COLNE AND VILLAGES TEAM
LENT BIBLE LECTURES 2011
LECTURE TWO
The Superscription
Let’s start at the very beginning! The opening verses of Jeremiah give us a superscription, a formal beginning which tells us the bare bones and sets Jeremiah in context
The superscription reminds us of his two distinct periods of activity.
We look at the first one today which first began in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah. It does not tell us anything about Jeremiah’s birth or death. We don’t know how old he was when the Word of the Lord came to him, nor how long he lived after he was taken off into exile. The period of his activity, however, covered a total of forty plus years (627-587 bce)
We also read .
Anathoth was a small village 1.9 miles north-east of Jerusalem. More than 400 years earlier it was the estate of the priest Abiathar who was exiled there after the accession of King Solomon because he had backed the wrong side in the struggle for the succession.
Jeremiah’s family may have been priests, but they may were not at the heart of priestly life and politics, but rather on its edge. Given Jeremiah’s position towards the religious and political establishment of Jerusalem at a later stage, mention of Anathoth may well be more than merely geographical information. It is, perhaps, a highly compressed symbol, giving us a clue to what will follow.
Historical information in biblical books is maddening. There is so much more that we, from our very different viewpoint, want to know. Why did the writers not give us more facts?
But the focus of attention in these brief verses is not the man but his message. The book begins, “The words of Jeremiah…” He does indeed play a much larger personal role than many of the prophets, and the long narrative sections bring him into a view as an individual. Yet, although these are ‘the words of Jeremiah’, and the book is know by his name, the superscription goes on the word of the Lord came to him….[2] It is the Word of the Lord which is significant here, and yet we see that this Word was not delivered in an abstract way, but in specific times and places by a specific human agent. We know whose words brought the Divine Word to the hearing of the last Kings of Judah, and we know where and when they were spoken, and what effect they had.
The Call[3]
We continue with ‘The Call of Jeremiah’. This comes in the form of a ‘word’ from God, a protest, and a commission. Finally he is given two visions, which are interpreted by the Lord.
We turn now to the first person. Jeremiah has been introduced to us, and now he speaks
The word of the LORD came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.[4]
Jeremiah was consecrated to God before his birth. There is some evidence that the word Prophet normally designated the official court prophets. Their advice was an important part of decision making in that period. Yet Jeremiah’s work was to be a ‘prophet to the nations’. Jeremiah answers with a typical word of protest:
Given the length of his ministry we may assume that Jeremiah was in his late teens or early twenties when this experience occurred to him. He protests his inability to speak—reminiscent of Moses—and his youth. He does not have the skills to be a prophet. At his age, and in his position, how is he to be ‘a prophet to the nations’?
The Lord answers him.
Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,”
declares the LORD.[6]
The final phrase might be used by a King at the end of a formal pronouncement. “Thus saith the Lord”, as the older versions put it, with a degree of emphasis. When this phrase is used the Lord has spoken definitively. This is not mere idle chat!
These are classic words of reassurance in the face of the reluctance which so many characters in scripture display when called upon by God.
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth
This reminds us that Jeremiah’s experience is a vision. He is not simply meditating quietly. This experience does not take place in his imagination. It is seen, it is palpable, and it is terrifyingly real.
And the words which come out, which will bring such trouble to Jeremiah, are not his words at all. They are The Word of the Lord.
This touching of the mouth is accompanied by a Commission:
I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.[7]
Ezekiel was given a scroll to eat[8]. Jeremiah’s experience is less symbolic, but yet the Word of the Lord has been placed inside him. He is appointed not simply to deliver messages, but to be an agent, perhaps the agent, by which the Lord’s Word would act not only for Israel but for the wider world.
The three Passion Predictions of Jesus in the synoptic Gospels end with the almost unnoticed words ‘and on the third day he will rise again’. In the same way the first two couplets expressing Jeremiah’s God-given authority, ‘to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow’ are followed by a third, ‘to build and to plant’. Jeremiah’s message was not exclusively one of doom, but was to help the exiles look beyond the shattering experience of the ‘exile of Jerusalem’ to the purposes of God in the future.
