By the time Jeremiah's mission begins, the House of Israel was considerably diminished. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been taken captive by the Assyrians. A long string of prophets had warned of upcoming disaster if Judah did not repent and return to following the Law of Moses. Their pleas had largely been ignored.
Jeremiah's message differed in one important respect from preceding prophets. The day of repenting had passed, and hard conditions lay ahead, with all recourse gone. The future oppressor was identified - Babylon - whom the Jews would serve for almost a hundred years.
The reaction of the Jews to Jeremiah's message is all too predictable. They blamed the messenger, and did all they could to make him recant his prophecies. Who is this man? Has he forgotten what God did for us against the Egyptians? Or the Canaanites? The Philistines? Or even the Assyrians? Away with him! God had saved Israel so many times that the whole idea of abandoning the Chosen People seemed impossible.
And so poor Jeremiah was made to suffer, but did not change his message.
The Jews" contempt for God's prophet showed their unwillingness to give up their sins, and the prophecy came to pass. Even so, the loss of a national home, a condition for Jews which lasted until midway through the Twentieth century A.D., did not mean God's abandonment of His people. Another prophet, Ezekiel, was called specifically to minister to Jews taken into Babylonian captivity. They were eventually allowed to return to Jerusalem by the area's new masters, the Medes and Persians, but not as self-governing people, and not with so much as a "Welcome Back" sign at the Jerusalem gates.
No comments:
Post a Comment