Jeremiah 20:1-18 Can’t Stop
Jeremiah is beaten for speaking God’s words. NO ONE wants to hear what he has to say but he can’t stop. The drive is like a fire within him; much to his regret.
We are going to rejoin Jeremiah at the conclusion of his prophecy in the Temple court. His day is about to take a nasty turn and that turn sends him back into another ‘pity party’. I can’t say I blame him for becoming discouraged. The words he has been given to share are still waiting for fulfillment and the crowds are laughing at him. NOT a place I would like to be.
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Jeremiah finishes EVERY word God gave him for this day. First in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and now in the courtyard of the Temple. His first audience at least paid attention. This one took notice only for a moment, then moved along. All but one. Pashhur heard every word and the words kindled a fire of hatred in his belly.
Pashhur signals to two of the guards to grab Jeremiah just as Jeremiah was about to leave the courtyard. Jeremiah is startled as strong hands grab him from behind.
“What is this?!” demands Jeremiah.
“You have a command performance old man. Pashhur wants a personal word with you.” The guards laugh as they propel Jeremiah across the courtyard to where Pashhur waits. Jeremiah clearly reads Pashhur’s expression as one of hate, NOT welcome. He knows he will not enjoy this ‘personal’ visit.
Pashhur waits for Jeremiah to stand right before him. He is going to make CERTAIN that Jeremiah receives HIS message loud and clear. “Why do you persist in profaning the name of the Lord? We are His people. He would NEVER do US harm! You are needlessly stirring up the people. And it is going to stop TODAY” demands Pashhur.
“It is you who is profaning the Lord with your false prophecies Pashhur! I have spoken only what the Lord has given me.”
Pashhur face grows another shade redder at Jeremiah’s words. “Take him to the post!” The guards drag Jeremiah out of the courtyard to a whipping post near the Benjamin Gate. Jeremiah initially tries to resist by planting his feet but the guards are strong enough to lift him bodily so his feet can find no purchase on the ground. He ceases in his struggle as his feet dangle. Then the guards loosen their hold and Jeremiah completes the journey on his own two feet.
Jeremiah hands are tied to the post and his robe is ripped from his back. He has resigned himself to this moment with a calm he did not know he possessed. Inwardly he is weeping while outwardly his eyes are fixed on the Temple and his lips are sealed.
The first blow ripped a cry from Jeremiah but that was the last sound above a grunt that would be elicited from him during the entire 20 blows. His ‘crime’ was not severe enough to elicit the maximum 39 blows. Of this Jeremiah was grateful. Pashhur looked on during the whole ordeal.
After the last blow was struck, Pashhur had Jeremiah released to stand and face him. “Do you renounce the words you have spoken?”
“Not a one of them” Jeremiah breathed through gritted teeth.
“Let’s see of the stocks will soften him up.” Pashhur pointed to the stocks that were located by the Benjamin Gate also.
Jeremiah didn’t have the strength to resist as he was led the short distance between these two punishment implements. Upon reaching the stocks, the first guard raised the upper dock which allowed Jeremiah’s head and hands to be placed in position. This set of stocks were specially designed to be VERY uncomfortable. They were at a height that neither allowed those confined to sit, kneel, or stand erect. The prisoner had to adopt a crouched position in order to spare his neck from severe pressure. Jeremiah’s head and hands were quickly thrust into position by the second guard and the first quickly dropped the upper dock to keep him in place. Finally, a latch was struck home and a bolt to ensure it remained closed was inserted.
“Comfortable” asked Pashhur with a wicked sneer on his face. Jeremiah refused to respond. Pashhur spit on the ground at Jeremiah’s feet, then returned to the Temple to attend his daily duties. He tried to push thoughts of Jeremiah from his mind for the rest of the day.
Meanwhile, Jeremiah, his raw back exposed to the baking sun of Judah’s summer, struggled for a comfortable position. He had to alternate between resting his neck, his back, and his legs. This was going to be a LONG day!
The dawn arrived for both Jeremiah and Pashhur with thoughts of one another. Pashhur was certain Jeremiah would be repentant after his night in the stocks. Between the beating and the stocks, Pashhur had seen stronger men succumb to weeping like a child and begging for mercy. This is what Pashhur expected to find when he approached Jeremiah.
Jeremiah had indeed had an unpleasant night. But his night was spent under the watchful eye of his Lord. God spoke to Jeremiah in the night with a message for Pashhur. One that would set his teeth on edge. Jeremiah PRAYED that the message wouldn’t see him in the stocks for a longer period, but the words of the Lord were burning their way to his mouth and would not be quenched!
Pashhur brought two guards with him as he approached Jeremiah. “Release him” he commands.
The guards quickly comply by removing the bold, releasing the latch and lifting the upper dock. Jeremiah withdraws his head and hands from the stocks and slowly straightens his back. He can feel his wounds being reopened and fresh blood trickling down his back. It hurt, but Jeremiah rose to his full height.
