The journey back to God (Jer 10:17-25)

Testimonies of how people come to faith in God can be immensely fascinating, particularly when the person describing the experience can do so in a way that brings home the reality of how God touched their lives. I am always amazed at the variety of how the Lord reaches our hearts and the immense patience with which He accommodates Himself to the needs of those who respond to His call. While finding the way back to God looks somewhat different in each circumstance, examples of how it happens also helps us see commonalities. Our reading presents a dialogue of several voices with the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem as the background, and it reflects something of the process that will lead to Israel’s repentance in exile.

God’s own people now in exile?

There is a striking contrast here with the first part of the chapter on idolatry that concluded with Israel and God belonging to each other (Jer 10:16). It is all the more shocking that the people who had access and close claim on the living Lord are now called to gather their belongings into a bundle as they will be violently thrown out of the land (Jer 10:17-18). Exilic readers would have pondered this very question: How could they, God’s very own people, have been removed from the land that God had promised them? Yet, the very juxtaposition of these two parts gives the answer in that Israel chose the worship of incompetent and dead idols over the true and living God. Coming to this recognition will be at the heart of Israel’s repentance, but first they must go through the terrible agony of the loss of their homeland.

On the road to recovery

The lament that follows is in the first person, but the reference to ‘sons’ indicates a communal speech (Jer 10:19-20). The sufferings are described as an injury, a sickness (there is no confession of sin yet) and the concern is for the loss of home and family (vv.19-20). Understandably, God’s people will not be able to see beyond their immediate pain in the initial shock. Nevertheless, acceptance of the distress as something to be borne (v.19) is their first step on the road to recovery. Jeremiah voices in addition the greater responsibility of the ‘shepherds’, often a term used of kings and sometimes of leaders more generally, whose poor decisions led to the exile (the scattering of the flock; Jer 10:21). While this is not an excuse for the people, it does clarify the severity of the problem: those who were in the best position to know God’s law, and hence His will, refused to seek the Lord. This explanation is followed by another switch in focus back to the inescapable advance of the enemy from the north and the desolation they will inflict (Jer 10:22).

Self-sufficiency and the will of God

In all this back and forth, Israel is not in a place to repent yet and so Jeremiah’s words on behalf of the people give voice to the attitude needed. The prophet knows that human beings are not in control of their destiny, their life is not their own (Jer 10:23). Israel’s fate will have to spiral out of control before they will let go of trying to set their course. It is in brokenness that correction can be accepted, even invited, but the prophet pleads that God may not destroy His people entirely (Jer 10:24). The call for judgment on those who ‘devoured’ Israel may sound vengeful to our ears, but in the OT understanding it is just the opposite because it leaves justice in God’s hand (Deut 32:35; Prov 25:21-22; Rom 12:19-20).

This section with its constant change of focus makes for jerky reading, but it reflects well the mixture of thoughts and emotions as we move towards God: the fear of consequences, grief over loss, the acknowledgement that these sufferings must be borne, the glimpses of recognition as to the cause, the sense of inevitability. Wherever we find ourselves in the relationship with God, the testimony of voices on the road to recovery teach us that the turning point comes when we let go of self-sufficiency both in determining our own fate and those of others and submit ourselves to the gracious will of God.

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