LENT 2020: Day 31

• Lent 2020: Day 31 Wednesday, April 1, 2020:
  Psalm 143; Jeremiah 32:1-9, 36-41; Matthew 22:23-33

Ronald Clements summarizes this chapter of Jeremiah thusly: “The Lessons of History Give Hope.”

That might seem a little odd, considering the fact that the chapter opens with the prophet being thrown in prison, as Babylonian forces besieged Jerusalem, for predicting not just a Babylonian victory — and for putting that victory in the mouth of the LORD.

Clements writes about King Zedekiah’s “false hope, based on unreasoned optimism and mistaken estimates.”

This seems remarkably relevant today, as the novel coronavirus was allowed to spread because of “false hope” and “unreasoned optimism” and “mistaken estimates.”

We know what it’s like to have a leader refuse to see and hear the truth. But we also know how important it is to have an honest assessment of reality.

And it’s the prophet who speaks the sober truth.

But it’s also the prophet who gives real hope: “In history,” says Clement, “yet grounded in a God who reigned above history.”

But note the language the prophet uses:
    And they shall be my people
          and I will be their God.
    And I will seal with them an everlasting covenant,
          that I not turn back from them so that I do good for them.

This is not original to Jeremiah. These are the words of history. These are the words of memory.

This is Jeremiah, using the words of the past, to give hope for the present and for the future.

May we, likewise, utilize our collective memories, find the words of days gone by, and give us hope for today and tomorrow.