Scripture Study -- The Book of Jeremiah

This reflection focuses on Chapters 28 and 30 of Jeremiah. For daily Scripture Study that follows the daily readings of the Mass, see Today’s Scripture Teaching on our Home Page Index or click on the blue. The full test of Jeremiah can be read on the Bible Gate Way. Use our Home Page Index to access the Bible Gate Way.

According to the Catholic Study Bible, the influence of Jeremiah was greater after his death than before. The exiled community read and meditated the lessons of the prophet, and his influence can be seen in Ezekiel, certain of the psalms, and the second part of Isaiah.

Before his death in exile and the fall of Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah stirred up quite a controversy. He carried an oxen yoke on his shoulders wherever he went as a way of warning that the Babylonian Empire would crush Jerusalem. He delivered his message of woe to a population that had adjusted to the fact that their leaders had been exiled in an earlier invasion by the Babylonian emperor. But gradually his message made an impact on the people and fear began to set in. A rival prophet named Hananiah (the false prophet) launched a counter campaign, prophesying that within two years the Babylonian empire would restore the king of Judah and allow all the exiles to return to their homeland. To dramatize his prediction, he broke the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah. But Jeremiah seized that moment to deliver an even more pessimistic view of the future. "By breaking a wooden yoke," he warned, "you forge an iron yoke!" Nebuchadnezzar took swift and terrible vengeance. Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 and its leading citizens sent into exile.

About this time Jeremiah uttered the great oracle of the "New Covenant" (31:31-34) sometimes called "The Gospel before the Gospel." "This passage", according to the Catholic Study Bible, "contains his most sublime teaching and is a landmark in Old Testament theology."

We all like to be encouraged when trouble looms, but there is a real danger in false optimism. The doctor who sees serious signs of coming illness does his patient no good by assuring him that everything will be fine. The teacher who knows a student is headed for failure doesn't help by minimizing that student's plight. A politician who knows that long-term fiscal crises are imminent betrays his constituency by offering short-term solutions. A marriage teetering on the brink needs something more that a pep talk that all marriages go through these periods. There is a time for brutal honesty if we hope to change the course of things for the better. Better the truth that hurts than the lie that destroys.

There is an old saying that "misery loves company." But why should we welcome companions only when we are miserable? Happiness loves company as well! In fact, what is happiness if we can't share it with others? Is it even possible to be happy without sharing it with others? Happiness by its very nature is a social experience. How else can you explain the fact that you laugh when other people laugh, even when you don't get the joke? Why do you automatically smile back when someone smiles at you? Why do you want to share a happy experience that you have had by telling someone else about it? There is only one sensible answer to these questions: Happiness loves company! We are drawn to strangers and friends alike by the light moments and the deep joys of life. We can cry alone but we cannot laugh alone.

We see this truth mirrored in the promise God gave to the prophet Jeremiah. After rehearing the desperate plight of the people of God because of their sins, the Lord promised that their "incurable wounds" would be healed in time. He promised that he would have pity on the "tents of Jacob" and restore the people to their land, rebuilding their city and restoring their palace. He described the songs of praise and the laughter of happy men that would resound throughout the land. Then he added a significant note about these happy men: "I will make them not few, but many; they will not be tiny, for I will glorify them." There you have it! Even God can't enjoy a good praise session all by himself. He, too, enjoys the praise and the laughter of a company of people!

This reflection is from the August 1998 Edition of the San Francisco Charismatics (ISSN 1098-4046). If you would like to receive a copy of the San Francisco Charismatics, e-mail us your request.

To read other selected articles from the August 1998 edition of the San Francisco Charismatics or return to the Main Menu by clicking on the blue.