Tag Archives: Jeremiah 4

Shooting the Messenger

March 23, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,
circumcise your hearts…
Jeremiah 4:4a (NIV)

“Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office…”
Shakespeare, Henry IV (Part 2)

As Wendy and I drove down to the lake yesterday, I listened to the Cubs’ Spring Training game against the A’s. The regular season starts next week and this is the time of year when baseball prophets and prognosticators predict which teams will contend for the postseason and World Series this year. Like most fans, I like to hear “experts” giving me hope for a winning season and the potential of watching my team play in October. I equally despise hearing “experts” giving doomsday predictions of another season of being the doormat of our division rivals no matter how accurate they might be. I shut them off. I tune them out. I refuse to listen. And, if I’m honest, I don’t like them very much.

No one likes the bearer of bad news. “Shooting the messenger” is a commonly used metaphor. It is rooted in sentiments by Plutarch and Sophocles. Shakespeare used it in two of his plays.

The ancient Hebrew prophets were not particularly popular in their day. You’ll find that Jeremiah will face a fair amount of persecution as we trek through his writings and story. His prophetic prognostications are almost always bad news. Even Jesus lamented, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you…” (Luke 13:34). The Hebrews gained a reputation for “shooting the messenger” when it came to the doomsday prophets God sent their way.

Get ready. Jeremiah has a lot of doom and gloom to proclaim, starting with today’s chapter.

Among the things I find most fascinating about the ancient Hebrew prophets is the way they connect to one another, and the way they foreshadow what’s to come in the Great Story in ways they could never have known.

In our recent chapter-a-day trek through Daniel, we read one of Daniel’s visions in which the coming succession of empires was represented by different beasts. The Neo-Babylonian empire that had taken Daniel into captivity was represented metaphorically as a lion (Daniel 7:1-4). In today’s doomsday message for the people of Judah, Jerry writes:

A lion has come out of his lair;
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his place
to lay waste your land.

The lion in Jeremiah’s prophetic poem is the same lion in Daniel’s vision. Jeremiah is recording the message in today’s chapter sometime around 620 BC. The events he’s accurately described will tragically take place 40-50 years later. Of course, no one wants to hear this.

When Jerry tells the people of Judah and Jerusalem to “circumcise your hearts,” he is foreshadowing a tectonic shift that Jesus would usher in some 600 years later. The Hebrews of Jerry’s day thought they were in good standing with God simply because they were “God’s people” as evidenced by their heritage, DNA, and traditional physical signs such as circumcising males. But this was exactly the point God is making through prophet Jerry. Just being a member of the tribe was never the point. It is from the heart that our motives give birth to action. Having a circumcised penis is simply a physical sign. God is looking for a spiritual sign, a circumcised heart. Jesus said as much:

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:21 (NIV)

“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” Matthew 15:17-19 (NIV)

Just as Jeremiah was persecuted for his words, Jesus would be persecuted and executed for His.

The apostle Paul would make this same argument in his letter to Jesus’ followers in Rome:

“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.“
Romans 2:28-29 (NIV)

Just as Jeremiah and Jesus were persecuted for their words, Paul would be persecuted and executed for his.

I promise to have mercy on those prophets who are predicting another losing season for the Cubs. They could well be right. In the same vein, I ask mercy, dear reader, for anything I write that you don’t like. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

Please don’t shoot the messenger! 😜

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Reckoning

March 14, 2018 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

“Your own conduct and actions
    have brought this on you.
This is your punishment.
    How bitter it is!
    How it pierces to the heart!”
Jeremiah 4:18 (NIV)

Reckoning is word we don’t use very often any more. It is the the process of settling accounts. It is the day that the bill comes due. Metaphorically used, a “day of reckoning” may not have anything to do with money. It’s when our actions come to their natural conclusion.

On a national level, I’ve been hearing economic prophets crying in the wilderness about a “day of reckoning” for as long as I can remember. We spend more than we take in. The U.S. national debt was at 20 trillion dollars and growing when I looked at it this morning. Every bill our congress passes has a host of pork barrel riders and appropriations (often called “earmarks”) for spending money on pet local projects our lawmakers have promised to the people who’ve lined their pockets back home. The President has no line-item veto so if he wants credit for the main bill he has to quietly put up with all of the quiet little pork barrel projects no one talks about. Wink wink. Nudge nudge. Say no more. This is not a political issue, by the way. This is a systemic issue. Everyone does it on both sides of the aisle. Making hard choices won’t get you re-elected, so we continue our game of cost-shifting. How long can it go on? [cue: the economic doomsday prophets]

On a personal level, I make daily choices that impact my health, my relationships, and my physical, social, and economic well-being. Eventually, there will be a day of reckoning when my seemingly insignificant choices will come to their natural conclusions.

It is very human to cry “Why me?” when the shit hits the fan. Yet along life’s journey I’ve discovered that the answer to that question isn’t usually as elusive as I’d like to pretend. If I turn around and look at the choices I’ve made and the steps I’ve taken across my journey, I can usually see the path of seemingly small, insignificant choices that have led me to this place. I have no one to blame but myself. But, blame-shifting is as common to the human condition as cost-shifting. I’ve observed along my journey that God often gets the blame when we humans adroitly employ our penchant for blame-shifting.

In today’s chapter, Jeremiah is poetically prophesying doomsday scenarios for his nation. Anticipating the eventual blame-shifting the people will employ on the day of reckoning, he reminds them that on that day it will have been their own choices that will have brought them to that place.

This morning I’m thinking about my own life, my own choices, and my own circumstances. Another word we don’t use very often is “repentance.” The original meaning is a word picture of turning around and moving in the opposite direction. Each day represents an opportunity for me to turn away from foolish choices and to start making wise ones. Every day affords the opportunity to change my day of reckoning from a doomsday scenario to that of blessing.

I hear the whisper of my mother’s voice…or is it Holy Spirit?

“Make good choices today.”

Have a good day, my friends.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 4

January 3, 2011 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

“It’s the way you’ve lived
that’s brought all this on you.
The bitter taste is from your evil life.
That’s what’s piercing your heart.”
Jeremiah 4:18 (MSG)

Everyone encounters difficult stretches in life’s journey. Despite the seeming appearances to the contrary, every person’s journey includes steep climbs, mountain top vistas, and deep valleys. And the road conditions themselves can make some daily treks longer than others.

Sometimes we find ourselves struggling to wade through the thick muck that naturally comes with a tragic, fallen and broken world. Other times, as with the people Jeremiah confronts in today’s chapter, our struggle is due entirely to our own poor choices.

God, grant me the wisdom to make wise choices today, that my journey will be easier in the days ahead.