Sean Goan sees Jeremiah as one of the most appealing of the Old Testament prophets, especially because of his very human struggle with his calling.
“If I say I will not mention him or speak any more in his name then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in and I cannot”(Jer 20:9). These words from the prophet himself sum up in a clear and dramatic way the struggle of Jeremiah whose life of devotion to the word of God seemed only to earn him the scorn and rejection of his contemporaries.
Jeremiah, the man
Yet it is precisely this personal struggle with his calling that makes him one of the most appealing of the prophets in the OT. More than any other we gain an insight into Jeremiah the man as we read through the oracles he proclaimed throughout his long career. Though he became known as the prophet of doom his preaching reveals a person of great compassion, courage and integrity. While he clearly foresaw the disaster that was coming upon Judah and Jerusalem because of its corrupt and weak leaders and was at times tempted to despair, his faith in the God of the covenant taught him to hope for a new and better future.
Jeremiah was born in the village of Anathoth, near Jerusalem around the year 650BC. At that time the dominant world power was Assyria. Politics and religion in his homeland had been dominated by the long reign of King Manasseh who had been keen not to offend his Assyrian masters. This meant that idolatry was the order of the day and that the temple in Jerusalem had fallen into decay. However things were to change quite dramatically when a new king came to the throne in Judah. His name was Josiah and his reign began in 639. He was determined to shake free from the shackles of Assyrian rule and he set about a sweeping religious reform aimed at restoring the temple in Jerusalem to its rightful place.
Beginning his ministry
During this work, a copy of what was probably an early edition of the book of Deuteronomy was found in the temple (2 Kings 22) and this provided a further impulse for the reforming zeal of the king. It is about this time that Jeremiah is said to have begun his preaching ministry. With Assyrian power in decline it seemed that there was a bright future for the small kingdom of Judah and those within it who were keen to be true to their religious traditions.
Sadly, however, this was not to be. King Josiah was killed in battle in 609. The Egyptians who had defeated him installed his son Jehoiakim as a puppet ruler. He shared none of his father’s reforming zeal and things went quickly from bad to worse. On the political front the Babylonians and the Egyptians were struggling to fill the power vacuum left by the end of the Assyrian empire and the tiny kingdom of Judah was no more than a pawn in their game.
During this time Jeremiah roundly condemned the rulers who were about to bring catastrophe on the people. In particular he had hard words for Jehoiakim who tried to rebel against the Babylonians only to have them capture the city and send some of its people into exile in 598BC (Jer 22: 13-19). Such an uncompromising stance meant that Jeremiah had few friends among the ruling elite. The king had Jeremiah barred from the temple precinct and then ordered the burning of the scrolls which contained his words and which had been written down by his scribe Baruch (36: 1-32). Jehoiakim’s failed rebellion led the Babylonians to put in a new king, Zedekiah, but he was weak and indecisive, refusing to listen to Jeremiah’s advice and even having him put in prison.
After yet another failed rebellion the Babylonians under king Nebuchadnezzar came once again to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. This time on capturing the city they burned it and destroyed the temple (587BC). All the leading citizens and craftsmen were taken into exile in Babylon. For his part Jeremiah was taken away to Egypt against his will where he died, murdered, according to one tradition, by his own people. Jeremiah’s influence was greater after his death than before. Thanks to the work of Baruch and others, copies of his sayings were read among the exiles and he clearly had an impact upon people like Ezekiel and the writer of the prophecies contained in Isaiah 40-55. It is believed that the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah as it now stands came into being sometime after the exile.
The message of Jeremiah
It is clear from the outset that Jeremiah’s sensitive nature was going to impact very strongly on his life as a prophet. His calling as described at the beginning of the book shows a young man who is reluctant to take on the task he is being offered. “Lord I am only a youth” is the plea he makes but to no avail as the Lord insists that he proclaim a message of repentance, warning about the danger from the north i.e. the invading Babylonian armies. Even though his message is often a harsh one it is spoken in language of great feeling and compassion. He understands in a very heartfelt way that Israel’s true identity lies in restoring its covenant relationship with her God.
“I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown; but my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living water, and dug out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that hold no water(2:2, 12-13).
His religious sensitivity also gave him great political courage because he knew that he could not stand by and watch the decline that was happening all around him. So we have two reports of his famous temple sermon which he gave early in the reign of King Jehoiakim. On this occasion he challenged the popular and widely held view that Jerusalem would never be destroyed because of the presence there of the temple, God’s dwelling place on earth.
Lifestyle based on covenant
This opinion had gained credence during the time of Isaiah when the Assyrian armies which had laid siege to the city were forced to retreat after a sudden outbreak of plague. Jeremiah however stood up in the most sacred shrine in the land and warned his hearers that they were fooling themselves if they imagined they could rely on a superstition about the temple rather than an authentic lifestyle based on the covenant.
“Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord” (7:2-4). He went on to tell them that the temple would become a heap of ruins if they did not stop oppressing the poor and shedding innocent blood.
In the second report of this sermon found in chapter 26 we see the result of Jeremiah’s preaching. There was outrage among the priests and people who were there and they immediately wanted him executed for blasphemy. It was only through the intervention of influential friends that his life was spared.
Given that his message was controversial and was deemed by many to be undermining the morale of the people Jeremiah found himself increasingly isolated. While this in itself is not surprising, it is surprising that the prophet’s record of these dark days found its way into his Book. No other OT prophet gives us such an insight into his internal struggle. These moments are conveyed in a series of passages sometimes called the ‘confessions’ of Jeremiah. They are to be found in 11:18-12:6, 15:10-21, 17:14-18, 18:18-23, 20:7-18.
Get on with it
In them we see the prophet wondering how can God be in his life when things are going so badly for him. After all, he is only doing what God has asked him. Why then is he being laughed at, mocked, and beaten? How long will it be before God punishes the evildoers who are persecuting him so viciously? With such an outpouring of the heart we might expect words of comfort from his Lord, but the only reply he gets is a rebuke telling him to stop feeling sorry for himself and to get on with it!
“I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice; under the weight of your hand I sat alone, for you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Truly you are to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail.” Therefore thus says the Lord: “If you turn back, I will take you back, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious and not what is worthless, you shall serve as my mouth.”
If these confessions were the only evidence of Jeremiah’s thought then we could be forgiven for thinking that he was someone who simply felt abandoned. However the most promising prophetic oracles come from this man at a time when his personal fortunes and those of his country were at their lowest ebb. At the time of the destruction of the temple we read the prophecies to be found in the ‘Book of Consolations’ 30:1-31:40. It is here that we find the greatest testimony to the hope that guided Jeremiah through the darkest days.
“Surely the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. This is the covenant I shall make with them: I will plant my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to one another, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”(Jer 3 I :31-34)
This article first appeared in The Word (December 2003), a Divine Word Missionary Publication.
