Honor Thy God and Thy Street Poet

8/12/2019 Honor Thy God and Thy Street Poet

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Avril Speaks

6/10/13

OT502 - Hebrew Prophets

Honor Thy God and Thy Street Poet: A Call and Response to Judahs Sin in

Jeremiah 5:10-17

Gods long-standing relationship with Israel is often characterized by the love he had for

his chosen people. After all, Gods love and faithfulness brought them out of Egypt, delivered

them from the hands of the Phillistines, and brought them through countless other battles to

prove his strength and sovereignty. But that love did not come without price, and it did not come

without anguish. The prophet Jeremiah knew the dark side of this relationship all too well.

Having lived through and been influenced by the reign of Josiah, the Babylonian exile, and the

fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah had a greater sense than those around him that Gods patience with

Israels sin was running thin. Sometimes referred to as the weeping prophet, Jeremiah

expressed his grief of this impending doom by sharing his reflections and conversations with

God through poetry and prose within the book of Jeremiah. According to Walter Brueggemann,

author of The Prophetic Imagination,

Jeremiah is frequently misunderstood as a doomsday spokesman or a pitiful man who hada grudge and sat around crying; but his public and personal grief was for another reason

and served another purpose...Jeremiah knew long before the others that the end was

coming and that God had had enough of indifferent affluence, cynical oppression, andpresumptive religion. He knew that the freedom of God had been so grossly violated (as

in Genesis 23) that death was at the door and would not pass over (Brueggeman 47).

Jeremiahs calling as a prophet parallelled his relationship to his homeland and his

relationship to God, as evidenced through the poetic oracles in Jeremiah 5:10-17. The paradigms

in these contexts mirror the life of a street poet, crying out for justice and repentance. This paper

will seek to examine Jeremiah's calling as a prophet and how the circumstances of his calling

reflect his relationship with God and the people of Judah in Jeremiah 5:10-17. It will also


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examine practical ways in which Jeremiah models a ministry calling for reconciliation and

repentance among home territories.

Jeremiahs Calling

In his article The Years of Jeremiahs Preaching, William Holladay asserts that

Jeremiah was born in 627 B.C., while Josiah was still king, which implies that Jeremiah was still

a child while Josiah was bringing reform to Israel and ordering a revival of the reading of the

Deuteronomy scrolls. He states, Jeremiah would have been a boy of five years at the time of

Josiahs reform, a reform (so the consensus of scholars) triggered by the discovery of an early

form of Deuteronomy. Since Jeremiahs father, Hilkiah, was a priest in Anathoth...one can

imagine the impression made on the boy by the shift of his fathers activity from Anathoth to

Jerusalem (Holladay 131). This is significant because it paints apicture of a young man who

grew up immersed in the law and quite possibly feeling a certain burden to upkeep it. Holladay

suspects that Jeremiah responded to his calling during the 615 B.C. public reading of the law, (as

per the law that Deuteronomy should be read publicly every seven years), and that he

proclaimed the first dated utterance of his career, the so-called temple sermon (Holladay 132)

in Jeremiah 7:1-12. However, many scholars believe that the majority of the book of Jeremiah is

based on the events that took place after 609, which was after the death of King Josiah. Still,

from a very young age, Jeremiah was sensitive to his surroundings and how they did not reflect

what was in Gods law.

According to Donald Gowan, the book of Jeremiah is laid out in the form of poetic

oracles, biographical material, and prose sermons. Gowan also draws similarities between

Jeremiahs style of writing and the book of Deuteronomy (Gowan 92). Most of the chapters

leading up to chapter 5 are poetry detailing Israels unfaithfulness to God, despite the love,


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patience and protection he has provided throughout the years.

Jeremiahs struggle and lament over the sins of his own people is evident throughout the

beginning of this book. In Jeremiah 4:19, the prophet weeps, Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I

write in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent.

