Paper on Jeremiah

In Jeremiah 20:7‑13, the prophet discloses how his life has come to mirror the prophecies that he proclaims. Chosen by God before his birth, called as a youth, Jeremiah begins his career as the mouthpiece of God whose words are God’s words and whose strength is God’s strength. But a man cannot be an “iron pillar” as God seems to expect (1:18) and in a series of personal laments or “confessions” Jeremiah reveals how the words of God change and restructure the life of God’s very human prophet.

From a priestly family and therefore a part of the “establishment” in Judah, Jeremiah begins his prophesies as a central prophet who is only peripherally involved with his prophecy. He sees himself as a messenger‑boy from God to the people, faithfully delivering his message but basically untouched by it. In his first lament he almost seems surprised that some would seek to destroy him for merely delivering a message. By this lament Jeremiah’s life has become so involved with his prophecies that his life has become the prophecy – by looking at Jeremiah, as well as by listening to his words the people can see their future. Because of the power of his words he has become an outcast. He has evolved into a peripheral prophet whose prophecy is the central fact of his existence.

Just as God often has Jeremiah use a tool to represent his prophecies (13:1‑11, 18:1‑11, 19:10‑13), God uses Jeremiah’s life as a tool to represent both the fate of Judah and the relationship between God and the chosen people. The private laments are included in the account of Jeremiah’s public ministry in order to show how Jeremiah struggles with the question of his own suffering in relationship to his own chosenness. By looking at the structure of this particular lament within the larger context of the book of Jeremiah one can see that as his life comes to embody God’s prophecies, Jeremiah develops an understanding of God and God’s word and changes his self‑ understanding from one who proclaims judgment to one who lives under judgment.

Part 1

You have deceived me LORD

and I was deceived.

You are stronger than I

and you have prevailed.

I am a laughing stock

all the day everyone mocks me.

When compared to Jeremiah’s earlier prophesies, the stark accusations that begin this lament reveal a shift in the prophet’s outlook.  Whereas he formerly saw God’s strength as protective and the instrument by which the deceitful people (3:6, 5:2, 7:8, 8:5) are brought to shame (13:25‑26), he now sees God’s strength as deceptive because that strength has turned against him and brought him to shame. In his first personal lament (11:18‑12:6), Jeremiah begins to realize that perhaps he has been deceived and in keeping with his oracles he accuses the people of being the deceptive ones. However, beginning in his second lament (15:10‑21) Jeremiah starts to question God’s role in his troubles implying an awareness that God may be the one deceiving the prophet. In this lament, Jeremiah no longer questions God’s deception, he proclaims it. Now, by juxtaposing these three pairs of lines Jeremiah is saying in effect, “Lord, you deceived me when you told me that you would be with me to deliver me; that you would set me over nations and kingdoms (1:9). Instead, you have used your strength against me and have caused me to be a laughing stock.”

Section 2

For whenever I speak I cry out violence,

and ruin I proclaim.

For the word of the LORD has been to me

a reproach and derision all the day.

Then I said I will not mention him

or speak again in his name,

But it was in my heart like a flame burning

shut up in my bones

For I was weary of holding it

and I was not able.

This section reveals both a look at what power the word of God has over the life of God’s prophet and a change in how Jeremiah views the word of God. The power of God’s word can be seen in a comparison of this section with Jeremiah’s call. The refusal of Jeremiah to speak God’s words echoes his initial refusal (1:6). The earlier refusal was an almost a formulaic response typical of several prophets from Moses onward (Ex 3:11, Is 6:5), focusing on Jeremiah’s inability to speak. In contrast, this section emphasizes the prophet’s inability to refrain from speaking. The words will come out despite Jeremiah’s reluctance.

The prophet’s change in attitude from acceptance to reluctance can be traced by looking at this lament in comparison to previous laments. Faithful to the word that has been given to him (1:9‑ 10) Jeremiah has proclaimed violence and destruction to the people of Judah (6:7). Just as the people scorned the word of God (6:10) they now scorn the bearer of that word. This in itself is not a change for in every lament Jeremiah complains about being persecuted for proclaiming the word of God. However, in a previous lament while Jeremiah acknowledges the reproach that the words have brought to him, he also calls them a “joy and the delight of my heart.” By contrast, in this lament Jeremiah makes clear through the device of synonymous parallelism that it is not the people’s response that is the reproach but the words themselves. The words that once delighted his heart now burn his heart. The fire that was meant to destroy the people (4:4, 5:14, 6:29, 11:16, etc.) is destroying the prophet from within, eventually leaving him broken and shaken (23:9)

Section 3

For I hear the evil report of many

Terror all around

Expose! Let us expose him.

Every man of my peace watching for my fall.

Perhaps he will be deceived

and we will prevail against him

and take our revenge on him.

Just as the previous section shows what the word of God has done to Jeremiah inwardly, this section shows what has happened to Jeremiah outwardly. Jeremiah had been proclaiming violence and destruction. He has warned that “terror is on every side” (6:25). In the first part of Chapter 20 he gives the name “Terror‑all‑ around” to the priest Pashur in order to once again warn of the approaching destruction to come from the Babylonians. But so far Jeremiah’s words have been more true of his own life than of the lives of Judah and the prophets to whom he speaks.

In considering the structure of this section, we can understand Jeremiah’s situation if we read lines 3‑4 as synonymous with lines 1‑2. In these first two distichs, the words that Jeremiah has spoken are reflected back at him in the evil report of those who cry “Expose him.” The prophets who (falsely) prophesy peace (14:13, 23:17), including Pashur, have become a terror not to the people but to Jeremiah himself.

