Jeremiah 50-51

Lest anyone think that Jeremiah really is a traitor, a sellout to the Babylonians and their gods, we see today how thoroughly mistaken such an idea is. Jeremiah tells us quite clearly that Babylon, the instrument of the LORD’s judgment on Judah (and the remnant of Israel), will herself be destroyed in good time. So no, Jeremiah is not rooting for the Babylonians.

Remember, this is very much in line with what God did with Assyria. The LORD raised up the Assyrians as a judgment against Israel and as a strong warning to Judah. Having accomplished His purposes through Assyria, the LORD used the Babylonians to destroy those evil Assyrians. Now the LORD raises up the Babylonians in judgment against Judah (and everyone else in the region), and when He is finished with them, He will destroy them, too. It’s the same idea. We might even call it a pattern.

The LORD raises up, and the LORD tears down, and the LORD accomplishes His purposes. We see this all throughout human history — not just ancient history, but modern history, too. Do you think God had nothing to do with the rise and fall of the Roman Empire? Do you think He was unaware of Genghis Khan or the Ming Dynasty? Do you think God was absent from World War I or World War II or the Holocaust? Or how about the Soviet Union? Or the People’s Republic of China? Is God aloof from American politics?

Whenever you think that the “bad guys” are winning, just wait. God will deal with them in His own time — which may not be as quickly as we might like. But in the meantime we should ask ourselves whether we are really the “good guys”. Or are we like Israel and Judah, in need of a little forceful “encouragement” to mend our ways? Or might we ourselves be Babylon?

Jeremiah 29

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

We all love this verse, right? How many of us have memorized it? I’m guessing it is currently the best-known verse in all of Jeremiah. You’ll find it hanging on the wall in homes, as framed calligraphy or printed over a beautiful picture. Perhaps you’ve seen it as a refrigerator magnet. You’ll even find it emblazoned on t-shirts. It’s quoted frequently, most often by false prophets.

What?! Yes, you read that right: false prophets.

Think about it. This verse is consistently pulled entirely out of context. The false prophet fails to mention exile by the LORD’s hand. He fails to mention that Jeremiah is here telling the Jews in Babylon not to expect to come home any time soon, that it will, in fact, be seventy years of exile, by which time most of them will be dead. He fails to mention the rest of the story, that the LORD is bringing destruction upon all the exiles’ friends and family back home. The false prophet uses this verse to reassure us that all will be well, no matter what, that God never does anything that we might interpret as “negative”. God just wants to make you prosperous. Don’t worry; be happy! Everything is coming up roses!

And we drink it in, because that is what we want to hear. We are quick to claim Jeremiah 29:11 for ourselves, but why not Jeremiah 29:17-18? Who memorizes those verses? Why aren’t they hanging on our walls in framed art?

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not by any means saying that we cannot find hope and comfort in Jeremiah 29:11. We most certainly can and should. But let’s be sure to hear the whole message, not just the parts we like. Let’s remember that the path to the Resurrection runs through the Cross.

Jeremiah 25:15-38; 27:12-28:17

Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people and live.

Jeremiah 27:12b

That’s a hard thing to hear. In fact, it smacks of treason! Jeremiah might just as well be Nebuchadnezzar’s version of Tokyo Rose. Who wants to hear a message like that, especially when all the other prophets are much more encouraging? They, too, speak in the name of the LORD but are clearly much more loyal to the nation, much more patriotic — not like this traitor, Jeremiah.

We know that Jeremiah speaks the truth and that all the other “prophets” are lying. We know because we can look back and see how things work out for Judah and Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar. But when it comes to the voices around us today, it seems to me that we don’t do so well. In fact, I think we evangelicals do a pretty good job of training ourselves to believe the false prophets. Just think about all your Sunday School lessons: Moses vs. Pharaoh; Joshua and the walls of Jericho; David against Goliath; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego defying Nebuchadnezzar and his fiery furnace. It’s always victory through faith. And yes, faith is good! But where is the children’s Sunday School lesson on exile? Or surrender? Or suffering? Those require faith, too — deeper faith.

As a kid I could have easily told you about Daniel and the lions’ den or about Daniel’s friends and the fiery furnace. But I could have told you nothing at all about Jeremiah. Absolutely nothing. And I am pretty sure the reason for that is that we still don’t really want to hear what he has to say.

To whom do you listen?

