Jeremiah 17:5 – Beware the Clotting Factor.
5 Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength.
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
In Ken Burns's Baseball documentary, Gov. Mario Cuomo is a regular sage. He likes baseball, he says, because it rewards a togetherness at which people are not ordinarily very good. He extols the sacrifice for the good of the team which, he says, dates back to the book of Jeremiah.
Seeing through different political and philosophical lenses than he does, I read a different book of Jeremiah. I see a prophet decrying individualism to the point of treachery that has become the norm around him. Lying is rampant, he says. Adultery is rampant. Lack of trust has become a national defense issue, he also lists in Jeremiah 9, because soldiers can't trust each other to stand in mutual defense.
Fair enough, Gov. Cuomo. Our mutual readings of the book of Jeremiah can allow for the COST of atomism which pits every man for himself. This makes the placement of Jeremiah 17:5 particularly interesting. By itself, yet, like Jeremiah 9:23, is a verse for throw pillows or posters. They both tell us what not to trust in. Their context is unusual. Jeremiah 9:23, you will remember, ordered us away from trusting in strength and wisdom at the very time when those things were little in evidence. Society was falling apart, and yet the prophet, counterintuitively, tells us not to rejoice in humans at their best.
There, we looked at the human tendency when our neighbors seem to pay closer to full freight for their sins, and we do not. Spared, but for the intervening grace of God we become prideful. We begin to construct a narrative that explains our exceptionalism. I stand, we can begin to tell ourselves because I'm better, stronger, smarter. We resist to the last the notion that we stand or enjoy any cohesion simply because of God's grace to which we will eventually be accountable.
With some similarity, Jeremiah 17:5 is even more impactful in its unusual context. The prophet has spent most of 17 chapters weeping over the weakness of social bonds, as Cuomo and I would agree. Now he tells us not to trust in people? What gives? I won't claim that he anticipates the current virus, but he and the Holy Spirit Who inspires him knows the unchanging human heart. For, since explaining the weak underpinning of the seemingly respectable status quo, Jeremiah has described what comes next. He has described inevitable collapse. He has decreed inexorable exile.
As surely as the Holy Spirit knows what comes next in national events, He anticipates the responses of human hearts individually and collectively. What happens is a clotting factor in a gaping wound. What happens is the superficial magnificence which Gov. Cuomo says humans are capable of in a crisis. Uprooted and exiled, the same neighbors who went stable in their circumstances undermined each other at will tend to pull together – for a while. They do so, knows Jeremiah by the Holy Spirit, not for any true change of heart but because they don't have a choice.
Or do they? The point of playing out this national trauma in advance at great personal cost to Jeremiah is to allow his people to examine their hearts. They are allowed, if given ears to hear, to gain perspective on their motives and to respond rather than react when the crisis actually comes. Jeremiah 17:5 is a chance to reflect rather than give in to reflect, to find recourse in devotion rather than desperation. It is an opportunity to resolve to trust the Lord rather than any human option which happens to come along.
Even with advance notice or hindsight, this isn't easy. When social intercourse is humming along, when our assumptions are unchecked, we don't find much reason to trust in the Lord. His prophets are annoying and can be disregarded. Much like the indifference Jeremiah faced, we can come up with a myriad of reasons why the Lord will judge us or our people. When judgment begins, so does bitterness. So does panic. So does an almost reptilian instinct to seek seen security rather than press in in disciplined faith.
While it is called today, brothers and sisters in Christ, reconsider where your trust lies. We are not immune to the siren call of community above all else. God does not warn His people with Jeremiah 17:5 needlessly. Our trust, in advance, in the middle of a crisis, or composing the after-action report, is in Christ alone. His is to hold together. His is to break apart and wound. His is to heal and restore. His is to grant us insight to repent of what aspects of His blessing we have taken for granted.
We cleave to our neighbors only insofar as we recognize that they reflect aspects of God's glory. We cleave to our neighbors only insofar as we recognize that friction with them and realization that they are not gods is an excellent prompt to find our recourse in Christ. We cleave to our neighbors only insofar as, in serving them, we at times serve Christ unaware.