Much of Jeremiahs ministry was rooted in this type of deep pain over seeing his own nation

destroy themselves. God and Jeremiahs relationship and interplay has already been seen in other

passages such as Jeremiah 4:18-31, where it seems as though they are having a dialogue with one

another about Judahs sin. Gowan suggests that this relationship between God and Jeremiah is

what makes their relationship, and this particular book of the Bible, unique: ...the personal

involvement of the prophet with the fate of the people on one side and with God on the other side

is one of the most striking features of this book, and that appears in the laments. The language of

distress is sometimes his, sometimes the peoples, and sometimes Gods (Gowan 102).

The Call and Response

By the time we enter Jeremiah 5:10-17, we see that this passage plays out like a call and

response between God and Jeremiah regarding the state of Jerusalem. The passage is a

combination of poetic and prophetic oracles, outlined in the World Bible Commentary as:

- Judgement

- The word to the prophet

- Judgement against Israel

Theses call and response, question and answer paradigms are meant to provide a background for

some of the prose narratives seen later in the book.

Verses 10-13 are suggested to be a portion of a poetic oracle intimating the coming of

the enemy (Craigie 91). In vv. 10-11, we see God speaking his judgement on Judah through his


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imperative commands for he says, Go through her vineyards and ravage them... Here, God

uses an agricultural reference in order to show that the time has come for what was supposed to

have been beautiful to now be destroyed. This reference to vineyards is also used in Isaiah 5:1, in

which it says I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard on a fertile hillside... Here

the vineyard is a symbol of Gods people bearing fruit, but even Isaiah acknowledges that it ends

up being bad fruit (v. 2). In Jeremiah 10:10, however, God gives a command about what to do

with that bad fruit--ravage it. According to Holladay, God officially distances himself from Israel

in this verse: In the honeymoon time Israel was loyal to Yahweh and was his possession, but

that time is past. God has cast them off, and in v. 10 he states that these people do not belong

to the Lord.

What is interesting, however, is that although God commands judgement, he does not

allow complete devastation, for in the next verse he says not to destroy them completely. Instead,

he instructs to Strip off her branches, an act which, according to Charles Feinberg, shows that

God remembers his own covenant that he made to Abraham many years ago: ...because God has

not forgotten that he promised Abraham an eternal nation, he will not allow the complete

destruction of his people...the immediate context that speaks of stripping away branches is a full

pruning, not a complete desolation. Only the branches are involved, not the root or stock

(Feinberg 58). God is always willing to forgive and to allow room for a second chance. God also

lumps Israel and Judah together in v. 11, indicating his disappointment in his people as a whole.

No one is exempt from his anger, as he declares their unfaithfulness.

To Gods words, Jeremiah has a response. As someone who has witnessed firsthand the

violations of Gods law, Jeremiah is just as grieved about Judahs actions. As Brueggeman

states: The grief of Jeremiah was at two levels. First, it was the grief he grieved for the end of


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his people. And that was genuine grief because he cared about this people and he knew that God

cared about this people. But the second dimension of his grief, more intense, was because no one

would listen and no one would see what was so transparent to him (Brueggeman 47). In verse

12, Jeremiah expresses his disdain that the Israelites have not taken God seriously. They are

mocking God by thinking he is only bluffing in regards to their judgement. This must have been

painful for Jeremiah to watch, and even more painful once the temple actually was destroyed.

Some scholars disagree on whether this passage denotes a form of practical atheism. According

to the Abingnon Bible commentary, Such hubris amounts to a total dismissal of Gods person

and power. It is a strong declaration of practical atheism and human autonomy (Brueggeman

Commentary, Web). William Holladay, on the other hand, states, The phrase is uncertain of

meaning. It is not theoretical or practical atheism... (Holladay 186). The text seems to suggest

that it may be more of a disregard of God than an outright denial of God, because the very next

part of the verse says No harm will come to us, indicating that the Israelites are now treating

God as though he and his words do not matter. They have lived in oblivion for so long, and God

has held his hand of judgement for so long that they no longer believe in Gods wrath.

