Jeremiah 4:19-31: a reflection

19My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. 20Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment. 21How long will I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet? 22“For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.” 23I saw the earth and, behold, it was waste and void, and the heavens, and they had no light. 24I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. 25I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled. 26I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD, before his fierce anger. 27For the LORD says, “The whole land will be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. 28For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken it. I have planned it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.” 29Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers. They go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein. 30You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life. 31For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”

As Jeremiah grieves over the coming ruin of his people, God names the sad state of their hearts: For my people are foolish; they don't know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don't know how to do good. It is a striking indictment: they had become practiced, skillful, expert in doing evil, but were unpracticed, unlearned, incompetent at doing good. Their skill had developed in the wrong direction; they knew how to do evil well, but did not know how to do good.

Notice the indictment: skilled in evil, but not knowing how to do good. It is possible to become practiced and skillful in doing evil, expert at it through much practice, while remaining unpracticed and unlearned at doing good. The people had developed their skill in the wrong direction; they knew how to do evil, but did not know how to do good, as though good were a skill they had never learned. Skill, like a muscle, develops in whatever direction it is exercised; and theirs had been exercised in evil, leaving them expert in it but incompetent at good.

That is worth taking to heart, for we too can become practiced in evil and unpracticed in good, our skill developing in the wrong direction. Through repeated practice, we can become skillful, expert, at certain sins and evils, while remaining unpracticed, awkward, unlearned at doing good; our skill can develop in the wrong direction, as the people's had. Do not exercise and develop your skill in the direction of evil, becoming practiced and expert at it while unlearned at good; practice good instead, developing your skill in the right direction. Exercise yourself in doing good rather than evil, that you may become practiced and skillful at good rather than at evil, as the people had become skillful in evil but did not know how to do good; cultivate skill in doing good through practice, rather than letting your skill develop, as theirs did, in the direction of evil, so that you know how to do good, and are not merely expert at evil.

Lord, as Jeremiah grieves over the coming ruin of his people, you name the sad state of their hearts: for my people are foolish; they don't know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don't know how to do good. It is a striking indictment: they had become practiced, skillful, expert in doing evil, but were unpracticed, unlearned, incompetent at doing good. Their skill had developed in the wrong direction. Show me the indictment: skilled in evil, but not knowing how to do good. It is possible to become practiced and skillful in doing evil, expert at it through much practice, while remaining unlearned at doing good. The people had developed their skill in the wrong direction; they knew how to do evil, but did not know how to do good. Skill develops in whatever direction it is exercised; and theirs had been exercised in evil. Take that to my heart, for I too can become practiced in evil and unpracticed in good, my skill developing in the wrong direction. Through repeated practice, I can become skillful at certain sins, while remaining unlearned at doing good. Keep me from exercising and developing my skill in the direction of evil, becoming expert at it while unlearned at good; help me practice good instead, Lord, developing my skill in the right direction. Help me exercise myself in doing good rather than evil, that I may become practiced and skillful at good rather than at evil.