Today's Reading: Jeremiah 28:5-9 

Daily Lectionary:Proverbs 16:1-24, John 16:1-16

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Context is one of the most important things to take into account when reading the Scriptures. Without understanding the context, Jeremiah can come across as the Debbie Downer of the prophets. You can almost hear the ‘wha wha’ sound when he stops speaking.  Without the proper context it also appears that a prophet’s job is to only announce the bad news of war, famine, and pestilence. What Jeremiah is reacting to in our reading is the specific false prophecy that the Babylonian captivity would be over soon; that it would be short and not require any repentance on the part of God’s people. Jerusalem would be restored and the king would return from exile. 

Jeremiah knew better and that is why he speaks differently than the false prophets. He had been prophesying to them with different words before our reading and continues to prophesy to them after our reading. The Babylonian captivity would someday end, but it would not be soon. Jerusalem was not going to be restored and the king was not going to be returned in the short term. Jeremiah was not all doom and gloom, however, and you can see this in his enigmatic statement about the prophet who prophesies peace and his word coming about.  Jeremiah knew that the Babylonian captivity was not God’s last word to His people. He knew that there was a way back, he knew that there would be a restoration, but he also knew that the context for that went beyond his immediate time. 

You live in a completely different context than Jeremiah and his words of warning spoken here are not spoken directly to you in the sense that all he has to say to you are words of war, famine, and pestilence. Instead you are part of what Jeremiah knew would come after his own time. You are part of the new covenant he prophesies in chapter 31. What Jeremiah could only look forward to, you can look back upon. What he could only hint at, you know. The true prophet of peace has come and He is Jesus who has restored the people of God and brought to an end the exile of His people. The muted ‘wha wha’ of the trumpets of doom have become the resounding peal of the trumpet of salvation. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.