Jeremiah: Chapters 29 to 35

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CHAPTER 29

Jeremiah writes a letter to the exiles in Babylon.  At least it’s supposedly by Jeremiah.  Again, he specifically notes they’ll be away for 70 years.  At the very least, that strikes me as an inclusion by a future author, and maybe the entire thing is a forgery. 

It is all pretty standard.  They should be fruitful and multiply in Babylon because they’re the future of the Hebrew.  God wants the Hebrew destroyed for their sins. Jeremiah quotes God saying, “I am handling them over to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who will kill them before your eyes.”  Yikes.

Mind you, Jeremiah has no problem with these sorts of statements.  He doesn’t really have any strong loyalty to his people.  His loyalty is solely to God.  That’s a big part of the reason why people hate him so much.   Can you imagine if some big preacher went around screaming at people that God hates America and wants us all destroyed because of our sinful ways?

Hey wait – we have people like that: Westboro Church.  My God – Jeremiah is the ancient Hebrew version of the Westboro lunatics!

We’re supposed to be on Jeremiah’s side, but that’s tough.  He dwells too much on how people will be punished, and has too many petty disputes with his enemies.  He really isn’t interested in improving people, just in making them pay.  From some angles he is sympathetic because he genuinely believes God is compelling him to say these things, and he doesn’t like how it’s affected his life – but it’s God, dammit. 

Really, with Jeremiah it isn’t about likable or not; if you root for him or don’t.  He’s just plain compelling. 

CHAPTER 30

The next few chapters have a different feel.  They talk about the things no one associates with Jeremiah: hope and redemption.  Jeremiah tells people that God will save them eventually.  They’ll be punished, but after enough time God will come back to them and their land will be restored.

It’s a lot less personal than Jeremiah’s normal prophecies.  Part of me wonders if it’s a later addition/forgery or another prophet wandering in here, but I don’t want to be too skeptical.  Even Jeremiah is allowed to have some optimistic moments.  The fact that it sounds less personal might even work.  He’s good at dealing with the negative, but is a bit less familiar with the positive news.  Saying that God will return to them isn’t the same thing as giving us a precise duration (70 years) like a few chapters do).

CHAPTER 31

More good news.  They’ll return to Jerusalem and all will be happy.  God will be with them again. 

CHAPTER 32

We’re really approaching zero hour here.  Jerusalem is under siege by the Babylonians.  The king of Judah has Jeremiah confined to the court, because the last thing he needs is the damn prophet running around ruining everyone’s morale. 

Jeremiah stands to his position: God wants Babylon to take over and destroy Jerusalem.  It’s interesting because we often think of being religious and being patriotic as good things, and they typically go together.  That had certainly been the case for the Hebrew, who believe that God gave them the land for them because they were His people.  But this link of patriotism and religion doesn’t work for Jeremiah.  For him, it’s God and nothing else. 

There is a weird section here where Jeremiah is told by God to buy some land.  It’s notable because it’s the first mention of Jeremiah’s assistant, Baruch.  Later, Baruch gets his own book in the Bible.  It’s not in the Protestant or Jewish Bibles, but it is in the Catholic Bible.

CHAPTER 33

Jerusalem will be restored.  It’s another happy chapter.  There isn’t much to say about it, that I didn’t say in the previous happy chapters.  They really do feel a little out of place with the overall downbeat vibe of Jeremiah.  One really feels out of place here, where we just had Jerusalem under siege. 

CHAPTER 34

Back to the main narrative.  Now the Babylonian army is attacking Jerusalem itself.  That doesn’t change Jeremiah in the slightest.  There is none of this happy talk of the future where God will restore everything to the Hebrew.  Those chapters are always off on their own little island, detached from the rest of the action.  (That’s one reason I wonder if they were really written by Jeremiah.  At the very least, if he really did have these occasional positive moments, it would’ve made it easier for people to get along with him).

Instead, he issues more curses.  It’s the same stuff we’ve heard before.  Hand you over to your enemies.  Corpses food for birds and beasts.  Cities into a waste.  Rinse, lather, repeat.

CHAPTER 35

This is a weird little offshoot chapter.  It’s about a group called the Rechabites. They are sons I guess and they are faithful, so Jeremiah says don’t worry – God will let your family survive forever.  

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