The commission is followed by two visions. Jeremiah is asked to describe what he sees, and the Lord interprets the vision.
The first is of a branch of an almond tree[9]
God’s reply makes no sense to us:
You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.
This is one of those word plays of which Hebrew is so fond. An almond branch is called shaqēd in Hebrew The word for watching is Shōqed. “You, Jeremiah, have seen a shaqēd, but I am shōqed to see that my word is fulfilled”. Hebrew words each have a root of three consonants. In the text that is all that is written. Both these words, though they have different vowels and different meanings, look exactly the same in Hebrew.
That God is watching might in itself be reassuring, but is God keeping an eye on his people as a parent watching a toddler, or as the headmaster looking over the playground tracking the movements of a group of bullies?
The almond blossom is the earliest to emerge, often as early as January in Mediterranean areas. It is called ‘The watchman’, a harbinger of what is to come. It is a sign of new life after winter; but here, the message is mixed!
Jeremiah sees something else. Again Jeremiah is asked what he sees.
I see a pot that is boiling
It is tilting toward us from the north. [10]
This pot is balanced, rather unevenly, on an open fire, so its mouth points not upwards but in a southerly direction. It is about to boil over, and the boiling liquid will flow southwards.
Again the Lord gives Jeremiah an interpretation:
From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land.[11]
God’s judgment against Judah is decreed.
Remember that at this stage in history, during the reign of Josiah, Judah was independent and prospering. There was no likelihood of invasion from the north, yet!
The reason given is unfaithfulness and idolatry—this despite the Reformation of Josiah which began just five years earlier.
After this very succinct summary of what Jeremiah’s ministry and message will be, the Lord strengthens those words of commission
Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you.
The consequences of disobedience are made plain.
Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them
A promise of protection, with a sting in the tail!
In this mission he will meet with inevitable opposition. So, the Lord promises
The Lord introduces the picture of a besieged city, but one which this time is made of impregnable materials, defended by the Lord himself.
Jeremiah may have been appointed as a ‘prophet to the nations’ , but his words will be directed against
Anathoth was two miles from Jerusalem, nearer than Nelson! No long journey was needed to begin this work of delivering God’s word, and, its consequences are inevitable.
They will fight against you…
But the call ends with a promise
…but they will not overcome you. I am with you and will rescue you.
This promise ends, again, with the solemn pronouncement ‘declares yhwh’
The Early Ministry[14]
We don’t know how quickly Jeremiah set off to deliver his words from the Lord. Did he set out filled with prophetic zeal or take some time to ponder this experience? We don’t know, but we do know that the following chapters, 2-6, date from this early period during the reign of Josiah. We can’t study the whole section tonight. Much as I would love to expound the whole text if I did we would be here for six years, not six weeks. But I hope to pick out some themes to help you in your own reading.
The Lord tells Jeremiah to go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. These are his first public words.
This is what the LORD says:
I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown.
how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown.
Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest;
This is very representative of what follows. The theme is the unfaithfulness of Judah. Here it is only implicit, as the Lord reminisces like a bridegroom remembering the first passion of young love. The wilderness is often depicted in the prophets as an idyllic period—in stark contrast to the Torah where the preoccupation is with Israel’s unfaithfulness. The wilderness is described as ‘a land not sown’. There is an allusion here to a relationship of complete trust and dependence where yhwh directly provides for his people.
‘Israel was holy to the LORD’ is a vital slogan at the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry. The whole people is called to be holy.
First fruits were offered from every crop harvested, as a reminder that the whole crop belonged to yhwh and came from his provision. Only after this ritual offering was the remainder of the harvest was released for common use. Anyone who ate the first-fruits was cursed. This reminds us of what will happen to those who oppress Israel.
With great economy the freshness and delight of what life might be like with God is evoked. Yet judgment is already implicit. “Remember what life used to be like” says yhwh with implying that life is not like that now.
The principal charge against the people of Judah is that they have adopted other gods, joined in their special forms of worship, and made idols of them. Social injustice gets relatively little attention in these early oracles[16].