Brueggeman talks about this inProphetic Imagination when he discusses the royal

consciousness and how Jeremiah spoke against this group mentality that wealth was more

important than anything, that they could live in oblivion to their neighbor and to Gods

commands. Jeremiahs words in v. 13 call the Israelites to task for treating God as though he did

not matter. According to the World Bible Commentary:

The judgement is presented here as being, in effect, invited by a people who had become

so self-confident that they did not really believe that anything bad could happen to them.Their overweening confidence in their own eternal security was accompanied by a casual

dismissal of the message of the prophets (v. 13)...They call the prophets windbags but

of course the word may be translated not only wind but also spirit. The essence of trueprophecy was thespiritof God, but such was their blindness, or willful ignorance, that


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they could not discern between windand the truespirit of prophecy (92).

The Israelites were also demonstrating a level of entitlement with this behavior.

According to thePeoples Bible Commentary, they were absolutely sure that they had a lock on

God. they were his people, no matter how bad they were. He could not turn away from them

(38). God was distant for them, and he was not involved in their everyday affairs, so therefore

they felt free to do whatever they pleased. However, according to Kizhakkeyil, the people had

another reason not to take Jeremiahs words seriously:They believed in two ancient traditions

from the time of David and they were the Zion and Davidic traditions. According to these

traditions, Zion was inviolable as it was the city of Yahweh and the Davidic heir would not be

removed from his throne because of Yahwehs promise to David (41). However, Jeremiah did

not hold to those traditions of invincibility, as we later see in his temple sermon in chapter 7:

Will you steal and murder and commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow

other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears

my Name, and say, We are safe--safe to do all these detestable things? (7:9-11). The people in

Jerusalem were only listening to part of the law. They were practicing a form of ritual without

honoring the commitment and covenant to God.

Verse 14 is said to be a portion of a prophetic oracle, followed up with another poetic

oracle in v. 15-17. Once again, in v. 14, God follows up with a response to the prophet that first

affirms Jeremiahs position and authority as a true prophet who speaks for God. Here, God

makes reference to Jeremiahs initial call in 1:9 that Now I have put my words in your mouth.

In v.14, God confirms Jeremiahs calling, and reiterates that he will put words in his mouth. He

also says that those words would be like fire, and the Israelites would be like wood, consumed by

Gods actions that are soon about to take place.

After empowering Jeremiah, God issues his warning to the Israelites that he is going to


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bring a nation against them. God gives specific details about the nation that will come and attack

Israel. He says that the nation is distant, ancient, enduring, speaking another language, and

warriors. The World Bible Commentary states that this nation would be an enduring and

ancient nation (v.15), perhaps indicating its existence and history were much longer and more

impressive than that of Judah. Its speech would be unintelligible, alien in the cultural context of

Jerusalem (92). Feinberg insists that this draws an easy parallel to the Babylonians: Distance

would be no obstacle to the invaders because of their preserving and determined nature. (60-

61). The description in v. 15 is a direct correlation to Deuteronomy 28:29, which says The Lord

will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping

down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect

for the the old or pity for the young, hence the belief that Babylon will be the one to overtake

them.

In verse 17, Israel is threatened to be devoured on every side. Their harvest and food will

be devoured, and so will their children, their flocks, their vines and fig trees, and their cities. This

is in direct contrast to earlier in Jeremiah 2:3 where God recalls: Israel was holy to the Lord, the

firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them.

There was a time when Israel was the fruit, and those that did evil against them would be

punished by God, but now the Israelites were the ones to be punished and utterly devoured and

destroyed.

God also seems to insist that this nation will not only destroy everything, but it will also

destroy the confidence that the people have in themselves and in doing anything they want. Since

they have put their trust in their structures, in their idols, and in their self-reliance, this nation

will destroy all of that with the sword.


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Jeremiahs Call to a Cultural Context

These words that Jeremiah spoke were for his people. In many ways, the specific context

of Jeremiahs calling directly influenced his message. In his article, Portrait of the Prophet,

Brueggeman states:

The sovereign Word of Yahweh is not an absolute word which is everywhere and

always the same. It is a particular, concrete word spoken to particular persons inparticular contexts, to have an impact on persons, to impinge upon perception and

awareness, to intrude upon public policy, and to evoke faithful and transformed

behavior. The prophetic word is not proposition or the announcement of set truths.

