An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 151: Jeremiah Hates Being A Prophet. Plus: The Parable of the Dirty Pants (Jeremiah 11-15)

Jeremiah 11-15
Jeremiah Hates Being A Prophet. Plus: The Parable of the Dirty Pants.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Jeremiah 11

“Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them”

This chapter offers nothing novel so far for the book of Jeremiah (nor Isaiah before it). Because the people of Israel and Judah have set up altars to Baal, and have turned from their covenant with Yahweh, they are doomed to be destroyed, the young men by the sword and others by famine, as punishment. This much we’ve heard before, although I must say that because this chapter largely eschews metaphor the message is a lot more direct and clear than it sometimes can be in other chapters. The final part of this chapter reminds me of the psalms where the psalmist calls for God’s help against people that are mocking his beliefs. This is possibly Jeremiah speaking, and singled out for doom are the people of Ananthoth; perhaps Jeremiah was mocked there for his preaching.

Jeremiah 12

“Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour”

This chapter touches on a theme that is also seen in some psalms, and pondered elsewhere in the bible; how come the wicked are allowed to prosper? No specific answer is given as to the “why” of this, only the promise that they will suffer in the end when punishment is meted out to them. Also of note in this chapter, Jeremiah turns his back on his “heritage”, putting himself apart from the people and suffering the consequences of doing so in the form of mockery and isolation. It says a lot, I think, about the psychology of the religious zealot; by putting themselves apart, even mockery is, to them, confirmation that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

Jeremiah 13

“Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.”

God makes Jeremiah bury his dirty pants and dig them up again all to provide a visual metaphor for what will happen to Judah and Israel if they do not listen to Jeremiah and turn from their “lewdness” and “abominations”. So the destruction is not pre-destined; if the people were to repent it seems evident that God is prepared to spare them destruction by the Abyssinians. However, He is also pessimistic about the chances of them turning back to orthodox Yahweh worship without the object lesson of being punished, so in fact the conquest does seem pretty certain. Which kind of means that He also knows that He’s giving Jeremiah a pretty thankless and hopeless task.

From this chapter we also get the expression that a “leopard cannot change its spots”; also that “an Ethiopian cannot change his skin” which thankfully didn’t catch on in the same way.

Jeremiah 14

“Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.”

Drought and famine affect the land; the wells are dry, animals leave their young to die. The people being to call out to God to help them but He doesn’t because of their apostacy. Singled out for opprobrium in this chapter are the false prophets, who prophesy that all will be well, that peace and plenty will come. As a poetic justice, these prophets are doomed to die by violence and famine. Supposedly, only Jeremiah is speaking with God’s voice; there’s no mention of any compatriots of his who are also “true” prophets. I wonder how anyone is meant to be able to tell (and of course they listen to the comforting lies rather than the inconvenient truth) although I recall from much earlier in the OT that it should be possible to “just know” if a true prophet is speaking God’s will – there’s something supernatural about the words that make the listener know, deep down, that they are the truth. However, that doesn’t seem to make much difference to how they act.

Jeremiah 15

“And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.”

This chapter includes what seems to be a conversation between God and Jeremiah. God continues to elaborate on His plans to punish the Israelites, but Jeremiah is reluctant to be placed in the position of the bearer of bad news; he may be saying God’s words but he is hated by everyone for doing so. God promises Jeremiah safety from harm, and even, it would seem, to be treated well by the Abyssinians when they carry off the remnant. Again this is an interesting insight into the mind of the prophet – Jeremiah carries the word of God because he feels that he must, but gets no pleasure in doing so. The compulsion is so great that it over-rides any personal feelings that the prophet has.

In the last chapter I slipped in a reference to “the inconvenient truth” as a joke, but thinking about it, the argument about climate change is the modern equivalent of Jeremiah prophesying doom for Jerusalem. Just as the Israelites refused to listen to Jeremiah because they prefer the status quo, so would people now rather continue with their lifestyles and assume that there is no such thing as climate change, or at least man-made climate change, thus alleviating us of the need to do anything. The difference between religion and science is highlighted with this comparison as well – Jeremiah’s reasoning is that God has told him, whereas science, by its very nature, lacks that absolute certainty.