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength.
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
In Ken Burns's Baseball documentary, Gov. Mario Cuomo is a regular sage. He likes baseball, he says, because it rewards a togetherness at which people are not ordinarily very good. He extols the sacrifice for the good of the team which, he says, dates back to the book of Jeremiah.
Seeing through different political and philosophical lenses than he does, I read a different book of Jeremiah. I see a prophet decrying individualism to the point of treachery that has become the norm around him. Lying is rampant, he says. Adultery is rampant. Lack of trust has become a national defense issue, he also lists in Jeremiah 9, because soldiers can't trust each other to stand in mutual defense.
Fair enough, Gov. Cuomo. Our mutual readings of the book of Jeremiah can allow for the COST of atomism which pits every man for himself. This makes the placement of Jeremiah 17:5 particularly interesting. By itself, yet, like Jeremiah 9:23, is a verse for throw pillows or posters. They both tell us what not to trust in. Their context is unusual. Jeremiah 9:23, you will remember, ordered us away from trusting in strength and wisdom at the very time when those things were little in evidence. Society was falling apart, and yet the prophet, counterintuitively, tells us not to rejoice in humans at their best.
There, we looked at the human tendency when our neighbors seem to pay closer to full freight for their sins, and we do not. Spared, but for the intervening grace of God we become prideful. We begin to construct a narrative that explains our exceptionalism. I stand, we can begin to tell ourselves because I'm better, stronger, smarter. We resist to the last the notion that we stand or enjoy any cohesion simply because of God's grace to which we will eventually be accountable.
With some similarity, Jeremiah 17:5 is even more impactful in its unusual context. The prophet has spent most of 17 chapters weeping over the weakness of social bonds, as Cuomo and I would agree. Now he tells us not to trust in people? What gives? I won't claim that he anticipates the current virus, but he and the Holy Spirit Who inspires him knows the unchanging human heart. For, since explaining the weak underpinning of the seemingly respectable status quo, Jeremiah has described what comes next. He has described inevitable collapse. He has decreed inexorable exile.
As surely as the Holy Spirit knows what comes next in national events, He anticipates the responses of human hearts individually and collectively. What happens is a clotting factor in a gaping wound. What happens is the superficial magnificence which Gov. Cuomo says humans are capable of in a crisis. Uprooted and exiled, the same neighbors who went stable in their circumstances undermined each other at will tend to pull together – for a while. They do so, knows Jeremiah by the Holy Spirit, not for any true change of heart but because they don't have a choice.
Or do they? The point of playing out this national trauma in advance at great personal cost to Jeremiah is to allow his people to examine their hearts. They are allowed, if given ears to hear, to gain perspective on their motives and to respond rather than react when the crisis actually comes. Jeremiah 17:5 is a chance to reflect rather than give in to reflect, to find recourse in devotion rather than desperation. It is an opportunity to resolve to trust the Lord rather than any human option which happens to come along.
Even with advance notice or hindsight, this isn't easy. When social intercourse is humming along, when our assumptions are unchecked, we don't find much reason to trust in the Lord. His prophets are annoying and can be disregarded. Much like the indifference Jeremiah faced, we can come up with a myriad of reasons why the Lord will judge us or our people. When judgment begins, so does bitterness. So does panic. So does an almost reptilian instinct to seek seen security rather than press in in disciplined faith.
While it is called today, brothers and sisters in Christ, reconsider where your trust lies. We are not immune to the siren call of community above all else. God does not warn His people with Jeremiah 17:5 needlessly. Our trust, in advance, in the middle of a crisis, or composing the after-action report, is in Christ alone. His is to hold together. His is to break apart and wound. His is to heal and restore. His is to grant us insight to repent of what aspects of His blessing we have taken for granted.
We cleave to our neighbors only insofar as we recognize that they reflect aspects of God's glory. We cleave to our neighbors only insofar as we recognize that friction with them and realization that they are not gods is an excellent prompt to find our recourse in Christ. We cleave to our neighbors only insofar as, in serving them, we at times serve Christ unaware.
Comments
Post a Comment