Jeremiah 23 - Jeremiah’s harangue
against the people’s shepherds very similar to the words of Ezekiel. “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and
scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord” (23:1).
Early
Friends took passages such as these for prophesies that God would never trust
his people to human shepherds under the new covenant, but that Christ Himself
would be their shepherd. “I myself
will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven
them and bring them back to their meadow”
(23:3). However, it does also say that he “will appoint shepherds for
them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble”
(23:4). I do think that while Christ is ultimately the shepherd whose voice we
must listen for, we must also allow ourselves to be cared for by the human
shepherds He brings forth to lead His church.
Then
comes one of the major messianic prophesies: “The time is coming when I will choose as king a righteous descendant of
David. That king will rule wisely and do what is right and just throughout the
land. When he is king, the people of Judah will be safe, and the people of
Israel will live in peace. He will be called ‘The Lord Our Salvation’” (23:5).
Other translations of this last phrase are “Lord of
righteousness/of integrity/of justice.” One reason Jeremiah says this is, I think, to cast a shadow of irony on
Zedekiah, whose name meant Lord our Righteousness/or Integrity/or Justice –
interesting the inter-changeability of those terms here.
He speaks also against the false prophets who
“retail their own visions” and bring a false sense of security to people. The false prophets side with the wicked
(23:14) and “help people to do wrong so that no one stops doing what is evil”
(23:14). “Listen not to the words
of your prophets, who fill you with
emptiness; visions of their own fancy they speak, not from the mouth of the
Lord, ‘Peace shall be yours’; and to everyone who walks in hardness of heart,
‘No evil shall overtake you’” (23:16-18).
Jeremiah 24 – Jeremiah says the
Lord “showed” him two baskets of figs before the Temple of the Lord after the
exile of Jehoiachin along with all the princes of Judah, the artisans and
skilled workers to Babylon. And
the Lord opened to Jeremiah that the good basket of figs represented these
exiles. They are the favored ones:
“I will look after them for their good, and bring them back to this land, to
build them up, not to tear them down; to plant them, not to pluck them
out. I will give them a heart with
which to understand that I am the Lord.
They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return
to me with their whole heart” (24:5-6). The
exile here is seen as a purifying experience.
But
those left behind and those who went to Egypt are represented by the bad figs:
“I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. . .”
(24:9).
2 Corinthians 6 - Do not neglect the
grace God gives to you. This
present moment, this time between Christ’s coming into the world and his return
“is the day of salvation” (6:2). The
marks of His presence in our lives and in our communities are the following:
· Fortitude (endurance)
- capacity to suffer afflictions and constraints
· Purity
· Knowledge
· Patience and kindness
· A spirit of holiness
· Genuine love
· Truthful speech
· An ability to
demonstrate God’s power
· Being armed with the
“weapons of righteousness”
· Rejoicing
He
warns about harnessing ourselves to unbelievers. “[W]hat fellowship does light have with darkness?” (6:14)
What does Paul mean by this: It cannot mean a lack of love or concern for those
who are less ardent in their faith, or an unwillingness to reach out to those
who seem “lost” spiritually. This would run again all that Christ did himself
and all that he encouraged his followers to do. Mennonites used the passage and
the words of verse 17 to justify removing themselves from all who did not
appear to be among the “saved,” “the elect”: “You must leave them and separate
yourselves from them. Have nothing to do with what is unclean, and I will
accept you” (6:17 referencing Isaiah 52:11, which is a warning for the Jews to
leave Babylon and touch nothing unclean). This clearly is an over-reading.
I wonder if this last
part of chapter 6 is not a little self-contradictory. Paul is so articulate
about Christ’s joining himself to us in our sinful state, though he himself had
no personal sin. But now, as he is
encouraging us to join ourselves to Christ, he seems to be telling us to stay
away from those who have not done so. I think we must do as Christ did and live
our lives among those who need his love and his salvation. We must not be like
them but if we separate ourselves completely, we are not following his example.
2 Corinthians 7 – Paul expresses his
belief that together they can put off all that keeps us from being perfect in
holiness: “[L]et us wash off all that can soil either body or spirit, to reach
perfection of holiness in the hear of God” (7:1). Still, this hope of personal
and communal perfection does not blind him to the fact that the wider community
of churches is full of “trouble on all sides: quarrels outside, [and]
misgivings inside” (7:5). He commends the “suffering” that the Corinthians have
gone through that led to some repentance or change in them. “To suffer in God’s
way means changing for the better and leaves no regrets, but to suffer as the
world knows suffering brings death” (7:10).
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