Jeremiah cannot keep his mouth shut. In spite of being imprisoned he continues to expound his political views to the anger of the Jewish leaders. In the guardhouse he is in direct contact with the soldiers whose morale he is impacting to the detriment of Zedekiah. He is completely losing control of his soldiers. Yet he hesitates to execute Jeremiah because of an aura of divine protection around the prophet. The solution is to throw him into an old dried up cistern that is knee deep in mud. From the cistern Jeremiah still urges the king to surrender to the Babylonians. Zedekiah secretly talks to Jeremiah and allows him to stay in the court until the day that Jerusalem was taken. In the siege Jerusalem falls. Jeremiah is released to the Babylonians as a sympathizer and handed over to the new governor, Gedaliah. Undoubtedly, Nebuchadrezzar recognized Jeremiah as a kindred visionary. Likewise, Jeremiah had already recognized Nebuchadrezzar as a man of destiny. And, here their paths cross. Jeremiah assists Gedaliah in rallying the people about him and Gedaliah encourages, with words of Jeremiah, the people to dwell in the land of the Chaldeans, and serve the king of Babylon. However, shortly thereafter, Ishmael, a tool of the king of Ammon, murders Gedaliah, a few Babylonian soldiers and a number of Jews. Ishmael rounds up the rest of the Mizpah community, mostly women, but including Jeremiah, presumably Baruch, and sets off to hide in the desert among the Ammonites. Johanan, a man of action but not wisdom, retaliates with an attack that frees the captives, though Ishmael and some of his men escape. Johanan and the survivors camp near Bethlehem. It is clear to the reader that Jeremiah is no deserter or traitor. As a prophet Jeremiah gives absolute primacy to covenant consciousness. Judah’s rulers failed to trust in the wilderness covenant and found themselves and their people without God-consciousness, without power, without character. They simply awaited helplessly for the gigantic tidal wave of power to consume them from the north. The shortsightedness of the rulers and the false prophets drove Jeremiah more and more firmly upon the one foundation stone of the nation’s integrity-its calling under God. What is our calling? Who are the false prophets? How do we recognize the Jeremiahs of our day? Isn’t it interesting that although Jeremiah is literally sinking in the mud in the cistern it is Zedekiah who is sinking in the mire. In this reading I can see that we grapple in a personal way,on a small scale, with the same issues that Jeremiah faced. Are there not times in the workplace when we see such incompetence, such stupidity? Yet, the corporate structure ignores the handwriting on the wall? And, if we speak up? The consequence is usually, not a toss into a cistern, but a walk out the door.
Jeremiah cannot keep his mouth shut. In spite of being imprisoned he continues to expound his political views to the anger of the Jewish leaders. In the guardhouse he is in direct contact with the soldiers whose morale he is impacting to the detriment of Zedekiah. He is completely losing control of his soldiers. Yet he hesitates to execute Jeremiah because of an aura of divine protection around the prophet. The solution is to throw him into an old dried up cistern that is knee deep in mud. From the cistern Jeremiah still urges the king to surrender to the Babylonians. Zedekiah secretly talks to Jeremiah and allows him to stay in the court until the day that Jerusalem was taken. In the siege Jerusalem falls. Jeremiah is released to the Babylonians as a sympathizer and handed over to the new governor, Gedaliah. Undoubtedly, Nebuchadrezzar recognized Jeremiah as a kindred visionary. Likewise, Jeremiah had already recognized Nebuchadrezzar as a man of destiny. And, here their paths cross. Jeremiah assists Gedaliah in rallying the people about him and Gedaliah encourages, with words of Jeremiah, the people to dwell in the land of the Chaldeans, and serve the king of Babylon. However, shortly thereafter, Ishmael, a tool of the king of Ammon, murders Gedaliah, a few Babylonian soldiers and a number of Jews. Ishmael rounds up the rest of the Mizpah community, mostly women, but including Jeremiah, presumably Baruch, and sets off to hide in the desert among the Ammonites. Johanan, a man of action but not wisdom, retaliates with an attack that frees the captives, though Ishmael and some of his men escape. Johanan and the survivors camp near Bethlehem. It is clear to the reader that Jeremiah is no deserter or traitor. As a prophet Jeremiah gives absolute primacy to covenant consciousness. Judah’s rulers failed to trust in the wilderness covenant and found themselves and their people without God-consciousness, without power, without character. They simply awaited helplessly for the gigantic tidal wave of power to consume them from the north. The shortsightedness of the rulers and the false prophets drove Jeremiah more and more firmly upon the one foundation stone of the nation’s integrity-its calling under God. What is our calling? Who are the false prophets? How do we recognize the Jeremiahs of our day? Isn’t it interesting that although Jeremiah is literally sinking in the mud in the cistern it is Zedekiah who is sinking in the mire. In this reading I can see that we grapple in a personal way,on a small scale, with the same issues that Jeremiah faced. Are there not times in the workplace when we see such incompetence, such stupidity? Yet, the corporate structure ignores the handwriting on the wall? And, if we speak up? The consequence is usually, not a toss into a cistern, but a walk out the door.
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