Slices
Prepare
We are about to read some hard verses. Ask God to help you face them honestly and meet with you as you read.
Bible passage
Disaster from the North
5 ‘Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say:
“Sound the trumpet throughout the land!”
Cry aloud and say:
“Gather together!
Let us flee to the fortified cities!”
6 Raise the signal to go to Zion!
Flee for safety without delay!
For I am bringing disaster from the north,
even terrible destruction.’
7 A lion has come out of his lair;
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his place
to lay waste your land.
Your towns will lie in ruins
without inhabitant.
8 So put on sackcloth,
lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the Lord
has not turned away from us.
9 ‘In that day,’ declares the Lord,
‘the king and the officials will lose heart,
the priests will be horrified,
and the prophets will be appalled.’
10 Then I said, ‘Alas, Sovereign Lord! How completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, “You will have peace,” when the sword is at our throats!’
11 At that time this people and Jerusalem will be told, ‘A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows towards my people, but not to winnow or cleanse; 12 a wind too strong for that comes from me. Now I pronounce my judgments against them.’
13 Look! He advances like the clouds,
his chariots come like a whirlwind,
his horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us! We are ruined!
14 Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved.
How long will you harbour wicked thoughts?
15 A voice is announcing from Dan,
proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim.
16 ‘Tell this to the nations,
proclaim concerning Jerusalem:
“A besieging army is coming from a distant land,
raising a war cry against the cities of Judah.
17 They surround her like men guarding a field,
because she has rebelled against me,”’
declares the Lord.
18 ‘Your own conduct and actions
have brought this on you.
This is your punishment.
How bitter it is!
How it pierces to the heart!’
19 Oh, my anguish, my anguish!
I writhe in pain.
Oh, the agony of my heart!
My heart pounds within me,
I cannot keep silent.
For I have heard the sound of the trumpet;
I have heard the battle cry.
20 Disaster follows disaster;
the whole land lies in ruins.
In an instant my tents are destroyed,
my shelter in a moment.
21 How long must I see the battle standard
and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 ‘My people are fools;
they do not know me.
They are senseless children;
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil;
they know not how to do good.’
23 I looked at the earth,
and it was formless and empty;
and at the heavens,
and their light was gone.
24 I looked at the mountains,
and they were quaking;
all the hills were swaying.
25 I looked, and there were no people;
every bird in the sky had flown away.
26 I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert;
all its towns lay in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
Explore
Some years ago I was in a meeting where the leader invited us to call out qualities of God while he wrote them up. He then pointed out that we had all the comfortable qualities but words like ‘anger’ and ‘judging’ were missing. We can have a limited view of God. There are aspects of God that we would rather avoid. The picture in these verses of an angry God who judges his people is one of those. Different images of the invading army pile up: lion (v 7), scorching wind (vs 11,12), clouds, whirlwind, eagles (v 13). Terrible destruction is coming (vs 5,6). It is as though creation itself is being undone (vs 23–26; compare v 23 with Genesis 1:2 which uses the same Hebrew phrase). The ultimate horror is that all this is God’s doing (v 8).
It may help us to remember that God is only angry because he cares so deeply. We too become angry at evil and injustice in the world, and God cares far more than we do. Jeremiah’s pain (vs 19–21) reflects God’s own pain, and God’s cry in verse 22 confirms that fools are not people without intelligence but those who deliberately reject God.
Respond
If you can, look at a newspaper or news website. What makes you sad? Angry? Bring it to the God who cares and who will ultimately deal with all evil and injustice.
Deeper Bible study
Come into a time of confession, acknowledging before God your falling short of his righteous expectations of you.
My mother has told me vivid stories of people’s reactions as they heard the wail of air-raid sirens echoing through the streets of World War II Liverpool. Men, women and children dropped what they were doing and fled for the shelters. Only air‑raid precaution and emergency services members stayed out. God tells Jeremiah to sound the alarm. Powerful images describe the imminent attackers: a lion, a scorching wind, chariots like a tornado and horses like eagles. There is overwhelming noise, earthquakes, the promise of catastrophic destruction. All leadership collapses in the face of such violent attack. The aftermath is pictured in further sombre descriptions: the land a waste and void desert, depopulated, the cities desolated ruins. The light of the nations has been put out.
In these verses it’s often hard to distinguish between God’s voice and Jeremiah’s own confused and emotional reactions. He questions God’s apparently contradictory words to the nation (v 10), through the mouths of other prophets. He recoils from the anticipated horror, his heart races, he is torn apart with anguish (v 19). Our own hearts go out to Jeremiah and the agony of his task in sounding this warning to those among whom he lived.
I need something to clutch on to when faced with a passage like this, a lifebelt in a storm of impending judgement by a righteous God. Jesus’ disciples had just such an experience.1 Two features of this story give me reassurance. First, Jesus was in the boat, in the storm with them, as he is always with us. Second, his authority exceeds the strength of any storm and his loving sacrifice of himself covers our failings in the face of his Father’s righteousness. Our hearts have been washed from wickedness (v 14).
Sit with hands open and receive the forgiveness of God into your own mixed-up life. Listen for the words he wants you to take into his mixed-up world.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Ruth 3,4; Psalm 45
Pray for Scripture Union
Give thanks for all the grow communities and emerging grow communities as well as all the children and young people who attend and are growing in their relationship with God. Pray for those that lead them and that SU will be able to support them in the work that they are doing.
