Go on and Grieve
Jeremiah 8:18-9:3 (RCL 8:18-9:1)
Tony’s Overview Video
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Key Text: Jeremiah 9:1
O that my head were a spring of water,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night
for the slain of my poor people!
Have you ever cried so hard and long that you felt drained of tears, but knew you weren’t finished weeping? That kind of pain can come from a sense of loss or betrayal or unexpected devastation.
The loss of a loved one through death, the unfaithfulness of a marriage partner, the travails of a child in trouble, the crumbling of a business, the havoc wrought by a fire or storm – any of those can bring tears that are a long time ceasing.
But have you ever wept like that for the fate of people you don’t even know? Do we weep for children who are starving, people who are economically enslaved, populations who live under brutal dictatorships or religious persecution?
The prophet Jeremiah suffered frequent harassment and tragedies in his personal life, but the weeping he speaks of in today’s text was for the fate of his people, the Hebrew residents of Judah that he believed were doomed to defeat and destruction.
Jeremiah is often described as the “weeping prophet,” and he often speaks of how deeply God feels the pain of the same people who have betrayed their covenant relationship. Grief is not God’s only emotion, according to Jeremiah: he also credits God with expressing anger, heartache, regret, and even hate.
The divine pathos and deep emotions are often displayed in the words or the actions of the prophet as well: Jeremiah resonates with the heart of God that hurts for the foolish people but also resents their rebellious and often callous behavior.
The picture of an angry God is not an attractive one for contemporary believers, but the image of divine vexation is not a perpetual attribute so much as a temporal response. Jeremiah believed God’s anger was provoked by human sin but accompanied by grief as God mourned for those who suffer the consequences of their sin.
Jeremiah’s beliefs were grounded in the conviction, taught in Deuteronomy, that God and the Hebrews had entered a special covenant. The covenant, similar to ancient treaties between conquering kings and their new vassals, promised abundant blessings as long as the people remained faithful. On the flip side, the covenant promised severe punishment if they should turn to other gods. [DD]
Jeremiah saw abundant evidence of idolatry, and believed trouble was coming. The travails would not come through a divinely directed storm or fire or plague, but through the medium of an earthly enemy. Jeremiah saw the looming threat of Nebuchadnezzar and the conquering Babylonians as unwitting agents of God’s judgment, even as Cyrus the Persian would later become a means of salvation.
For years, Jeremiah had preached faithfully and called for repentance that might lead to deliverance. As the people stubbornly persisted in worshiping other gods while the Babylonian threat grew stronger, the prophet became convinced that it was too late: the people were lost (8:8-17), and all that was left was to mourn. [DD] [DD]
Heartsick sorrow (8:18-21)
“My joy is gone,” he cried; “grief is upon me, my heart is sick” (8:18).
The same people who had refused to repent blindly claimed that it was Yahweh who had failed them: “Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: ‘Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?’” (8:19a). [DD]
Jeremiah’s response has long puzzled readers because it can be hard to determine who is speaking. Is Jeremiah expressing his grief alone? Is he speaking for God? Or is he speaking for the people, personified as Jerusalem crying out for her people?
All of these could be true in some sense, for Jeremiah identified both with God’s righteous anger and the misguided people who persisted in folly. His own grief emerged from the tension of hurting for both God and people as well as his own uncertain fate when the enemy arrived.
While the people complained, God was having none of it. Why should the people question Yahweh’s fidelity when they were the unfaithful ones? “Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?” (8:19b). [DD]
Unfazed, the people continued to grumble. Some commentators imagine that this interchange could have taken place during the Hebrew New Year’s festival, which was held in the fall and celebrated Yahweh’s enthronement in Jerusalem.
The people seemed to think God had missed several good opportunities to save them from trial: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” (8:20). Despite recognizing the people’s failures, Jeremiah felt their pain: “For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me” (8:21).
