Scripture Daily

Context No. 736 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 4:7-12: in context

7A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant. 8For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the LORD hasn’t turned back from us. 9“It will happen at that day,” says the LORD, “that the heart of the king will perish, along with the heart of the princes. The priests will be astonished, and the prophets will wonder.” 10Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace;’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart.” 11At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind blows from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse. 12A full wind from these will come for me. Now I will also utter judgments against them.”

Jeremiah is warning Jerusalem that an invader is coming down from the north, and he paints it as a lion breaking from its thicket, a destroyer of nations already on the road, coming to make the land a waste. Put on sackcloth and wail, he says, because the LORD's burning anger has not turned back. On that day the courage of the king and his officials will drain away, and even the priests and prophets will stand appalled. It is a picture of a catastrophe no one was braced for.

And then Jeremiah says something startling, almost an accusation flung at God. Ah, Lord GOD, he cries, surely you have utterly deceived this people, telling them you will have peace, while the sword is at their throat. Someone had been promising peace, the prophets who healed the wound too lightly, and the people had believed it right up until the blade arrived. Jeremiah is honest enough, and angry enough, to lay even that at God's door, and the Bible lets his complaint stand on the page. The wind that is coming, he says, is not the gentle one that winnows grain and separates the good from the chaff. It is too strong for that. It has come only to judge.

The people trusted a promise of peace right up until the sword reached their throat. What comforting word am I leaning on, that has not actually looked at the threat coming toward me?

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