Ryken Jeremiah and Lamentations (ESV Edition)

From Sorrow to Hope
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4335-4883-3
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 832 Seiten

Reihe: Preaching the Word

The prophet Jeremiah is a supreme example of how believers can live well in a society that has turned against God. While the book of Jeremiah chronicles the last, desperate days of Jerusalem before it is conquered by an invading army, Lamentations expresses the cries of Jeremiah's heart for the fallen city. Together, the two books reflect on the meaning of human suffering and illustrate the eternal principle that a man will reap what he sows. In this commentary, Philip Graham Ryken helps pastors, church leaders, and Bible teachers understand and teach these spiritually relevant books, inspiring readers to respond to God's personal call to live for him in these troubled times. Part of the Preaching the Word series.

Philip Graham Ryken (DPhil, University of Oxford) is the eighth president of Wheaton College. He preached at Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church from 1995 until his appointment at Wheaton in 2010. Ryken has published more than fifty books, including When Trouble Comes and expository commentaries on Exodus, Ecclesiastes, and Jeremiah. He serves as a board member for the Gospel Coalition and the Lausanne Movement.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ryken, Philip Graham

Leseproben

2

When the Almond Tree Blossoms

JEREMIAH 1:11–19

GOD FINISHED HIS CALL TO JEREMIAH with a flourish. It was an audiovisual presentation, a spiritual show-and-tell.

The second half of Jeremiah 1 consists of three object lessons. First God shows the prophet an almond tree (vv. 11, 12), a boiling pot (vv. 13–16), and an iron pillar (vv. 17–19). Then God tells Jeremiah what the tree, the pot, and the pillar mean: his word will blossom forth, his judgment will be poured out, and his prophet will stand firm.

The Almond Tree

What is the sign that winter is over and spring is on the way? In the northern United States, the first harbinger of spring is the robin. In my Midwestern childhood, a better indicator of spring was the forsythia bush on the side of the house. When tiny yellow blossoms started to appear on the forsythia, spring was definitely on its way, and the urge to get out a baseball glove was irresistible. In Washington, D.C., cherry blossoms mean spring. In Oxford, England, it is daffodils.

In Anathoth, where Jeremiah was born, it was almond blossoms. If they had wanted to, they could have held an almond-blossom festival there every spring. Even to this day that region of Judea is a center for almond-growing. The almond tree is always the first to blossom. Already in January the almond trees in Jeremiah’s hometown were covered with white blossoms.

“And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Jeremiah, what do you see?’” The prophet’s answer was predictable: “I see an almond branch” (v. 11). Very likely the branch was covered with white blossoms. Or perhaps it had not yet blossomed, but its tiny buds were just beginning to appear. In any case Jeremiah understood what the branch meant. It was the first sign of spring. When the almond tree blossoms, the promise of spring is about to be fulfilled, and warm weather is on the way.

The almond blossom was the show. Next comes the tell: “ Then the LORD said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it’” (v. 12). God used a play on words to teach Jeremiah the spiritual significance of the almond branch. This is how he stoops to the level of human understanding. He speaks—indeed, he puns—so that we might comprehend.

The word for “watching” is the Hebrew shoqed. It sounds very much like the Hebrew for “almond”: shaqed. In fact, those two words—shoqed and shaqed—are different forms of the same word, the word for waking or watching. The almond tree was the waking tree. It was the first tree to wake up after a long winter’s nap. It was also the watching tree, the tree one watched for in the spring.

God showed Jeremiah the almond tree to teach him that he is wide awake. He is not asleep. He does not slumber. He never goes into hibernation. God is still on his watch. He is wide awake, watching and waiting.

What God is watching for is to make sure that everything God has promised comes to pass. He is watching to see that his Word is fulfilled. This is one of the main themes of the book of Jeremiah, what Douglas Rawlinson Jones calls “ The power and inescapability of the divine word moving inexorably towards fulfilment (sic).”1 God is going to do everything he has promised to do. He is bringing his plans to fruition. Even when it seems dormant, God’s Word is waiting to burst into flower. It is not dead, it is alive. Like the almond tree, it is starting to blossom. One can no more prevent God’s promise from being fulfilled than one can keep the almond tree from blossoming in springtime.