Pashhur opened his mouth to speak to Jeremiah but before the first sound exited it, Jeremiah began to give Pashhur the words the Lord had spoken to him. Fire is in Jeremiah’s eyes and his pointed finger clearly indicates the fierceness of Jeremiah’s words AND their authority.
“The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while YOU look on…” (verse 3b-4a).
Pashhur steps backwards as if he had been struck by a blow but says nothing. Jeremiah steps forward to make up the distance. “…AND I will give ALL Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword…” Jeremiah looks around for a moment before continuing. “…Moreover, I will give ALL the wealth of the city, …” Jeremiah sweeps his arm in an arc indicating all that surrounded him. “…ALL its gains, ALL its prized belongings, and ALL the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon…” Jeremiah steps even closer to Pashhur and stares directly into his face as he proceeds with God’s words. Jeremiah’s voice drops to a growl, “…And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and THERE you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom YOU have prophesied falsely.” (verses 4b-6).
Pashhur’s mouth moves but nothing comes from it. The guards with Pashhur are frozen with fright. They are wondering which group they will be included in; Pashhur’s ‘friends’ who die by the sword or are carried off into Babylon to die and be buried there. They hear the authority in Jeremiah’s words and for now, if only for a short time, they believe him.
Jeremiah gathers his ruined robe about him as best as he can and stalks home. He is broken in more ways than one. He ignores the stares as he passes through the streets but refuses to duck his head in shame at his state, his nakedness, or his message.
Jeremiah enters his house and quickly shuts the door. Ignoring the pain in his back he falls back against the door and raises his face towards heaven. The cry of a wounded soul breaks forth from his lips. “O Lord, You have deceived me…” He hangs his head and pushes away from the door. “… and I was deceived; …” Pain chokes Jeremiah’s voice as he begins to pace the dirt floor of his home and pour out his heart. “…You are stronger than I, and You have prevailed…” Anger enters Jeremiah’s voice as he begins to speak to himself of his hurt. “…I have become a laughingstock all the day; EVERYONE mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I SHOUT, ‘Violence and destruction!’ For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long…” Jeremiah shakes his head in frustration. “…If I say, ‘I will not mention Him, or speak any more in His name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” (verses 7-9). Jeremiah pounds his fist on the table.
Jeremiah’s hunger wrestles for his attention and he moves to the bowl where his bread is stored but his heart is not spent yet. He continues to speak to himself but the anger is dissipating. The pain and sadness still remains. “For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! ‘Denounce Him! Let us denounce Him!’ say all my close friends, watching for my fall. ‘Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.’ …” Jeremiah yanks a hunk of bread from his loaf with his teeth as if tearing at his enemies. A bit of fire begins to burn away at the pain. “…But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will NOT overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will NEVER be forgotten…” Jeremiah turns his words towards the Lord again as he draws strength from the knowledge that God IS with him. “O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause” (verses 10-12). Jeremiah’s heart is buoyed and he breaks out in praise to his God. “Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers” (verse 13).
Jeremiah finishes his meal with a smile on his face as he reflects on God’s protection of the day. His beating could have been worse. Pashhur could have thrown him back in the stocks. The guards could have seized him again. But God prevented all these possibilities from happening. For that Jeremiah was eternally grateful.
Finally, the pain in Jeremiah’s back overwhelmed his thoughts. “I suppose I better tend to these” he said to himself. He pours water from his pitcher into a bowl and wets a cloth. He takes these to his sleeping mat and begins to moisten his robe where it has dried into his wounds. He can’t reach all the places to moisten them and has to pull some away. With each new insult to his back he falls back into frustration. Not only at what this day brought but what he has already endured and what he is certain is still to come. He gives vent to this frustration as he ministers to his torn back with gritted teeth.
“Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, ‘A son is born to you,’ making him very glad. Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great…” Jeremiah throws his hands up in frustration at his inability to fathom WHY God chose him to begin with. “… WHY did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?” (verses 14-18).
Fully spent in spirit and in strength, Jeremiah lies face down on his sleeping mat. The physical pain does nothing to keep him awake while the pain of the spirit draws him into a deep slumber.
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Thank You again Father for the visual images You provided for me as I read Your word. I feel for Jeremiah! He had a HARD job to do. He was hated on ALL sides but LOVED from above. You protected his life but didn’t spare him from pain; physical or emotional. He had to wrestle with these in order to complete his mission. What is a mission if it cost you nothing? Jeremiah’s heart was still Yours even in the middle of his pain. And he could NOT help but bring Your words forth. Like a burning fire shut up in his bones. Sometimes my heart feels this way when I write to You. Thank You for giving me a place to ‘let it out’. And THANK YOU that I don’t have Jeremiah’s life!
