Jeremiah 11a. What have we done wrong?

 Since this book of the prophet Jeremiah is a collection of his sermons over a period of more than 40 years, we can expect some abrupt starts and stops. Did Baruch the scribe arrange the sermons chronologically? Probably, though it is not out of the question that he might pair up some sermons with similar themes even if one is early and another one later. 

 Also, certain themes might shift in meaning over time. For example, in the early sermons when Jeremiah said, as God told him, ‘the enemy is coming from the north’, then the people might identify the enemy as the Assyrian Empire. However, after 609, there was no Assyrian Empire any more, and the new power in the Middle East was the Babylonian Empire. The identification had to change. God knew, but Jeremiah did not; even though he spoke God’s words.

 It seems that we have a shift to a different sermon series or different set of prophecies with the beginning of Chapter 11. If chapters 7-10 constitute one batch of sermons, then Chapter 11 begins a new batch, and probably goes on through Chapter 17 (See Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Jeremiah (2014), page 132-133). Chapter 7-10 focused on the people trusting too much on the temple. Remember they say, “The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD,” as if chanting would ward off evil spirits. Now, in this tranche of sermons, the covenant is the focus.

1-5.   The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who does not heed the words of this covenant, which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron smelter, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may perform the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.’ ” 

Then I answered, “So be it, LORD.”

When was this sermon first preached? The last phrase tells us that Judah the Kingdom has not fallen to the Babylonians, yet. The phrase “as at this day” tells us that when Jeremiah began preaching this sermon, the land still belonged to the people of Judah. The issue lies elsewhere. 

 The covenant refers to God’s arrangements for the Jews from the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob down through the covenant with Moses for the people of Israel. The covenant involved this arrangement: YHWH would be the Israelites’ God; they would worship him and only him and serve his purposes in the world. The ultimate purpose as YHWH said to Abraham was, “so that you will be a blessing.” A blessing to who? “...in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3). This is big.  

 The case for God’s ‘unconditional love’ has been over-played today; that is a mistake. On the one hand, God does offer unconditional love in that forgiveness is there for the asking. Confess your sins and God forgives and restores. No conditional requirement, for example, that a person has to get his act together before he comes to God, or a person has to work at behaving right, then she can come to God to ask for forgiveness. Instead, we know that God hears the pleas of the penitent sinner.  

However, as we have said repeatedly, forgiveness is the restoration of a relationship, and the relationship is expected to continue and grow. God loves you and restores you, but he restores you for a purpose, for a ministry actually. First comes forgiveness, then comes our obedience. We are told that we must love God and our neighbor as ourselves. That’s the general picture; of course, there are a lot of details to work out.

 For example, there is more to the quote above from Genesis 12: 1-4. Let’s look at the whole quote with an alternate reading near the end.

“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a  blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses your I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. So Abram went, as the LORD had told him….”

 First, the offer to Abram involved obedience on Abram’s part, signaled by the cryptic phrase in verse 4: “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him.” 

Second, the offer to Abram was not the last step in God’s mission. Instead, Abram left home and went on a mission. Everything that was being done for Abram and later the children of Israel was for a purpose that did not involve them. The Jews were chosen so that the rest of the nations would join them in appreciating and worshipping God. 

 Third, even the part that would be played by the Nations is a choice of obedience that the Gentiles have to make. They have to choose to “bless themselves” by how they treat the Jews and how they receive the message that God is sending them to repent and repair their relationships. 

 Jeremiah reminds the Israelites that they have not kept up their end of the covenant. Jeremiah makes it clear that God’s blessing is hanging in the balance. The blessing that the people were most concerned about was their claim to live in the land of Palestine. The land may be theirs “at this day,” but unless they obey the Lord, it will not be theirs tomorrow. It is not an unconditional blessing.

6-8.  And the LORD said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. For I solemnly warned your ancestors when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, “Obey my voice.” Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of an evil will. So I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.

 Do you see what God is talking about? God has made clear what he expects in terms of worship and ethics, beginning with the Patriarchs and their obedience and reaching a high point with the Law given through Moses. Then God sent prophets to remind the people that the goal is to “let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a never-ending stream (Amos 5:24). The people of Judah did not want to do that. They were greedy and disobedient. 

9-10.   And the LORD said to me: Conspiracy exists among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors of old, who refused to heed my words; they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant that I made with their ancestors. 

 So, Jeremiah gives the Jewish people a final warning. 

11-13.  Therefore, thus says the LORD, assuredly I am going to bring disaster upon them that they cannot escape; though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they will never save them in the time of their trouble. For your gods have become as many as your towns, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars to shame you have set up, altars to make offerings to Baal.

 The punishment begins with God recognizing the broken relationship, that communication has broken down, and so God will not be answering prayers. God suggests that they cry out in prayer instead to the idols of wood that they have made, even though those would-be gods are helpless. When Jeremiah's prophecies that they heard become the prophecies that they read in a scroll when they are slave in Babylon, then maybe they will understand. Judah’s shame will turn into sorrow.

 Is it really too late? Perhaps the persistent prayers of Jeremiah will save them. We’ll see next week.