Jeremiah 4:7-12: a reflection

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.”

As the destroyer approaches to lay Judah waste, Jeremiah voices a bitter complaint: the people had been told, You will have peace, when in fact the sword was reaching to the very heart. False prophets had lulled them with comforting assurances, peace, peace, while disaster bore down. The comforting lie had left them unprepared for the truth, soothed into a false security that could not save them.

Notice the danger the passage exposes: the comfort of a reassuring lie. It is pleasant to be told all is well, that there is nothing to fear, that peace is assured; and false comfort finds a ready audience. But a lie that says peace when there is no peace does not make things well; it only leaves us unprepared for the reality it denies. The people preferred the soothing word to the true one, and the soothing word could not shield them from the sword.

That is a caution about our own preference for comfortable untruths. We are drawn to voices that tell us what we want to hear, that assure us all is well when it is not, that soothe us rather than warn us. But a false peace is no peace; it only delays and worsens the reckoning with reality. It is better to hear the hard truth that lets us prepare and turn than the comforting lie that leaves us exposed. Do not prefer the soothing word to the true one. Seek out voices that will tell you the truth, even when it is unwelcome, rather than those who merely say peace, peace. A hard truth that saves is better than a comfort that deceives.

Lord, your people were told peace, peace, when the sword was reaching to their heart, lulled by comforting lies into a false security that could not save them. Guard me from that preference for reassuring untruths. Keep me from seeking out only the voices that tell me what I want to hear, that soothe me rather than warn me, that say all is well when it is not. Give me the courage to hear hard truth that lets me turn and prepare, rather than a false peace that leaves me exposed. Help me love the truth that saves more than the comfort that deceives. Let me not be lulled, but awake to reality before you.