Jeremiah 13.b. Every Wine Jar Should be Filled!

 You can speak, you can give your witness about what God has done for you, you might even preach…but the issue is not only the bold proclamation that you may make but whether or not the people listening can understand what you are saying. I can sincerely say, “Bwe kin an Anij yokwe lol, E ar letok juon wot Nejin.“ However, if I am visiting Dismal Springs United Methodist Church in the midwest where people are not likely to understand a Pacific Islands language, then what good is my witness? 

 Language is one thing, but layers of language (known as registers) within one language is another. It is clear that our various ‘generations’ convey their thoughts in different terms. Our oldest illustrations are mostly rural or agricultural, but who today still sings the song “Bringing in the Sheaves”? God tells Jeremiah to speak in phrases and proverbs that the people would recognize in order to illustrate what God’s message for today is.

13: 12-14.  You shall speak to them this word: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Every wine jar should be filled with wine’. And they will say to you, ‘Do you think we do not know that every wine jar should be filled with wine?’ Then you shall say to them: Thus says the LORD: ‘I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness. And I will dash them one against another, parents and children together, says the LORD. I will not pity or spare or have compassion when I destroy them’.

 Now there’s an attention getter. Apparently, this was a common saying among 7th century BC Jews in Judah. Perhaps it was a jovial reference to how to prepare for a party: “Bring a keg of beer; then fill everything you’ve got so we’ll have enough!” Or maybe, as Goldingay suggests, it was a happy refrain heard during a good grape harvest. “We are going to have enough to fill every wine jar with wine (The Book of Jeremiah, 2019, P. 350). 

 I have heard farmers talking about a corn harvest that was a ‘bin buster’. I have seen grain elevators so full that the excess corn had to be piled on the ground. Best if you cover it with tarps and run fans to circulate air or mold will form.

But, along with the people listening, one wonders why Jeremiah is recounting this familiar phrase. It is not news, and it does not sound like a message from God. We can ask, 'What are you talking about, Jeremiah?' 

 Now that I have your attention, let me tell you what is going to happen if you don’t repent, and I'll tell it in a way that you have a fighting chance of understanding. You intend to fill every jar when you have a good harvest, do you? Well, says God, here is what I will have to do. I will fill every person in Judah with ‘drunkenness’ in the sense that people will stagger, run into each other, and walk helter skelter right into danger. Sometimes you drink until you are ‘wiped out’? How about I wipe you off the face of this land? You like to get ‘ripped’; how about I rip you and your families out of your homes and send you down the road as prisoners of war being herded to a foreign land?

 And the people apparently laughed as if it was a joke. Jeremiah is disgusted.

13: 15-17.  Hear and give ear; do not be haughty,   

for the LORD has spoken.

Give glory to the LORD your God   

before he brings darkness

and before your feet stumble   

on the mountains at twilight;

while you look for light,   

he turns it into gloom   

and makes it deep darkness.

But if you will not listen,   

my soul will weep in secret for your pride;

my eyes will weep bitterly

and run down with tears   

because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

 Jeremiah’s name is Yirmeyahu. There is no hard ‘j’ sound in Hebrew, thus what we call Joshua is really Yehoshua ‘God saves’, and the shortened form is Yeshua, which we know as ‘Jesus’. Jeremiah ends with the shortened form of YHWH, that is, just Yah. You will find ‘yah’ or ‘iah’ at the end of many Biblical names: Isa-iah, Hezek-iah, Zechar-iah; and they all mean something.

 Yirmeyahu means something like ‘Yah loosens’ or ‘Yah lifts on high’. So, it is interesting that the question of who is properly elevated in Judah is the subject of this section and the next one. It turns out that the kings, priests, and prophets are not so honored except by their deluded selves. 

 Jeremiah warns the people to hear what God has to say, and not to be haughty or self-exalted in light of this fact; if they do not heed God’s word, they will soon be brought low. Jeremiah adds that, if they do not listen, he will soon begin to weep for the tragedy that will befall his friends and neighbors. 

 God through Jeremiah has tried to reach the people one way or another by choices of language, proverbs, and illustrations. How could they not know? Good question. How do we not know, we who rarely read the prophets, we who do not pay close attention to what Jesus is saying about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the opposite of the kingdoms, values, and practices of this world, and that includes our own 'kingdom' and our popular ways of ranking people and mistreating those we consider without honor, that is, the poor and needy, the orphan, the widow, and the immigrant. Will we someday hear Jesus say, "I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing , sick and in prison and you did not visit me"? (See Matthew 25).