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Jeremiah 4:5-10:
The first use of the word “shalom” in Jeremiah is 4:10:
On that day, says the Lord, courage shall fail the king and the officials; the priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded., Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, how utterly you have deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It should be well (shalom) with you,’ even while the sword is at the throat!”
In this passage, the leaders of Israel – the king, officials, priests and prophets – are all criticized for creating a false sense of security on the part of Israel. The people have been told by the leaders of Judah’s political, economic and religious systems that the way these leaders are shaping the nation’s corporate and public life together is precisely what God wants from then when, in reality, it is the exact opposite. These leaders are telling the people a lie, and the people are accepting it. What God wants from them is the exact opposite of what the leaders say God desires. Because both leaders and people refuse to see it as a lie, God will bring destruction upon them that will hopefully purge corporate evil from their midst.
The intriguing development, however, is that the people feel deceived by God! The deception has actually occurred through the words and actions of the leaders of the nation’s systems. But because these leaders stated to the people that what they want from the people is what God wants, and because rather than safety, “the sword is at the (people’s) throat”, the people have concluded that it was God who was lying, not their leaders! So the people feel both betrayed and deceived by God Himself.
Jeremiah 6:10-15:
The next use of “shalom” in Jeremiah is 6:14. It occurs in a well-known passage.
Chapter six of Jeremiah foretells a great invasion of Judah that will crush the government, destroy Jerusalem and the nation and will bring them under total domination by the unnamed conqueror – “a great nation . . . from the farthest parts of the earth”, invading Israel “out of the north” (of course, that can only be Babylonia, because Egypt, the only other “great nation” of the time would invade from the south).
Why is it that God would so thoroughly annihilate his nation? Jeremiah tells us why in 6:13-15.
For from the least to the greatest of them,
Everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
And from prophet to priest,
Everyone deals falsely.
They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
Saying “Peace, peace,”
When there is no peace.
They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;
Yet they were not ashamed,
They did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
At the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
Says the Lord!
“They did not know how to blush!” What a powerful commentary on Judah. Their political, economic and religious leaders have been acting in such a dominating and exploiting manner for so long that the people themselves have become so infected with greed and the lust to control that everyone has forgotten “how to blush”! That is, they have become so used to being greedy and lusting for power that neither national leader nor ordinary citizen are even aware that they are doing anything wrong. Rejected and disobeying God has become so commonplace that they don’t even know to be embarrassed by their own actions any longer!
Therefore, their leaders cry, “Shalom, shalom” – where there is no shalom! Their religious leaders say “All is well, all is secure, all is prosperous, all is at peace” while the very foundations of their life as a nation and as a people are coming rapidly unraveled. And that is why their destruction is so very close at hand – and neither leaders nor people can even recognize it!
Jeremiah 8:4-15:
Jeremiah 8 picks up the refrain from chapter 6, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace,” and works further with it. Again, an invasion from the north that will destroy Judah is anticipated. Again, the people are so comfortable with their sin that they cannot even perceive that they have done anything wrong. This time, however, the analysis is even more specific:
From the least to the greatest
Everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
From prophet to priest
Everyone deals falsely.
They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
Saying “Peace, peace,”
When there is no peace.
They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;
Yet they were not at all ashamed;
They did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fell;
At the time when I punish them,
They shall be overthrown. (8:10b-12)
According to this passage, the corruption of Israel has begun at the economic level. “From the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain.” The collapse of the shalom community begins with the abuse of wealth – of action out one’s greed, and thus seeking wealth at the expense of others and thus moving from an attitude of stewardship of the people’s wealth (common wealth) to ownership (and consequent miserly attitude) of a private wealth that only seeks to accumulate more, no matter who is hurt by that action.
Yielding repeatedly to economic greed that becomes exploitive of those around you or those with whom you deal inevitably moves into the arena of public life. “From prophet to priest everyone deals falsely.” An unjust economics will lead to a politics of unilateral power resulting in the oppression of the people. No differing from the powerful will be tolerated. Economic exploitation leads inevitably to political oppression. Greed leads to a lust for power. Soon, everyone is “dealing falsely” with each other.
That political and economic corruption thus leads directly to the corruption of the spiritual. “(Prophet and priest) have treated the wound carelessly, saying, “Shalom, shalom” when there is no “shalom”.” Religion is used to endorse and justify the political oppression and economic exploitation that the systems have foisted upon the people. The result? The people are corrupted; they lose awareness of what they are called to do or the world as God intended. So it is that they “did not know how to blush” Therefore, the inevitable will happen. “They shall fall among those who fall; . . . . they shall be overthrown” (8:12).
There is another use of “shalom” in Jeremiah 8; it’s verse 15.
We look for peace, but find no good,
For a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
This verse, of course, is continuing the same theme.
Jeremiah 12:5-13:
The next two uses of shalom are Jeremiah 12:5 and 12. Jeremiah 12 is a complaint Jeremiah makes to God (vss. 1-4) and God’s response (vss. 5-13). Jeremiah’s complaint is, essentially, “Why me, God?” He asks why God prospers the wicked, while some like himself, who is seeking to be faithful to God and the covenant, receives the wrath and persecution of others.
