CHAPTER 1
Here it is – the Cassandra of ancient Judah: Jeremiah.
There is quite a bit more biographical info about him than
there was about Isaiah, and it starts off like a biography. The first biographical parts might seem dry,
but they are actually really important.
We’re told that he is the son of a priest named Hilkiah and became a
prophet during the reign of Josiah.
OK, let’s unpack all of this. Josiah’s reign? That’s a big, important time. He’s the Bible’s favorite king of the divided
kingdom era. He is promoted heavily in
the historical books as the ideal king.
He was the big religious reformer.
During his reign, priests uncovered a seemingly lost book of wisdom from
Moses (a book scholars universally regard to be Deuteronomy, as it says all the
stuff that Josiah actually does in his period of reform).
That “lost” book of Deuteronomy was presented to Josiah by a
priest in verse 4 of Chapter 22 in Kings II.
That priest’s name? Hilkiah. That’s right – the same name as Jeremiah’s
dad, who is also listed as a priest – and Jeremiah himself becomes a prophet of
the Lord during the reign of Josiah.
Coincidence? Well – part of it could be, actually. There could always be a second priest named Hilkiah. Stranger things have happened. But it sure sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Jeremiah will be the prophet of the Deuteronomy reforms. The Biblical scholar Richard Elliot Friedman has even argued that Jeremiah might be the actual author of Deuteronomy (and all the historical books that come after it – Joshua, Judges, the Samuels, and the Kings).
All that, from those opening verses of dry biographical
info.
On, and we’re told something else pretty interesting shortly
after. We’re told that God decided to
make Jeremiah a prophet “before I formed you in the womb.” Huh.
Isaiah mentioned something like this, but it was a throwaway comment in
the midst of that never ending book. This
is the fifth verse of the first chapter – front and center for all to see. St. Paul will later make a similar claim
about himself, but the third person claim here just sounds more
impressive. And again, I don’t think St.
Paul’s claim is so front and center. So
Jeremiah is a prophet’s prophet.
What will be the purpose of Jeremiah’s prophecy? Will it be to guide the Jews to the Promised
Land like Moses? Will it be to shepherd
them when they need help? Will it be to
provide solace for those in needs? Eh,
not so much. For Jeremiah, the point
will be, “to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and
to plant.” OK, that last bit sounds
positive, but the main theme is of a Destroyer Prophet. Don’t see too many of those, now do you?
That is fitting though, because no prophet will have a
rockier road of dealing with the masses than Jeremiah. He is not only a doom saying, but he just
really needs to read “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” He is just so damn abrasive. So it makes sense that he’s described in such
contentious language right from the word go.
Jeremiah initially wants nothing to do with this, by the
way. Like Moses and Gideon before him,
when he finds out he’s been called, Jeremiah tries to wiggle out of it. God tells Jeremiah to overcome his fears and
never worry – God will be with him. God
acknowledges that people will oppose him (naturally – Jeremiah will pronounce
doom repeatedly) but God will always be with him.
This does a nice job setting up what kind of prophet
Jeremiah will be.
CHAPTER 2
OK, so the first chapter does a nice job setting him up, but
the second chapter provides the first real taste of Jeremiah.
He starts off by calling the Hebrew a bunch of whores. That’s his opening statement. Well, officially, he begins by comparing the
relationship between God and the Hebrew as a relationship between a husband and
wife, but he then makes clear that the Jews prostituted themselves to any God
who came their way. So, yeah, they’re a
bunch of whores. This isn’t just me
extrapolating. Jeremiah specifically
says, “you sprawled and served as a prostitute.” Whores.
He then calls them a lust-filled camel.
Well, points for originality, I guess.
It’s an effective diatribe, but I fear that Jeremiah is
getting lost in the process and not thinking of the result. Ask yourselves this – what’s the purpose of
his prophecy? What is his ultimate
goal? I assume it’s to get people to
return to God. He wants them to quit
backsliding and go back to old school Deuteronomy-like worship. (Let’s never
mind that Deuteronomy isn’t old school, and his just been written – possibly by
this guy).
Look, if you want people to return to the Lord, is this
really the best way of going about it?
If you want to win someone over to your religion, should you really
start off by saying, “Hey you! The
sprawled out whore with the morals of a lusty camel! Worship God the way I do!” Doesn’t that sound massively
counterproductive to anyone else?
You lead with the insult, and you make people
defensive. They are upset with you, and
just shut down any/all arguments you make.
Like I said, he needs to read “How to Win Friends and Influence People”
but good.
It also makes you wonder about Jeremiah. Part of being good at dealing with people is
being able to relate to them. Can you
empathize with them? Jeremiah pretty
much can’t. He relates to scripture and
the word of the Lord (never mind that he may have written it). What he thinks
is right is all there is to it. Yeah,
that isn’t that good. He talks of people,
but can’t relate to individual persons.
CHAPTER 3
Jeremiah again begins with the husband-wife analogy. If a man divorces his wife and she leaves
him, and then becomes the wife of another – can she return to the first? That’s his analogy against the Hebrew. They had God and they walked out on them, so
screw them. But modern day law, of
course, would let them get back together.
