Devotional Commentary on Jeremiah
8
Jeremiah is concluding in this
chapter where he left off in chapter 7. It is clear that the Lord was showing
Jeremiah the Second Coming in 7:32ff. because He used the phrase welo yeamer od “and no longer shall it
be said”.
Whenever a prophet uses the term od “longer” connected to the negative lo or “no” it is eternity that started
and that is the Second Coming. It is the time of the End.
So when he begins chapters 8,
Jeremiah says that “in that time” baeth
hahi. Which time? The time of the End of time when eternity starts, the day
Christ comes on the clouds.
What will happen then? “the bones
of the kings of Judah and the bones of his princes and the bones of the priests
and the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
will be caused to come out (hiphil of yaza
thus weyozeu, a causative sense of
the verb).” The Resurrection in action.
These evil ones are resurrected
seemingly and then would die immediately again due to the glory of God that is
too bright for the evil. There bones will be “spread …before the sun and before
the moon and before the entire host of the heavens” (verse 2) because the
wayward remnant use to worship and prostrate themselves before these bones of
the dead of these evil individuals. “They shall be for dung on the surface of the
earth” (verse 2). All other evil will also wish to rather die at the Second
Coming (verse 3).
Only Seventh-day Adventists can
fully understand the meaning here since all other models of interpretation
including Judaism with the Middle-Age Rabbis Rashi, Redak, and the Sages had
problems to understand what is happening here. They couldn’t see the logic
because they did not have the right system to tap the logic from.
It is said in the New Testament
that those who pierced Christ will also be resurrected at the Second Coming and
since they were evil they will die again that day. It is in this sense that
this verse should be understood. When Christ comes it is not yet the final
Executive Judgment or Hell but only after a millennium and or as Isaiah called
it “a long time” and during this time only Satan is bound for this long time in
a situation of loneliness. Humans are dead and unburied as depicted here. They
were “cast there” sham by the Lord.
It is not the faithful remnant
but the remainder of the living not saved that prefers death rather than life
for the glory of God is too bright for them. Isaiah addressed this very same
issue.
In the New Testament they are
going to ask the mountains to cover them. Then the Lord focused on Jeremiah and
his people, king, priests, prophets with problems and reaffirm their final
punishment at the Second Coming: in view of their falling and not rising, if
one repents, will He not return? It is the character of God to forgive if there
is a sincere change of heart (verse 4).
In comparison despite the
character of God to be ready to forgive, the people of Jeremiah’s day is in
perpetual backsliding. They refuse to repent (verse 5). The Lord has heard very
well (verse 6) but they, the people of Jeremiah’s day “do not speak properly”
and they do not regret over their wickedness. The Lord says that birds know their
ways (verse 7) but that the people do not know the judgment of the Lord.
Despite their deceit they say the
Lord is with them and that they are wise but the Lord says this is in vain
(verse 8). Their wise men were ashamed, broken and caught for they have
rejected the Word of the Lord (verse 9).
The Lord then repeated a phrase
that is nearly exactly the same as 6:12-13. It is a replay of chapter 6. Verse
11 is a repetition of 6:14-15. “They shall be put to shame since they have
committed abomination” (verse 12). The Lord wants them to be ashamed and feel
disgrace. That is why they will stumble at the time the Lord will visit upon
them and that is at the Second Coming (verse 12). The glory of the Lord at the
Second Coming “will utterly consume them” osoph
asiphem (verse 13). The reason is that what the Lord gave them they
transgressed.
The faithful remnant is called
upon that they should not sit still. They should gather together and go to
fortified cities and sit in silence. The poison water was given “because we
have sinned against the Lord” (verse 14).
This is the attitude that the
Lord prefers and which He can renovate. “We hoped for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing , but behold, terror” (verse 15).
In the days of Jeremiah they were
waiting for the coming of Nebuchadnezzar and at Dan the snorting of horses
would be heard. They would come and devour the land and its produce, the city
and those who dwell in it (verse 16). The Lord said that He would send
serpents, adders and that they would bite them (verse 17). The One Who asks
whether He should suppress His heart within Him is the Lord (verse 18).
The Lord says that “over Me My
heart is sick [daway].“ A better
translation is to consider the word as a loanword from Middle Egyptian tui meaning “abomination” and the
Ugaritic dw meaning “unclean”. The
Late Egyptian has a word tw3 meaning “wrong,
harm, evil, wicked thing”. What it can mean in God’s context is that evil of
others and especially His remnant harms
His heart. A similar meaning with Middle Egyptian and Ugaritic solve the
understanding in Job 6:7 with the same root. There the meaning is “unclean”. God’s
heart cannot be unclean or evil and thus harm is brought to His perfect heart
from the outside because of His affection of His own creatures that He created.
All the Middle Age rabbis thought
that it is a reference to Jeremiah himself but that is out of step with the
flow of the pronoun in this whole section. It is God Himself that is speaking
here.
In verse 17 the Jewish Rabbi
Malbim also consider it as God speaking. Verse 19 is also the Lord speaking.
These people should listen to the voice from a distant land, the cry of the
daughter of His people.
The Lord asked them whether He is
not in Zion? Heavenly Zion is the heavenly sanctuary of the Lord where the
throne of God is. The King of the faithful is in His heavenly sanctuary or
Heavenly Zion (verse 19). They have provoked the Lord with their vanities and
images. When the Door of Mercy closes
it is because Christ completed His ministry in Heaven and becomes King of
Kings. The King will be then in the heavenly sanctuary or in Zion. “Look, the
voice of the cry of My daughter from a distant land: `Is the Lord not in Zion,
is the King not in it?’ The time we will expect the King to be in Zion is
during the Time of Trouble ahead of
us.
The wayward remnant members have
provoked the Lord with their images. Their call will be at the Second Coming: “The
harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved”. Says Ellen White
in a Manuscript in 1900: “The condition of our world today is just as the
prophet has represented it would be near the close of the earth’s history” (SDABC Vol. 7A: 1155).
The one who is wounded and mourn
in verse 21 is not the prophet Jeremiah but the Lord. Dismay has taken hold of
Him. That is how much God cares for His creatures.
It is the heart of God on the
table here beating for a sick society who refuse to change.
God is asking whether there is no
balm in Gilead or no physician there for this wayward remnant (verse 22). He
asked that if the solution is there, why did they not heal? God says that if
only His head were filled with waters then His eyes would be fountains of tears
and He would weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of His people,
the faithful and wayward mixed that are suffering, one innocently and the
others what they brought upon themselves (verse 23).
Dear
God
We
are part of your perpetual historical remnant. You have not changed. It is us
who constantly change and then refuse to return. Forgive our sins and keep us
connected to You. Amen.