God’s response to Jeremiah is not primarily comforting, nor does God supply a rationale or explanation for his actions. Rather, God states that it wil only get worse – and does so with the most poetic of language:
If you have raced with foot-runners and they have wearied you,
How will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you fall down,
How will you fare in the thickets of the Jordan? (12:5)
Toughen up, God in essence is saying. Acting as a prophet is not, as our beloved governor would say, “not for girly-men!” It’s not for the faint of heart. It takes tough people, determined people, single-minded people, people who will not be intimidated to proclaim God’s word in “the thickets of the Jordan”. Are you a big enough man to take on this role, Jeremiah? If so, stop whining and get on with your mission.
The word “shalom” is used in this context, translated into English as “safe”. The text literally says, “And if in a land of shalom, you fall down . . .” So here it is being used to make Jeremiah face himself.
God goes on to say that persecution will only continue, that Judah will steadily continue to move away from God’s ideal for them. Consequently, “I (Yahweh) have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my heart into the hands of her enemies” (12:7). Israel’s growing evil must be purged out of them by national catastrophe, even national annihilation. God therefore concludes,
Upon all the bare heights in the desert
Spoilers have come;
For the sword of the Lord devours
From one end of the land to the other;
No one shall be safe (i.e., no one shall be in shalom).
They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns,
They have tired themselves out but profit nothing.
They shall be ashamed of their harvests
Because of the fierce anger of the Lord. (12:12-13)
Although it is a painful word, I feel there is a real word of the Lord to me in this passage. I have been working for shared and democratic political power, an equitable distribution of wealth, the elimination of poverty and a nation truly “under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” for the 50 years I have thus far been in ministry (1955 – present). Throughout those years, I have worked believing that this country and the world would become more just. Yet, look at it now. It is more unjust, more divided into rich and poor, more unilateral in its use of power, more separated into warring factions than it ever was in the 1950s. The latest report, that appeared in this week’s issue of Time, estimates that 1.1 billion people live in “extreme poverty” (that is, less than $1.00 a day). Asia leads in numbers, but Africa has the largest proportion: nearly half its population. In response, the USA intends to spend $500 billion on the military this year but only $16 billion (which represents 0.15% of U.S. income or 15 cents on every $100 of our national income) on world hunger, relief and development.
Therefore, it is easy for me to begin to feel depressed about the spiraling inequality in the world – as if, somehow, my ministry ought to have made some sort of observable difference (how myopic can you get?). But God is saying to me, “Look, Linthicum, if you have raced with foot-runners and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? Stop whining and get on with your mission. The world’s situation isn’t going to improve in the near future. It’s only going to get worse. Expect things to be worse off at the end of your ministry than it was at the beginning! That’s the inevitable direction of life lived outside the redemptive power of the cross. The USA will only continue to deteriorate. But I didn’t call you to be successful. I called you to be faithful. So quit complaining and get on with the work to which I called you!”
Jeremiah 29:1-14:
Today’s scripture on shalom is Jeremiah 29. The word appears in both verses 7 and 11. This, of course, is one of the most strategic scriptures I use for presenting the primary work of the urban church (see Transforming Power, pp. 71-90) and City of God, City of Satan, pp. 145-192). “Seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf, for in its shalom you will find your shalom” (29:7)! Our task as God’s people is to seek the shalom of our city!
But this letter (29:4-23) is actually divided into two parts. The first part deals with Yahweh’s response to the Jews who are in Babylonian exile (vss. 4-14), and I have always concentrated upon this part of the letter. But there is a second half of the letter (vss. 15-23) whose subject is the Jews that are left behind.
This letter is clearly written between the beginning of the first exile (597 BCE) and the second and final destruction of Judah (586 BCE). It therefore reflects the ambiguity of the situation in which there are both Jews living in Babylonian captivity (these being the former political, economic and religious leaders of Israel) and the Jews still remaining behind in Judah (primarily the peasants, along with Jeremiah). The Jews in exile are complaining loud and long about their condition. But Jeremiah, in writing to them, in essence says to these exiles, “You think you have it bad? Just wait and see what is going to happen to those who are left behind in Judah, and you’ll realize you are the fortunate ones!”
What will happen to the Jews left behind in Judah?
Thus says the Lord of hosts, I am going to let loose on them sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of cursing, and horror, and hissing, and a derision among all the nations where I have driven them, because they did not heed my words, says the Lord, when I persistently sent to you my servants the prophets, but they would not listen, says the Lord. (29:17-19)
And that is exactly what happened in Nebuchadnezzar’s second invasion of Judah, for the monarchy was destroyed, the nation obliterated, and those left behind were in such misery, poverty and despair that many of them trekked to Egypt (including an unwilling Jeremiah) to escape starvation, while those left behind inbred with the Gentile refugees whom Babylon imported to Judah to eventually become the Samaritans. Thus, the lot of those left behind turned out to be worse than the lot of those who became exiles in Babylon!.
Ezekiel 13:1-10:
Ezekiel 13:1-10 is a passage condemning false prophets (13:1-16). God opposes false prophets “because you have uttered falsehood and envisioned lies” (13:8). By their words and actions, they have both worked against God’s intentions for the nation and have deceived the people so that the people do not recognize these legitimate intentions.
