Coping with Religious Doubt

“The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah. This was also the eighteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem was then under siege from the Babylonian army and Jeremiah was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace. King Zedekiah had put him there, asking why he kept giving this prophecy: ‘this is what the Lord says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will take it.’ At that time the Lord sent me a message. He said, ‘your cousin Hanamel son of Shallum will come and say to you, buy my field at Anathoth. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else.’ Then, just as the Lord had said he would, my cousin Hanamel came and visited me in the prison. He said, ‘please buy my field at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else, so buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that the message I had heard was from the Lord. So I bought the field at Anathoth, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces of silver for it. I signed and sealed the deed of purchase before witnesses, weighed out the silver and paid him. Then I took the sealed deed and an unsealed copy of the deed, which contained the terms and conditions of the purchase and I handed them to Baruch son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah.

I did all this in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the deed and all the men of Judah who were there in the courtyard of the guardhouse. Then I said to Baruch as they all listened, ‘this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: take both this sealed deed and the unsealed copy and put them into a pottery jar to preserve them for a long time.’ For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.’” (Jeremiah 32:1-3, 6-15) (Also read Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31) Here is the story of a quandary that arose in the Holy Land. The main character is a man named Jeremiah. He faced a dilemma about the place of YAHVEH in a world that seemed not to square with how things ought to be. It was 588 BC. The northern kingdom of Yisrael had already fallen. The smaller southern kingdom had experienced its own threats, weaknesses and corruption. Now the brutal Babylonians were surrounding the tiny country. Their massive armies were poised on the borders for a rapid invasion. The great city Yerushalayim, the centre of religious life and vitality, was under threat. Things for the nation looked bad.

I.) Things looked even worse for Jeremiah. As this account begins, Jeremiah is in jail. Now Jeremiah was a young man, perhaps even a teenager, when he received the call of YAHVEH to the prophetic task. In the first chapter of the book, the calling is described. YAHVEH spoke and Jeremiah listened. “Go to the people of Yisrael,” YAHVEH said, “and tell them the things I will put in your mouth.” The young man shied away: “I’m only a boy.” “Don’t fear,” said Adonai, “I will be with you and guide your way and put My words in your mouth.” Did you hear that? I’ll be with you. I will guide your way. I’ll put my words into your mouth. So far so good; in the beginning, in the first chapter. But later, by the time we get to chapter 32, things have changed. Oh, Jeremiah has been a faithful prophet. He’s spoken the words YAHVEH put in his mouth. But what had it brought him? Nothing but trouble; or so it seems! He’s been beaten, put in stocks in a public arena and ridiculed by passersby, left for dead in a well and; worst of all; ignored by the very people he tried to convince. And now he is in jail for offending the king by telling the truth. Is it any wonder that we call Jeremiah the weeping prophet? I think I would have cried too. The height of his confusion is revealed in chapter 20. “Adonai,” he said, “You’ve deceived me and I have been deceived. You are stronger than I and You have prevailed. I’ve become a laughingstock all day long and everyone mocks me. Even the Word of Adonai has become a reproach and derision. I’ll simply not speak in Your Name anymore.” What he was saying is this: “I just don’t understand. Things ought not to be the way they are.” He was dealing with religious doubt.

II.) Now look at this. This is ancient history; nearly six hundred years before Yeshua was born. The world was in chaos. Wars and rumours of wars abounded. The city was surrounded by the most brutal army of the day; that of the feared Babylonians. Jeremiah was in jail, to make matters worse. And his cousin Hanamel comes to the prison where Jeremiah was and wants to sell him the family farm! He gave the prophet the chance to exercise “the right of redemption.” This Promised Land was so precious to the Jewish people, not a single acre could be sold without first offering it to the nearest kin so it could stay in the family. Now that was a good gesture; at least on the surface. But beneath the surface there was more. Hanamel was trying to beat the crash. This probably wasn’t the best time to be doing a land deal; with the Babylonians ready to come down and take over and destroy it all. What would the title on some property mean in the face of such devastation? Precious little. Anyway, what would a bachelor like Jeremiah need with a farm? But look a bit further. Jeremiah didn’t do the expected thing. Instead, he asked for a fair price, agreed to terms, then demanded that the deeds be properly recorded; and in duplicate. Why? Because Jeremiah knew the promise of the future. YAHVEH’s prophet thumbed his nose at the reality before him and did the faithful thing. Some day he said, there will be houses, farms, barns, people again. And I want all this correctly documented, so that when the time comes, all will know that YAHVEH is a victor.

III.) How did he do that? Let me suggest a couple of possibilities. First, Jeremiah saw that everything wasn’t lost, that not everything was given over to evil. Surely darkness had descended, but the light of day was to come. At the point when darkness descends however, many will quickly give up on faith and love and life; and concede that there is no hope for a brighter day. I feel compassion for the atheist. The atheist has conceded that there are mysteries unexplainable, that there is evil in the world and that unjustified suffering is rampant. The believer will agree to each count. The difference is this. The atheist looks at life’s difficulty and says, “There is much evil and suffering in the world. Therefore, YAHVEH doesn’t exist.” The believer looks at the same world and says, “There is evil and suffering in the world and we will not deny it. But there is also lots of good. There is great good in the world and beauty and heroism, the noble and the fine. Where did it all come from?” The truth is, we live in a world that is not only evil; and not only good. We live in a world that is both good and evil. It’s not light or darkness; it’s light and darkness. Second, he refused to restrict himself to the present situation. Someone has said, “Let the ages speak to the hours.” That makes a lot of sense. If all we see is the immediate moment that surrounds us, it is easy to be overwhelmed. But if we can place the current situation against the backdrop of the larger eternal frame of things, the immediate moment is put in perspective. This wasn’t the first time Yisrael had gone up against an enemy. There was the memory, indelibly written in their minds, of the escape from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the hunger and thirst in the wilderness and of how YAHVEH had been with them, fed them, quenched their thirst and lifted their spirits. The Jebusites, the Moabites, had already been overcome. What was there to worry about? Surely not another nation with a runt ruler who thought he controlled the world. I honour Jeremiah and I hope to live like him. Things always look clearer when we let the ages speak to the hours. We do live in a world where things at times don’t seem to square. That’s why Jeremiah is so important to us. Everything in his world was about to crash. But he proceeded to stake his life on the belief that purpose was more real than chaos. Jeremiah was right. “Houses and fields and vineyards will be sold again in this land; the Babylonians notwithstanding.” Yeshua said, “In three days I will rise again.” That’s how we cope with religious doubt!