Lenten Readings -- Jeremiah 9

Introduction to Jeremiah
Jeremiah 1
Jeremiah 2 
Jeremiah 3
Jeremiah 4
Jeremiah 5
Jeremiah 6
Jeremiah 7
Jeremiah 8
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1. Jeremiah's words blur between lament and warning. He sees what is coming so vividly. I had the thought reading the chapter -- "Was this written after Josiah was killed in battle?" That was in 609BC as Josiah tried to stop Pharaoh Necho from going north to assist Assyria. 

Jeremiah weeps for the slain of his people. They have brought it on themselves. "They are all adulterers" -- presumably with other gods. They are liars. They do not know Yahweh.

"Beware of your neighbors..." Don't trust your family. Family was the most trusted resource of all in that culture, and yet family was untrustworthy. "Oppression upon oppression. Deceit upon deceit" (Jer. 9:6).

So, God will test them (9:7). God will refine them. 

They speak nicely to the face of their neighbors, but inside they are plotting against them (9:8). The end result is that God is going to make Jerusalem a heap of ruins (9:11).

But no one gets it. Instead, they break the Law of Yahweh. Is this a reference to the Book of the Law recently discovered in the temple. It clearly says they should have no other gods before Yahweh. But they go after the Ba'als (9:14). Now God will scatter them among the nations (9:16).

2. So Jeremiah calls for a funeral. Get the women ready for a funeral dirge (9:17, 20. Get ready to wail. "Death has come up into our windows" (9:21). "Human corpses will fall like dung in the open field" (9:22).

Time to stop boasting that you're "wise" or wealthy (9:23). Boast that you know Yahweh. Boast that you value the One who acts with hesed (faithfulness, lovingkindness), justice (mishpat), and righteousness (zedaqa) in the world -- and act accordingly because God delights in such things (9:24).

3. You may not realize that the Israelites were not the only ones who practiced circumcision. The Egyptians did as well, as did the Edomites (descendants of Esau), Ammonites, and Moabites (descendants of Lot). But Jeremiah says that outward circumcision won't matter when Yahweh visits.

We've already seen this idea of a circumcised heart in Jeremiah (4:4). We see again Jeremiah's sense that these outward rituals were meaningless if one's heart didn't truly serve the Lord. Biblical ethics is about our motivations, intentions, and character far more than the acts we commit.

Another pagan practice is mentioned -- shaving part of one's head. Perhaps this is the background to Leviticus 19:27 and 21:5. I grew up hearing this was about not having a mustache. It turns out it had a historical context. In any case, such rituals are pointless if one's heart is not truly serving Yahweh and if one is oppressing others and treating others falsely.

"All these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart" (9:26).