Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
As I said in the last post, Jeremiah's 'desert' verses deal primarily w/ judgment. So, I kinda went through and divvied up the judgment verses according to the object of the judgement, if that makes sense.
The first group kinda falls under the category of 'the nation/people'...it's pretty vague, and it may overlap with other categories, but I didn't want to try to cover all of them in one post, so work with me here. ;-)
At that time this people and Jerusalem will be told, "A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people, but not to winnow or cleanse; a wind too strong for that comes from me. Now I pronounce my judgements against them." Jer. 4: 11 - 12
I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its town lay in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger. - Jer 4:26
I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds of the air have fled and the animals are gone. - Jer 9:10
What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross? The LORD said, "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them." - Jer 9:12-14
"It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares. Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe. They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. So bear the shame of your harvest because of the LORD's fierce anger. - Jer 12:11-13
Amazing. I didn't pick those verses because they made a narrative; I picked verses that sort of applied to the land/ nation/ people and wrote them in order.
Go back and read them again. There is a narrative there.
Judgement is proclaimed against the people.
Jeremiah laments the waste that has been laid to the land and asks for explanation.
God replies that it is because the people abandoned his law and began following the stubbornness of their own hearts and false gods; the withering drought that destroyed the harvest, the events that ruined the towns were all part of his devouring sword. Not just nature responding to unknown conditions, not just turns in history, but events and conditions actually brought about by the judgment of God.
'Desert' is judgment against the collective group of people who rejected God's laws. Desolation, if you will.
Would such a narrative fly today? Or do today's high-minded thinkers see such passages in the Bible and say, "Oh, look, how cute...the primitive people are ascribing these events to a deity. How quaint."
If God isn't God and the Bible isn't anything remarkable, sure. But...if God is God, and the Bible is His word, then primitive ol' Jeremiah wasn't just being an ignoramus. He actually heard the words of God, the judgments and their reasons. If there is a correlation between various disasters and a moral decline/ rejection of God's law, then maybe we should consider that as a cause for destruction and desolation we see around us?
Just sayin'.
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