Devotional
Commentary on Jeremiah 19
It
is good to start with a lamentation of the view of Keil and Delitzsch in
general on the curses and punishments of God in the Old Testament and Jeremiah
in their commentary page 305 in the footnotes saying about the punishments of
chapter 18 by God: “Since grace and truth have been revealed in Christ, the Old
Testament standpoint of retribution according to the rigour of the law cannot
be for us the standard of our bearing even towards the enemies of Christ and
His kingdom.” The answer is negative. The retributive events annotated in
detail in the Old Testament is serving a typology lesson to all humanity [for
example Sodom and Gemorrah] as to how utterly destructive and pitiful absolute
destruction finally at the Hell is going to be. It emphasized the reality of
the Hell event and not the modern honey of the cross concept “love will
overlook everything” as a blank statement regardless of human intention to be
saved. “What dripped from the cross,” Adventist professor Gerhard van Wyk said
in a sermon in 1974, “is not honey, it is blood.” Our personal mental “God-image”
may be unbiblical.
Chapter
19 will start with the similar considerations as in 18. He had to go to the
potter to purchase a jug. Some elders of the people and elders of the priests
had to go with him (verse 1). They are normally functioning in a court setting
as the jury listening to the cases of people at the Gates of a city. Keil an
Delitzsch thought that the word wehassech “pour out” in verse 13 with that
libation jug of the weed of spiritual Israel worshipping astrological bodies in
heaven on rooftops, that it resembles the sound of liquid dropping out of the
long neck jug containing honey (1889 page 306). The text do not state that
Jeremiah had to buy a similar vessel as the evildoers are using.
There
is definitely a strange syntax in verse 1. The English translations read “(take)
along some elders” but it should be “[……..] and elders of the people”. Keil and
Delitzsch correctly saw this absence of a verb here (1889 page 306). One
scholar in the past called it a “pregnant construction” whatever that means. We
all talk naturally with omissions sometimes because it is customary in daily
conversation for the audience to mentally “connect the dots between gaps”. There
is nothing suspicious here with the syntax than that it is natural daily
speech.
Without a map of Jerusalem one will probably not get far to understand this chapter better. He was to go out unto the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. Go out of what? A gate. Thus, it should be at the entrance of the Harsith Gate (verse 2). Rashi and the Targum explained it was at the Dung Gate where broken pottery could be found. Many have indicated that it is at the end of the Cheesemongers valley. The Cheesemongers valley would be on this map the one that runs from to the corner next to the Pool of Siloam where the Kidron and Hinnom Valley meets. Between the black part of that side of the Hinnom Valley on the red all the way to the Pool of Siloam must have been the Dung Gate or where they have thrown away pottery pieces. At that entrance, Jeremiah and these elders had to take their position and Jeremiah was to preach to them.
Jeremiah
predicted evil to come to that place and whoever hears it will be shocked
(verse 3). Why? Their calculated sins: they estranged the place burning
offerings to other gods and filled the place with violence, the blood of
innocent people (verse 4). They built high-places to the Phoenician god Baal,
they burn after Abortion with fire to Baal (verse 5). It never entered God’s
mind nor did He asked for it or spoke about it. Adulterated relationships
resulted in unwanted pregnancies and to get rid of the problem was Abortion and
after Abortion the corpse had to be cremated anyway so they submitted it to
Baal as an offering hoping to gain from their relationship with Phoenician
business traders and also associates. Many of the illicit lovers were
Phoenician traders (Baal), Egyptian traders (Bes like figure dancing on
potshard drawing at Kuntillet `Ajrud) and Assyrian horsemen or soldiers (horse drawing
on portshard from Kuntillet `Ajrud in the Negev on a hill where they worshiped
Asherah and entertained caravanserai or traders during stop-overs).
Then
God gave a future prediction of the Valley Hinnom that the Valley of Hinnom
will no longer be called Topheth but the Valley of Slaughter (verse 6). The
Rabbi Mezudath David described the scene in horrific imagery: as the children
were slaughters there were lots of crying and to cancel the noise of crying of
children the priests would beat on drum (toph) so loud that the babies cannot
be heard. He calls Hinnom as moaning referring in his mind to this moaning of
children. God is going to bring a counter slaughter that is going to kill these
evil practitioners. They will be killed by the sword and become food for birds
and animals (verse 7). On the road near our house a cat was killed by a car and
within hours nearly 10 black crows arrived on the road to do their job of
Undertaker of Nature, all jumping and picking at the carcass to jump out of the
way of oncoming cars.
The
city will look like a scrapyard or wastefarm and people walking past would hiss
and be astonished because of all the plagues (verse 8). They will be forced to
eat each other and retort to cannibalism to survive (verse 9).
After
speaking the words, Jeremiah was to break the jug before their eyes (verse 10).
So the Lord will break the people and the city and they will have no one to
repair and will be buried in the Hinnom Valley (verse 11). The city will become
like Topheth (verse 12). It cannot be a drum since the city will not become
like a drum. It is rather the concept of broken pottery. So shall the houses be
of those who participated in the worship of astrological cults on their roofs
and poured out libations to other gods (verse 13).
It
sounds like the Topheth was a large heap of broken pottery and that Jeremiah
climbed in the Hinnom Valley on this heap and by now, he came from it (verse
14). He walked up in the direction of the Temple and stood “in the court of the
house of the Lord”. He preached again: that the Lord is going to bring evil
upon Jerusalem and all other cities, “that I spoke concerning her” [he cited
form Deuteronomy 32] for they stiffened their necks not to hear to His words
(verse 15).
Dear
Lord
Your
voice is still speaking daily also to us. Grant that we keep listening and do
not stiffen our necks against Your precious Word. Amen.