Jeremiah 6a: What will you do when the end comes?

 God spoke the last line of Chapter 5: "An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule as the prophets direct; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?”

 If God speaks to us through Scripture, and we believe that God does this, what is God saying to us today through the prophet Jeremiah? First comes a warning we should heed. “Prophets and priests” are religious personnel; so are today's pastors, preachers, priests, and missionaries. What if they have fallen for the dominant theological and political ideology and thus speak falsely. Worse yet, what if the congregations of the ‘faithful’ like what they hear? 

 In today’s preaching, some of the edge has been taken off of John and Jesus’ message: “Who warned you to flee the wrath to come? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Let these prophecies disturb you as much as they disturbed Jeremiah, and as much as they still disturb me. Quit pretending that there is shalom; that everything is all right. Everything is not all right.

Jeremiah 6: 1-5. 

Flee for safety, O children of Benjamin,   

from the midst of Jerusalem!

Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,   

and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem,

for evil looms out of the north   

and great destruction.

I have likened daughter Zion   

to the loveliest pasture.

Shepherds with their flocks

shall come against her.   

They shall pitch their tents around her;   

they shall pasture, all in their places.

“Prepare war against her;   

up, and let us attack at noon!”

“Woe to us, for the day declines;   

the shadows of evening lengthen!”

“Up, and let us attack by night,   

and destroy her palaces!”

Who is Benjamin? One of the remaining tribes of the kingdom, along with the tribe of Simeon which was scattered among the descendants of Judah after whom the kingdom is named. Where is Benjamin? On the northern edge of the Kingdom of Judah. If the invading army is coming from the north, who will bear the brunt of the attack and be the first to flee south? Benjamin will, but God says, ‘Do not flee to Jerusalem, there is no refuge there’. 

Where is Tekoa? About twelve miles south of Jerusalem, just past Bethlehem. God says, run there, then don’t stop running. Everything is not all right. 

 In the past, God has spoken about the area of Jerusalem as a lovely pasture; but now: ‘Watch out!’ Now shepherds are coming out of the north who are not friendly folk. They will take over the pastures and use up all the resources. In fact, these ‘shepherds’ are actually an army, and they are preparing several waves of attack against Jerusalem, maybe in the morning, certainly by noon, perhaps in the evening, and if that is not enough, then at midnight. They are not messing around. They are serious about attacking Jerusalem. How will they do it? God provides instructions. Whose side is He on?

Jeremiah 6: 6-8. 

For thus says the LORD of hosts:

Cut down her trees;   

cast up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.

This is the city that must be punished;   

there is nothing but oppression within her.

As a well keeps its water fresh,   

so she keeps fresh her wickedness;

violence and destruction are heard within her;   

sickness and wounds are ever before me.

Take warning, O Jerusalem,   

or I shall turn from you in disgust

and make you a desolation,   

an uninhabited land.

 Just as a reminder, Jeremiah now begins a series of prophecies with the heading: “Thus says the LORD of hosts.” So, these are not the words of Jeremiah. If you don’t like it, take it up with God.

  God is giving or mimicking the instructions to the soldiers of the army of the north that is invading Judah and investing Jerusalem. Why? “The city must be punished.” She breeds oppression of others, and she seems to have a bottomless well from which to draw evil designs.

 Only at the end does God clarify that this is a warning, close to the last warning because the end is near. If the people of Jerusalem and Judah do not repent of their evil and change their ways, God will “turn from them in disgust” and the urban area will become “uninhabited land.” Who thought that God would ever do this? Well, not the other prophets and priests of that time, nor most of the pastors and preachers of our time. Listen to the words of the Lord.

Jeremiah 6: 9-11a.  

Thus says the LORD of hosts:

Glean thoroughly as a vine   

the remnant of Israel;

like a grape gatherer,

pass your hand again over its branches.

To whom shall I speak and give warning,   

that they may hear?

See, their ears are uncircumcised;   

they cannot listen.

The word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn;   

they take no pleasure in it.

But I am full of the wrath of the Lord;   

I am weary of holding it in.

 God continues with instructions for the foreign army to do a very thorough job of picking Jerusalem clean. However, the prophet does not know what to do with the information. Whom should he tell? He tells the people but they ‘have foreskins’ on their ears, as the Hebrew says. They refuse to listen to the word of the Lord, while they prefer the soothing words of pastors and preachers who tell them that a God of love and grace would never do that kind of thing. Surprise, he does and he will.  

 Jeremiah knows different because he heard the word directly from God. He has heard so much from God that he can’t hold in the seething wrath. He is bursting at the seams, so he has to speak even though preaching is futile.

Jeremiah 11b-15. 

Pour it out on the children in the street   

and on the gatherings of young men as well;

both husband and wife shall be taken,   

the elderly and those full of days.

Their houses shall be turned over to others,   

their fields and wives together;

for I will stretch out my hand   

against the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD.

For from the least to the greatest of them,   

everyone is greedy for unjust gain;

and from prophet to priest,   

everyone deals falsely.

They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,   

saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

They acted shamefully; they committed abomination,   

yet they were not ashamed;   

they did not know how to blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;   

at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD.

 God gives Jeremiah a pep talk and some pretty specific instructions. Tell everyone: young and old, male and female, because disaster will come to everyone. It will be so bad that most men will be killed, their houses will be commandeered, and their wives will be retained as maids with privileges. 

 Remember my little talk about what the problem was with worshipping other gods, having other ideals, and learning to see the world through other ideologies? The problem is that the worshipper becomes like the gods and leaders of those other idols, ideals, and ideologies. That is what is described here. The people are not like YHWH in their character; instead, they are greedy, deceitful, and clueless. Where did they get that? Politico-religious influencers have seduced them into seeing the world differently. 

 Yet, the prophets and priests who claim to speak for God stand in the pulpit and assure the people with words saying: “Shalom, shalom” when there is no peace. The people have become so accustomed to this kind of behavior, to the greed, the deceit, and the ignorance, that they are not even ashamed anymore. In fact, they are proud of their ignorance, their ill-gotten wealth, and the lies that they tell to pretend it isn’t so. This seems to be true both then and now. Oh my, oh my.