God made a similar promise to Isaiah:

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10, 11)

The almond branch gives solid hope and lasting joy to every Christian. It assures us that everything God has promised will come to pass. Every last one of his very great and precious promises will be fulfilled.

It is good to recount the promises of God. There is the promise of “redemption” in Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:14). There is the promise of forgiveness of sins (1 John 1:9). There is the promise of “ The water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17). There is the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, for this generation and the next (Acts 2:39). There is the promise that you will be comforted when you mourn, shown mercy when you are merciful, and filled with righteousness when you hunger and thirst after it (Matthew 5:4–7). There is the promise that God will give you wisdom (James 1:5, 6). There is the promise that God will never leave you nor forsake you (Joshua 1:5).

These promises are only the beginning. There is the promise that “ The pure in heart … shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). There is the promise that God’s people will be with him (Revelation 22:3). There is the promise that Jesus has gone to prepare a place in his Father’s house, and that he will come back soon to take you there (John 14:2, 3). There is the promise that the Lord Jesus Christ will transform your body to be like his glorious resurrection body (Philippians 3:21).

All those promises are true. Every last one of them will be fulfilled. Some have already begun to blossom, like almond blossoms in springtime. Soon all of them will burst into full flower in the everlasting springtime of paradise. The Apostle Paul wrapped up all these promises together (and many more besides) when he wrote: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

The Boiling Pot

What about words of judgment? Will they come to pass too? Does God fulfill his threats as well as his promises?

Here is the show: “ The word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north’” (1:13). Once again God used something common to teach Jeremiah. First it was an almond branch. This time it is a plain, old, ordinary cooking pot, probably made of iron or copper.

The prophet must have seen this pot on an open fire. As anyone who has ever been camping knows, it does not take long for water to boil on an open flame. Imagine the pot resting on logs or coals and heating to a rolling boil. The Hebrew does not literally say “boiling”; actually it says “blown upon.” In other words, the fire is being stoked, the flames are being fanned, and the embers are bursting into flame. As the pot resettles in the fire, it tips to one side, the boiling water bubbles over the side of the pot, and steam goes hissing up from the flames.

That was the show. Here is the tell: “ Then the LORD said to me, ‘Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the LORD” (vv. 14, 15a). Trouble is brewing, and it is not hard to tell which way the wind is blowing. The cauldron is tipping ominously away from the north.

The Bible does not yet identify the northern peoples who will come spilling down toward Jerusalem, but one can round up the usual suspects. Maybe it will be the Scythians from northern Asia, whom Herodotus mentions in his history. Perhaps it will be the Assyrians, although their power was on the wane in Jeremiah’s day. Probably it will be the Babylonians, who were going from strength to strength.

But the real point is that God himself will do the judging. God is summoning the northern kingdoms. When the Babylonians come, they will be marching to God’s orders. God is the one who will tip the “boiling pot” and pour it out over Judah. Judging sin is God’s prerogative. He is the righteous judge who uproots and tears down nations, who destroys and overthrows kingdoms (v. 10). As he says in verse 16, “I will declare my judgments against them.”

What will it be like for Jerusalem to be scalded by the boiling pot of divine judgment? The northern kings “shall come … against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah” (v. 15b). This is a hint that when judgment comes, Jerusalem will be a city under siege. Enemy armies will camp around her walls, waiting for the people of God to starve. While they are at it, these armies will have their way with the defenseless towns and villages in the surrounding countryside.

But here is the real kicker: “Every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem” (v. 15b). What total humiliation! When an ancient king wanted to show his complete domination over vanquished foes, he would set up his throne in the gates of their capital city. There is an ancient mural, for example, that shows Sennacherib sitting in the gates of Lachish, ruling as a judge over that city.

Consider how degrading this would be for the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the city where the son of David is supposed to sit on his throne. Indeed, it is intended to be the throne of God himself (cf. 3:17). But when the boiling pot spills over...