Post details: Jeremiah 29 the (delayed) future
Jeremiah 29 the (delayed) future
Jeremiah 29 the (delayed) future
In a way Hananiah the prophet correctly anticipated
G-d benevolence, he would return his people to his
land—but as usual
G-d sets the time not them, and
he defines the standards not them, because
yhwh never negotiates the deal
Hananiah was not the only prophet
telling of yhwh’s deliverance,
several lived among the exiles with the king,
skilled workers, and priests in Babylon
In response G-d directs that I send his exilic community
a letter to combat those spreading
Hananiah-like messages of hope.
Not that I would offer hope, rather I stated that
70 years must pass before hope would become realized;
after all G-d had staked his reputation on bringing them
home—a new exodus, similar to the first, would occur.
It took me a while to figure out how to express
his vision, but here’s what I came up with:
70 years are like 40 years—a wilderness experience
built around the perfecting number 7. One cannot
initiate an exodus with those tied to the past.
Only G-d initiates exodus—Hezekiah and Josiah
were good, but only an “I am yhwh” self disclosure
moves the blind, lame, and deaf.
But then there is the end of those 70 years,
and as a result of yhwh’s 2nd coming the exiles
will call upon him confessing sin while boldly
claiming that he keep his promise of restoration
Finally in demonstration of a mercy not humanly
perceived yhwh stoops to allow himself to be
found by them; such behavior defies that
expected of the other side.
The letter was sent—most refused to listen,
choosing to cling to an oriented past stabilized life
that the risk of re-orientation denies.
Before ending I, Jeremiah, ponder the present
considering life in between now and then; all of
course relish the good old days, but why seek
solution to present problems in a dead past
rather than a hopeful future? For those waiting in Babylonian
exile life is tolerable; but for me living in Jerusalem
between an angry G-d and his disobedient people
I find myself on an ever thinning ice with only
warmer weather on the horizon.
Comments:
· http://leshemshamayim.wordpress.com/ It strikes me that all things prophesied about goodness and blessing are always true, but Yhwh demands words from your office that will effect immediate behavior. I am reminded of time in God’s hand and my own constant effort to hope into being which will be one day but is not yet… Yhwh has deemed the exercise of still waiting, an activity some call patience, to be a virtue. How much trust it takes to realize the actuality of an immaterial hope?
I am struck by this desire for immediate hope in my community now… how we want a physical reality to everything we are told to hope for… anticipation is too much for the imagination to be flooded with. The false prophets appeal to me, among all those filled with longing because our longing increases and hope grows thin as time takes a toll on us. How long of a road it must have seemed, for you to be walking in their same shoes waiting for the redemption of the Lord. Just a 70 year wait, and hope could not withstand 70 years of exile. And just like them, I am waiting for the redemption of my Lord, the fulfillment of which somehow is beyond the reaches of hope here on this earth. How feeble a hope is that Yhwh’s own are discouraged. It is so intangible, it seems ridiculous. Is that not the point, we somehow feel deep within enough to have a possibility with no proof at all?
I am thinking as I, like the Apostle Thomas, ache to realize my hope with the wounds of Yhwh’s own son, my Hope. And maybe Yhwh wishes to initiate a new sort of exodus with His people today. I am confused… how can ties to past be broken? Must you not reinvent coming through the past, because without past, how can you speak into the future? How can you build trust enough to have material in which faith can be placed?
When the people find their G-d stooping down to them… what will they have expected, that He draw them to His level? Mercy is incomprehensible… will we think ourselves abandoned in the desert of Yhwh? How do we maintain faith in such an exile? As an “exile” myself, the longing and searching for Yhwh continues, and sometimes it is disorienting to even search for Him. How can one compel Him by His words to answer—are we hopeful only at His mercy? Time has never been an issue for Yhwh, but for us, hanging in the balance, have we anything more than the past words issues to cling to? How much imagination will His Spirit allow as we are surrounded by the thick night of a moonless desert. Alive with stagnant breath, we are unsure if we can breath, under the flood of His unperceivable presence, the impenetrable doubt which clouds our human existence.
As you consider the now, what sort of hopeful future can be invented from the rubble lying around? Like a phoenix, will a light arise and consume what we have only been able to imagine? Isn’t hope somehow the knowledge of what was past, anticipating more, only built on past, into future? Yhwh defies all hopes, anyways… always more. Thinning ice… what hope do you cling to then? Is the return of exiles enough for you… is Yhwh in death and the approach of sheol and wrath not enough to chill your blood? It is stagnant, this river of life, deceptively sliding towards the edge of a waterfall. As Yhwh’s today… my hope is no more tangible than yours. You have a time, I hear all time as soon. Where does one place purpose if life’s own driving force of hope is out of reach?
Hannah
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