Ever wonder how Jeremiah’s spoken Jeremiads ended up written down in a book? He will eventually hire a scribe, but it seems that either some of his inspired spoken sermons made it to the scroll soon after being delivered - or maybe even transcribed as he spoke? We’ll never know.
Scholars debate the dates during which the oral traditions of prophetic messaging in different world cultures, including the Semitic, started making their way into written cultural modes - but it was definitely beginning to be more popular and accessible in the late part of the 7th Century - the heyday of Jeremiah’s career.
What’s interesting about today’s chapter is that it actually seems to reflect his early days - when writing was just starting to be more of a thing - and yet - today’s prophetic vision is not only rare because he describes how he was told by the divine to write it down for posterity; It’s also an outlier because it offers a lot of consolation and hope - not usually Jeremiah’s favorite themes. Is there a connection?
The importance of writing it down in a scroll is a clear priority:
“YHWH, the God of Israel, said: Write down in a scroll all the words that I have spoken to you.
For days are coming—declares YHWH —when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah; and I will bring them back to the land that I gave their ancestors, and they shall possess it
The mention of both Judah and Israel is telling -it’s a specific historical moment in which the northern kingdom of Israel was already vanquished under Assyria but Babylon has not yet emerged on the scene. As a young prophet, maybe still in his hometown of Anatot, the ripples of what will soon be the toppling of the Assyrian empire may seem as the prelude to the ‘Great Day of God’ that will bring with it hope and redemption. Like Isaiah and others before him, Jeremiah predicts that the darkness will birth the dawn and "It will be a time of strife for Jacob, but he will be saved from it" - IF they change their ways.
Jeremiah refers to both the northern people of Israel and the southern people of Judah - as Jacob -- one nation, united in tragedy - and hope. This trope of trouble leading to redemption would indeed become the motto of the ‘House of Jacob’ during times of national crises. Jeremiah’s soothing words, written for the future, envision a future where the House of David is on the throne again, the tribes - all twelve - are all back again on the land - united as they never were before: “At that time — declares YHWH — I will be a God for all the families of Israel, and they will be My people.”
Whether written by Jeremiah’s scribes or in subsequent generations to seem like his own hand - the words of consolation survived, quoted again and again as a helpful hopeful trope, read again and again by later generations. The written word, Jeremiah knew, may just be mightier than swords, and live to inspire us, far beyond his futuristic rare hopeful moment.
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