Who Can Come Against Us?

Who Can Come Against Us?

Jeremiah Chapters 21-28

The Way of Life and Death

Chapters 21-28 of Jeremiah show a continuing confrontation between the will of the people and the will of the Lord. Early chapters stressed the loving nature of the Lord, and voice the Lord’s earnest desire that the people repent and return to their covenant relationship with the Lord. But the love of God is not mere sentimentality, and in these chapters the word from the Lord is that the behavior of the people is completely unacceptable. There is still a word of hope, however. In Jeremiah, judgment is never separate from love.

Chapter 21 tells the story of King Zedekiah’s request of God in response to a Babylonian attack. As recorded in verses 1-2, the king sent word to Jeremiah that he request the Lord to perform some wondrous work to save them from the oncoming invasion. This was not the Lord’s will however, and the Lord’s response is summarized in verses 8-9, where the Lord tells the people they may either surrender to the Babylonians and live, or stay in the city and die. As the Lord says “I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.” This was quite literally and immediately true for the people of Judah, but is always true that when we choose between the will of God and our own plans, we are choosing between the ways of life and death.

More and More Cedar

Chapter 22 is a judgment against many of the kings of Judah who reigned during Jeremiah’s service as a prophet. In the beginning verses, the kings are not named, and the judgment is general, but as the chapter progresses, the kings Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin are named as corrupt and unfit kings. This progression is intended for dramatic effect to get the attention of Jehoiachin, the current king, but the words of condemnation against Shallum are worth consideration today.

In verses 13-17, the Lord declares judgment upon those who build themselves up materially at the expense of others. Our society is so focused on getting ahead that we may have lost sight of what it means to have enough. All this affluence must come at someone else’s expense, whether we intend it to or not. The Lord says that this accumulation of wealth does not make anything of us, and to defend the cause of the poor and needy is to know the Lord.

A God Near and Far

In Chapter 23 attention turns from the kings who were misleading the people to false prophets, who were telling the people what the wanted to hear. Specifically, these prophets were telling the people that they would have peace, and that no harm would come to them. The Lord responds in several ways, but in verses 23-24 asks a series of questions beginning with “Am I only a God nearby… and not a God far away?” These lying prophets had made an age old mistake – one that is repeated to this day: they had tried to make God too small. God is at hand. We can turn to God and God will make everything right. We can know God through trust. On the other hand, we cannot know God intellectually, and we certainly cannot control God. God is God, or as God says “I am who I am” (Exodus 3: 14).

Captivity, Hope, and Judgment

Chapter 24 records another of Jeremiah’s epiphanies associated with everyday objects. In this case, Jeremiah sees two baskets of figs, one with good figs, and the other with figs so bad they cannot be eaten. Through this encounter outside the temple, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah to tell him that the good figs represented the portion of the people of Judah who would be taken off in captivity. They would have a covenant relationship with the Lord. “They will be my people and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”(24:7b)

In Chapter 25, the note of finality intensifies, as Jeremiah says he was been prophesying to these people for twenty-three years, but they have not listened and they have not changed their ways, and now the Babylonians are coming. However, there is a note of hope, as the Lord says that, after seventy years, the Babylonians will be overthrown and the people will be released.

Verses 15-29 have a very strange passage. It is strange one the one hand, because it seems to say that Jeremiah’s ministry included all the nations around Judah, and also because it is more figurative, or symbolic, than is commonly found in Jeremiah. In it we are told that the Lord gave Jeremiah a cup filled with the “wine of my wrath” and sent him to make all the nations drink it. Presumably, the wine of the Lord’s wrath was the message that the Lord gave Jeremiah to preach. The use of the cup as the symbol of the Lord’s wrath is interesting, as it had been used (Psalm 116:13) to symbolize the cup of salvation. But this is not inconsistent with Jeremiah’s message all throughout the book: the people have refused to live in covenant with God, and as their punishment they must live without that relationship. The cup of salvation has become the cup of judgment, and no individual or nation can escape it.

You Must Die!

In Chapter 26, we are told of a threat against Jeremiah’s life. Jeremiah was preaching in the courtyard of the temple. According to the passage, he was preaching his standard fare, and fairly tame for him, too, but some of those hearing his message took offense. Their reaction which is recorded in verses 7-11, was to threaten Jeremiah’s life, because he delivered a message from the Lord which they did not wish to hear.

In our church today we no longer have prophets. We tend to think that the Lord has already said what is going to be said, and that we understand it. And, if anybody says anything different, well, they had better watch out.

The Yoke’s on You

In Chapter 27, the Lord tells Jeremiah to put on a yoke and wear it in front of the envoys of the various nations who are in Jerusalem. This visual aide is to underscore the Lord’s message that the people of all these nations should bow their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. In Chapter 28, the false prophet Hananiah appears and claims to deliver a message from God that the Babylonians will be defeated in two years. Jeremiah, who is still wearing the yoke, confronts Hananiah before all the people. Hananiah, who himself has a flair for the dramatic, takes Jeremiah’s yoke and breaks it, and says the Lord will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah slinks off, but the Lord tells him to go back and say “You have broken a wooden yoke, but in its place you will get a yoke of iron.” (Verse 13)

Who Can Come Against Us?

If there is a common theme to these chapters, it is one of the continual struggle of the will of the people against the will of the Lord. There are kings who want the Lord to do their bidding, prophets who speak for themselves instead of their God and a people who generally seek their own goals rather than a covenant relationship with God. This general situation of conflict is expressed in 21:11-14, where the Lord reminds the people that they are expected to do what is right, but they do not, and this is not acceptable.

Still, the people are complacent. They have a feeling of security. They ask the question: “Who can come against us?” This question is quickly answered. Our security is in the Lord, not from the Lord. The cup is before is. Whether it is our salvation or our undoing is for us to choose.