Jeremiah the Bullfrog

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Jeremiah (the Bullfrog?)

• By
• David Patrick Skillman
• Kevin James Stockbridge

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Jeremiah Who was he?

• Jeremiah
• Ja Yahweh
• Yarum Exalted
• Son of Hilkiah of the priests living at
  Anathoth (11).
• Prophetic vocation was his only work.

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Where is Anathoth?
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His Ministry

• Prophet for 40 years
• From 626 B.C., 13th year of Josiah
• Through 586 B.C., deportation to Babylon
• Jeremiahs prophecy was marked with many trials.
• Hunted as a criminal by King Jehoiakim
• Beaten by the chief priest Pashhur
• Almost mobbed at a temple sermon
• Continually asked to oppose other prophets and
  religious authorities
• Oh, by the way, he had no wife!

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Outline of the Book

• Title (11-3)
• Oracles against Judah and Jerusalem (14-2513b)
• The Restoration of Israel (261-3519)
• Martyrdom of Jeremiah (361-455)

V. Oracles against the Nations
(461-5164) VI. A Historical Appendix
(521-34)
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Jeremiah 14-10

• The word of the LORD came to me thus Before I
  formed you in the womb I knew you, before you
  were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the
  nations I appointed you. "Ah, Lord GOD!" I said,
  "I know not how to speak I am too young." But
  the LORD answered me, Say not, "I am too young."
  To whomever I send you, you shall go whatever I
  command you, you shall speak. Have no fear before
  them, because I am with you to deliver you, says
  the LORD. Then the LORD extended his hand and
  touched my mouth, saying, See, I place my words
  in your mouth! This day I set you over nations
  and over kingdoms, To root up and to tear down,
  to destroy and to demolish, to build and to
  plant.

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Call Narrative Review

• Do you remember Habels Call Narrative schema?
• Divine Confrontation
• Introductory Word
• Commission
• Objection
• Reassurance
• Sign

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• Divine Confrontation
• Introductory Word
• Commission
• Objection
• Reassurance
• Sign

• The word of the LORD came to me thus Before I
  formed you in the womb I knew you, before you
  were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the
  nations I appointed you. "Ah, Lord GOD!" I said,
  "I know not how to speak I am too young." But
  the LORD answered me, Say not, "I am too young."
  To whomever I send you, you shall go whatever I
  command you, you shall speak. Have no fear before
  them, because I am with you to deliver you, says
  the LORD. Then the LORD extended his hand and
  touched my mouth, saying, See, I place my words
  in your mouth! This day I set you over nations
  and over kingdoms, To root up and to tear down,
  to destroy and to demolish, to build and to
  plant.

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The Confessions

• Five Confessions
• 1118-126
• 1510-21
• 1714-18
• 1818-23
• 207-13

• John Skinner was the first to isolate these
  passages as a particular genre.

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Jeremiahs Influence on Great Theologians!

• In his Letters and Papers from Prison, the great
  Deitrich Bonhoeffer used these Confessions as a
  model for his own personal reflections.
• Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions
  of mine.
• Whoever I am , thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

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The Confessions

• The name Confessions is taken from the
  Confessions of St. Augustine.
• Unlike the rest of Jeremiah, the Confessions are
  personal exposés of the inner life of the prophet.

• They form no part of his public message.
• Wellhausen While they were not published during
  his lifetime, they were intended for future
  generations.

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The Confession Debate

• The actual genre/authorship/sitz im leben of
  these passages is now disputed.
• A. Weiser Read as psalms in the presence of the
  cult community as an insight into his life
• H. Graf Reventlow Written for a cultic occasion
  but disconnected from his life.
• E. Gerstenberger Denied Jeremiah wrote these
• A.H.J. Gunneweg Reflections on the preaching and
  person of Jeremiah written by another author
• Some believe them to be written by Jeremiah as a
  personal reflection
• T.E. Fretheim and others Best interpreted in
  terms of the Lament Psalm genre

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Lament Genre

• T.E. Fretheim identifies 10 elements of the
  Lament Psalm genre
• Invocation
• Cry to God
• Complaint with descriptions of suffering and
  questions to God
• Petition for help
• Condemnation of enemies
• Motivation for God to intervene
• Confessions of trust in God
• Certainty of a hearing
• Vows
• Elements of praise

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Lament Genre

• K. OConnor consolidates this list into 7
  elements
• Direct address to Yahweh
• Complaint or description of the speakers
  predicament
• Plea of innocence on behalf of the speaker
• Statement of trust that Yahweh will intervene
• Petition for divine intervention
• Oracle of assurance
• Vow or expression of praise

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Psalm 132-6
How long, LORD? Will you utterly forget me? How
long will you hide your face from me? How long
must I carry sorrow in my soul, grief in my heart
day after day? How long will my enemy triumph
over me? Look upon me, answer me, LORD, my God!
Give light to my eyes lest I sleep in death,
Lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed," lest my
foes rejoice at my downfall. I trust in your
faithfulness. Grant my heart joy in your help,
That I may sing of the LORD, "How good our God
has been to me!"
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• Direct address to Yahweh
• Complaint/Description of predicament
• Petition for divine intervention
• Plea of innocence
• Statement of trust
• Expression of praise

