By Such Stripes Are We Healed
by Jack Shaver
©The United Church of Canada, 1985
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 0-88622-196-X
7M/12/85/APL
Used with Permission
Monday
Duped into preaching
Jeremiah 20: 7-12
The prophet Jeremiah had along, tempestuous career. He was a member of a priestly family officiating at the local shrine of Anathoth. He broke with his family to join King Josiah's religious reform movement which sought to centralize worship in Jerusalem. After making this painful choice he became disillusioned with the Jerusalem scene.
During the reign of subsequent kings, the situation in Jerusalem deteriorated. The power of the Babylonian empire was on the increase. The city states of the Palestinian corridor came under increasing pressure. Powerful nobility in Jerusalem sought to persuade the king to link Judah with Egypt. Jeremiah was convinced that it was God's will that Babylon prevail. His criticism of the nation's foreign policy got him into deep trouble. He was arrested and put in prison as a traitor.
Zedekiah, Judah 's last king, kept releasing Jeremiah, seeking from him a word from the Lord and then heeding the contrary advice of his princes. The Babylonian emperor, tiring of Judah's swings from allegiance to rebellion, completely destroyed the city and sent all important families into exile.
This is the context of Jeremiah 's ministry. His preaching, like that of the other prophets, included social and religious criticism, but was especially specific concerning Judah's foreign policy. In chapters 27 and 28 we get a picture of what it was like to hear preachers accuse one another of false prophecy. Was it the will of God that Babylon triumph or not? Hananiah says "no"; Jeremiah says "yes." It makes it difficult for the listener when opposing preachers get so specific as they proclaim the word of God. Imagine the problem it makes for the preacher!
Of all the prophets, Jeremiah best reveals in his writing what it was like to be the one called to speak the word of the Lord in a time of historic turmoil.
In chapter 28 we find a rather tranquil reflection on the problem. In his conversation with Hananiah Jeremiah says:
"The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord
has truly sent the prophet "
That's a cool answer, but it doesn't quite deal with the anguish associated with the call to be God's spokesperson when history is in turmoil. The passage which we selected from chapter 20 for today's reading is more revealing. You will notice we move from prose to poetry at verse 7.
When I was at college we used a translation that rendered verse 7 thus:
"0 Lord, you duped me and I let myself be duped."
What is it like to be God's person?
I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!"
For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
Yet there is no getting out of it.
If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
- Speak Lord
God, we need a word from you. - We're surrounded by a confusion of voices, telling us all that we are doing wrong, enticing us to consume more than we do, pointing to a thousand things we should be doing.
- You speak.
Give us your words. - A lot of zealous people are speaking for you.
They are saying different things.
You speak.
Give us your words.- We can lose everything if we trust in a word that's not reliable.
We can destroy everything if we are driven by a word that is not true.
You speak
You love the world.
Your word will not fail us;
neither will it set us in destructive ways.- Give us your word.
And give us ears to hear it.
- Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Amen