LOOKING FOR GOD IN THE WRONG PLACES -
COUNSEL FROM JEREMIAH
The Rev. Harold Shepherd, CD, M.A., S.T.M., LL.B., LL.M., Ph.D.

I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, "Where is the LORD?" Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that do not profit. Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD, and I accuse your children's children... Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2: 7-13

Jeremiah is one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible who was born in the village of Anathoth, within walking distance from Jerusalem. His father, Hilkiah, was a priest who probably performed services in the nearby Temple. Jeremiah was called to prophetic ministry in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah- about 627 B.C. Josiah is one of the kings of the southern Kingdom who has received good press in the Hebrew Bible. One of the reasons for this is that he initiated major religious reform in the Kingdom. While renovating the Temple in about 622 B.C., a scroll containing part of the traditions that formed the Book of Deuteronomy was found, leading to a significant religious change, often referred to as the “Deuteronomic Reform.” One of his major initiatives was to centralise all sacrificial offerings in the Temple in Jerusalem. In furtherance of this objective, he destroyed all rural sanctuaries and high places used for worship, and prohibited worship of Baal. Beer Sheba is a city that lies on the southern border of Judea and was built at a spring in the Negev Desert. Archaeological excavations of a store house found that part of its walls were built from a horned altar that was destroyed and re-used late in the 7th century B.C., about the time of Josiah’s reform. Josiah’s reign was marked by the decline of the Assyrian Kingdom that had dominated the region for centuries. The Babylonians and Medes captured the Assyrian capital of Ninevah in 612 B.C. and killed the king, Sin-Shar-ishkin after having defeated a combined Assyrian and Egyptian army. Remnants of the Assyrian army attempted to regroup at Haran. After Necho became Pharaoh of Egypt in 610 B.C., he decided to come to the rescue of the Assyrians in an attempt to contain the growing regional power of the Babylonians. He marched his army north along the Mediterranean coast in 609 B.C., but was intercepted by Josiah and his army at Megiddo, situated on a valley that separates Galilee from Samaria. Josiah was killed in the ensuing battle. However, Necho and the Assyrians were defeated by the Babylonians under King Nabopolassar farther north at Carchamesh in 606 B.C, leaving the Babylonians the principal power in the region. The King died the next year and was succeeded by King Nebuchadnezzar Josiah was succeeded by Jehoahaz, then Jehoiakim. It was during this period the Jeremiah found himself ridiculed and condemned when he counseled that no resistence by shown to the Babylonians. His message was rejected and the nation took up arms against Nebuchadnezzar, leading to the capture of Jerusalem in 589 B.C. and the exile of the leadership. After ten years of a puppet king, another rebellion broke out, leading to the destruction of the city and Temple, together with a general exile of the population to Babylonia. When the Babylonians found Jeremiah in a pit he had been thrown into because he prophesied a Babylonian victory, he was released and allowed to live in peace.

Jeremiah initially protested against God’s call to a prophetic ministry, stating that he was too young. God told him that he had been chosen before he was born, and consecrated as a prophet to the nations. Today’s reading from the Book of Jeremiah likely reflects the period between his call to the ministry in 627 B.C. and the beginning of the Deuteronomic Reform in 622 B.C. Many in the nation had decided to hedge their bets by making offering to the Caananite rain god, Baal, just in case he could ensure a good harvest. High places were busy throughout the countryside. For Jeremiah, the nation had forsaken the God of Israel and left a fresh spring to built a cracked cistern that could hold no water. We do the same today, but in different ways. We forsake the life-giving and soul-satisfying sustenance of the Holy Spirit in order to try to build our own empires based on our own wisdom and self-interest. It is even possible to forsake God while justifying self-seeking in his name. History is full of such examples. But, Jeremiah calls us back to simple faith, trust and obedience.