Learning about God’s justice in the world II (Jer 25:15-38)
Jer 25:15-38
Today we continue our reflections on God’s justice (see my last post Learning about God’s justice in the world I.). Tragedy and difficulties in life can shake our faith in God. It is as if the Lord had taken away His protection and we feel vulnerable and alone. We may question God’s power to help us and wonder why we must suffer. Comparing our lives to others’, however, can be deadly, especially when we look at some non-Christians who sail through life, seemingly trouble-free. We can imagine then Judah’s shock when they were to go into exile. Were they not God’s people? Where was God when they needed Him? Was He too weak to save them from enemies and the power of their gods? Was it not unjust that God’s own people were punished so severely while others seemingly got away scot-free?
Judgment on God’s people first
This background explains why speaking of the judgment of the nations was necessary. Jeremiah gives the cup of God’s wrath – perhaps in a vision – for the nations to drink (Jer 25:15-16). It symbolises his proclamation of God’s judgment to come on them (see specifics in Jeremiah 46-51).[1] However, the list starts with Judah (Jer 25:18) so that judgment comes on God’s people first (cf. 1 Pet 4:17). Although not explained, it is probably because those in a relationship with God know better what is required and more is expected of them. Hebrews also stresses that without discipline we are not His children (Heb 12:7-8).
Judgment will come on all
However, other nations are guilty, too, and will experience God’s judgment. Consequently, Jer 25:17-26 lists the peoples that were part of the known world for Israel-Judah starting with Egypt and going around God’s people (Philistines – south-west, Edom – south/south-east, Moab and Ammon – east of the Jordan, the Phoenicians [Tyre and Sidon] – north-west, desert tribes towards Arabia, Elam and Media further north, concluding with Sheshach, a code-name for Babylon).[2] Although some may be reluctant to accept judgment (refuse to drink the cup; Jer 25:28), they cannot avoid it. If God’s own people had to undergo it, so will all (Jer 25:29). The judgment rests implicitly on the assumption that even pagans have some idea of right and wrong (cf. Rom 2:12-16). The purpose of the prophecy, however, is not about confronting them with their sin, but to clarify that the Lord is not unjust in punishing His people. He will judge the other nations, too.
The Lord’s sovereignty
Thus, the section from v.30 focuses on God as agent. He roars like a lion and enters into judgment (Jer 25:30-31), He slays people (Jer 25:33) and, using the language of shepherds (symbolic of kings) and flock (people), He destroys their pasture (living environment; Jer 25:35-36). Although this sounds like direct involvement by God, judgment is still understood as mediated mainly through Babylon, who is described in Jer 4:6-7 as the enemy from the north, a lion, and a destroyer of nations. The parallel between Babylon and God both depicted as lions suggest a connection between ‘agent/instrument’ and God, who is behind it all. The emphasis on God’s activity is to bring to the fore His sovereignty. What is happening is His doing and He is Lord over all the earth even when His authority is mediated through historic events.
Trusting God’s judgment and wisdom
What this teaches us that even in this world there is a certain level of justice. We may be able to see God’s discipline and shaping of us more clearly as Christians, but the Lord is also involved in the lives of those outside the people of God. Their responsibility is diminished since they do not know the Lord and what He requires, but they too experience something of the consequences of their actions and a mediated judgment through events and people. This is true on the larger communal scale as well as on the individual level. We cannot know or judge accurately all that is going on below the surface, especially when wealth, status, prestige, and the comforts of life mask the underlying loneliness, emptiness, addictions, and compulsions that eat away at a person or a society. Injustices also do happen and so we look to God’s final judgment to deal with wickedness. Nevertheless, the Lord sovereignly and in wisdom works His purposes – even through evil – in the lives of all. May we trust His wisdom for ourselves and others.
[1] In the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the oracles against the nations come after Jer 25:13 rather than from chapter 46 onwards as in our Bible. This suggests that the order of some of the sections was not fixed within the book in Hebrew when the translation was made (3rd-2nd century BC). This is not as surprising as it might seem to us because the codex form (like our bound books) has not been invented, so manuscripts were written on scrolls and if the book was long enough or had distinct sections, then these may have been on separate scrolls making the order less clearly fixed.
[2] The code counts the position of each letter in the Hebrew alphabet and replaces it with one in the same position when counting from the other end of the alphabet. So, in Hebrew Babylon is ‘Babel’. The letter ‘b’ is in the second position at the beginning of the alphabet and is replaced by ‘sh’, the second letter from the end of alphabet and so on. It is unclear why a code name is used for Babylon here when earlier it is mentioned openly as Babylon (Jer 25:12).
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