It is worth taking a moment think about this charge. There is a technical word, Syncretism which means taking over the beliefs of one religion into another. This is common in polytheistic societies. Hindus, for example, are quite happy to say ‘Of course Jesus is God!’ and put a statue of him amongst the other gods on the mantelpiece.
In polytheistic societies there are gods for nations, for places, for occupations, for families. Usually there is a hierarchy of gods, and some are more important than others, but all have their own place, and their own form of worship.
Judaism however was, and still is, Monotheistic. Back in the days of Abraham, this meant worshipping only one God. Later, as Hebrew faith developed yhwh was believed to be the only God, and therefore all others were false. Yhwh became not merely the God of the Israelite territorial area and people, but the omnipotent creator of the whole universe.
Judaism also prohibited the representation of God. The Jerusalem Temple was unique in not having an idol of its God in the Temple. The outstretched wings of the cherubim formed a throne, but the throne was empty
These two planks of Judaism are stated in the first two of the Ten Commandments[17], and were non-negotiable.
Israelite religion could not, by definition, be syncretistic. But the influence of surrounding cultures crept in. Partly it was through foreign alliances. Jezebel imported her own gods, and so did the wives and concubines of King Solomon. The neighboring small nations, and even the Assyrian Empire were very similar in language and culture to Israel and Judah, and it was easy to assimilate their gods.
In almost every surrounding religion the principal god had a female consort. This seemed a logical to many Hebrews, and Ashteroth was especially popular, often adopted as the consort of yhwh.
Ahteroth was the consort of the chief of the gods. She was the goddess of fertility and love. She was also sometimes called ‘The Queen of heaven’[18].
Her princiapl religious emblem was a pole—sometimes formed from a living tree, sometimes fashioned of wood, like a totem-pole.
The archaeological record is full of images of Ashteroth, and there was a recent article on this subject on Discovery Channel’s website.
Adopting extra gods did not mean that they abandoned worship of their own. Yhwh was still regarded as their chief God, and his worship continued as before. Despite the importation of idols of other gods there was never a serious attempt to establish an image of yhwh in the Jerusalem temple.
Mannaseh, Josiah’s father—one of the most evil kings—explicitly imported Ashteroth and other gods into the worship of the Jerusalem temple.
Manasseh.... did evil in the eyes of the LORD... He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole... He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the LORD... [19]
Josiah cleared the Temple of all these abominations, and restored the worship of yhwh alone. Before Josiah there were many shrines throughout the land of Judah. Since it was difficult to regulate what went on at these small rural shrines all worship was now to be centralized at the Jerusalem Temple.
But, of course, people were reluctant to do this, and continued to worship illicitly. Because a sacred pole or tree was the focus for the worship of Ashtaroth her devotees often gathered on hills and in woods. This is what Jeremiah refers to when he says
On every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute[20]
‘On every high hill and under every spreading tree’ is a code for the worship of Ashtaroth.
There is no clear structure to Chapters 2-6, but there is an image which runs through it—the image of a husband passionately in love with a woman who has been unfaithful to him.
The theme begins with a nostalgic look back to the idyllic period of the wilderness, when love was fresh, and yhwh and Israel were alone together[21].
Israel is depicted not merely as unfaithful, but as a wanton women with multiple partners who cannot restrain her lusts—the promiscuous lusts of the wild camel or donkey.
The image of divorce is introduced. If a man divorces his wife and she marries again can he take her back again? So the Lord threatens his relationship with Israel. Again the image of prostitution is used. Israel has been unfaithful not with one god, but with many.
Israel and Judah are depicted as two sisters. Judah follows her older sister’s bad example, and therefore is even more unfaithful than Israel, which was destroyed almost a century ago. What will Judah’s fate be?
Judah is portrayed as a ‘painted lady’ whose lovers despise her. What a vivid image!
What are you doing, you devastated one? Why dress yourself in scarlet and put on jewels of gold? Why highlight your eyes with makeup? You adorn yourself in vain. Your lovers despise you; they want to kill you.
The accusation of adultery turns from being a metaphor. Faithless behaviour in relation to other gods affects personal relationships.
yhwh comes to the end of his patience. He goes to court, presses charges and presents evidence.
