Jeremiah for Everyone

John Goldingay

• Publisher: SPCK Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780281061389
• eBook ISBN: 9780281067879
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Bibles

Situated in the years leading up to the overthrow of Judah by the Babylonians, Jeremiah's prophesies are set against a tense atmosphere of threat and invasion. Strongly warning of God's judgment and the nation's imminent catastrophe, Jeremiah lost credibility amongst his contemporaries as the years progressed, but the length of his book and the duration of his ministry establishes him as a major figure in the Old Testament. The fulfilment of his prophecies in later events of the Bible reassert the truth of his words and his speeches and prayers depict a God whose anger is a passionate response to the depths of love he feels for his people.Using personal anecdote, a witty and lively style, and drawing on his considerable theological knowledge, John Goldingay takes us deep into the unfolding story of the Old Testament.

JEREMIAH 1:1–19

More a Summons than a Vocation

¹The messages of Jeremiah son of Hilqiah, one of the priests of Anatot in Benjamin’s territory, ²to whom Yahweh’s message came in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign, ³and came in the days of Jehoiaqim son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, until Jerusalem’s exile in the fifth month.

⁴ Yahweh’s message came to me:

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I acknowledged you,

before you came out from the womb I set you apart.

I made you a prophet concerning the nations.”

⁶ I said, “Oh, Lord Yahweh—

really, I don’t know how to speak,

because I’m a young man.”

⁷ But Yahweh said to me,

“Don’t say, ‘I’m a young man.’

Because you’re to go out to anyone to whom I send you,

and speak anything that I command you.

⁸ Don’t be afraid of their faces,

because I’ll be with you to rescue you”

(Yahweh’s declaration).

⁹ Yahweh put out his hand and touched my mouth,

and Yahweh said to me,

“I’m putting my words into your mouth.

¹⁰ See, I’m appointing you this day

over the nations, over the kingdoms,

to uproot and pull down, to destroy and overthrow,

to build and plant.”

¹¹ Yahweh’s message came to me:

“What are you looking at, Jeremiah?”

I said, “I’m looking at the branch of a watcher tree.”

¹² Yahweh said to me,

“You’ve done well to look at it.

Because I’m watching—

over my message, to put it into effect.”

¹³ Yahweh’s message came to me a second time:

“What are you looking at?”

I said, “I’m looking at a boiling pot,

with its mouth facing from the north.”

¹⁴ Yahweh said to me,

“From the north evil will open out

on all the residents of the country.

¹⁵ Because here am I summoning

all the families of the northern kingdoms

(Yahweh’s declaration).

They’ll come and put his throne, each one,

at the opening of Jerusalem’s gates,

against all its walls around,

and against all Judah’s cities.

¹⁶ I’ll pronounce my decisions to them,

for all their evil, in that they’ve abandoned me.

They’ve burned sacrifices to other gods,

bowed down to things their hands made.

¹⁷ You, you’re to put your belt around your waist,

get up and speak to them

anything that I myself command you.

Don’t shatter in front of them,

lest I shatter you in front of them.

¹⁸ I—here I am, making you

a fortified city today,

an iron pillar

and bronze walls against the entire country

(for Judah’s kings and its officers,

for its priests and the people of the country).

¹⁹ They’ll battle against you but they won’t overcome you,

because I’ll be with you (Yahweh’s declaration) to rescue you.”

Last week I took part in a conference on God, the church, and disability. One participant was a woman who has been ordained a priest, but she has a speech impediment that makes it hard to understand what she says, and she has had difficulty finding a position in a parish. Another was a paraplegic man who spends much of his time selling candy in the street, but he has raised thousands of dollars by doing so and has supported five needy children in India and Africa with the proceeds; he’s also visited India and Africa to meet them. He was hard to understand, too, but he had a vibrant testimony mostly given through his father. How could these people have the courage to believe they had a ministry to exercise?

