Jeremiah Establishes His Own Position And Calls For Vindication (Jeremiah 17:12-18).
Jeremiah exults in the glory of the significance of the Temple as YHWH's throne, and as the one place where YHWH was to be truly worshipped, and declares that all who forsake Him will be put to shame, to which YHWH replies that all who forsake Him will perish (will be written in the earth), because they have deserted Him as the perennial spring of living water. This causes Jeremiah, aware of his own failings, to ask YHWH that he himself might be fully restored to total dedication.
He then explains how the people deride him by doubting his prophecies, but that he has neither sought to escape his responsibilities, nor tried to hurry the woeful prospective happening of events. And he asks that as YHWH knows him through and through and knows that he had spoken only what was pleasing to YHWH (it was spoken before His face) He will not cause him grief but will be his refuge in the day of trouble. In contrast he seeks that his enemies will indeed be caused grief, and will receive the punishment that is their due.
‘A glorious throne, on high from the beginning,
Is the place of our sanctuary.
O YHWH, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake you will be put to shame.'
“Those who depart from me will be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken YHWH, the fountain of living waters.”
In Jeremiah 3:17 it is Jerusalem which will be called the throne of YHWH, and this was an extension of the thought that the Ark in the Temple was His glorious throne (Jeremiah 14:21). This latter is what is in mind here. The ‘place of our sanctuary' as spoken by Jeremiah can only signify the Temple, but ‘on high from the beginning' emphasises that the glorious throne is to be seen as a ‘shadow' of a greater reality. In the words of Solomon, ‘even the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built' (1 Kings 8:27). So the Ark represented His eternal throne beyond and above the Heavens (see 1 Kings 22:19; Psalms 2:4; Isaiah 66:1; Ezekiel 1:26; Daniel 7:9). And it was Judah's privilege to house it. It was the guarantee of YHWH's concern for Judah/Israel, and His watch over them. That was why He could be called ‘the hope of Israel'. But it was also a reminder of His invisible and constant presence with His people and a reminder that He therefore knew all that was going on. It was a reminder that His interest and concern could not be presumed on. And because He was present among them all who forsook Him, and who forsook true Temple worship and obedience to the covenant, could be sure that they would be put to shame (made ashamed).
Jeremiah's analysis is confirmed by YHWH as He declares, “Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken YHWH, the fountain of living waters.” Anything ‘written in the earth' was intended to be transient and could quickly be erased. Thus the idea may be that those who forsook Him would be blotted out as easily as removing words written in the dust by a sweep of the hand. And that blotting out would be because they had deserted the permanent and enduring spring of living waters, YHWH Himself.
Alternately on the basis of usage at Ugarit (compare also its use in Isaiah 26:19) being written in the ‘erets' may indicate being written in Sheol, the grave-world of the dead, with the idea that Sheol will be their final destination and for them there will be no resurrection (Isaiah 26:19). We can contrast it with Jesus' assurance to His disciples that their names were written in Heaven (Luke 10:20).
‘Heal me, O YHWH, and I will be healed,
Save me, and I will be saved, for you are my praise.'
Considering the glory of YHWH's throne and the fate of those who forsook Him, has brought to Jeremiah's own sin and rebellion (compare Jeremiah 15:19-21). He is only too aware of his own sinfulness. So he now calls on YHWH to heal him and deliver him because He and no other is the One Whom Jeremiah praises. (For the expression ‘you are my praise' compare Deuteronomy 10:21; Psalms 71:6). Note the confirming ‘and I will be healed -- saved', for he knows that if YHWH does this he really will be healed and delivered (compare Psalms 6:1-4; Psalms 30:2; Psalms 31:16; Isaiah 30:15; Isaiah 45:17). It is an expression of total dependence on and confidence in YHWH for his own daily restoration, just as we daily seek God's forgiveness for our sins. It also probably includes the desire to be healed from the hurtful wounds of the people's words, and to be saved from their persecution, but we cannot doubt that Jeremiah constantly recognised the need for YHWH to forgive, encourage and strengthen him, and save him from himself. (His heart too was naturally deceitful above all things and desperately wicked).
‘Behold, they say to me, “Where is the word of YHWH?
Let it come now.”
He then in the context of this reminds YHWH of what the people are saying. They are deriding him because of the delay in what he has warned them about and they are jeeringly asking him where the fulfilment is of what he claims to be the word of YHWH. ‘Let it come now', they sneer (implying ‘and then we will believe it'). In other words they are saying, ‘Demonstrate that what you are saying is true,' and by it indicating that they did not believe it. We can almost see them adding, ‘for everything goes on as it always has' (compare 2 Peter 3:4 spoken by those warned about Jesus' second coming). As the test of whether a prophet was genuine was that what he prophesied came about this was quite a serious matter (Deuteronomy 18:21-22). All this may suggest that this was spoken prior to the first siege of Jerusalem and the death of Jehoiakim.
‘As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you,
Nor have I desired the woeful day,
You know,
What came out of my lips was before your face.”
Do not be a terror to me,
You are my refuge in the day of evil.
But Jeremiah assures YHWH that he has made no attempt to run away from his calling. He has not been hastily trying to avoid following Him and being His shepherd to the people (‘being a shepherd after you'). Perhaps he has Jonah in mind, for Jonah had done just that. Nor, he assures Him, has he desired the woeful day to come. He was not looking forward to it, and he considered that it would have been presumptious for him to try to hasten the coming of judgment on his people just in order to vindicate himself.
He is, however, confident that YHWH knows this already. ‘You know,' he says. He recognises that YHWH knows all things, and certainly knows him through and through. And he recognises also that his words which come from his lips are spoken in the presence of YHWH (‘before your face'). Thus he asks Him not to frighten him with warnings and threats, or put him in too much danger from the people, for he looks on Him as his refuge in the day of evil.
“Let them be put to shame who persecute me,
But let me not be put to shame,
Let them be dismayed,
But let not me be dismayed,
Bring on them the day of evil,
And destroy them with double destruction.
But he does pray that those who persecute him might be put to shame, although naturally wishing to escape it himself. And he prays that they might be dismayed, although naturally desiring that he himself might not be dismayed. And he prays, ‘bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction' (i.e. giving full recompense). He wants God to finally fulfil His threats
Once again we may be shocked at his attitude as a man of God. But we must remember a number of things:
1. That YHWH had pointedly told him a number of times not to pray for them because their doom was certain. So he knew that there was no point in praying for God to have mercy on them, and that indeed it would be an act of disobedience and unbelief. Hope of deliverance was a thing of the past, and would not now happen. Their end was fixedly determined.
2. That in line with 1). he knew that their coming judgment was inevitable and irrevocable, so that he was merely asking YHWH to hurry up and do what he intended to do (waiting can be the most difficult thing of all).
3. That the delay in that inevitable judgment simply added to his own afflictions, for he was being persecuted and intimidated and never knew how they were going to treat him next, and he knew that the situation was getting worse and becoming more dangerous.
4. That he may well have begun to be concerned for some of his doubting followers, who may indeed have begun to doubt whether he really was a man of God after all. Judgment coming on Judah would vindicate him and settle their doubts. It would also encourage those whose faith was stronger, but who found the current conditions distressful. The general attitude of fear and concern, together with the political infighting and intrigues, and the speed at which emotions could be roused, could have been making life difficult for those whose full trust was in YHWH, and Jeremiah may have seen some of them going off in a direction that he did not like.
Thus his feeling may well have been, ‘let us get it over with so that I am no longer accused of being a false prophet, and so that those who believe in You might find peace and no longer be in danger of failing'.