Therefore I bring charges against you again, declares the LORD. And I will bring charges against your children’s children. Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this: Has a nation ever changed its gods?[23]
The heavens themselves are called to be a witness, and their negative reaction is predicted.
Be appalled at this, you heavens,and shudder with great horror. My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water[24].
By that formal legal phrase ‘declares the Lord’ yhwh has become Judge as well as Plaintiff. The comparison of the fountain of living water—taken up by Jesus in John[25]—with the broken man-made cistern is a powerful one.
I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?[27]
Another image is that of washing away sin—again taken up in the New Testament in baptism.
Though you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Sovereign LORD[28].
Here, however, the washing is hopeless. Not even ‘Vanish’ can get rid of this stain!
These chapters end with the image of a smelter. Here it is Jeremiah, not yhwh, who is the smelter. Jeremiah’s words will destroy the ore by fire, but no silver will come out.
I have made you a tester of metals and my people the ore... The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire,but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out. They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.[29]
Later we will see much more of the personal cost of Jeremiah’s ministry—mental as well as physical. Here we get a foretaste:
Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent.
For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry. Disaster follows disaster; the whole land lies in ruins. In an instant my tents are destroyed, my shelter in a moment. How long must I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?[30]
These are actually the words of yhwh, and yet they seem to merge with the terrified feelings of Jeremiah. Who is reallyspeaking here? The love of yhwh for Judah is passionate and heartfelt, and it has been thrown back in his face. Judah has rejected him, and, though it is agonizing to do so, he will now reject them. yhwh now invites an act of imagination—imagine the massive army, hear the sound of the war trumpet, see the standards of the enemy, watch them approaching, sweeping everything away. Then they arrive at your tent! Jeremiah enters into the terror of the picture, but his audience remains deaf and blind to it.[31]
My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good[32].
Babylon has not yet risen to power, and Assyria is fading fast. But looking back to the second Vision in Jeremiah’s call, a powerful enemy from the north, still invisible to Judah, is already being raised up by yhwh as an instrument of his vengeance.
The next passage shows a vision not just of national suffering, but of cosmic devastation.
I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.
I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger.[33].
The heavens and the earth join in mourning at this prospect.
Therefore this is what the Lord says.
The whole land will be ruined, though I will not destroy it completely. Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above grow dark, because I have spoken and will not relent, I have decided and will not turn back[34].
God’s word is final, yet even here there is a glimmer of hope.
Throughout these chapters the priests and prophets are soundly condemned.
The priests did not ask, “Where is the LORD?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.[35]
They have lied about the LORD; they said, “He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine. The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them; so let what they say be done to them.[36]
Note there is no condemnation here of the King, since these prophecies are delivered in the reign of good King Josiah. Judah was prospering, the Temple was restored, and the worship of yhwh alone was re-established. Why these words now? They were clearly not echoed by the majority of the prophets—the prophets of the establishment.
yhwh’s assessment, delivered through Jeremiah, is that this conversion is only skin deep. The unfaithfulness of Judah is so ingrained that at the first possible opportunity they will revert to it. Though everything may look ship-shape in the Jerusalem Temple, the people still go out to ‘every high hill and every spreading tree’. Josiah’s reign was an Indian summer before the true nature of Judah is laid bare, and the yet unnamed adversary comes thundering down from the North. There were lots of prophets, but only the voice of Jeremiah was raised to call the people, one last time, to repentance.
Yet even in all this, yhwh looks to the future. The all-consuming cosmic devastation is tempered by a vision of the future Jerusalem. How similar it is to the vision in Revelation where ‘there will be no Temple in the city’[37]
Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,”
People will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made.
At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD’, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.
In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.[38]
Conversion, repentance, return to the Lord, will only happen beyond and through the shattering experience of Destruction and Exile—yet it, too, is part of the vision of yhwh. Cosmic destruction will be followed by a new Jerusalem, which will have the presence of God at its heart, and will need not even the precious Ark of the Covenant for a symbol. It will be focus not just for the worship of the whole restored nation of Israel and Judah, but ‘the nations will gather in Jerusalem to honour the name of the Lord’ and Jeremiah’s vision will be realized. But first he, too, has to go through that shattering experience.
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