Practice what You Preach

Practice What You Preach

Jeremiah Chapters 11-15

A Disaster They Cannot Escape

With Chapter 11, two changes take place in the tone and content of the book of Jeremiah. First, the book begins to be more about the actions of Jeremiah than only about the word of God through Jeremiah. Second, there is no longer any pretense over the finality of Judah’s situation. The chapter ends (in verses 18-23) with a reference to those who apposed Jeremiah, perhaps because he supported Josiah’s reformation, which would have forsaken the remote alters and returned all worship to Jerusalem.

This personal note aside, the major portion of the chapter is about the fate of the nation of Judah. In the initial verses, the Lord reminds the nation of the terms of their covenant, which they have broken. In verses 9-17, the Lord says that, as a result, the nation will suffer “a disaster they cannot escape.” What is this disaster? Certainly the word of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah predicts the fall of Judah, but another disaster is foretold here. “Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.”

How can it come to this, that the Lord will not answer the people? In the following verse, the Lord says that the people continue to pray to their idols, and in verse 15 asks “What is my beloved doing in my temple as she works out her evil schemes with many?” Throughout the book of Jeremiah, the Lord calls the people to true repentance, and refuses to accept mere acts of worship. Though we do not think of ourselves as pagans, or as committing acts of ritual idol worship, we would do well to remember how the people of Israel and Judah came to follow these gods.

The people had been wanderers, and had settled in the land. Though God had instructed them to remain separate, they began to intermingle with the indigenous peoples and to learn their ways. The indigenous people depended on idols as a part of their daily life, and the Israelites began to do so as well. In addition to the simple fact that the Lord had expressly forbidden it, their idol worship was wrong in two ways. First, to some degree or another, the people replaced their trust in God with their trust in idols, which could do nothing for them. Second, they began to treat God like an idol, only asking for what they wanted when they wanted it. The net affect was to destroy the covenant relationship that God continually seeks to establish with his people.

The words “pagan” and “heathen” are unfortunate because of their socially derogative origins, but we have no other words to describe those things with, as we may think, have nothing to do with God. We have those things in our lives, and they may not seem like idol worship, any more than the bits of wood and stone may have seemed of any great importance to the Israelites. After all, what can bits of wood and stone do to God? They can do nothing to God, of course, but the smallest things can wield great power over men. Wood and stone make good tools, and there are many things of value that are outside the church, but we should never make the mistake of thinking that there are things that have nothing to do with God, or areas of our lives in which we can rely on sources other than God.

The Way of the Wicked

In Chapter 12, Jeremiah asks what might be the second-most often asked question, if we generalize a bit. After “Why me?” the next question is “Why not him?” The entire book of Job, of course, struggles with the question of why a righteous person should suffer, the disciples whose guilt caused a man to be born blind (John 9:1-3), and many of the Psalms ask why the righteous suffer or why the wicked prosper, or both. And it is an appropriate question to ask in the setting of Jeremiah. The change of voice in Jeremiah is quick and subtle, so it is not always clear who is speaking for whom. In verses 1-5, for example, it is not clear whether Jeremiah is speaking to the Lord on his own behalf, and “the wicked” are the false prophets who work against him, or if Jeremiah is speaking on behalf of the people, asking why the neighboring nations should prosper at their expense. The final verses of the chapter would seem to indicate the latter, and we will discuss them in a moment.

On the face of it, Jeremiah’s question seems legitimate: how could the Lord reward the enemies of Israel, who did not even know God, as punishment for those who knew, but were unfaithful. God answers this question in two ways. The first, in verse 5, is with another question. Essentially, God says if you are struggling now, how will you fare when things get bad? Now, this is certainly prophecy that things will get worse, but it is more. If we cannot answer the question, then we are missing something.

There is no question, from the witness of Jeremiah and several other books of the Old Testament, that the fall of Judah was a result of the actions of the people. If I were to fall and break my leg, it would be because of the way the world is made and, of course, God made the world, but we would not say that it was because of the Lord’s anger. If, on the other hand, I cut myself off from God’s love, it feels like fierce anger, just as the absence of heat feels like fierce cold. God tells Jeremiah that his thinking is wrong. It is not right to compare ourselves to others, or to their apparent success in this world, but to rely on God. And if we fail to do that when times are good, how will we fare when times are hard?

In verses 14-17, the Lord returns to the original question, and address the “wicked neighbors” in a way must have been shocking to all who heard it. The people had been offered a covenant relationship with the Lord and had come to believe that they were a special people. The Lord, however makes that same offer to everyone, and it is that relationship that is special, not any one nation or group of people. We, too, must be careful never to try to limit God, not in the kind of people God would redeem, or in the way in which God would redeem them.

The Linen Waistcloth

Chapter 13 has, in verses 1-11, a story of Jeremiah acting out prophecy. There are some problems with the translation. It begins with the Lord telling Jeremiah to buy a new piece of clothing, but we are not exactly certain what that piece of clothing is. The KJV says “girdle” (though we should not think of that in the modern sense) the NKJV says “sash”, the NASB says “waistband”, the RSV says “waistcloth”, and the NIV says “belt”. Whatever it was, the context would indicate that it was worn next to the skin, as the Lord instructs Jeremiah to wear it for some time without washing it. After that, the Lord instructs Jeremiah to take it somewhere and hide it for sometime. Exactly where is also in question. Most translations say “Euphrates”, but that would be about 350 miles from where Jeremiah was. The NIV and a few other translations say “Perath” (or some variant thereof) which was a small village near Anathoth.

So, what does it all mean? After being worn for some time without being cleaned, and then hidden in a crevice, the linen belt was useless. The Lord used it as a double symbol. The people, who had sought after other gods, had become useless because their gods were useless, and the One True God would have bound his people close to him, but they would not listen.

Drought

In Chapter 14, the word of the Lord comes concerning a drought. The drought may be real or metaphorical, but certainly, when, in verses 1-10 the Lord says “they go to the cisterns, but find no water”, this is evocative of 2:13, where the Lord says that the people have abandoned the living water, and have built for themselves broken cisterns. Whether or not there is an actual drought, the Lord speaks of a spiritual drought, which has the people asking the Lord, “Why are you like a stranger in the land?” In verse 10 the Lord answers that it the people love to wander with other gods and the Lord will not accept them.

There is a theology of “The Long Dark Night of the Soul” that says the Lord is sometimes quiet and does not answer us. I do not profess to be a theologian, and I am not the Bible scholar I should be, but I cannot accept this idea. The witness I find in the Bible is of a God who always is available, always reaches out to us. When the relationship is broken, it is because we have broken it.

Practice what You Preach

Having already asked, “Why not him?” in Chapter 15, Jeremiah now asks, “Why me?” The setting of this chapter is not clear. There are indications that it refers to the exile period, but this is not certain. In verses 15-20, when Jeremiah speaks of his prosecutors, he may be speaking of the other prophets who continually troubled him. Whatever the cause, his prayer is certainly familiar to me: “Oh Lord, why is this happening to me? I’ve done nothing bad, and I’ve done everything good.”

But, the Lord and Jeremiah have differing views on Jeremiah’s performance. Jeremiah says he has done everything right, but God says Jeremiah needs to repent. There are many word plays with “turn” throughout Jeremiah that are mostly lost in translation. Here it is used to give us an idea of what has been going on, as God says that the people should turn to Jeremiah, not the other way around.

I have been like that – so sure I know what is right, so sure I know what God wants, especially for other people. Sometimes, I need to stop and check with God.