• How long, LORD?
• Will you utterly forget me? How long will you
  hide your face from me?
• How long must I carry sorrow in my soul, grief in
  my heart day after day? How long will my enemy
  triumph over me?
• Look upon me, answer me, LORD, my God! Give light
  to my eyes lest I sleep in death,
• Lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed," lest my
  foes rejoice at my downfall.
• I trust in your faithfulness.
• Grant my heart joy in your help,
• That I may sing of the LORD, "How good our God
  has been to me!"

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Jer 1118-126

• "Come," they said, "let us contrive a plot
  against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of
  instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from
  the wise, nor of messages from the prophets. And
  so, let us destroy him by his own tongue let us
  carefully note his every word." Heed me, O LORD,
  and listen to what my adversaries say. Must good
  be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to
  take my life? Remember that I stood before you to
  speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath
  from them. So now, deliver their children to
  famine, do away with them by the sword. Let their
  wives be made childless and widows let their men
  die of pestilence, their young men be slain by
  the sword in battle. May cries be heard from
  their homes, when suddenly you send plunderers
  against them. For they have dug a pit to capture
  me, they have hid snares for my feet But you, O
  LORD, know all their plans to slay me. Forgive
  not their crime, blot not out their sin in your
  sight! Let them go down before you, proceed
  against them in the time of your anger.

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• Description of predicament
• Direct address
• Complaint
• Plea of innocence

• "Come," they said, "let us contrive a plot
  against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of
  instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from
  the wise, nor of messages from the prophets. And
  so, let us destroy him by his own tongue let us
  carefully note his every word.
• Heed me, O LORD, and listen to what my
  adversaries say.
• Must good be repaid with evil that they should
  dig a pit to take my life?
• Remember that I stood before you to speak in
  their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.

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• Petition for intervention
• Complaint

• So now, deliver their children to famine, do away
  with them by the sword. Let their wives be made
  childless and widows let their men die of
  pestilence, their young men be slain by the sword
  in battle. May cries be heard from their homes,
  when suddenly you send plunderers against them.
• For they have dug a pit to capture me, they have
  hid snares for my feet But you, O LORD, know all
  their plans to slay me.
• Forgive not their crime, blot not out their sin
  in your sight! Let them go down before you,
  proceed against them in the time of your anger.

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Your turn!

• You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped
  you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
  All the day I am an object of laughter everyone
  mocks me. Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
  violence and outrage is my message The word of
  the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all
  the day. I say to myself, I will not mention
  him, I will speak in his name no more. But then
  it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
  imprisoned in my bones I grow weary holding it
  in, I cannot endure it. Yes, I hear the
  whisperings of many "Terror on every side!
  Denounce! let us denounce him!" All those who
  were my friends are on the watch for any misstep
  of mine. "Perhaps he will be trapped then we can
  prevail, and take our vengeance on him." But the
  LORD is with me, like a mighty champion my
  persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
  In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
  to lasting, unforgettable confusion. O LORD of
  hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and
  heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on
  them, for to you I have entrusted my cause. Sing
  to the LORD, praise the LORD, For he has rescued
  the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!

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Jeremiah
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Arur!!!

• Cursed elements in Jeremiah 2014-18
• In addition to the lament elements, Jeremiah ends
  with a double curse that in quite intriguing.

Cursed be the day on which I was born! May the
day my mother gave me birth never be
blessed! Cursed be the man who brought the news
to my father, saying, "A child, a son,
has been born to you!" filling him with great
joy. Let that man be like the cities which the
LORD relentlessly overthrew Let him hear war
cries in the morning, battle alarms at noonday,
because he did not dispatch me in the womb!
Then my mother would have been my grave, her
womb confining me forever. Why did I come forth
from the womb, to see sorrow and pain, to end my
days in shame?
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Arur!

• Then my mother would have been my grave, her
  womb confining me forever.
• Could this line be speaking of a kind of medical
  phenomena?
• We think YES!!!!

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Lithopedion

• In this condition a child dies in the womb at
  some late stage in development. When the mother
  is not able to dispel the dead tissue from her
  body nor absorb it back into her system, the
  lithopedion is formed.
• To prevent infection, the body surrounds the body
  of the deceased child with calcium and the woman
  retains the tissue in her womb.

Many feel like they have a kind of mystical
pregnancy which is lasting for an extended period
of time. One woman is known to have carried a
lithopedion for as along as 50 years!
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• Lithopedions are also known as Stone Babies

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Momma, why cant I be a stone baby?

• Then my mother would have been my grave, her
  womb confining me forever.
• Could it be possible that Jeremiah had
  encountered this reality and is now describing it
  in his lamentation?