Jeremiah 25:10-11 – Desolation by Degrees
10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Jeremiah 25:10-11, New King James Version
"I like curmudgeons," judges Kael Weston in The Mirror Test, "and wars tend to produce them in all ranks, at all ages."
Thus the prophet serves that role in Jeremiah 25:10-11. The war that is coming, he warns, is going to up and all that the people have taken for granted. Though the people have attested their adherence to God by defending what goes on in the Temple, God reminds them through Jeremiah that His glory and grace are more pervasive.
It is He, He reminds, Who gives true laughter, and He can take it away as His people turn toward frivolity as a distraction from their duty toward Him. It is He Who grants and protects what degree of faithfulness there is in human relationships, indeed instituting human marriage as a reflection of the everlasting bond between Christ and His Church and then honoring human nuptials with Christ's Presence and first miracle. He gave these civil bonds as types and shadows of our relationship with Him, and He can stretch or sever them to reflect our true position in the ultimate relationship with Him.
This chipping away at the veneer of civility and cultural comfort tends to get our attention. James KA Smith, summarizing Augustine, reduces, "Credulity is inherent to being human. Trust is the oxygen of human society." Ideally, brothers and sisters in Christ, we would know when distance has developed in our relationship with Christ, when we are walking more in our own mistrusted power than His, but, like Samson after the cutting of his hair, we often don't notice. Thus, He allows friction in our relationships, disruption in our business, the equivalent of the grinding of the millstones, in order to draw our attention to the inward reality that all is not right with Him.
Would we focus only on fixing the outward problems, on cultural and relational Band-Aids? Failing that, would we blame human leadership that is not of our exact choosing, our equivalent of Nebuchadnezzar, without looking in penitence to the King of Kings who raises and opposes human authority, whose Kingdom, His Word declares, is on the advance inexorably? Rather than being vexed at every grace and mercy He incrementally withdraws for our ultimate good in being corrected and conformed to the image of Christ, should we not, rather, marvel that He has been so good for so long, so long striven with our ingratitude?
"I like curmudgeons," judges Kael Weston in The Mirror Test, "and wars tend to produce them in all ranks, at all ages."
Thus the prophet serves that role in Jeremiah 25:10-11. The war that is coming, he warns, is going to up and all that the people have taken for granted. Though the people have attested their adherence to God by defending what goes on in the Temple, God reminds them through Jeremiah that His glory and grace are more pervasive.
It is He, He reminds, Who gives true laughter, and He can take it away as His people turn toward frivolity as a distraction from their duty toward Him. It is He Who grants and protects what degree of faithfulness there is in human relationships, indeed instituting human marriage as a reflection of the everlasting bond between Christ and His Church and then honoring human nuptials with Christ's Presence and first miracle. He gave these civil bonds as types and shadows of our relationship with Him, and He can stretch or sever them to reflect our true position in the ultimate relationship with Him.
This chipping away at the veneer of civility and cultural comfort tends to get our attention. James KA Smith, summarizing Augustine, reduces, "Credulity is inherent to being human. Trust is the oxygen of human society." Ideally, brothers and sisters in Christ, we would know when distance has developed in our relationship with Christ, when we are walking more in our own mistrusted power than His, but, like Samson after the cutting of his hair, we often don't notice. Thus, He allows friction in our relationships, disruption in our business, the equivalent of the grinding of the millstones, in order to draw our attention to the inward reality that all is not right with Him.
Would we focus only on fixing the outward problems, on cultural and relational Band-Aids? Failing that, would we blame human leadership that is not of our exact choosing, our equivalent of Nebuchadnezzar, without looking in penitence to the King of Kings who raises and opposes human authority, whose Kingdom, His Word declares, is on the advance inexorably? Rather than being vexed at every grace and mercy He incrementally withdraws for our ultimate good in being corrected and conformed to the image of Christ, should we not, rather, marvel that He has been so good for so long, so long striven with our ingratitude?
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