Links for today’s readings:
Aug 25 Read: Jeremiah 19 Listen: (2:58) Read: 1 Thessalonians 4 Listen: (2:24)
Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 19.1-4, 10-15
1 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. 4 For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.
10 “Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, 11 and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 12 This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. 13 The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ ” 14 Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, 15 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.’ ”
Reflection: When Truth Provokes Violence
By John Tillman
Immediately after Jeremiah’s message, a priest, Pashhur, had Jeremiah seized, beaten, and put in stocks (Jer 20.1-2).
Jeremiah suffered seven recorded instances of physical violence, threats, and arrests—more than any other prophet. However, Jeremiah’s message was not unique.
Moses and Joshua warned that if Israel was unfaithful, God would remove them from the land (Deut 4.23-30). God warned Solomon that he would destroy the temple and exile his people for unfaithfulness (2 Chron 6.36-39; 7.19-22). Micah, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah repeated and amplified these warnings (Mic 3.12; Amos 5.27; Hosea 9.3, 17; Isa 5.13; 39.6). Jeremiah was just telling Jerusalem’s leaders what scripture said would happen.
Despite the fact that Jeremiah’s warnings were “biblical,” his message was unwelcome and unthinkable. To religious leaders, like Pashhur, it was unthinkable that the temple would be destroyed. To political leaders, Jeremiah’s critiques of corruption, cruelty to the poor, idolatry, and wicked alliances were unwelcome.
Rather than repent, they called Jeremiah a liar and traitor. They accused him of allying with the Babylonians and sabotaging soldiers’ and citizens’ morale. They falsely accused him of defecting to the Babylonians (Jer 37.12-14). They labeled his moral critiques as political threats to justify responding with political violence.
Most of our readers live in places with legal freedoms of religious expression and speech. Jeremiah didn’t have that. But such protections are only effective if leaders follow them. Also, some powerful political movements are attacking these rights. Violent attacks against those speaking God’s truth can happen anywhere and at any time, even in places that guarantee freedoms of religion and speech. We need to be ready for moments when speaking unwelcome biblical truths is labeled treasonous, unpatriotic, or criminal.
It can be tempting to back away from scripture when its teachings against greed, lust, sexual promiscuity, power, and favoritism or its teachings about helping the poor, immigrants, and outcasts are labeled as a political movement instead of a moral imperative. We must be willing to stand faithfully even if Pashhurs of the world slap us verbally or physically. However, “getting slapped” doesn’t mean you are being faithful.
Some Christian “truth-tellers” today are persecution farmers, provoking others to claim persecution. They are Pashhur, pretending to be Jeremiah. They are bullies pretending to be prophets. They don’t weep over the lost. They gloat. Being a cruel bully doesn’t make you a faithful prophet and suffering for doing wrong is not persecution (1 Pet 2:20; 3:17; 4:15-16; Gal 6:7).
Be a Jeremiah not a Pashhur. Don’t seek persecution as validation but be faithful regardless of the consequences.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
Show me your marvelous loving-kindness, O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand from those who rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me under the shadow of your wings, From the wicked who assault me, from my deadly enemies who surround me. — Psalm 17.7-9
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Stephen, Isaiah, and Confronting God’s People
Stephen and Isaiah stand in a long line of those who were killed for confronting God’s people with hypocrisy. Not pagans. Not enemies. God’s people.
Read more: The Weeping Enduring Prophet
No matter what insults they throw at him or what pit they throw him down into, he holds firm to the truth.
