So here Jeremiah is complaining about wickedness—why is there so much of it? why do the perpetrators do just fine?—and suddenly he goes full-on harsh:
“Single them out like sheep for slaughtering! And set them apart for the day of killing!” (Jeremiah 12:3)
No turning the other cheek here!—that teacher wouldn’t come along for hundreds of years. Of course, the WERE trying to kill him, and those religious powers-that-be would later try and do with the same with Jesus. The chapter before paints the prophet as “a docile lamb being brought to the slaughter.” (11:19) Now, he wants to turn the tables on them. Sure. I can get my head around that.
His answer from God is not what one might expect:
“If you get tired running with footmen, How can you run a race against horses?” (12:5)
Translation: Suck it up. It’s not going to get any easier.
Jeremiah here follows the tradition of Job, of Habakkuk, of Asaph, all of whom complained about evil proliferating and the perpetrators prospering, Job, at 21:7-15 of the book bearing his name, Habakkuk, at 1:2-4 at his respective book, and Asaph at Psalms 73: 2-13.
Preaching God’s purpose before those attempting to thwart it earned Jeremiah death threats. He gets fed up at one point and tries to quit:
“You have fooled me, O Jehovah, and I was fooled. You used your strength against me, and you prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; Everyone ridicules me. . . . So I said: “I am not going to make mention of him, And I will speak no more in his name.” (Jeremiah 20:7-9)
It was short-lived: “But in my heart it became like a burning fire shut up in my bones, And I was tired of holding it in; I could no longer endure it.” (vs 9)
In today’s vernacular, he’d been in the cult too long and could no longer escape. Mercifully, such verbiage was not in vogue at the time.
He’s a pretty good model for speaking freely before God, not holding back, not fearful that God will misunderstand him. He knows that won’t happen. Immediately before wishing those enemies to the slaughter (same verse), it is: “But you know me well, O Jehovah, you see me; You have examined my heart and found it in union with you.” (12:3) He presents a good model for prayer.
Jeremiah is blunt with God earlier, too, leveling an accusation, unconcerned with making him mad, unconcerned that his angst will be misconstrued:
“Alas, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! Truly you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace,’ when the sword is at our throats.” (4:10)
Where does that come from? Why does God do that—“utterly deceive people?” What is the basis for this charge?
The answer comes a chapter later. It is in God’s words: “Something appalling and horrible has occurred in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, And the priests dominate by their own authority. And my own people love it that way.” (5:31-32)
Why does God allow the prophets to prophesy lies? Because his own people “love it that way.” He’s giving them what they want, as payback, as what he says just the verse before: “Should I not call them to account for these things?” declares Jehovah. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation?” (5:29)
Thus, a model we hear all the time—it is advanced frequently in agnostic or atheistic circles—is, “if God would just but answer our sincere questions to our satisfaction, then we would come around.” Alas, he doesn’t oblige them. He allows a devious system to remain in place because they “love it that way.”
Doubtless, they do not love it that way should they find themselves on the losing end, but so long as they maneuver to avoid that spot, they do love it, and can continue to support solutions for fixing the world that don’t work. Though there be agencies aplenty for addressing social problems, the reality remains as Jesus stated in three of the four gospels: “You always have the poor among you.” The agencies of human governments do not so much want their respective problems solved (if they were solved, they would go out of business) as they do want them funded, which is a big difference. It is the same as how the armaments makers don’t want lasting peace, nor the drug-makers lasting health, for in both cases, where would they be in that event? The model they love is one of chipping away at the problem, often fueling it at the same time through misguided assumptions and contradictory policies. “And my own people have loved it that way.”
The betrayal, from God’s point of view, and from the point of view of those who love Him, is laid out at Jeremiah 2:13: “Because my people have done two bad things: They have abandoned me, the source of living water, And dug for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns, that cannot hold water.” The theme resurfaces throughout the book: “The wise have been put to shame. . . . They have rejected the word of Jehovah, And what wisdom do they have?” (8:9) “Not much,” says one type of person. “Plenty!” says another, “Get a load of this technology!” Avoid the losing end, and “they love it that way.”
This “permitting deception because they love it that way” rationale is not too different from a more fiery one that appears in the New Testament. The latter one is that “the lawless one’s presence is by the operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and wonders and every unrighteous deception for those who are perishing, as a retribution because they did not accept the love of the truth in order that they might be saved. That is why God lets a deceptive influence mislead them so that they may come to believe the lie.” (2 Thessalonians 2: 9-11)
He allows that “deceptive influence” to “mislead them” Why? “Because they did not accept the love of the truth,” declares Thessalonians. Because they “love it that way,” declares Jeremiah, “it” being a system of things designed around the mistruth that human rulership can end injustice and bring peace.
Thus, appealing as the idea may sound, God does not cater to those indifferent asking their sincere questions as to his existence. Apparently, he sees through their “sincerity.” Instead, he says: “A bull well knows its buyer, And a donkey the manger of its owner.” (Isaiah 1:3)
You’re just supposed to know it. Maybe it is deep down so you have to dig around a bit, for there is much to distract, but in the final analysis, you’re just supposed to know it. It may be a question of where do you put your pride—in coming to know God (Jeremiah 9:24) or in human accomplishment?
Examination of the evidence takes second place to what appeals to the heart. When God passes by Moses’ face, it is not to declare, “Examine the evidence.” It is to declare himself “a God merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in loyal love and truth, showing loyal love to thousands, pardoning error and transgression and sin, but he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” (Exodus 34:6-7) If these qualities resonate, evidence becomes superfluous. If they don’t, evidence will not satisfy.
That is probably why Paul advises, at Romans, to “prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2) You don’t have to prove it to others. You prove it to yourself. Thereafter, you may proclaim it to others but whether they accept it or not will not be due to your “proof.” It will be due to how the qualities of the above Exodus passage resonates. It will be upon that basis that Jesus is said to draw people. Having been so drawn, a person will identify with the first portion of that 12:2, to “stop being molded by this system of things.” He or she will not fall for that phony portrayal of himself as being molded, much less “controlled,” or “brainwashed.” He will know that it is the other way around.
****** The bookstore
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