Can you identify with Jeremiah? We may find it easy to condemn people who don’t behave as we think they should. It may be helpful to try and put ourselves in their shoes. What kind of childhood did they have? What traumas have they faced? What misinformation have they been fed by authority figures? [DD]
Our attempt at understanding may not change the outcome of the trouble they may find themselves in, but it increases the chance that we will show compassion to them.
Grief upon grief (8:22-9:1)
Jeremiah’s sorrow did not let up. “Is there no balm in Gilead?” he asked. “Is there no physician there? Why then has the hurt of my poor people not been restored?” (8:22).
Jeremiah’s negative metaphor later found positive expression in a familiar African-American spiritual that imagines Jesus as the balm in times of discouragement and trouble: “There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; There is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin-sick soul.” (See “The Hardest Question” online for more on “the balm of Gilead”)
Israel’s doom was so certain that Jeremiah saw the people as already wounded. Indeed, they might have been. We don’t know when this oracle was written. Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian armies defeated Jerusalem in 597 BCE and carried many of the royal, wealthy, educated, and skilled residents into exile, but did not destroy the city.
The Babylonians took king Jehoiachin prisoner and installed his uncle Mattaniah in his place, changing his name to Zedekiah (1 Kings 24:17). Zedekiah ruled as a vassal, paying tribute for some time, but in the tenth year he refused to pay tribute, leading the Babylonians to not only defeat the city, but to sack and burn it completely, taking even more people into exile.
This time Nebuchadnezzar appointed a man named Gedaliah to rule as governor from Mizpah. During his tenure, Jeremiah was forcibly carried to Egypt by a group of defectors but continued to prophesy and communicate with the exiles in Babylon.
At any of these times, Jeremiah could have spoken of the people as wounded, with no healing balm in sight. Ancient armies typically treated their victims cruelly, raping women and killing both old and young to instill even greater terror than the pillage and burning and slaughter of fallen soldiers.
In pondering the people’s fate, whether present or imminent, all Jeremiah could do was cry: “O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!” (9:1).
The price of deceit (9:2-3)
Jeremiah’s grief was not just for the people’s suffering, however, but for the betrayal that led to it. He hurt for them, but found it hard to remain near them, wishing for a hideaway in the desert where he could get away, “For they are all adulterers, a band of traitors” (9:2).
The base of their wickedness was a complete disrespect for truth that led from one wrongdoing to another: “They bend their tongues like bows; they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD” (9:3).
Jeremiah’s tirade against falsehood continues through three more verses. “No one speaks the truth,” the prophet complained, “they have taught their tongues to speak lies . . . deceit upon deceit! They refuse to know me, says the LORD” (from (:5-6).
Jeremiah understood that people who have no respect for truth can convince themselves that any behavior is permissible. In the previous chapter, Jeremiah had railed against priests and false prophets who insisted that the presence of the temple guaranteed that God would never allow Jerusalem to be defeated. It was a lie, but those who repeated it often enough came to believe it. [DD]
“Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD,’” Jeremiah had said. Instead, he called them to “amend your ways and your doings” and “act justly one with another.” That meant not oppressing immigrants, orphans, and widows; not shedding innocent blood, and not trusting in other gods. Only then could they expect God to dwell with them (Jer. 7:3-7).
What things have we come to trust like little gods that dominate our living? What lies have we swallowed, or told to others?
Jeremiah calls us to trust in God, discern what is true, and do what is right. People who do not respect the truth are people who are lost.
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Jeremiah 8:18-9:3
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
We all want our students to have role models. There are even studies out now that say that for a student to be successful they need six adults in their lives that are not their parents. But how do we help our students look up to people, and emulate them, but not worship them? How do we help them take the good from an individual and help them make that their own? You may see your students take on many different personas, affirm them in those as long as they are helping them figure out who they really are. But don’t pass the buck completely to other people, you are still their primary role model. You will have more to do with who they become than anyone else.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Jeremiah 8:18-9:3
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“In Rod We Trust” from Jerry Maguire
via www.youtube.com
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