II Kings 24:18-19; Jeremiah 52:1-2; 27:1-11; 48-49

The LORD declares through Jeremiah:

It is I Who by My great power and My outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to Me.

Jeremiah 27:5

We all smile and nod our heads in intellectual assent to the sovereignty of God. And it is all just fine, so long as we are thinking in the abstract and it is all “out there”.

Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. All the nations shall serve him…

Jeremiah 27:6-7a

Ah, here we move from the abstract to the concrete, and we begin to fidget.

But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, declares the LORD, until I have consumed it by his hand.

Jeremiah 27:8

Now we go from fidgeting to fear (or worse), because our nice abstract idea about God’s sovereignty suddenly demands something quite concrete of us, something we do not want to do: surrender to our perceived enemy.

So long as God’s will lines up with our own desires, we’re happy to say He is sovereign, but when His will and our desires diverge, we have a problem. Then we start trying to punch holes in this idea of an all-sovereign God, or we assert that His will is different from what we know it to be, all so that we can cling to our own way, our sin. But trying to outflank or outwit or overpower an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent God is a losing proposition.

Stay tuned.

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One more thing…

It is our sins that make the barbarians strong. It is our vices that vanquish Rome’s soldiers. As if there were here too little material for carnage, civil wars have made almost greater havoc among us than the swords of foreign foes. Miserable must those Israelites have been compared with whom Nebuchadnezzar was called God’s servant. Unhappy too are we who are so displeasing to God that he uses the fury of the barbarians to execute his wrath against us. Still, when Hezekiah repented, 185,000 Assyrians were destroyed in one night by a single angel. When Jeshosaphat sang the praises of the Lord, the Lord gave his worshiper the victory. Again, when Moses fought against Amalek, it was not with the sword but with prayer that he prevailed. Therefore, if we wish to be lifted up, we must first prostrate ourselves.

Saint Jerome on Jeremiah 27, from Letter 60.17

Try rereading the above substituting “terrorists” for “barbarians” and “U.S.A.” for “Rome”.

Daniel 3-4

I expect that many of us are somewhat familiar with Daniel 3. We are probably less familiar with Daniel 4.

Although Nebuchadnezzar’s response to Daniel’s interpretation of his dream is favorable in Daniel 2, he does not then put his full faith in Daniel’s God. He continues in idolatry, erecting an enormous golden image and commanding that all bow down and worship it. Daniel’s friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), refuse to bow down to this image, so Nebuchadnezzar has them thrown into a fiery furnace, from which they emerge unscathed, without even the smell of smoke. This is the story many of us may know from Sunday School, but I’m betting our focus has been on God’s miraculous work saving the three friends (Yay!), or maybe on their extraordinary faith (Yay!), and not so much on Nebuchadnezzar, whose response to this encounter with the living God is again quite favorable — and again in stark contrast to the people of Jerusalem. But even after this great miracle, as far as full faith in God is concerned, Nebuchadnezzar is not quite “there” yet.

God then gives Nebuchadnezzar another dream, and Daniel is called in again to interpret. Daniel urges the king to repent, to do righteousness, and to show mercy. (Dan. 4:27) Nebuchadnezzar probably gives Daniel’s advice fair consideration — for a time, at least — but pride is a hard thing to give up, especially when you are the most powerful person around. So about a year later, as Nebuchadnezzar stands admiring himself, glorying in his own kingdom, God takes that kingdom from him, sending him into what appears to be a complete mental breakdown.

It’s hard to be on top of the world when everyone can see that you are crazy. Nebuchadnezzar thus gets a strong dose of humility. Eventually, in His mercy, God restores Nebuchadnezzar’s sanity, along with his kingdom. Now, finally, Nebuchadnezzar gets the picture and (I think) truly does acknowledge God’s supremacy, placing His full faith in God.

It is only in the loss of his kingdom, no, the loss of himself, that Nebuchadnezzar finds God. He could be impressed by Daniel’s dream interpretations. He could be amazed at God’s miraculous rescue of Daniel’s friends from the fiery furnace. But these things are insufficient. It is only in complete loss — a kind of death — that he finds life.

And so it is with us, as Jesus tells us:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

John 12:24-25

Let’s learn from Nebuchadnezzar today. Let’s allow this king of Babylon to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our lives!

Daniel 1-2

Today we are introduced to Daniel and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (better known, perhaps, by their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), who are exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon as young men, probably barely in their teens. From the outset, these young men cling to the God of heaven and refuse to be tainted by Babylonian practices, demonstrating a faith that is in stark contrast to the corruption of Judah.

