Friday 28 December 2012

Background

This unusual passage was originally written to speak to a peoplein exile, a people who, after the fall of Jerusalem to theBabylonians, were gathered at Ramah (Jeremiah 40:1) for deportation. The declarationthat 'Rachel is weeping for her children' echoes back to Genesis 30:1 and to a woman who was sodesperate for children that she claimed she would die if she didnot give birth. Eventually God granted her a son, when Joseph wasborn (Genesis 30:22-24). This suggests figurativelythat the people of God who had been established many years ago,were now no more. The event of the exile was a defining experiencefor the Jewish people - almost as important as the exodus fromslavery in Egypt, and has stayed with them in their shared storyand worship throughout history, giving them touching places toremember when other times of persecution have befallen them.

For the New Testament the passage finds its fulfilment in thetragic events of the infanticide meted out under the tyrannous ruleof King Herod as he sought to find the infant Jesus. Matthew 2:16-18 records how the King, who hadbeen outwitted by the visiting Magi, ordered that all boys undertwo years of age be killed. Whether he thought he might stilldispose of Jesus in this cull, or whether it was somehow to punishthe town of Bethlehem is not clear, but certainly in his madnessthe latter seems more likely, if even less reasonable. Whatever, itis a dark passage.

At the end of this passage Jeremiah changes the mood by bringingGod's news that there is no more need for tears as the people ofGod would return from exile. They would "come back from the land ofthe enemy" (v. 16). In the same way, the good news of the gospelreminds us that even though even though we were lost, yet throughChrist we can be redeemed. Jeremiah's words to an exiled peoplethat "there is hope for your future" (v. 17) speaks to all who haveever experienced a sense of dislocation and exile, bringing comfortand hope.

To Ponder

• Have you known what it is to weep for the sense of being inexile? Do you know others who do?

• What can you do today to be a voice of hope?