Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22 Commentary

Dialoguing with God

This text—not just the parts chosen by our Lectionary editors but the whole chapter—offers a beautiful example of God and God’s people in relationship, dialoguing and talking out their differences. In this case (and, to be honest, most cases), their difference of opinion shows up over sin, over human failure to keep covenant with God. In this case, God has gotten the people’s attention through what the CEB Study Bible calls “a series of negations—no water, no rain, no grass, nothing to eat.” So the people respond with confession, which turns to lament, which becomes complaint. While it may seem impolite, it is honest and that honesty is a sign that God’s people are talking themselves back into relationship with God.

But God interrupts their lament, as though “not so fast” or “we’ve been down this road before.”  God instructs the prophets NOT to preach a quick “no worries” or “let’s just move on.”  Stories about a quick fix, an easy solution, a God who, out of the love for the people, would never let anything bad happen to them? These stories are falsehoods. And these falsehoods will undermine the faith of God’s people when they DO encounter bad things, problems without easy solutions and brokenness that no amount of superglue can fix. This is a familiar theme in Jeremiah and not too far removed from our own realities today. “People in this culture sought the guidance of prophets, and there appears to have been a good many such prophets in Jeremiah’s time who told their audiences what they wanted to hear.”(CEB)

Biblical scholars propose slightly different options about who is speaking in the second half of our text. Some say it is God. Others say Jeremiah but, even if it is the prophet, he is speaking on behalf of God in some sense, so the people would do right to heed these as the very words (and surprising actions!) of God.  God who weeps for the punishment facing ”my virgin daughter, my people (v.17) As the CEB Study Bible frames it, “In either case, Israel’s righteous judge doesn’t stand off to the side in the midst of judgment but suffers as a good parent suffers for a child in distress.”

And, predictably, the children in distress cry out (vs. 19-22) “But that’s not FAIR!” However, their argument has progressed from a toddler tantrum to the nuanced thinking of a teenager, as though they are saying: We’re not pretending we’re in the right here.  But aren’t you the God who promises *not* to reject your children? Isn’t your name and reputation on the line in this dispute? Even if we are unreliable in matters of the covenant, isn’t it the case that YOU have promised to be faithful to us, no matter what? No one else can do what we need.  We aren’t going begging in other people’s homes.  We’ve come to You to do what only You can do. According to Robert Alter, “this is an argument that God shouldn’t allow His own throne to be debased.”

However, at least as yet, God’s mind is not changed and God’s will is not moved by this exchange.  After all, this is just a snippet of a much larger dialogue, spanning decades and a whole 52 chapters in the book of Jeremiah.

The Presence of God

In a sense, this text serves as a kind of “back-handed compliment.”  In other words, God has sent/allowed punishment for God’s people. And God is not relenting, at least not as quickly as the prophets are trying to assert in God’s name. It could seem as though God is distance, removed and far off.  But the very nature of this back-and-forth proves something else.  Verse 9 says it directly. “You are among us, O Lord.” The deep, abiding conviction that God is present, that God has not and will not abandon God’s people is the foundation upon which the people can build up their complaint.

Illustration:

Up and Down Arrows

To pick up the dialogical theme of the text, you might try an experiment with your congregation.  While it’s insightful for everyone, a children’s message or interaction with upper elementary age students works well for this.  Take your worship bulletin and, draw an arrow pointing up for each time the congregation is talking to God.  Draw an arrow pointing down for each time God is speaking to us. This can be tricky since it’s not (usually) an audible voice from heaven but, rather, the use of Scripture or—in some traditions—the pastor or priest has a special task of delivering words on God’s behalf in the service (greeting, absolution, benediction, etc.) And then include a horizontal arrow pointing both directions for the times in the service when we talk to one another.

In other words, the dialogical nature of Scripture texts, like this week’s Hebrew Scripture reading, is still alive and well today in our worship services!

A Word for Pastors:

Although it is just outside our Lectionary selection, verse 18 offers an important word for pastors, preachers and priests today.  Verse 18 tell us about “both prophets and priests (who) have gone to a land they know not.” Robert Alter captures the poetry slightly better in his translation: “for prophet and priest as well go round the land and know not where.” He provides this commentary, “Prophet and priest are supposed to be guides for the people. Now, in the natural catastrophe, they wander through the land, dazed, scarily knowing where they are going.”

This is intended as a direct contrast to the “prophets” who tell the people what they want to hear and are, one assumes, quite beloved for it.  Faithfulness to God and God’s people in a time of transition—congregational, denominational, national, global, etc.—is not easy on God’s servants.  That sense of displacement and uncertainty you may be feeling are not necessarily signs that you are doing it wrong but—might, in fact—be exactly the evidence that you are doing what is required.