The question arises for Jeremiah because he’s just a young man—maybe in his twenties, maybe even younger. A culture such as Israel’s recognizes that wisdom lies with people more senior. Who’s going to listen to someone so junior? While not disputing that Jeremiah is correct in principle, God isn’t constrained by the way things usually work. He likes to choose the younger brother rather than the older one (in the West he might make the point in the opposite way, by using someone who’s “past it”). What will count isn’t whether Jeremiah has had time to develop wisdom but whether God gives him things to say. The point is made vividly by Yahweh’s talk of deciding on Jeremiah before his birth, before any gifts he might develop have had a chance to form. Even then, Yahweh “acknowledged” him, made a commitment to him, and set him apart. Like Saul of Tarsus when Jesus appears to him, Jeremiah has little alternative to becoming God’s agent. There’s no suggestion that God’s call corresponds to the inclination of the person called. He’s the master whether the servant likes it or not.

Another advantage of choosing a young man is that he has no marital or family commitments and will be able to exercise a ministry that persists over forty years, as far as we know the longest of any prophetic ministry. The point is implicit in the opening to the book, which gives a date of 626 for his initial receiving of a message from Yahweh and indicates that it continues until after Jerusalem’s fall to the Babylonians in 587. It actually continued after that event, but the point about mentioning the city’s fall and its people’s exile is that these events were the vindication of his prophecies over all those decades.

I myself had an experience of God’s calling me to a ministry, but Jeremiah’s account of his call isn’t designed to encourage us to see our experiences as analogous to Jeremiah’s. Rather the opposite. It’s here to push people into taking seriously the prophecies that will follow. They’re not like the words of other preachers or self-styled prophets. The fact that God had to overcome Jeremiah’s unwillingness is another indication that he isn’t prophesying because he has an ambition to be a prophet or thinks he has prophetic gifts. He’s under compulsion. The community cannot afford to ignore him. God doesn’t necessarily call people because they have the appropriate gifts—again, it may be rather the opposite. Other prophets whom we’ll meet, such as Hananiah, look more gifted, but they’re not actually God’s mouthpiece.

Jeremiah is to be a prophet concerning the nations in several senses, but the expression “the nations” often refers to whatever is the imperial power of the day, and a major focus of his preaching will be the trouble that the upcoming great power, Babylon, will bring to Judah. It’ll be by its agency that Yahweh will destroy Jerusalem and uproot its people. Babylon will turn out to be the pot of trouble that will boil over from the north, the direction from which invaders usually came to Judah. It’ll also be by means of the next imperial power, Persia, that Yahweh will later see to the city’s rebuilding and its people’s replanting. The watcher tree is the flowering almond, which blossoms early after winter as if it’s waking up and watching for spring, so it provides a parable for what Yahweh is doing over his message, even when it doesn’t look like it.

It’s an impossibly demanding task imposed on a man who doesn’t want it. But Jeremiah isn’t just pushed out into the battlefield without support. God will be with him. In the Bible, it doesn’t mean that people feel that God is with them and that things will be OK. It means God is with them in a way that brings protection, whether or not they feel God is with them.

JEREMIAH 2:1–11

On the Cliff’s Edge

¹ Yahweh’s message came to me:

² Go, proclaim in Jerusalem’s ears:

Yahweh has said this:

I’ve kept in mind for you the commitment of your youth,

your love as a bride,

your following me through the wilderness,

a country not sown.

³ Israel was holy to Yahweh,

the firstfruits of his harvest.

All the people who ate of it would be guilty;

evil would come upon them (Yahweh’s declaration).

⁴ Listen to Yahweh’s message, Jacob’s household,

all the families of Israel’s household.

⁵ Yahweh has said this:

What wrongdoing did your ancestors find in me,

that they went far away from me,

went after emptiness and became emptiness,

⁶ but didn’t say, “Where is Yahweh,

the one who brought us up ...

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Series title
• Title page
• Imprint
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Text (a)
• Text (b)
• Glossary