We've reached the end of the book of Jeremiah. Unfortunately it is not a happy ending. Although he had done everything he could to warn the people, Jeremiah had been ignored, resisted and ridiculed.
Now his prophecies were fulfilled. The Babylonians have gutted the city and killed and exiled the people. The verb the author uses for "broke down all the walls" is the same verb that we found in Jeremiah's call: to tear down. It reminds us that that there could have been another outcome if Israel had _returned_ (remember that Hebrew word "shoev"?)
As we conclude there are some questions that remain:
1. Did Jeremiah fail?
2. Did God give him an impossible task?
It is tempting to view Jeremiah as a failure because the people didn't listen to him. But Jeremiah's task was to proclaim a message. He had to explain to God's people:
- Their sin was bringing disaster to them
- They couldn't rely on Egypt or themselves (remember the broken cisterns?)
- They couldn't use the temple as a lucky charm.
- Only true repentance would bring about change.
His calling was to: "uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow"
Jeremiah had to uproot bad theology, tear down idolatry and destroy self-serving nationalistic superstition and overthrow false religious leaders who were hirelings rather than shepherds.
He did this by proclaiming God's judgement on the nation, and when this was fulfilled he was vindicated.
BUT Jeremiah also had to "build and to plant." Jeremiah did this in four significant ways:
- He proclaimed a new covenant to be written on hearts not stone
- He anticipated a Messiah who would be our "Righteous Branch"
- He declared the hardship of exile was not an end, but a beginning
- He modelled an intimate relationship with God (more on this tomorrow...)
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Theo Groeneveld theo@gracepresby.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
