000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

Proper 20 [25]/Year C 271
Jeremiah 8:4–13 is an oracle of judgment, a typical form in prophetic
speech announcing that God has condemned the people, giving reasons
for the judgment, and indicating what the people can expect. The prophet
is astonished that Judah, faced with the evidence that the prophet has
mentioned in the previous chapters, does not repent. It should be as natural
for the people to repent as for someone who falls to get up again
(8:4–5a). Even birds know what to do when the seasons change, but the
Judahites fail to repent and therefore become “like a horse plunging headlong
into battle” (8:5b–7).
The scribes were interpreters and teachers. According to Jeremiah, the
scribes of his day professed to be wise, but lied about the meaning of the
Torah and, from prophet to priest, were greedy and false, committed abomination,
and acted shamefully. They “treated the wound of my people carelessly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace,” that is, they did not
help the community realize points at which it had violated covenant, and
when the Babylonian threat became imminent, they assured the community
that all would be well (“Peace, peace”) (8:8–12). Like a vineyard owner,
God comes to gather grapes and figs, but the vines and trees are bare (8:13).
As a result, they will be put to shame, carried off, lose their spouses to conquerors,
and “shall fall among those who fall” (8:9a, 10a, 12b).
The prophet laments that the community is resigned to its fate and
unwilling to repent. They think that God has doomed them to perish in
their besieged cities (Jer. 8:14–15). They can already hear the snorting of
the Babylonians’ horses in the region of Dan in the north. The invasion
is like letting adders loose that cannot be charmed but will bite (8:16–17).
Jeremiah feels the suffering of the people in his own body (8:18, 21),
especially because they do not understand the situation. They continue to
think that God will save them: “Is [God] not in Zion?” Failure of teaching
is so complete in Judah that they do not recognize that they provoked
God to anger with their idols (8:19–20).
In 8:22, then, the prophet asks, in a line that inspired a famous African
American spiritual, “Is there no balm in Gilead?” 79 Gilead was an area east
of the Jordan known for balm (a resin for healing made from balsam trees).
The possibility of healing for Judah does exist (repentance), but the people
will not take advantage of it. This double awareness of the resource
for healing but people’s refusal to use it causes the prophet to speak one
of the most poignant passages in the book in Jeremiah 9:1.
If the preacher would like to urge today’s congregation to avoid a fate
similar to that of Judah, Jeremiah himself suggests an approach. A key reason
Judah fell is that they did “not know the ordinance of the LORD”