The prophet Jeremiah is instructed by God to threaten misfortune, while the people only want good news. To his contemporaries, and to us, he announces that peace will never come from war
by Rosanna Virgili
Jeremiah is an unfortunate prophet: he is called by God to go to the "nations" to announce the sword, famine, plague. He must warn Jerusalem that war would soon attack her and that it would be a miracle to escape it. In the story of his vocation it is said that the Lord showed him a pot tilted from the north, whose caustic liquid would have fatally spilled on the City of David (see Jer 1, 13). It was a metaphor for the ruin that would fall on it, violating the lives of its inhabitants.
For Jeremiah, son of the people of Israel, also born from that "mother" that was, for all the Jews, Jerusalem, having to speak to it of siege, of sword, of end, was truly endless pain! Words that the prophet would never have wanted to pronounce against his brothers. But it was what the Lord had commanded him to do.
Jeremiah was a loyal, sincere, authentic young man. However, he had received a tough vocation from God. He reveals it in one of the most touching and heartfelt of his Confessions: «You seduced me, Lord, and I was seduced, you did violence to me and you prevailed. I became the object of ridicule every day; everyone mocks me […]. I said to myself: I will no longer think of him, I will no longer speak in his name! But in my heart there was a burning fire, held in my bones; I tried to contain him, but I couldn't" (20, 7-9). The reason for Jeremiah's resistance to God was precisely in the word that he had to deliver to the Jews: «When I speak, I have to shout, I have to scream: Violence! Oppression!" (20, 8).
The truth was that the terror of war was about to hit them. A truth that his fellow citizens didn't want to hear, that they didn't take seriously. They even mocked him by repeating his threatening words: «So the word of the Lord has become for me a cause of shame and mockery all day long [...]. I heard the slander of many: Terror all around! » (20, 8b.10). People preferred to hear words of “peace”! And so the last kings of Judah, in order to keep the people good, tried to please them - and deceive them! – with the words of false prophets.
For the first time the phenomenon of false prophecy is spreading in Scripture. Many were the men who put themselves at the service of the propaganda of the rulers, to preach that everything was fine, that there was nothing to worry about and that Jeremiah's word was unfounded, typical of a madman, which should not be believed because it didn't come from God. He had to keep quiet! That is, no voice of truth had to break the thick blanket of lies. For this reason, Jeremiah, the loyal prophet of God, was hated by everyone, by the common people and even more, by the priests of the temple, by the king's officials and by the false prophets. For this reason he raised his supplication to the Lord by launching a harsh invective against the (false) prophets: «My heart breaks in my chest, all my bones tremble [...] The earth is full of adulterers; because of the curse the whole earth is in mourning, the pastures of the steppe have dried up [...] Even the prophet, even the priest are wicked, even in my house I have found their wickedness. Oracle of the Lord" (23, 8-11). Jeremiah writhes in pain at the sight of the damage that the lies of the false prophets and the impiety of the priests cause not only to people but also to the earth. And the responsibility of those who – we would say today – manage information while concealing reality is great.
In fact, the prophets of that time can be compared to today's journalists: their power was very strong and decisive on the destiny of the people. Because of their corruption God invites Israel saying: «Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy for you; they make you rave, they announce to you fantasies of their heart, not what comes from the mouth of the Lord. To those who despise the word of the Lord, they say: You will have peace!, and to those who stubbornly follow their hearts: Misfortune will not overtake you!. But who has witnessed the counsel of the Lord, who has seen him and heard his word? Who paid attention and obeyed? […] I did not send these prophets and they run; I have not spoken to them and they prophesy" (23, 16-18.21). There is no greater evil that a prophet can bring to his people than that of preaching the disguise of war in peace. As war approaches, they speak of peace, mystifying the meaning and content of the word itself.
What also happens today happened in Jerusalem: people think that peace is the fruit of war. Let people not be warned about the truth: that from war comes death and not life and life is peace. Faced with the arrogance of false prophets who claim to speak in the name of God, Jeremiah says: «Here I am against the prophets of lying dreams – oracle of the Lord – who tell them and mislead my people with lies and boasting. I neither sent them nor gave them any orders; they will not benefit this people at all. Oracle of the Lord" (23, 32). God's rejection of false prophets is clear, while he reserves loyal and faithful voices which often reveal themselves - as will also happen to Jesus - signs of contradiction. Voices that do not deceive the people but try to help them build a future of authentic peace. Their word will, in the end, be stronger than any tenacious lie. For the Lord says: "Is not my word like fire - declares the Lord - and like a hammer that splits rock?" (23, 29).