By returning to the theme of deceit in the last three lines, Jeremiah seems to imply that the prophets seek to denounce him to God. Jeremiah has told them that they are false prophets, now they turn the charge back on him. Placed as they are in the middle of a personal prayer or lament to God, these lines could be understood as a veiled attempt by Jeremiah either to question God about the validity of his message or to challenge God to vindicate his message by bringing it to pass. In any case these lines serve to emphasize Jeremiah’s conviction that he is the one being deceived and over whom others ‑ both God and the false prophets ‑ will prevail.

Section 4

But the LORD is with me like a mighty, ruthless one.

Therefore my persecutors will stumble

and not prevail.

Greatly will they be ashamed

for they have not acted wisely.

A disgrace everlasting

that will not be forgotten.

The first line of this section reveals more than any other Jeremiah’s understanding of God. This is not merely a “rock‑bottom affirmation of his faith” (JAT p.461) but a fundamental change in perception. No longer pleading for God’s presence and protection (as in 18:19), the prophet proclaims God’s presence. However God is no longer his “refuge in the day of evil” (17:17): God is now a mighty ” ‘ariyts”.

Everywhere else that this word is used in the Hebrew Scriptures, even is Jeremiah, it describes one who is terrible, ruthless, and oppressive (see for example Jer 15:21, Ps 37:35, Ps 54:3, Isa 13:11, Eze 28:7). Nowhere else, however, is it used to describe God. In applying this word to God, Jeremiah asserts that true terror comes not from being surrounded by false friends or being threatened by destroyers from the north but from being in the terrible presence of God. If even God’s true prophet suffers in the presence of the LORD, how much more will the false prophets suffer? Surely Jeremiah’s certainty about the fate of his own persecutors stems from his knowledge of his own fate at the hands of the Lord, the Great Persecutor. (cf. B p175)

Contained in these lines is the sense (in common with the Deuteronomistic view) that these persecutors of Jeremiah will in the end get what is coming to them ‑‑ indeed will receive the same treatment that the prophet has already experienced. These people who were not ashamed even when they “committed abomination” (6:15 and 8:12); people who thought that they were wise even while rejecting the word of the LORD (8:8‑9); people who mocked Jeremiah when the LORD prevailed over him; all these will now be overcome themselves and their shame will be unforgettable.

Section 5

But LORD of Hosts who tests the righteous

and sees the innermost self and the heart,

Let me see your vengeance on them

For to you I have revealed my cause.

Sing to the LORD

Praise the LORD

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hand of evildoers.

As is customary in this form of expression, this lament ends with an expression of faith and praise. In fact, the first half of the ending is quite similar to the ending of the first lament. By comparison with previous laments these four lines in the context of this passage are not simply part of a formula; they serve to underscore the changes that Jeremiah has undergone.

Significantly, neither in this section or the previous one does Jeremiah ask to be delivered from his pain or his shame as he has before (15:18, 17:18). In naming God as ” ‘ariyts” he has abandoned simplistic ideas of God as one who always exalts the righteous and destroys the evildoers. In contrast, God is not merely one who judges the righteous in order to test their hearts as in the first lament (11:20). In fact God is one who tests the righteous in order to see their hearts ‑‑ in order to discover their true nature and identity. Having gone through the testing Jeremiah is able to present his case before God not in an apologetic and questioning way as before (12:1‑3) but in a fearless and forthright manner, asking to witness the judgment he knows will be forthcoming.(*)

Finally the last lines of this lament stand as an acknowledgement of Jeremiah’s realization that God has not deceived him after all. God has delivered him as promised (1:8,19). Jeremiah had evidently forgotten or ignored the LORD’s equally clear promise that the prophet would be fought against and that his message would fall on deaf ears (5:21,6:10). Likewise, God’s warning to Jeremiah on the consequences of failing to trust God ‑ “Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them” ‑ has not been heeded by the prophet. In the end, however, God does preserve the life of his prophet just as he preserves a remnant of the people. Jeremiah recognizes that true punishment is not found in shame but in the loss of hope that he has prophesied for Pashur (20:6) and that he prophesies later on for Shemai’ah ‑ “he shall not have any one living among this people to see the good that I will do to my people” (29:32).

Why is this Jeremiah’s last lament? Because God and God’s prophet have finally come to an understanding of each other. God has tested the prophet and found him to be true; Jeremiah has come to understand that God is the source of his pain as well as his life and yet has esteemed God worthy of praise. Having finally clarified for himself the nature of the call that comes at the beginning of his ministry, small wonder that Jeremiah now curses the day of his birth in verses 14‑18. His cry is not a response to the rejection of his people as much as it is a response to being chosen by God.

In reading Jeremiah’s words and in reflecting on the scope and nature of his life and his relationship to God, the people of Israel discovered something about themselves. In Jeremiah as much as in Isaiah they found meaning given to their suffering. Isaiah talked about a suffering servant; Jeremiah gave them a model for one. Jeremiah also gave them a voice to express their anguish at realizing that God had chosen them not for greater favor but for greater responsibility and therefore greater judgment.

Those in the modern church would do well to study Jeremiah closely in order to understand that being chosen by God means to be used by God in ways that can be painful to the chosen. Those who claim to be a prophetic voice in today’s world will learn from this prophet that the word of God cannot be spoken by people who remain unaffected by the power of that word. The word of God must be lived out and lived under to be valid. Only after Jeremiah’s experience of suffering did Zedekiah recognized the validity of Jeremiah’s call by consulting him. Similarly the church can only proclaim a prophetic message and call the world to renewed faithfulness if it shares in the suffering of the world. Judgment can only be proclaimed by prophets who understand themselves to have been judged.