King Nebuchadnezzar likewise stands in contrast to the leadership of Judah. Whereas those in Judah readily believe the false prophets, but refuse to believe Jeremiah (or any other true prophets), Nebuchadnezzar shows a healthy skepticism of all his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and Chaldeans and puts them to the test, demanding that they not only interpret his dream but tell him the dream, too. None rises to the challenge but Daniel, whom God empowers with an extraordinary revelation, giving both the dream and its interpretation. But the real punchline is how the pagan King Nebuchadnezzar responds. Back in Jerusalem, the priests of the LORD and all the people of Judah actively abuse Jeremiah and stifle his voice. Here in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar honors Daniel and promotes him and his friends to positions of leadership and power.

Is it not shocking that this pagan king displays more godliness here than all the priests in Jerusalem? What a rebuke this scene is to them! Of course, Nebuchadnezzar is only just beginning to encounter God. He is not yet to the point of conversion (as will be amply demonstrated tomorrow), but he still produces a better response than those who should know God quite well.

May we likewise be quick to recognize Truth and respond rightly to God!

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One more thing…

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah…

Daniel 1:1

If you are paying attention and can do basic arithmetic, you should recognize that this verse places the beginning of Daniel’s exile in Babylon eight years prior to yesterday’s reading (that is, in 605 B.C.), which goes to say that our chronology here is mixed up. We should have read this passage days ago, before Jehoiakim’s burning of Jeremiah’s scroll. The editors of The Chronological Study Bible rationalize their choice of placing today’s reading here, but I think we’d all do better to believe the Scriptures (including Daniel 1:1; 2:1) as written, rather than the very fallible interpretations of some modern scholars.

The editors’ choices are not without serious implications. If we disregard Daniel 1:1 (as the editors do in their not-so-chronological placement of today’s reading), then we are given the impression that Jeremiah has virtually no concrete evidence of the Babylonian threat before 597 B.C. But if we believe Daniel 1:1, we have a very different picture. Jeremiah does indeed have very clear evidence: the exile of Daniel and many others and the carrying off of some of the Temple treasure in 605 B.C. Among other things, that makes Judah’s choice to continue to believe the false prophets all that more egregious.

II Kings 24:5-9; Jeremiah 22:18-30; 13:15-27; II Kings 24:10-17; II Chronicles 36:5-10; Jeremiah 24:1-10

It’s 597 B.C. Jeremiah has been prophesying in Jerusalem for years, pleading for the people of Judah to repent in order to avoid destruction. Jehoiakim, that arrogant king that burned Jeremiah’s scroll, lies dead, unmourned. His son, Coniah/Jeconiah/Jehoiachin takes the throne but does not change course. Contrary to all the assurances of peace from the false prophets, Jerusalem falls to the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar. The upper-crust of society — King Jehoiachin, his mother, thousands of great men, nobles, craftsmen, anyone of capability — are deported to Babylon, along with all the precious things from the Temple and the palace. The disaster Jeremiah has been predicting is here. (Spoiler alert: The disaster has only just begun!)

Given the LORD’s pronouncement against Coniah/Jeconiah/Jehoiachin in Jeremiah 22:28-30 as he goes off to captivity, that he would be considered childless with no offspring on the throne of Judah, one might expect a similar assessment for all those going into exile. That is, our intuition views those being hauled off into captivity as the ones under condemnation, and those staying home in Jerusalem as better. In other words, “bad guys” are sent into exile, but “good guys” stay safe at home. Wrong. In an ironic twist, the LORD turns our intuition on its head when He gives Jeremiah a vision of two baskets of figs, one with good figs and one with bad, inedible figs:

Then the word of the LORD came to me: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be My people and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

Jeremiah 24:4-7

The LORD repeatedly promises to preserve a remnant of His people for Himself. But who would ever guess that captivity in Babylon would be the path of that preservation?!

Perhaps we should meditate on that when a) life does not seem to make sense or b) we think we have everything figured out.

Jeremiah 23:9-40; 18:18-20:18

To whom do you listen?

Yes, I asked this question just a few days ago. Well? Have you given it any consideration? Do you, perhaps, need to change the channel? Or do you think that the question is intended for everyone else, but not you? Perhaps you’ve been a Christian for decades, so you are confident in your faith, and think yourself immune from being led astray. Or perhaps you are so comfortable with your life patterns that you don’t want to reassess anything. Or maybe, just maybe, you’d rather avoid the question altogether. Is it just too uncomfortable to think (or admit) that perhaps you have believed false prophets?