We’re more forgiving that Jeremiah is.
Boy, he isn’t forgiving anyone. He calls them whores again: “Raise your eyes
to the heights and look, where have men not lain with you?” Man, Judah – you humped men all over the
landscape! Glancing through it again, he
uses the words “prostitute” or “prostitution” five times, traitor at least
twice, and adultery once. I’m probably
missing some references, too. All this
in 10 verses. Man, he his nasty.
Jeremiah does shift gears midway through and says how they
can get back to the Lord. So all his
mean spirited insults earlier were for naught, eh? But you must admit your guilt and go back to
the pure ways. In other words, you have to admit your guilt, beg forgiveness,
and act like that book of Deuteronomy says.
CHAPTER 4
This is more prophecies of doom. The big one is a more specific one. Instead of just generalized bemoaning of the
Hebrew, Jeremiah drops a bomb on them – they’ll be invaded from the North. And
it won’t be pretty, either: “Up comes the lion from its lair, the destroyer of
nations has set out, has left its place, to turn your land into a desolation, your cities into an
uninhabited waste.” He means Assyria, I
think. Or Babylon. Babylon actually will take over, but I forget
if there’s another failed Assyrian attack to come before Babylon takes over.
But he makes the northern power sound like the machine from
Terminator. Babylon is a cyborg from the
future come to fulfill God’s punishment upon his lusty camel of a chosen
people.
And they are coming as God’s punishment. The people have just sinned and turned away
from God.
CHAPTER 5
We get more denouncing of the Hebrew. It starts off with Jeremiah saying, “Roam the
streets of Jerusalem, look about and observe.
Search through her squares, to find even one who act justly and seeks
honesty and I will pardon her!” So there
isn’t a single good person in Jerusalem.
I could be wrong, but I think Jeremiah’s folk are from Shiloh. (checks Chapter 1). It just says from the land of Benjamin
there. I wonder if there is some sort of
territorial grudges going on around here – like Chicago versus downstate. Benjamin is the small tribe and Jerusalem the
big capital.
You also get the most Jermemiah-esque Jeremiad that Jeremiah
ever Jeremiaded: “Pay attention to this, you foolish and senseless
people.” That perfectly captures his
spirit. To be fair, he follows it up
with a great couplet – here’s the full thing: “Pay attention to this, you
foolish and senseless people, who have eyes and do not see, who have ears and
do not hear.” That’s well done, but he
is suck a dick in the first half, who will still be hearing him out in the
second half?
You know what I just realized? Jeremiah is the MGL of the Bible. MGL is a well-respected sabemetrician who
does a lot of great research and is often right – just as Jeremiah is one of
the great prophets who speaks with the word of the Lord. But in both cases, people rarely pay
attention to the meat of his message because they so dislike his tone of
voice. Threads on MGL’s comments are
often a series of attacks on him for being a jerk, and Jeremiah sure won’t have
many friends in this Bible.
CHAPTER 6
More doom. We’re
still in his visions of invaders from the North. In this entire section of prophecy, I kept
writing “Bummer” in the margins.
Jeremiah notes, “Be warned, Jerusalem, or I will be estranged from you,
and I will turn you into a wilderness, a land where no one dwells.” Bummer.
Later: “Yes, husband and wife will be taken, elder with
ancient. Their houses will fall to
others, their fields and their wives as well.”
Bummer. Also: “Elder with
ancient.” That seems botched up, like he
was going to contrast two different things but screwed up and said the same
thing twice. Hey, who knows – maybe this
is something that got messed up in translation 2,500 years ago and we’ve been
stuck with it ever since.
Here’s a line I liked: “Therefore they will fall among the
fallen.” It’s not too ambitious, but I
just like how it sounds.
Jeremiah moves in a different direction later on. Oh, he’s still damn negative on the Hebrew,
but he finds a particular focus for his wrath: hypocrisy. He notes how people violate all God’s
commandments and then figure they can just give a sacrifice and it’s all
cool. But Jeremiah, echoing previous
Bible chapters (Isaiah? Some of the
wisdom books? I forget, to be honest),
says: “Your burnt offerings find no favor with me, your sacrifices do not
please me.”
This is an advancement on Hebrew theology. Go back and read Leviticus. It was all about actions. It didn’t stress belief or morality so much
right there. Commit a misdeed – do the
sacrifice. That had the advantage of
making the priest’s job important. They were
in charge of sacrifices after all.
But for people like Jeremiah, that isn’t enough. He’s had enough of people who don’t really
feel the Lord inside them. Heck, this
simple version of religion is one reason so many are also able to dabble with
other gods, like Baal. After all, you
just have to do the ritual to make it good with God, so why get too caught up
in it. Prophets like Jeremiah who
emphasize a deeper level of religion will help make this religion stick. It’s a big reason why the Jews do a much
better job observing their Lord’s duties in the post-kingdom years, because
they’re being held to a higher standard.
