One,
Yahweh’s people do not always remain loyal to Yahweh nor witness to his ways.
Two, when this happens, Yahweh may use Olympians to discipline his people even
though Olympians do not believe in Yahweh’s existence. Three, Yahweh as easily
restrains Olympians as he does unleash them.
Today
we will recall the words of Jeremiah and Isaiah concerning the people of Yahweh
in Judah and Jerusalem around 600 BC. In 588 BC Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
destroyed Jerusalem, burned down the temple built by Solomon, and dragged them into exile.
1.
Yahweh’s people prove disloyal to him
The word that
came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of King
Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah (that was the first year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon), 2 which the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all
the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 3 For
twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of King Josiah son of Amon of
Judah, to this day, the word of [Yahweh] has come to me, and I have spoken
persistently to you, but you have not listened. 4 And though [Yahweh]
persistently sent you all his servants the prophets, you have neither listened
nor inclined your ears to hear 5 when they said, “Turn now, every one
of you, from your evil way and wicked doings, and you will remain upon the land
that [Yahweh] has given to you and your ancestors from of old and
forever; 6 do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, and
do not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no
harm.” 7 Yet you did not listen to me, says [Yahweh], and so you have
provoked me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm (Jeremiah 25:1-7,
New Revised Standard Version, here and following).
Jeremiah
tells the people of Yahweh that they are not acting like Yahweh’s people. They
are not living in ways which witness to Yahweh’s freedom, truth, love, and vitality.
Instead,
these people of Yahweh are absurdly devoting themselves to the six conventional
Olympian gods of power, falsehood, violence, and death. They are living in evil
ways and committing wicked acts.
Jeremiah
tells the people of Yahweh that this devotion to destructive gods will soon
have destructive consequences.
2.
Yahweh chooses the leader of a powerful city to punish them
8 Therefore
thus says [Yahweh] of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my
words, 9 I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says [Yahweh],
even for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them
against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations around; I
will utterly destroy them, and make them an object of horror and of hissing,
and an everlasting disgrace (Jeremiah 25:8-9).
Jeremiah
tells the people of Yahweh that Yahweh their god is going to grant them their
heart’s desire. Since they seek so much to serve the Olympian gods, Yahweh will
allow those gods to master them through their most devoted servant: the king of
Babylon. Then Yahweh's people will know that, in devoting themselves to the
Olympian gods, they have abandoned the one true god of life for six deadly dull
gods of destruction.
This
unleashing of destructive powers, then, is possible only because it is willed
by Yahweh. And it is willed by Yahweh only because his own people have forsaken
him. In other words, destruction and death become increasingly widespread, evil
grows in the world, as Yahweh’s own witnesses abandon him for the Olympians
gods and Yahweh in response abandons his people to those same gods.
3.
Yahweh’s people must accept this discipline by Yahweh
Thus says [Yahweh] of
hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your
masters: 5 It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have
made the earth, with the people and animals that are on the earth, and I give
it to whomever I please. 6 Now I have given all these lands into the
hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him even
the wild animals of the field to serve him. 7 All the nations shall
serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes;
then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.
8 But if
any nation or kingdom will not serve this king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and
put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, then I will punish that
nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, says [Yahweh], until I
have completed its destruction by his hand. 9 You, therefore, must
not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or
your sorcerers, who are saying to you, “You shall not serve the king of
Babylon.” 10 For they are prophesying a lie to you, with the result that
you will be removed far from your land; I will drive you out, and you will
perish. 11 But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the
king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, says the Lord,
to till it and live there (Jeremiah
27:4b-11).
When
Yahweh chooses to use Olympians to discipline his people, his people remain
Olympian in their thinking if they reject that important but painful
discipline.
4. These
Olympian oppressors wrongly exalt themselves and harm witnesses faithful to
Yahweh
1 Come down and
sit in the dust,
virgin daughter Babylon!...
5 Sit in
silence, and go into darkness,
daughter Chaldea!
For you shall no more be called
the mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people,
I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand,
you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke
exceedingly heavy.
7 You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”
so that you did not lay these things to heart
or remember their end…
daughter Chaldea!
For you shall no more be called
the mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people,
I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand,
you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke
exceedingly heavy.
7 You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”
so that you did not lay these things to heart
or remember their end…
10 You felt
secure in your wickedness;
you said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and your knowledge
led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me” (Isaiah 47:1a, 5-7, 10).
you said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and your knowledge
led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me” (Isaiah 47:1a, 5-7, 10).
Powerful
oppressors and their oppressive cities lack truth. They labor under a spell of
falsehood cast over them by the Olympian gods they adore. They do not discern
that it is Yahweh who gives them room to act and neither their gods nor their
own power.
5. At
the right time Yahweh punishes the powerful for their wickedness
12 Then
after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that
nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says [Yahweh], making
the land an everlasting waste…14 For many nations and great kings shall
make slaves of them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and
the work of their hands (Jeremiah
25:12, 14).
Powerful
oppressors never imagine themselves as ministers of the one true god. They act
in every way as arrogant conquerors of peoples yet loyal minions of the
destructive gods they believe in. When their destructive arrogance and arrogant
destructiveness has served Yahweh’s purposes, Yahweh again restrains them. They
disappear because they never had a future.
(Today
we continued our reflections on Jacques Ellul's The Meaning of the
City [Eerdmans, pp. 90-94]).
Copyright © 2014
by Steven Farsaci.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
