Saturday, March 7, 2015

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Jeremiah 5:20-31

It was one of the darkest moments of Israel’s history, just before the southern kingdom of Judah was invaded by Nebuchadnezzar’s army and driven into captivity in Babylon.  The earlier part of Jeremiah 5 is a litany of the horrors about to descend on the people of Jerusalem and Judah, and today’s reading further condemns their despicable national sins.  They had refused to acknowledge or fear the Lord (5:20-25).  There were scoundrels defrauding people, becoming wealthy from ill-gotten gain (vv. 26-27).  In wickedness they deprived orphans and the needy of justice and their basic rights (v. 28).  Appallingly, their prophets and priests were lying while claiming to speak for God, and the people loved to have it like that (vv. 30-31).

What a hopeless situation!  How totally black the future must have seemed!  The people of the southern kingdom knew what had earlier befallen the northern kingdom, totally destroyed and no longer a nation or a people.  Their ancestors had been slaves in Egypt; they knew how vicious Nebuchadnezzar’s army was and feared the same fate for themselves.  Always before, God had had compassion on them, but no longer; now all hope was gone; they were doomed.

But not quite.  Just before today’s reading there is one tiny glimmer of hope (v. 18), just one, and not very reassuring:

But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end of you.

“Not a full end of you” – that’s not much hope to go on, but that’s all they had.  Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar’s army did soon invade, destroying Jerusalem and God’s Holy Temple.  The leaders and people of Jerusalem were dragged off to Babylon as captives. But most of the ordinary rural people were allowed to stay and tend their farms as usual.

After the exiles arrived in Babylon, they started to find it was not nearly as horrible as they had expected.  They were not treated as slaves; instead, they were allowed to settle down and work, earning their living and making friends with their neighbors.  Seventy years later, when a new empire was in place, they were even encouraged to return to Palestine and restore Jerusalem and the Temple. 

But instead, after the seventy years, many of the new generation of exiles were so much at home that they decided to stay in their new country.  Indeed, the Jewish people had learned much, advanced their culture, and refined their faith during the exile.  Much that is good in Jewish culture and faith has its roots in the Exile.  The Jewish diaspora, for example, begins in the Exile: clusters of Jewish people scattered here and there all over the empire or, eventually, all over the world, but maintaining their Jewish identity and worship of the Lord alone.  Synagogues as well, the local places where Jewish people gather for worship weekly and for instruction in the faith, likely originated during the exile.  

Most important of all, from the time of exile onward, the Jewish people remained faithful to the Lord, the one and only true God.  Before the Exile, the people were continually wandering away from the ways of the Lord.  Pre-exilic history and prophecy have many accounts of the people wandering off to worship idols and other gods, but never again after the Exile.  By New Testament times, there were clusters of Jews living all over the Roman Empire, and pagan idol worship was practiced on almost every corner, but never by the Jews or Christians, who, even at the cost of their lives, were steadfast in their faith and loyalty to the Lord as the one and only God.

Thus what seems to be total hopelessness and destruction in Jeremiah’s prophecy is transformed, in the Lord’s constant love, faithfulness, and gracious providence, into profound reformation and spiritual renewal.

Sometimes our lives too seem totally hopeless, totally black as we look toward the future.  Even when we know this is not really true, it can certainly seem so.  As we meditate during such times of deep depression, let us remember what our God can do, and will do for us in his faithfulness.  We can’t see the future or understand God’s ways; we may have been guilty of offending God deeply; but God’s love remains profound and intimate for each of us, just as the Jewish people found during the Exile. Let us remember, together with the people returning to Jerusalem (see Nehemiah 9:17), that

The Lord is ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  He does not forsake his people.

– Robert Kruse