Jeremiah - episode 8

In their heart will I write it

In the present post we conclude the examination of the Book of Jeremiah reading some of his salvation oracles. In the last post we told about the terrible consequences of Judah’s sin: several deportations in Babylon, the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Jeremiah points out that the cause of all this evil is the hardened heart of the people (I remind you that in the Hebrew Bible the “heart” means the personal essential center, where we can find understanding, will, feelings, love). «Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose trust the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?» (Jer 17,5-9). Is it possible to convert a hardened heart? Jeremiah gives no hope: «Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil» (Jer 13,23).
Only the Lord’s direct intervention can change that despairing situation. «Thus says the LORD: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Thus says the LORD: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded,” says the LORD; “and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your latter end,” says the LORD; “and your children shall come again to their own border» (Jer 31,15-17). Ramah is a very symbolic place: there the Hebrew people destined to the Babylon exile are sorted (see Jer 40,1); on the way to Bethlehem, patriarch Israel’s favorite wife Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin (Gen 35,16-20). In the prophecy we read, Rachel is weeping: if the offspring for which she gave her life goes into exile, her sacrifice was useless. Evangelist Matthew recalls these verses by Jeremiah giving them a different meaning, to describe the Massacre of the Innocents (see Matt 2,17-18).
«How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man. [...] Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says the LORD. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the LORD: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD’; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says the LORD: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.”» (Jer 31,22.31-34).



The Lord will make the necessary miracle: the Law will no more be written on stone tablets, but on the people’s renewed and purified heart. Israel, like a faithful bride, will be finally made able to reciprocate their God’s tender care: «a woman shall encompass a man». For the Christians this deep inner change, seal of the «new covenant» will happen by the descending of the Holy Ghost.
Jeremiah even performs a symbolic action to confirm a future and a hope for Jerusalem, just in the moment of maximum uncertainty (he is in prison by King Zedekiah’s order and Nebuchadnezzar is besieging the city, see Jeremiah - episode 6 and Jeremiah episode 7). «Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you, saying, “Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.”’ So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, “Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD. I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open; and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard. I commanded Baruch before them, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue many days.”’ For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.’» (Jer 32,6-15).
To the Book of Jeremiah follow the Book of Lamentations (originally written in Hebrew, the Hebrew people read it when they commemorate the Temple destruction), the Book of Baruch (it is taken from the Greek Septuagint: the Catholic version includes the Letter of Jeremiah, a text against the idols). The main themes of these Books are the repentance for the sins that caused the Elected People’s deportation, the lament for the painful consequences of the evil they did, the confidence in a redemption that comes from the Lord.
In the next post we will start reading the Book of Ezekiel.