Autor: Voegelin, Eric

Buch: Israel and Revelation

Titel: Israel and Revelation

Stichwort: Jeremia; seine Person als Schlachtfeld d. Geschichtsordnung; Frage um Gottes Gerechtigkeit; Frage - Abkehr

Kurzinhalt: his personality as the battlefield of order and disorder in history; the justice of God was at stake; what is the suffering of Jeremiah, compared with the suffering of God?

Textausschnitt: 107/13 The type of experiences which forced Jeremiah back on himself and into the recognition of his personality as the battlefield of order and disorder in history, can be gathered from the notice about a conspiracy against his life (18:18): (485; Fs) (notabene)
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The motive of the plot was Jeremiah's assumption of personal authority under God, which invalidated the people's traditional sources of authority in the priests, the wise, and the prophets (the "false prophets" of Jeremiah); and its purpose was to silence the word emanating from the new authority. In this danger Jeremiah turned to Yahweh with the question:
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Moreover, the justice of God was at stake. In the vengeful wishes of Jeremiah was involved, as the text has shown, the torturing question of repayment for good and evil. To be sure, Israel deserved punishment for its sins, but how should order ever be restored if the punishment of the wicked was visited on Israel collectively and engulfed the good?
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God knows that the prophet suffers for his sake: Jeremiah cannot join the company of the sportive and make merry with them, because the hand of God is on him and forces him to sit alone (15:16-17)- Why then is his pain unceasing, and his wound incurable? Will God be to him like a treacherous brook, like waters that are not sure? (15: 18). To such questioning Yahweh answers (15: 19): (486; Fs) (notabene)
If you turn back, I shall take you back,
and before my face shall you stand;
and if you bring forth the precious from the vile,
as my mouth shall you be.

109/13 There is no answer to the questions: The questioning itself is the defection, from which Jeremiah must return to the presence of God; only when, through the return from questioning, he has brought forth the precious from the vile will he be the speaker of God's word. The prophet has to live with the mystery of iniquity. But that is not easy: "My grief is incurable, my heart is sick within me" (8: 18). (487; Fs)
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111/13 What is the suffering of Jeremiah, compared with the suffering of God? Prophetic existence is participation in the suffering of God. Beyond this insight gained by Jeremiah for his own person lies its application to everyman's existence. The prophet's secretary Baruch apparently was inclined sympathetically to experience the same sorrows as his master. When he had finished writing the words of Jeremiah, at his dictation, in a book, he must have complained often enough (45:3): (488; Fs) (notabene)