Jeremiah's God

A lot of Christians don't like the God of the Old Testament. The God of the New Testament is cool, what with that "God so loved the world" stuff and all, but that OT version with all that smiting and ordering of deaths and all ... well, He's not a nice God. "That's not the God I know," people will tell me.

Jeremiah is sometimes referred to as "the weeping prophet". The reason is that besides his original book, Jeremiah, he has a second book titled, "Lamentations". As you might guess, the book is full of laments. Go figure. Jeremiah was a prophet in Judah from about 626 BC until the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC. The book of Jeremiah talks about his work as God's prophet among the people of Judah giving warnings of impending doom that weren't heeded. Lamentations is his aftermath report.

In Lamentations there are four basic players. There is Jeremiah and there are the people of Judah on one hand and there is God and the enemies of Israel on the other. In this book Jeremiah laments the destruction of Jerusalem, the defeat and imprisonment of his people, and his own sorrows. Jeremiah rightly lays blame to the destruction and imprisonment of his people at the feet of their enemies, but it is unavoidable that Jeremiah equally affirms repeatedly that all of it is by God's design. Jeremiah is not like many of today's believers whose God is "not like that". Jeremiah is convinced that He is. Jeremiah was sure of it. And it wasn't pleasant. It is five chapters of agony, personal and corporate. All about what his enemies did to his people and to himself. All about the loss and the pain and the destruction. They were a laughingstock. Chapter 3 begins with a long list of things that God has done to Jeremiah personally. "I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath," he writes and it only gets worse from there (Lam 3:1). Verses 1 through 18 are about the torture God has intentionally inflicted on Jeremiah himself. "Remember my affliction and my wanderings," he says, "the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me." (Lam 3:19-20) So it is a little bit baffling when he follows that with "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope." (Lam 3:21) What, in all this pain, gives Jeremiah hope?

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. (Lam 3:22-23)

Jeremiah in his God-given torment places his ultimate hope in one place -- God. Not because good times are coming; just in knowing Him.

For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the children of men. (Lam 3:31-33)

So how does Jeremiah put this together in his mind? How does he correlate "all this tragedy and pain" with "the abundance of His steadfast love"? We might argue that God didn't do it; He just permitted it. Jeremiah argues, "Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?" (Lam 3:37-38) Jeremiah would tell you you were mistaken if you thought bad stuff didn't come from God. So what does Jeremiah do with this?

Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD! (Lam 3:39-40)

Do you see that? Jeremiah the prophet of God understands that any bad that befalls us comes ultimately from the hand of God and we deserve it.¹

Jeremiah has a much more robust view of God than most of us do, and this from a man suffering vastly more than most of us do. He understands the outrage of sin, the affront to God that our constant rebellion against Him causes. He understands that a God who is Just owes us nothing given our sin. He understands that if God were to annihilate us all on the spot He would be perfectly right in doing so. In sharp, vivid contrast to this, then, God's steadfast love is much, much bigger. Immense. Unfathomable.

We think that we have a better God if we just cut out those "smiting" shenanigans of the Old Testament. Jeremiah would urge us not to do that. We think we're much kinder and gentler if we say, "God only gives good things; bad things come from somewhere else." Jeremiah disagrees. I would argue that Jeremiah's God is vastly bigger, better, and more marvelous than the "kinder, gentler" version many prefer today. Jesus thought something similar (Luke 7:47).
________

¹ Note, by the way, how Jeremiah handles an apparent dichotomy. He says that both the enemies of Israel and God brought this about. God, however, is without fault in this. He was doing what was right. The enemies of Israel, on the other hand, will pay dearly for their sin of carrying this out (Lam 3:49-66). Jeremiah has no problem holding God's Sovereignty in one hand and Man's free will and personal responsibility in the other.