But you must not avoid the question. It is of critical importance.

I know other persons, however, whom an abysmal lack of wisdom and prudence so deceives and tricks that they think that the faith that they pretend to have will help them before God without the works of justice. They commit abominable crimes without fear by reason of this kind of error, while they believe that God is the avenger not of crimes but of lack of faith. Not only are they willing thus to ruin themselves, but also they strive by their snares to trap others in whom there is not light of divine knowledge. Do not listen to the words of the prophets who invent a vain vision for themselves, which they speak as false prophets from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. They say to those that reject the words of the Lord, “Peace shall be yours,” and to all who walk according to their own desires, to everyone who walks in the error of his heart, they have said, “No evil shall come to you.”

Saint Augustine, from “The Christian Life,” 13

No, we must not avoid this question, because we cannot avoid the LORD.

Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:24

Sooner or later we must face Reality. Sooner or later we must face the Truth. And it is far better sooner than later.

Listen to Him: “Come to Me, all you who labor.” You do not put an end to your labor by running away. You prefer to run away from Him, do you, not to Him? Find somewhere and run away there. But if you cannot run away from Him, for the good reason that He is present everywhere, the next thing to do is run away to God, who is present right where you are standing. Run away, then. So, you see, you have run away beyond the heavens, He is there. You have gone right down to hell, He is there. Whatever solitary spaces of the earth you may choose, there He is, the One who said, “I fill heaven and earth.” So if He fills heaven and earth and there is nowhere you can run away from Him, do not go on laboring with all that trouble. Run away to Him where He is present right beside you, to avoid experiencing Him as He comes to judge you.

Saint Augustine, from Sermon 69.4

To whom do you listen?

II Kings 24:1-4; Jeremiah 35

Today we get an interesting little story involving a clan called the Rechabites. Don’t worry. You’ll be forgiven if you do not recognize that clan. But if you are curious, feel free to look back at II Kings 10:15,23 to reacquaint yourself with Jonadab/Jehonadab’s role in Jehu’s overthrow of Israel’s King Ahab and the subsequent purge of Baalism there 200+ years before this point. (Aside from the fact that Jonadab is clearly no fan of Baal, none of that history sheds much light on today’s story.)

With the Rechabites’ refusal to drink wine and the LORD’s subsequent commendation of them, I expect (in fact, I am quite sure) that today’s reading has been used in support of teetotalism. But teetotalism is not the point of this story any more than the notion that we should all also emulate the Rechabites in adopting a nomadic lifestyle. The point is that the Rechabite clan’s adherence to Jonadab’s command is in stark contrast to Judah’s complete refusal to obey the LORD, despite the LORD’s persistent calling.

We can be like the Rechabites. Or we can be like the people of Judah. Which will it be?

Jeremiah 8:4-10:16

Of what are you most proud? What are those things you’d like everyone to know about you? Having been raised in polite society, perhaps you do not actually boast of such things, but deep down, what do you wish others would ask about you at parties, so that you could tell them all about it? Perhaps you’ve had some spectacular business successes and made a bundle. Or maybe you’d like to recount your exploits on the athletic fields back in the day. Or maybe you’re smarter than most, an excellent student, a walking encyclopedia of knowledge, quick with your insights into many problems.

But what does God say through Jeremiah?

Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

Jeremiah 9:23-24

I don’t think that the LORD is saying that we should actively deny our strengths or assets, our talents and abilities. No, if the LORD has given you wisdom or strength or riches or anything else, rejoice and thank Him for those gifts. To do otherwise would be to dishonor Him, the Giver of all good things. But in all of it, we need to get our priorities straight. We need to understand that knowing Him far surpasses anything else.

No sensible person, then, will be proud of his wisdom or of possessing the other goods I have mentioned, but will follow the excellent advice of blessed Anna and of the prophet Jeremiah: “Let not the wise person glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong person glory in his strength, and let not the rich person glory in his riches.” But what is true glory, and what makes a person great? “In this,” says the prophet, “let him that glories, glory that he understands and knows that I am the Lord.” This constitutes the highest dignity of humankind. This is his glory and greatness. Truly it is to know what is great and to cleave to it, and to seek after glory from the Lord of glory.

Saint Basil the Great, from “Homily 20, on Humility”