Reading: Jeremiah 7-9, Psalm 15
In the origin story of Superman, the title character’s Kryptonian father Jor-El is the one man who foresees the planet’s destruction, but no one else will listen to him. In the 1996 movie Independence Day, a cable engineer played by Jeff Goldblum is the only one to notice the alien signal, but no one will listen to him, either. In the very bad but bizarrely entertaining The Day After Tomorrow, Dennis Quaid is somehow the guy who sees disaster on the horizon. At least it makes sense that no one is listening to Dennis Quaid and Jeff Goldblum. Anyway. Have you ever seen disaster coming, but no one would listen to you? It is one of the more common tropes in disaster movies- the scientist that no one will listen to. They run around desperately trying to find someone who will believe them, until finally disaster strikes and they get to spend the rest of the movie saying “I told you so!” Well, not Jor-El so much. Poor guy.
Like the unheard scientist of disaster movies, the prophet Jeremiah is told about impending doom. He receives God’s words and a vision of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, and all the dire events that will follow. Destruction. Deportation. Exile. However, unlike the scientist from the disaster film, Jeremiah is straight up told that no one will listen to him. He is sent to call the people to repentance, to amend your ways and your deeds, but then is instructed do not pray for these people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Finally, he is told So you shall speak these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call them, but they will not answer you. I guess in a way it is nice to know the results ahead of time, but I think I would get pretty depressed.
That seems to be exactly what happens to Jeremiah. He goes into an extended lament, bemoaning the unfaithfulness of the people. What is interesting about this lament is that it is also a prophetic word. This is clearly Jeremiah in anguish, but he is also expressing God’s mourning over his unfaithful people. Jeremiah, more than any of the other prophets, tends to speak like this. His own emotional state seems to mirror that of God throughout the book- he mourns over Israel, he gets angry at their stubborn sin, he gets worn down by their refusal to listen and gives up on them. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because of these laments, and he will spend the rest of his life in a kind of extended mourning.
The message that Jeremiah is told to bring is bad. Destruction and judgment. But it is run through with the promise not to make a whole end of you. God has promised to use the descendants of Jacob to bless the world, and he will keep his promises. There will be some who survive and the nation will be restored. The coming destruction of the Temple will cause a great many people of Jeremiah’s day to doubt the power of their God to keep his promises, but Jeremiah points to Shiloh, where the Tabernacle once stood and was totally destroyed. God is not limited by the location of his worship. The Temple was never for God, it was for Israel to be able to approach God in a little pocket of a new creation.
An important question to ask is, given that we know Jeremiah’s message would not be heeded, what would the proper response be for those who came later? The book of Jeremiah records his prophecies and sermons not so much for the people of the day, but for the people who came later. There are hints interspersed throughout the book, and one of the key places this happens is at the end of chapter 9. Jeremiah has just finished declaring another lament when he says let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, or the mighty in his might, or the rich in his riches, but let him who boasts boast that he knows and understands me, the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness on the Earth. Jeremiah is sending a warning into the future as well as the present: it is not in the wisdom, might, or riches of man that salvation is found, but in the knowledge of the character of the God of Israel. He goes on to say that those circumcised merely in the flesh will not be safe, because they are uncircumcised in heart.
We have circled back to the heart condition as the primary issue. God will keep his promises to make all things new, but he will do so by giving his people a new heart. While Jeremiah’s warning will not be heeded, and he will not prevent impending disaster, there will come a day and a people who will listen to what he says and will surrender to who God says they are. Jeremiah’s message is bad, but it is also good. He is the weeping prophet, but he is also the prophet of the New Covenant.