CHAPTER 14
Jeremiah foresees a drought, as God is so unhappy with his
people. In fact, God tells Jeremiah,
“Do not interceded for the well-being of this people. If they fast, I will not listen to their supplications. If they sacrifice burnt offerings or grain
offerings, I will take no pleasure in them.
Rather, I will destroy them with sword, famine, and plague.”
WOW! God is so damn
cold-blooded right there. And, of all
prophets you have to tell, “don’t intercede for the well-being of this people”
to, Jeremiah is probably at the bottom of the list. If ever a prophet rooted for something like this to happen, it’s
him. Hell, when I first read it, I
thought it was Jeremiah telling God not to backslide in punishing them. Jeremiah doesn’t say that – but he also
doesn’t urge God away from it. Contrast
this with Moses. When God was upset
with them during Moses’ time, Moses would also speak up for the Hebrew, no
matter how poorly they treated him.
Jeremiah does speak up – but it’s not on behalf of the
people. It’s on behalf of … Jeremiah.
He complains to God about how all the other prophets are telling the
people that they won’t be abandoned by God.
Well, God sets Jeremiah straight.
They aren’t real prophets. I
haven’t spoken to them, but to you.
So Jeremiah doesn’t urge God from his path of anger. The comparison with Moses really isn’t a
nice one for Jeremiah. To be fair, the
Hebrew never wanted to kill Moses, but then again it’s not like all Judah is
conspiring to kill Jeremiah. But if you
read Jeremiah’s prophesies, they all got it coming – every last damned
(literally, damned) one of them.
CHAPTER 15
This is similar to the previous chapter. Again, we get a cold-blooded God. He begins by saying, “Even if Moses and
Samuel stood before me, my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them away from me and let them
go.” Hey, fuck the Hebrew. When Jeremiah asks where the Hebrew should
go, God replies, “Whoever is marked for death, to death; whoever is marked for
the sword, to the sword; whoever is marked for famine, to famine; whoever is
marked for captivity, to captivity.”
God is just so gangster right there. That might be his most cold-blooded line in
the entire Bible.
Jeremiah never tries talking God out of it. He just asks some questions to get more
detail and takes notes.
Again, Jeremiah does get around to bemoaning a fate – but
again, the fate is just his own. “Woe
to me, my mother, that you gave me birth!” is how he begins. He later begs the Lord: “Remember me, and
take care of me, avenge me on my persecutors.”
That’s 12 words – and four of them are either me or my.
Prophecy hasn’t been good for Jeremiah’s soul. He’s supposed to be a prophet for the
Hebrew, but all it’s led to is him wishing that they’d all die. He really isn’t trying to steer them away
from their fate at this point. He’s
given up on that. He’s just railing
against them for deserving it. They
hate him for saying that, and he hates them for hating him. In his first batches of prophecies, there
were occasional moments (well, maybe it was just moment singular) where
Jeremiah held out hope for getting back in God’s good graces. But they responded by wanting him dead, so
now he’s just a prophet of doom.
Jeremiah is full of pity for himself – “I did not sit
celebrating in the circle of merrymakers” – and anger for everyone who goes
against him.
CHAPTER 16
If anything, Jeremiah keeps digging deeper into
bleakness. I said earlier that he’s the
Cassandra of the Bible. But Cassandra
just foresaw disaster, Jeremiah foresees disaster and uses that as a reason to
get personally insulting about it. He
tells people that they’ll die, and it’s not a sorrowful prediction, but a
vengeful one. “Unlamented and unburied
they will like dung on the ground.
Sword and famine will make an end of them, and their corpses will become
food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.” He gets so angry because he thinks everyone
has it coming. That’s not Cassandra.
Also, did you really need to go to dung, Jeremiah. That’s the second time he’s done that.
The rest of just more railing against the people by the
Lord. At one point God says he’ll give
people a double share of punishment for all their sins. That’s right: double punishment.
CHAPTER 17
God tells Jeremiah, “For a fire has broken out from my anger,
burning forever.” That shows a problem
I have with this book – it’s all so overblown.
Forever, Lord? Really? You’ll never let go of this? C’mon!
Similarly, Jeremiah’s jeremiads often indicate that every deserves it.
C’mon, man!
The highlight of this chapter is a section titled, “True
Wisdom.” The Bible has spoken plenty on
wisdom so far, but none of it is even remotely close to the first line here:
“Thus says the Lord: `Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings.’”
Whaaaa? First,
that’s incredibly misanthropic. Second – this incredible misanthropy is the
opening line of a section called True Wisdom?
Some of these lines tell us more about Jeremiah than God.
There are nicer moments.
For example, later on Jeremiah begins a prayer to the Lord with these
words: “Heal me, Lord, that I may be healed.
Save me, that I may be saved.” That’s a downright beautiful
sentiment. But you know what? That’s the opening of a section called,
“Prayer for Vengeance.” Man, even when
Jeremiah sounds endearing there is a dark, misanthropic edge to it. That line is just the opening of a prayer
where Jeremiah calls on God to hurt his enemies. Given the sentiment – and how
poetical he starts – I wonder if Jeremiah wrote any/many of my least favorite
psalms. He does sound like them here.
CHAPTER 18
Time for another analogy.
God wants Jeremiah to look at a potter in action. Notice that when a vessel turns out badly,
the potter throws it away and tries again? Well guess what? God thinks that’s a
good idea and is planning on doing it to the Hebrew.
Later, there’s a section called, “Another Prayer for
Vengeance.” Heh. Man, even the Bible editor titling these
sections sounds bored with Jeremiah’s negativity.
Wait – that isn’t fully fair. This isn’t Jeremiah praying for his enemies to be killed. This is about his enemies wanting to kill him. Again.
