Jeremiah 6:1-8: a reflection

1“Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the middle of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem, for evil looks out from the north with a great destruction. 2I will cut off the beautiful and delicate one, the daughter of Zion. 3Shepherds with their flocks will come to her. They will pitch their tents against her all around. They will feed everyone in his place.” 4“Prepare war against her! Arise! Let’s go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. 5Arise! Let’s go up by night, and let’s destroy her palaces.” 6For the LORD of Armies said, “Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be visited. She is filled with oppression within herself. 7As a well produces its waters, so she produces her wickedness. Violence and destruction is heard in her. Sickness and wounds are continually before me. 8Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.”

Jeremiah sounds an urgent alarm over Jerusalem: disaster looms from the north, and the trumpet warns the people to flee. The city that should have been secure is exposed by its own sin, for out of it, God says, wickedness flows continually, like a well that keeps producing fresh water. Violence and oppression are found within her, and the coming danger is the harvest of a corruption that has become the city's very nature.

But the passage is not only threat; it is warning, and warning is itself a mercy. At the end, God says, be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you, lest I make you a desolation. The whole alarm is sounded so that the people might yet heed it and turn before it is too late. God does not bring disaster without first warning, without first pleading. The trumpet of warning is the voice of a God who would rather his people repent than perish.

There is grace hidden in a warning. When God confronts you with the danger of a path you are on, it is not cruelty but mercy; he is giving you the chance to turn before the consequences arrive. The tragedy is not the warning but ignoring it. Do not resent the alarms God sounds in your life, through his word, through your conscience, through wise voices; heed them. Be instructed, as Jeremiah pleaded, and turn while there is still time. The God who warns is the God who longs to spare you.

Lord, your warning to Jerusalem was itself a mercy, sounded so that your people might turn before it was too late. Thank you that when you confront me with the danger of a path I am on, it is not cruelty but love, giving me a chance to turn. Help me not to resent or ignore your warnings, through your word, my conscience, and wise voices, but to heed them and turn while there is still time. Amen.