Every year I try to read through the Bible. Often I will vary by translation as well as by the order of reading, so that it is a different experience, slightly, each year and doens’t get monotonous. For example, last year I read through the 1560 Geneva Bible (which was interesting, to say the least, leading to posts about unicorns, for example [1]). This year I was unable to read an entire year of a Spanish-translation Bible. Next year I’ll probably either go for a hybrid Tanakh (OT)-AENT year or use the ESV for my yearly Bible reading program. At any rate, right now in this year’s reading program we have reached the Book of Jeremiah.

There are some books of the Bible that are somewhat consistently surprising. For me, the Book of Jeremiah is one of those. It’s not a book that I tend to turn to except when I am doing a Bible reading program (apart from a couple of old chestnut references like Jeremiah 17:9 that are somewhat cliched), except for a recent message where I looked at what the Book of Jeremiah says about exiles returning home [2]. That was a bit of a surprise, as I had not remembered that theme being particularly strong in Jeremiah. When one is reading two or three chapters of a book a day and then not much at all for the rest of the year, it is easy to miss themes that only appear in small parts of an otherwise neglected book.

Sometimes, though, one picks up on details being repeated over and over again. This year, in reading Jeremiah, I have picked up on a repeating refrain that I had missed in reading the book before. Nonetheless, it was a point that I thought particularly relevant, so I am sharing it with my readers as a whole in the hope that they will feel likewise. At the very least, I want people to think a little bit about the possible relevance for Jeremiah in our time and our situation because of a message that God gives over and over again to the prophet Jeremiah. After all, we are aware that God is a merciful and loving God (see John 3:16) not desiring that any should perish (see 1 Timothy 2:4), but at the same time He will not be mocked forever without judgment.

And in Jeremiah we see a refrain over and over again that reminds us that we too cannot mock God forever. See Jeremiah 11:14: “So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble.” Also, see Jeremiah 14:11-12: “Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.” And so it is in Jeremiah 16:5: “For thus says the Lord, “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the Lord, “lovingkindness and mercies.” Again and again, Jeremiah is reminded not to pray for or mourn or seek the well being of Judah because they have been appointed for judgment.

Why is this the case? For God is merciful and longsuffering. He is slow to anger (much slower than we are), but when He has decided to judge He will not be deterred. One can only seek grace while the door is open. Once the door is shut, there is nothing except the fearful expectation of certain judgment and the hope that one will be refined in the fire and be worthy of being a righteous remnant. It is better to avoid the judgment altogether if that is possible. I cannot think of the dramatic and painful judgment on Judah without reflecting on my own sins and the sins of my people, which merit the same destruction.

For did not the nation of Judah bribe other nations to be allies only to see them faithless in her hour of need? Have we not done the same? Did not Judah sacrifice her babies to the fires of Tophet [3] just as we sacrifice ours in abortion clinics to the heathen god of convenience? Did Judah not transgress God’s Sabbath day by making it a day for business? How many of us are blameless in that regard? Did not Judah oppress the poor and build up their wealth by unrighteousness? Is that not the custom of the country as well for us? Did not Judah have indecisive and waffling leaders who, when faced with difficult decisions twisted in the wind seeking in vain the easy answers even as wrath approached? Do not our “statesmen” do the exact same now? Did not the people of Judah consider themselves a blessed land of freedom and touted its relationship with God, even while being faithful? Is our nation any better in its ungodly practices but its pious mouthings? Did not Judah have many false prophets who testified to bright futures and glorious visions of wealth and propserity? Is it any different today, even in the midst of our trials?

I do not pretend to have any oracle or vision from God speaking of the certain and immediate judgment of my people. If anything, I am perhaps a little bit like Urijah (see Jeremiah 26:20) who understood and believed the warnings from Jeremiah and prophesied against the people without having received a direct revelation from God Himself. Nonetheless, even if I am not certain that the door for repentance and national revival is closed, it appears to be closing, and it appears as if little time is left to avert judgment. I am not hopeful of the chances of widespread repentance—there appear to be no Josiahs on the horizon, only a choice between firebrands like Pekah the son of Remaliah and appeasers like Menahem (see 2 Kings 15:17-22, 27-31, Isaiah 7:1-9, for some context). In such a land there is only the fearful expectation of judgment.

Like Thomas Jefferson, I tremble for the fate of my country when I think that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever. Thomas Jefferson spoke of the scourge of slavery, in which he himself was a hypocrite, writing immortal words of freedom and equality while keeping a slave mistress and selling off his slaves piecemeal to stave off his own day of economic judgment. But let us not be too harsh on him, lest we be judged likewise for our own follies. Those who have need of mercy ought to be reluctant to condemn, and we all have need of mercy. I do not speak, though, of slavery to people (at least not yet—if we make bankrupcy too much more difficult, or debts more difficult to forgive, we may yet reach this level soon enough), but rather of slavery to sin. God has a just standard, and eventually He will be provoked enough to take away His peace from us and leave us to our fate, savingly only those righteous few who mourn at the evil they see around them (see Ezekiel 9:3-4). How long before we share that fate? I do not know, but it cannot be forever.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/unicorns-in-the-bible/

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/a-settled-home-for-the-refugees/

[3] Tophet was another name for the Valley of Hinnom, which the source of the word gehenna for the Lake of Fire.