It is often the playful exploration and processing of insight that it is not known untilit is brought to precisely the right shape of expression...The poetic language of

Jeremiah is not just a skillful or an occasional cloak for an eternal word. It is part of

the strategy for letting the live Word make a difference in historical reality.(Brueggeman 117-118).

As a son of a priest, Jeremiah was raised knowing that he was to be prophet to the nations

(Jeremiah 1:5). While many scholars debate the origin and the order of the book, very little

information is given about Jeremiahs childhood. The fact that Jeremiahs audience was the

people of his own nation, Jerusalem, does in fact put his prophecies in an interesting context.

Verses 13-14 indicate that despite Jeremiahs concern for his people, they disregarded him just

as much as they disregarded God. By calling the prophets wind, it is just as much a personal

attack on Jeremiah as it is on other prophets. The people even take it a step further by saying let

what they say be done to them. In other words, let famine and sword fall on the prophets

because they are not to be taken seriously. To imagine Jeremiahs prophetic message in the midst

of this type of environment is to understand his grief. As Gods spokesman, he does indeed

deliver that which is specific, which is what causes him so much grief. Jeremiahs relationship to

his people shows how difficult it can be sometimes to have to minister to your own people. The

prophets rejection mirrors that of many prophets; the difference here, being that Jeremiah is

quite vocal in his anguish over this fact.


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At various moments throughout the book, Jeremiah expresses hope that Jerusalem will

repent, that both Israel and Judah will return from exile and the nations will come in

pilgrimage (Gowan 113). However, what we see in Jeremiah 5:10-17 is a people not only

unwilling to repent, but ready to get rid of their own prophet--a crushing blow for the kinsmen

prophet. Jeremiah was called by God as a prophet to the nations (Jer. 1:4); yet, as Gowan

states, Jeremiahs time was the time when Judah ceased to be oneof the nations, and the

individuals who survived lived on as sojourners among other nations or were a remnant in the

Babylonian province that had once been their kingdom (Gowan 113). Jeremiah was preaching

to a people who were scattered due to the fall of the temple and due to the exile, they were on the

edge of extinction. Jeremiah was fully aware of the consequences of Israels rebellion, which

made his ministry significant as he did his best to warn them of what was to come.

One of the primary themes in this text is that of not taking God seriously. The Israelites

disregarded God and his messenger and they made the grave mistake of thinking they had more

knowledge than God or Jeremiah. Verses 12-13 in particular speak to the peoples form of self-

reliance, believing that they understood the law perfectly and that no harm would come to them.

Saying that God would do nothing is a deep accusation against Gods promises and his

sovereignty. And saying that his prophets had no word in them is, in fact, calling God a liar,

especially when God told Jeremiah early in his life that he was putting his words in his mouth.

These passages in Jeremiah are a warning about taking Gods judgement for granted, but

also taking his mercy for granted. The people of Judah were living in a place of comfort. They

had been practicing their idol worship for so long, unaffected. There was a new concept of a

wealth economy, which had been introduced by Solomon. Things were going well for them, at

least so they thought, so it was easier to live in a place of denial. As Brueggeman states, The


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royal folk had for so long lived in a protective, fake world that their perceptual field was skewed

and with their best looking they could not see what was there to see...To turn and be healed they

will not. So in his anguish over what is happening, and in his greater anguish over the wholesale

denial, Jeremiah presents his poetry (Brueggeman 48). It was out of this pending destruction

that Jeremiahs poetry leaked and was made to communicate and warn the people of his own

hometown to repent.

The peoples rejection of Jeremiahs message shows that they were blind to the facts and

blind to the messages being given. Even at the time that Jeremiah was ministering, the northern

kingdom was already in captivity, which should have been a definitive warning that judgement

could in fact happen, but perhaps other philosophies had already circulated to explain why the

northerners were held captive; for example, the earlier prophecies during the time of Amos and

Hosea suggesting that the north got what they deserved for separating from the kingdom and

building their own altars. With this philosophy, the people of Judah may have gotten even more

comfortable in their sin, believing that the northern kingdom had brought their destruction on

themselves. Unfortunately, Jeremiah actually did live to see what he was prophesying come to

pass. Judah was carried off into exile by Babylon, and Jerusalem did fall. His words were not for

naught.

