Jeremiah 1-10: The Israelite Perspective

Jeremiah was a prophet who was first commissioned by God in the year 627 BCE. As a prophet, Jeremiah takes issue with the status quo. One of his primary causes is the belief that temple worship is not as important as strict obedience to the Lord's law. He has other causes as well, such as the great guilt of Judah and the general unfaithfulness of the people. But all these coalesce in the issue of temple worship. For Jeremiah, temple sacrifice has nothing to do with obedience to God. The prophet channels the Lord:

I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this commandment I gave them, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.
(Jeremiah 7.22-23)

Jeremiah here perhaps is attempting to censor history: Deuteronomy 16 explicitly calls for a Passover sacrifice. Numbers calls for sacrifices and offerings in many places. But Jeremiah's rebellion is not a simple matter of textual analysis. Rather, he may be arguing against an institution that supports the temple monarchy. Jeremiah is a descendant of Abiathar, a Levitical priest who was removed from power by Solomon for political reasons. Jeremiah therefore may be rebelling against the institution in general, and the sacrifice - which sustains the rival non-Levitical priests - in particular. Jeremiah goes so far as to reject the very centerpiece of the temple, the ark of the covenant:

I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, they shall no longer say, "The ark of the covenant of the Lord." It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; nor shall another one remain.
(Jeremiah 3.15-16)

Jeremiah has other reasons to hate the Davidic monarchy, centered in Jerusalem. A resident of Benjamin, he identifies with the plight of Israel, rather than that of Judah. Unlike Isaiah (1-39, 40-55, 56-66), who was from the southern kingdom, Jeremiah favors the northern kingdom for salvation.

This belief puts him in a difficult position. Israel fell first to invading armies, which by Isaiah's logic indicates that the kingdom was less faithful, or at least lost faith in the Lord sooner than the South:

She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
(Jeremiah 3.8)

Both Israel and Judah are in the wrong, and both are punished, but for some reason not explained, Judah is more in guilt:

Then the Lord said to me: Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah.
(Jeremiah 3.11)

This is set against a backdrop of general unfaithfulness, revealing in yet another biblical book the dialectical tensions that inform the entire corpus of the bible:

Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.
(Jeremiah 2.11)

Other peoples do not change their gods, but Israel, whose God is the one true God, does not remain faithful to its own God. Israel's unfaithfulness is examined in graphic terms: an ox that breaks it yoke, a whore, a choice vine that becomes wild, and a stain that cannot be washed out. God's people follow a winding path, and act like a wild donkey in heat, a notorious lover of strangers.

This is expressed in poetry through the imagery of husband and wife. In typical patriarchal fashion, God is the husband and his people the wife. Israel suffers "divorce" when it falls into apostasy, which means oppression or defeat. God poses the question to his people:

If a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man's wife,
will he return to her?
Would not such a land be greatly polluted?
You have played the whore with many lovers;
and would you return to me?
says the Lord.
(Jeremiah 3.1)

And yet, in the Lord's mystery, he does accept the people that return to him. God takes back his whore of a wife, under the assumption that she will again become faithful.

There will be punishment for the loss of faith. Jeremiah in the end of chapter 10 warns that the exile is imminent:
I am going to sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time,
and I will bring distress on them,
so that they shall feel it.
(Jeremiah 10.18)

The doomed nation, having been conquered, is expressed in a return to the primordial chaos:

I look on the earth, and lo, it was a waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro.
I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
Because of this the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above grow black;
for I have spoken, I have purposed;
I have not relented nor will I turn back.
(Jeremiah 4.23-28)

Like the world before creation, the earth is "waste and void," the heavens shining no light upon it. There are no humans, no birds, and no plants. The imagery suggests strongly (and uses the language of) the first story of creation to express how the great building up of the Israelite people will be utterly undone.

But within chapter 10 we can also find a message of redemption. retribution will come to the persecuting nations after Israel has been conquered.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you,
and on the peoples that do not call on your name;
for they have devoured Jacob;
they have devoured him and consumed him,
and have laid waste his habitation.
(Jeremiah 10.25)

As we have seen in Isaiah, this is exactly what happens. Israel will one day be vindicated.