the people to be feared are those without power, the poor, the racialized, the forgotten and broken. It’s an imaginative exercise; you were on the side of the destroyers in the time of Jeremiah. If you fought alongside Nebuchadnezzar, who was a destroyer of nations, perhaps I can see you among people much more loving and peaceful than the Babylonian king. Perhaps I see your outstreteched arm among protestors who would tear the whole system down. 
Give me eyes to see. 
Amen.