Yeesh.
Actually, this chapter makes me realize something. I noted earlier how Chapter 53 of Isaiah
seems for foreshadow Christian theology.
It talks of a servant of God who will be abused and blasted by the
people, but will take their sins upon himself and suffer for them. It’s a strong foreshadowing of Christ – but
it can also almost all apply to Jeremiah. He’s blasted and suffering because
he’s a servant of God, after all.
OK, but it doesn’t work out when you think it through. Chapter 53 is from Second Isaiah, a prophet
who lives during the Babylonian Captivity.
Jeremiah is pre-Babylon, so Second Isaiah can’t be foretelling Jeremiah
– he’s after Jeremiah.
Also, Jeremiah isn’t really taking the suffering of the
people upon himself. He’s focusing
solely on his own suffering. In fact,
he tells God, “But you, Lord, know all their planning for my death. Do not forgive their crime and their sin do
not blot out from your sight! Let them
stumble before you, in the time of your anger act against them.”
Jeremiah isn’t taking their suffering upon himself. He wants God to whack them because of
Jeremiah’s own personal suffering. So
he doesn’t really work as the Chapter 53 foretelling, despite some parallels.
Again, Jeremiah treats God like a mafia don. God – please kill all of my enemies. I sure would appreciate it. God is the original Godfather.
CHAPTER 19
God has Jeremiah go back to the potter. This time it’s not
really an analogy though. Just grab a
pot and take it to a place called Topheth.
Bring a bunch of people there with you and the pot. Then Jeremiah shatters the pot and tells
everyone that’s what God will do to them.
And Jeremiah really outdoes himself with the dark
visions. Do you think dung references
are bad? Check out this, “I will have
them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, they shall eat one another’s
flesh during the harsh siege under which their enemies and those who seek their
lives will confine them.”
Cannibalism! And of close
relatives no less!
This harkens back to some of the darkest, nastiest speeches
in the Torah. In particular, I recall Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy where Moses
tells people that a woman will eat the afterbirth after giving birth. Remember: Richard Elliot Friedman argued
that Jeremiah wrote Deuteronomy.
CHAPTER 20
This is Jeremiah at his most likable and sympathetic. That is to say, this is Jeremiah when he’s
being persecuted. A priest named Pahhur
hears Jeremiah’s latest jeremiad against the Hebrew and isn’t going to stand
for it. He has Jeremiah put in the
stocks as punishment. Around here,
we’re getting a shift in focus. We’re
moving from just Jeremiah delivering his tirades to angry priest and prophets
going after Jeremiah. This isn’t the
last of it; not by any stretch.
And once Jeremiah gets persecuted, it gets personal for
Jeremiah. He tells Pashhur that for his
actions, the Lord now renames you, “Terror on every side.” That doesn’t sound too good. Jeremiah says that the bad priest will be
terrorized on all sides and handed over to his enemies. This is just Jeremiah issuing prophecies to
settle scores against his enemies. I
can see why he’s upset, but it’s a bit petty for a prophet.
But then things shift to Jeremiah’s internal monologue. And
this is where he becomes sympathetic.
Jeremiah feels his real problem is less the priests and the people who
don’t like being called lusty camels, but God himself. Jeremiah wails to God, “You seduced me,
Lord, and I let myself be seduced. You
were too strong for me, and you prevailed.”
This is not the normal way prophets talk to God.
Jeremiah goes on, “All day long I am an object of
laughter. Everyone mocks me. When I
speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage I proclaim. The word of the Lord has brought me reproach
and derision all day long.” It’s hard
not to feel for him right here. Even if
you’re a non-believer like me and think the voices coming to him aren’t really
from God but his own internal mind, the point is he thinks they come from
God. And these voices are telling him
to issue a bunch of statements that will get him beaten up, neglected, and
mocked. No, that’s not fun at all. And yet he does.
He says, “I say I will not mention him, I will no longer
speak in his name, but then it is as if fire is burning in my heart, imprisoned
in my bones. I grow wearing holding
back, I cannot!” He wishes he knew how
to quit the Lord, but that’s irrelevant – he can’t. He hates how he’s treated and what his life has become – but it’s
his life. It’s his calling – it’s
literally his calling.
There is a price: “Yes, I hear the whisperings of many:
`Terror on every side!’ Denounce, let us denounce him! All those who were my friends are on the
watch for any misstep of mine. `Perhaps
he can be tricked, then we will prevail and take our revenge on him.’” This is an amazing bleak and sad section. Remember: for all the problems he is having
with the priests and prophets – he’s the soon of a priest. He really does know a lot of the people who
are terrorizing him right now. Like I
said, if you can’t sympathize with Jeremiah around here, then you can’t
sympathize with anyone. This is like
Job – only it’s a real person, not some parable.
But Jeremiah has an ace he can play when he feels this low:
“But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champions. .My persecutors will stumble, they will not prevail.” Yes, they wait for him to fail and he does
likewise. And he thinks he can win,
because the Lord is on his side.
But while he’s suffering, Jeremiah would like some quicker
action, please: “Lord of hosts, you test the just, you see mind and heart. Let me see the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.”
Please Lord, hurt them.
This culminates in one epic bout of self-pity – but I’ll
allow as he’s earned some given his circumstances, “Cursed be the day on which
I was born! May the day my mother gave
me birth never be blessed! Cursed be
the one who brought the news to my father, `A Child, a son, has been born to
you!’ filling him with great joy.”
Jeremiah literally hates his life.
But he’s duty bound to stay the course.
He could use a hug right about now. Lord, for all this talk
about you stretching out your hand, please stretch it out to give him a pat on
the head or something.
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