Jeremiah 14.a. A Dialogue Hits a Dead End

  We have established that this book preserves Jeremiah’s sermons preached over 40 years (627-586 BC). [Remember that BC means Before Christ, so the years go down instead of up.] Jeremiah’s scribe Baruch recorded these sermons and arranged them in this order. We should not expect, however, that the order is strictly chronological, although most of us would use this method. Still, think of novels or even non-fiction books that begin in the middle of a story and then use flashbacks to fill in the history. Both are possible and both have considerable power to spin a narrative. 

Baruch records a particular heading that has appeared several times before. “The LORD told me to say….” (7: 1 and 11: 1) or simply “The LORD said….” (1: 4, 2:1, 2: 22, 2: 29, 3: 1. etc). Here we can see Baruch’s hand since the text does not say “the word of the LORD came to me,” but rather it says “the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.”

14: 1-7. The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

Judah mourns,   

and her gates languish;

they lie in gloom on the ground,   

and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.

Her nobles send their servants for water;   

they come to the cisterns;

they find no water;   

they return with their vessels empty.

They are ashamed and dismayed   

and cover their heads,

because the ground is cracked.   

Because there has been no rain on the land,

the farmers are dismayed;   

they cover their heads.

Even the doe in the field 

forsakes her newborn fawn   

because there is no grass.

The wild asses stand on the bare heights;   

they pant for air like jackals;

their eyes fail   

because there is no herbage.

Which drought? It is not clear and we do not have enough information about droughts in Palestine during this period to pick one. Perhaps this is not a specific one, but a common event. Remember Jeremiah preached sermons over 40 years.

 More to the point is that what is happening to the people of Judah happens also to the land of Judah. This is consistent with other Bible passages that the environment is entangled with human behavior. God said to the Israelites before they went into the Promised Land, if you sin continually and abandon YHWH in order to follow other gods, then disaster awaits.  

"...the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. For whoever commits any of these abominations shall be cut off from their people. So keep my charge not to commit any of these abominations that were done before you and not to defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 18: 28-30).

 Look at the litany of horrors in Jeremiah’s sermon: no rain, no water, no grass, no vegetation, no light, no joy, and no honor. The disaster affects every level of society, the upper class and the servants, the farmers and city dwellers. Even the animals search but do not see water or grass. Society is falling apart. What is the cause? It is no secret.

14: 7. Although our iniquities testify against us,   

act, O LORD, for your name’s sake;

our rebellions indeed are many,   

and we have sinned against you.

 Someone says the quiet part out loud. “We have met the enemy, and he is us” (Walt Kelly, Pogo, 1971). There is no getting around it; we cause our own problems. This is a saying that we can use in many settings concerning our own behavior, our family’s behavior, and our nation’s behavior. “Those who trouble their own households will inherit the wind” (Proverbs 11: 29).  

 The verse above looks like a confession, but if it is, it does not seem sincere. Human beings are quick to shift the blame to someone else. The people of Judah were no different from us. 

14: 8-9. O hope of Israel,   

its savior in time of trouble,

why should you be like a stranger in the land,   

like a traveler turning aside for the night?

Why should you be like someone confused,   

like a mighty warrior who cannot give help?

Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us,   

and we are called by your name;   

do not forsake us!

 ‘The more I think about this; maybe it’s not my fault after all. Maybe the fault is with God. Is he really our hope in the time of trouble? Where is he now? Does he just suddenly show up for an occasional visit? Is he not fully aware of the trouble that we are in? Is he around, but not paying attention to our plight?’ 

 This is the second time in the last few verses that the people call on God to do something, to “act, O LORD, for your name’s sake,” “do not forsake us … because we are called by your name.” Perhaps it will make more sense to us if we substitute the term ‘reputation’ for ‘name’. This is legitimate because that is an older meaning for one’s name. 

 Even as recent as when I was growing up in the community around Farmersville, Indiana which, as you might guess, was a rural farm community, certain family names had reputations. If your father’s name or your mother’s family name was respected, then you were lectured to be careful not to do anything to besmirch or dishonor that name. If your family name was associated with bad behavior and you got in trouble with the law, then everyone would nod and say, “Like father, like son.”

 So, the people of Judah who are called by the name of the LORD think that they should live a privileged life. God himself should be more protective if he is concerned about his name/reputation. How will God respond to that?  

14: 10.  Thus says the LORD concerning this people:

Truly they have loved to wander;   

they have not restrained their feet;

therefore the LORD does not accept them;   

now he will remember their iniquity   

and punish their sins.

 Thus says the Lord, it is not God who has stayed away too long, rather it is the people who are bent on wandering away. The people have itchy feet. We all do. We even sing about it.

 “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” (Robert Robinson, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.,” 1758).  

 This hymn, getting old now, confesses the temptation to wander and asks for God to send “streams of mercy, never ceasing.” Now, that is what we can expect God to do, can’t we? All the time? 

 Read the last line in Jeremiah’s sermon and one think again about how often we can turn away from God and still expect him to take us back. Forever? As long as we are alive? That is not what the Biblical text says. 

 The people of Judah have reached a point where “the LORD does not accept them.” Now, instead of forgetting their sins, God remembers them. Instead of forgiving sins again, now the consequences of sin cannot be avoided. If you kill someone, you may receive God’s forgiveness, but the man is still dead, and you are still in jail.

14: 11-12.  The LORD said to me: Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Although they fast, I do not hear their cry, and although they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I do not accept them, but by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence I consume them.

So, this explains where the famine came from and why we must suffer. 

 Do you notice that you rarely see a verse from Jeremiah written on the wall of the Sunday School classroom or on the wall in someone’s house? Jeremiah is called ‘the weeping prophet’ for a reason. It is too late for this generation to do anything about the accumulated sins, theirs and their fathers’ repeated refusal to respond to God’s warnings.

 Granted, there are promises that God will be merciful again, and once again offer forgiveness for sins, but not to the people who first heard this prophetic sermon. That generation was doomed. When God says that once again he will have mercy, he is not talking to the individuals in this generation. This generation will be defeated, will go into exile, and will die there. Period. 

 Thank about it. Why did God condemn the Israelites to wander for 40 years in the desert before they were ready to enter the Promised Land? Scripture is clear, it was so that a whole generation would die off (Numbers 14: 32-35). The next generation would be the ones who entered the Promised Land. Even Moses himself did not enter the Promised Land.

 Why were the people of Judah exiled for 70 years in Babylon? (Jeremiah 25: 11). Same notion. Only a few of the people who went into exile ever came back. How could they? A 10 year old might survive 70 years in exile and make the long walk back to Jerusalem, but there would not be many such hardy returnees. 

 There are promises of mercy, and God is a merciful God; but when a given generation goes too far astray, then they will be set aside and later the next generation will get a chance. Think about it.