An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 154: Epic Prophet Battles of History (Jeremiah 26-30)

Jeremiah 26-30
Epic Prophet Battles of History.

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 26
 “Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.”

Jeremiah, during the reign of Jehoiakim, gives his prophecies of destruction in the gates of Jerusalem, and the people decide he should be put to death for speaking ill of Israel. You can see echoes of this kind of thinking today still, with the “with us or against us” attitudes of some politicians. However, luckily for Jeremiah some of the elders speak up for him, bringing up past prophets who have also prophesied doom for Jerusalem – Micah, in the reign of Hezekiah, who was saved, but also Urijah, more recent in the reign of Jehoiakim, who was chased into Egypt and killed by the king’s men. Evidently Jehoiakim is a man insecure in his rule that he feels the need to kill anyone who suggests that it might not end well. Which is almost certainly a good way of ensuring that that’s exactly what happens.

Jeremiah, however, is saved, and in the process the people don’t compound their errors by spilling innocent blood.

Jeremiah 27
“Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon”

God sets up another visual aid, getting Jeremiah to send yokes to the Edmoites, Moabites and so forth encouraging them to, basically, surrender to Nabuchadnezzar (with an “n” here) because otherwise God will afflict them with plague and war and famine.

So Jeremiah is essentially suggesting a policy of appeasement. It is God’s will that the Babylonians should conquer, and to try to avoid that fate will provoke more punishment from God. Other prophets and advisors who either suggest no threat from Babylon, or that they can be fought, are false prophets.

That’s a tricky issue. From the Bible’s point of view, Jeremiah is right because he is speaking God’s will. But if you’re not privy to this divine intelligence, is it a bad thing to prefer to fight rather than meekly submit to slavery? The whole concept of God using the Babylonians as a tool to punish the Israelites is kind of an odd one, but although the whole idea of a punishment followed by a reward has been making me uneasy, actually it’s not that unusual. If a person is imprisoned for a crime, they serve a sentence as punishment, at the end of which they have “paid their debt”. A child might be sent for “time out”, but then welcomed back with kindness. It’s only when you amplify this up to a national scale it starts to sound unusual.

Jeremiah 28
“Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it.”

I forgot in the last chapter that timing is a little crooked. The last chapter seems to be set in the reign of Zedekiah, but also includes mention of Jehoiakim, a preceding king. This chapter is also set in the time of Zedekiah, but the mention of Jehoiakim makes more sense as it is in a historical sense. Jehoiakim’s son, Jeconiah, is a hostage of Nabuchadnezzar.

This chapter is a “prophet fight” between Hananiah and Jeremiah. Hananiah prophesies that the yoke of the Babylonians will be broken within two years and all plunder and hostages returned (evidently the Babylonians have been raiding periodically before their final, destructive invasion).

Jeremiah answers that “Amen it should be so”, but that it won’t come to pass because Hananiah is a false prophet. I like that Jeremiah does seem to genuinely want peace for Jerusalem, but know that this won’t happen, at least not yet. He then prophesies that Hananaih will die, as a false prophet, and he does.

Jeremiah 29
“For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”

A letter writing campaign goes on here. Jeremiah sends one to the people already captive in Babylon (which include” Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths”) telling them that God advises them to, basically, make themselves at home because they’ll be there for a few generations. Plant gardens, marry and have children, do everything that you can to not only survive but to thrive and multiply. Meanwhile everyone left behind in Jerusalem (i.e. King Zedekiah) will be punished.

Someone called Shemaiah the Nehelamite sends a letter to the high priest of Jerusalem, one Zepheniah, denouncing Jeremiah as a false prophet and suggesting that “thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks”. However, Zepheniah appears to be an ally of Jeremiah because he reads the letter to him, and then Jeremiah sends one back denouncing Shemaiah as a false prophet and says that God will punish him. Where Shemaiah is based, and what his role is, is unclear, but it’s another prophet-off like last chapter, although here we can only guess at Shemaiah’s fate.

Jeremiah 30
“For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”

God tells Jeremiah to write down the prophecy that the captive Israelites will again be freed from wherever they are held and gathered together to rebuild the nation of Israel. It’s all stirring stuff, but this has all pretty much been covered before, including the justification for the period of punishment before redemption. Unlike the preceding chapters the personality of Jeremiah is subsumed by the words of God here, and so it is marginally less interesting on a human scale.

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