Jeremiah 15:7-9 – An Open Rebuke
7
And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;
I will bereave them of children;
I will destroy My people,
Since they do not return from their ways.
8
Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them,
Against the mother of the young men,
A plunderer at noonday;
I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.
9
“She languishes who has borne seven;
She has breathed her last;
Her sun has gone down
While it was yet day;
She has been ashamed and confounded.
And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword
Before their enemies,” says the Lord.
Near the conclusion of the television show The West Wing the sometimes condescending conscience of the fictional presidential administration, Communications Director Toby Ziegler, has been exposed. He made known secrets pertaining to national security because he didn't believe that his boss would do the right thing. Caught, he offers in the Oval Office to resign. The President knows more is required for an act of such deep betrayal. "You can't resign. I have to fire you."
Sometimes public repudiation is necessary to maintain the honor of the one, or the institution, offended. That seems to be the theme of Jeremiah 15:7-9. Jeremiah's ministry has been about confronting the people's sins they believe they are committing in some secrecy. The culture of lies he has confronted requires this sense of seclusion in order to thrive. The culture of widespread complicity in adultery gets much of its fueling zeal from the idea that the parties involved are concealing something. Yet, in rooting out this rot, God calls sin into the daylight.
This public confrontation is so crucial that He mixes metaphors to accomplish it. The winnowing of grain is for the fields, but when He uses the separation of the useless chaff from the essential wheat as a picture for His judgment, it takes place at the city gates for all to see. This verdict, HIS verdict, takes place where the city fathers would gather, where Boaz claimed Ruth, and where, conversely, complicity in sin's degradation has been undertaken with a wink and a nod. Destruction of this compromised culture will take place for all to see. His people's correction will be a watchword for the nations.
Reinforcing the public vindication of His glory, God says He will bring a plunderer at noonday. Again, secrecy might have been the norm. Jesus says on an individual scale that the thief comes when not expected. But the invader as an instrument of God needs no subterfuge here. Again, God is publicly exposing what Jeremiah pointed to as the degradation of the culture's underpinning, when he said the military would be helpless to fight off the invasion. The culture in which spouses and business partners cannot trust one another is going to find it hard to produce soldiers who can risk all with the confidence that their fellows will do the same. This porous defense will fall in the daylight at God's dictate.
Lest we focus on the family as the culture's last redoubt of faithfulness and decency, Jeremiah assures that this social fabric will rip as well for all to see. As basic as is the impulse for sons to protect mothers or mothers to protect sons, seven sons will not be able to fend off the coming threats against their mother. This will happen, God says, while it is yet day and before Judah's enemies. The casual, transactional nature of family relationships, the failure to honor God at the center of them, may have developed over time and without particular fanfare, but the judgment of this aspect of de facto idolatry will be obvious and scandalous.
These verses bring the weight of just condemnation on God's covenant people, and their echoes reverberate to this day. We in possession of God's Word and called by His Name have likewise undermined His reputation. Yet, as He would with the population over whom Jeremiah speaks, God preserves a remnant not because of its faithfulness but because of His grace and resolve. Ultimately, the sins of that remnant, indistinguishable from the deeds of their neighbors, would be paid for by Christ.
He stood for His own at the apex of the culture's judgment. He took our verdict in public, despising the shame. He walked among a people conquered both spiritually and physically. He turned over coins to the conqueror, refusing to be cowed in the sense of His identity in His Father, and inviting us into the same irrepressible fellowship that will continue as earthly empires rise and fall.
Even as we experience disappointment in family relationships designed to shadow our relationship with Him, His authentic affection endures. He said though a mother forget her children, He will not forget us. Christ wept over Jerusalem, lamenting that He would gather her citizens as a mother hen gathers her brood. Wherever we are on that continuum of correction or confirmation, Christ is Master of the entire process, maximizing His glory for the universe to see.
And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;
I will bereave them of children;
I will destroy My people,
Since they do not return from their ways.
8
Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them,
Against the mother of the young men,
A plunderer at noonday;
I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.
9
“She languishes who has borne seven;
She has breathed her last;
Her sun has gone down
While it was yet day;
She has been ashamed and confounded.
And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword
Before their enemies,” says the Lord.
Near the conclusion of the television show The West Wing the sometimes condescending conscience of the fictional presidential administration, Communications Director Toby Ziegler, has been exposed. He made known secrets pertaining to national security because he didn't believe that his boss would do the right thing. Caught, he offers in the Oval Office to resign. The President knows more is required for an act of such deep betrayal. "You can't resign. I have to fire you."
Sometimes public repudiation is necessary to maintain the honor of the one, or the institution, offended. That seems to be the theme of Jeremiah 15:7-9. Jeremiah's ministry has been about confronting the people's sins they believe they are committing in some secrecy. The culture of lies he has confronted requires this sense of seclusion in order to thrive. The culture of widespread complicity in adultery gets much of its fueling zeal from the idea that the parties involved are concealing something. Yet, in rooting out this rot, God calls sin into the daylight.
This public confrontation is so crucial that He mixes metaphors to accomplish it. The winnowing of grain is for the fields, but when He uses the separation of the useless chaff from the essential wheat as a picture for His judgment, it takes place at the city gates for all to see. This verdict, HIS verdict, takes place where the city fathers would gather, where Boaz claimed Ruth, and where, conversely, complicity in sin's degradation has been undertaken with a wink and a nod. Destruction of this compromised culture will take place for all to see. His people's correction will be a watchword for the nations.
Reinforcing the public vindication of His glory, God says He will bring a plunderer at noonday. Again, secrecy might have been the norm. Jesus says on an individual scale that the thief comes when not expected. But the invader as an instrument of God needs no subterfuge here. Again, God is publicly exposing what Jeremiah pointed to as the degradation of the culture's underpinning, when he said the military would be helpless to fight off the invasion. The culture in which spouses and business partners cannot trust one another is going to find it hard to produce soldiers who can risk all with the confidence that their fellows will do the same. This porous defense will fall in the daylight at God's dictate.
Lest we focus on the family as the culture's last redoubt of faithfulness and decency, Jeremiah assures that this social fabric will rip as well for all to see. As basic as is the impulse for sons to protect mothers or mothers to protect sons, seven sons will not be able to fend off the coming threats against their mother. This will happen, God says, while it is yet day and before Judah's enemies. The casual, transactional nature of family relationships, the failure to honor God at the center of them, may have developed over time and without particular fanfare, but the judgment of this aspect of de facto idolatry will be obvious and scandalous.
These verses bring the weight of just condemnation on God's covenant people, and their echoes reverberate to this day. We in possession of God's Word and called by His Name have likewise undermined His reputation. Yet, as He would with the population over whom Jeremiah speaks, God preserves a remnant not because of its faithfulness but because of His grace and resolve. Ultimately, the sins of that remnant, indistinguishable from the deeds of their neighbors, would be paid for by Christ.
He stood for His own at the apex of the culture's judgment. He took our verdict in public, despising the shame. He walked among a people conquered both spiritually and physically. He turned over coins to the conqueror, refusing to be cowed in the sense of His identity in His Father, and inviting us into the same irrepressible fellowship that will continue as earthly empires rise and fall.
Even as we experience disappointment in family relationships designed to shadow our relationship with Him, His authentic affection endures. He said though a mother forget her children, He will not forget us. Christ wept over Jerusalem, lamenting that He would gather her citizens as a mother hen gathers her brood. Wherever we are on that continuum of correction or confirmation, Christ is Master of the entire process, maximizing His glory for the universe to see.
Comments
Post a Comment