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.
Click here for the climax of the Jeremiah stories.
Click here for the climax of the Jeremiah stories.
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