Jeremiah 16.a. The Prophet Performs the Word.

 Would you like to be a prophet? You’d better think again. There is pain there that eats up your life. Perhaps that is why the prophet Amos loudly proclaimed:

“I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now then, hear the word of the LORD” (Amos 7: 14-15).

 We know, because he told us, that Jeremiah was from a priestly family in Anathoth, then God called him farther along to be a prophet to support King Josiah and his reforms. Being a prophet means to critique those leading the nation, including the king, cabinet, and religious leaders, when God says so. Jeremiah was in a difficult situation, condemning his own family and people; but it can get worse for a true prophet. 

16: 1-4.  The word of the LORD came to me: You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place and concerning the mothers who bear them and the fathers who father them in this land: They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall become like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall become food for the birds of the air and for the wild animals of the earth.

 There is a history of prophets engaging God so closely that they ‘embody’ God’s message. That means that prophets are not just speaking words, they are also communicating through their actions. In the century before Jeremiah, the prophet Hosea had to endure the infidelity of his wife as a mirror that reflected the infidelity of the people of Israel to their ‘husband’, YHWH. Imagine getting this message from God.

“When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, ‘Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD’. So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. (Hosea 1: 2-3). 

What happened? Well, that is another story for another day.

 The relationship with God was also tough on Ezekiel who had to demonstrate God’s passion through his relationship with his wife. See if you could endure this.

”The word of the LORD came to me: ‘Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet; do not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners’. So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I had been commanded (Ezekiel 24: 15-18). 

 What happened? God said, “Ezekiel will be a sign to you” (Ezekiel 24: 24). How? Keep your turban on your head; you can read Ezekiel, or I’ll tell you when I do a study of the book.

 Back to Jeremiah. The message of God became the ‘living word’ to Hosea and Ezekiel. Jeremiah too will suffer being God’s embodied message. Jeremiah is told not to get married at all. This seems wrong on so many levels. 

 First, the cultural level; marriage is expected of Jewish men who are supposed to marry young and have children. Second, the social level; men are expected to build a family for the future and thus ensure a place in the genealogy of their family. This will not happen for Jeremiah. The implication is similar to losing one’s salvation which, at one level, was thought of as perpetuating your one’s into the future. Third, it seems theologically wrong because it counters God’s own command to “be fruitful and multiply.”

 What is God thinking? God portrays this move as saving Jeremiah the trouble and sorrow of burying a wife and children when the destruction from the north comes. And, that is true. Jeremiah was spared this pain. But there is more.  

 Looking ahead, beyond this miserable situation, I can’t help but think about one thing that God tells Jeremiah later. We are not there yet, but this will happen during the last siege of Jerusalem by Babylon, a time when all hope was lost. 

”Jeremiah said, ‘The word of the LORD came to me: Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours’. Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD’ (Jeremiah 32: 6-8).

 Ah! The performative word of God, an enactment that everyone can see, the embodiment of God’s promises in the prophet. In that time in the future, Jerusalem is only days from falling to the Babylonians. Many will die, most will be carried away into slavery in the Babylonian Empire, and only a few ever return. Why buy land!?

 We will deal with this passage more when we come to Chapter 32. Suffice it to say that Jeremiah goes out of his way to pay the money and sign the deed in the sight of many people in the king’s court, and then takes the deed to Baruch to certify and place in a clay pot, in order that it may be preserved for a long time, past the destruction, past the loss of the land, and into the period when a few exiles do return. This performance illustrates to the people in the strange behavior of the prophet that this is not the end. A few will live on and settle in the land once again.

 Back to the present. God tells Jeremiah not to get married; and this practice too will be a performative prophecy. Jeremiah is visual proof at this point that the future is dim for Judah. Those living the life and engaging in marriage now are similar to those living just before the flood came. Jesus made this point; they were swept away by the flood and Noah and his family were left behind (Luke 17: 27). 

 So, by carrying out the usual practices, the people were acting like nothing was wrong, God wasn’t angry with them, and there would be a future for their families. Jeremiah’s decision not to marry becomes a sign to the people that all is not well, God is angry, and they desperately need to repent.    

 This is enough for today’s lesson. It is an important one because what is revealed is that prophecy is not just words spoken into the air. A pastor may preach a sermon, but the word of God will also take shape in the pastor’s actions, emotions, and good works. 

 God communicates through many media including public performances or protests that make people think about what God is saying and about how God wants them to act. Jeremiah is neither the first, nor the last, performative prophet. All the prophets had their moments. Be on the lookout for God trying to break through our dull senses and everyday humdrum.