Practical Application

This passage is quite relevant today in the sense that many people, both Christians and

non-Christians alike, take God and his words for granted. Just like the people of Judah, todays

society easily picks and chooses which parts of Gods law it will obey. Wesee this in our

political systems, where politicians are quick to condemn gay marriage in the name of religion,

yet ignore Gods commands to take care of the poor, to love our neighbors, and to live in unity


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among one another. And those fellow Christians who speak out and challenge that consciousness

are labeled as windbags.

If I were giving a talk on this passage, it would be rooted in my own cultural context of

the African American church. I would use Jeremiah 5:10-17 as a basis to challenge the

leadership on its blind embrace of the prosperity gospel. In the same way that Judah had

become complacent in their sin, the people of this community have become complacent in their

material possessions, believing that acquisition of wealth equates with Godspleasure. Many

people in these churches have come to believe that they are invincible because they believe that

with Gods covenant comes an entitlement to Gods favor. And in many regards, the church has

ignored the prophets of its day, some of which are street poets, rappers, artists, and even pastors

who have dared to speak out against false teaching. Many of these people, just like Jeremiah,

have received a calling to minister to their own community. They have seen the destruction that

complacency has caused, and see the destruction that is to come. They carry the burden of

wanting to see change in their communities; however, they often get pushed to the margins, and

are disregarded and called windbags. But just as Judah had their day of reckoning when the

temple was destroyed, so too will people realize the error of ignoring their modern-day prophets.

I would also draw parallels between Judahs rich history of having once been Gods fruit

but now being devoured and destroyed. The African American church has a rich history of

relying on a strong, robust faith during times of slavery and Civil Rights, when the idea of

fighting for their neighbors was a matter of necessity. This faith had its grounds in God being a

deliverer and a Savior, with strong ties and parallels to the Exodus story. However, this level of

consciousness is waning among the people, as everyone wants to look out for themselves. They

have what they need for survival and the belief is that God is sitting back, giving it all his stamp


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of approval.

This passage has helped me to put the theology of the Hebrew Prophets in a larger

context in terms of how they were speaking to the people of their time. Each prophet, and

Jeremiah in particular, was ministering within a specific historical context. The words of the

prophets were not isolated events. It has also changed the way I see the heart of the prophet.

Instead of showing someone who is just waiting to bring Gods judgement, here is someone who

has struggled and toiled with his people to try and get them to change their ways. Jeremiah

essentially watched his hometown gradually go down a path of destruction. But he stayed and he

wept over Judah, which takes much courage. And their response was complacency. This was a

man loved by God, but rejected by his people, very similar to Jesus himself and similar to people

today who speak a truth that may go against the grain.


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Works Cited

Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination: Revised Edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

2001. Kindle Edition.

Brueggeman, Walter. The Book of Jeremiah: Portrait of the Prophet.Interpreting the Prophets.

Ed. James Luther Mays and Paul J. Achtemeier. Fortress Press. 1987.

Brueggeman, Walter.Abingdon Old Testament Commentary.Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001.Web.

Craigie, Peter C., Page H. Kelley, and Joel F. Drinkard, Jr. World Biblical Commentary. Dallas:

Word, Incorporated. 1991.

Feinberg, Charles Lee.Jeremiah: A Commentary.Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House.1982. Print

Gosdeck, David.Peoples Bible Commentary. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 2004.

Print.

Gowan, Donald. Theology of the Prophetic Books: The Death and Resurrection of Israel.Louisville. Westminster John Knox Press. 1998. Print.

Holladay, William.Jeremiah 1: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah Chapters

1-25. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. 1986. Print.

Holladay, William. The Years of Jeremiahs Preaching.Interpreting the Prophets.

Ed. James Luther Mays and Paul J. Achtemeier. Fortress Press. 1987.

Kizhakkeyil, Sebastian, Dr.Jeremiah: An Exegetical Commentary. Bangalore: ATC

Publications.

2006. Print.

Martens, Elmer, and Howard H. Charles Ed.Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale:

Herald Press. 1987. Web.

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Honor Thy God and Thy Street Poet