In truth . . . (the prophets) have misled my people, saying “Peace”, when there is no peace; and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear whitewash on it. (13:10)
Ezekiel uses here the symbol of a defectively-built wall to describe a shaky Israel. The false prophecies of the prophets that promise shalom when there is no possibility of shalom are delivered to the people in order to deceive them and to minimize their danger. Those prophets created a false sense of security and well-being and acted, instead, to cover up faulty construction of the “wall” of Israel with a veneer (whitewash) of good appearances. But God will expose their deception as well as the shoddiness of the construction. The result will be the “tearing-down of that wall” (that is, the destruction of the nation of Israel) and the demise of those who “whitewashed” it!
Ezekiel 37:15-28:
The final use of shalom in Ezekiel is 37:26, which is a part of the prophecy of two sticks (37:18-28). In it, Ezekiel (using two sticks) proclaims that Israel will become one nation and will occupy Palestine with one shepherd (David) and worshipping Yahweh. The prophecy ends:
I (Yahweh) will make a covenant of shalom (peace) with them (i.e., Israel and Judah), and I will bless them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations shall know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore. (37:26-28).
Malachi 2:4 - 3:4:
The final use of the word “shalom” in the Old Testament is Malachi 2:5-6. There, it is used twice:
My covenant with Levi was a covenant of life and well-being (shalom), which I gave him; this called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in integrity (shalom) and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. (2:5-6)
Malachi is here recalling and celebrating the loyalty of the Levitical priesthood who, from the time of Moses, remained faithful to both God and the people. He contrasts that with the role and practices of the priests at the time of Malachi (“You (priests) have turned aside from the way (of Levi); you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts” (2:8).
The contrast Malachi draws here between the Israelite practice of faith (including the conduct of the Levitical priests) in the early centuries of Yahweh worship (ca. 1250-960 BCE) and the faith practiced by the Levitical priests in Malachi’s day makes little sense unless we understand what was going on in Palestine at the time of Malachi. Most biblical scholars date the ministry of Malachi as being the decade 460 to 450 BCE. Thus, Malachi’s final prophecies preceded the start of Nehemiah’s ministry by six years (Nehemiah was governor from 444 to 431 BCE). For students of Nehemiah (as I am), this makes what Malachi wrote extremely valuable, because it is giving us an independent reading of what life was like and what the essential issues were in Jerusalem immediately before Nehemiah began his ministry there.
In the book bearing his name, Malachi tells us that life was very grim in the Israel of 450 BCE. Palestine, of course, was living under the domination of the Persian Empire. It had just survived a series of natural disasters – a drought, a plague of locusts and a blighting of all the vineyards (Ma. 3:10-11). Those natural disasters had brought severe economic depression, even economic collapse upon the Jews to add to the shame and oppression of political domination by Persia.
The reaction of Judah to both political oppression and economic collapse, according to Malachi, was two fold. The first was that the people had concluded that they were powerless. That, in turn, had led to a deep resignation that manifested itself in a total breakdown of morality. Adultery, perjury, perverse sexual practices and intermarriage with pagans all signaled the collapse of Israelite life. Added to that was the victimization of the poor and the marginalization of the lowest classes of Jewish society by more powerful Jews (2:10-12; 3:5).
The second reaction of Judah to their political domination by Persia and their economic collapse was the belief of the people that they had been abandoned by God. Earlier, the Temple had been rebuilt and formal, orthodox Yahweh worship had been reintroduced to Israel. The restoration of the Temple initially provided a wave of revival throughout the land. But that soon wore off as the people faced their worsening political and economic situation. Therefore, in resignation the people had by-and-large abandoned their religious traditions and practices that had earlier made them distinct among all Eastern peoples (1:14; 2:13; 3:7-14). They believed God had abandoned them. And therefore, they abandoned God!
Adding to this was both the apostacy and profound betrayal of the people by Israel’s religious leaders. Israel’s priests also felt abandoned by God! But they wanted to maintain their status and influence among the people. Therefore, they continued to formally conduct orthodox worship (although very few Jews attended such worship), but they performed these liturgies in a perfunctory way while compromising their faith and practice. They were obviously very bored with Yahweh worship (1:7-8, 13).
This was the condition of the Jewish people in Palestine reported by Malachi only six years before Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem. These are the circumstances that informed Malachi’s comparison of the religious observances and spiritual commitments of his contemporaries and of Israel’s ancients. No wonder that he wrote such a scathing criticism of Israel’s political and economic life, and laid the ultimate blame for it to the negative and self-serving influence of Israel’s religious leaders. No wonder he called for their repentance and for reform of the state. And what he railed against and called for, Nehemiah acted upon and brought reform to the nation. For Nehemiah realized that the essential problem of Israel was not broken-down walls. It was their broken-down life together, the fact that the nation had abandoned its spiritual moorings, and was therefore spiritually, morally and ethnically bankrupt. Therefore, Malachi called for and Nehemiah worked for not simply a reform in private morality but a transformation of their public conduct in their politics, economics and public justice!