Don Veitch
Dear Friends in Christ,
I took a break from the incessant “BREAKING NEWS” to read and reflect on the readings for this day -- (to “escape”) – which began with Jeremiah 26:1-9; 12-15. This caught my attention and brought me a few moments of whimsy as I considered Jeremiah’s “human” response to a divine directive. The prophet, Jeremiah, was placed in an unenviable position between a “rock and a hard place;” he found himself selected by God to speak “truth to power.” In the Sixth Century BC, Judah was ruled for eleven years by Jehoiakim, an arrogant, incompetent king, a vassal of Babylonia.
However, Jeremiah, it seems, was not a willing “mouthpiece” for God – preferring to remain in the wings rather than center stage. Although tasked by God to “stand in the Court of the Temple,” Jeremiah, instead, had God’s message to the people transcribed to a scroll by his servant, Baruch, and it was Baruch who went to the Temple Court to read the scroll to the people and princes. God’s message was that the people (King included) should “turn from their evil ways” and thus avoid destruction of city and Temple such as was visited on the city of Shiloh.
When the princes heard (through Baruch) Jeremiah’s dire warnings (threats), they conveyed the scroll to the King. In his arrogance, King Jehoiakim cut up the scroll and derisively burned the pieces. Apparently, this did not earn Jehoiakim any favor in God’s sight: so, God had Jeremiah re-do the scroll with further strong words for Jehoiakim: “He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them;” – words which people, princes, and King continued to ignore.
In short measure, the Babylonians sacked the city, and Jehoiakim was removed and taken to Babylonia where (or on the way to which) he died in chains – thus bringing to fulfillment the warnings God gave to his people through Jeremiah – or Baruch.
The lesson (then and now) is clear: Those who would attempt to ignore God’s Word puts themselves in great danger. God’s expectation for us cannot be arrogantly ignored with impunity. (Today’s reading doesn’t satisfy my curiosity about how Jeremiah fared in this destructive time; reading for another day.)
It seems I was brought back to current events and personalities – people, princes, and potentates -- by my sojourn in Biblical text; my “escape” had simply brought me full-circle. Amen.
Don Veitch