It is little wonder that "jeremiad" made its way into the English language with some such meaning as a tale of woe or a lamentation. It emanates from the life and teaching of Jeremiah, who is sometimes called "the weeping prophet." He was the most persecuted of all the Old Testament figures – defamed, charged with blasphemy, beaten, put in stocks, placed in a dungeon and left to die, exiled to Egypt, and – according to tradition – stoned to death. He suffered both bodily pain and mental anguish.

  It is understandable that some would associate Jeremiah with "the suffering servant" of Isaiah 53, a Messianic passage, and still others saw Jesus as the reincarnated Jeremiah (Matthew 16:14). His life appears to be a litany of disappointments and failures. He wrote out his prophecies -– by way of the kind offices of his faithful secretary, Baruch – and presented them to the king, only to have him cut them in pieces with his penknife and burn them in the fire.

  But the prophet was not to be undone. He produced a revised and enlarged edition of his prophecies – which warned of the impending invasion of the Babylonians and consequent deportation to Babylon – which are part of what we know today as the book of Jeremiah.

  We see in Jeremiah a man of modest and humble disposition. He did not want to be against everything and everybody, as his calling seemed to decree: "I have set you over the nations to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down" (Jeremiah 1:10). His theme was repentance -- the king as well as the people, nobles and priests alike, must turn from their waywardness or the nation will face destruction at the hands of the Babylonians. It was in fact inevitable. Only bondage would hone God’s people into what he wanted them to be.

  By 598 B.C. Jeremiah’s cries of doom began to be realized. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon – referred to as "the Lord’s servant" in that he was executing his purposes– invaded the land and the first deportation to Babylon took place. The Babylonian captivity had begun. The Lord had foretold through the prophet: "They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until the day I visit them. Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place" (Jeremiah 27:22). The prophet made it clear that the time period would be 70 years (29:10).

  They were hard put as captives in Babylon. Psalms 137 has them weeping alongside the unused canals of the city. Their captors taunted them. Summer heat often reached 115 degrees, as it does in that land today (Iraq). There were false prophets among them – as there always were – telling them the captivity would be of short duration. They were inclined to be impatient, indolent, and unproductive.

  This was the setting for a most unusual letter – I am calling it a grace letter – that Jeremiah wrote to the captives, while he was still in Jerusalem. He had already assured them that God would in due time "visit" them and return them to their homeland. That was grace enough, but now he reveals that grace sometimes calls for tough love, and that – for their own good – they have to serve out their time in Babylon. And so they must settle in and make the best of an untoward situation. After all, it is a bed they made for themselves.

  "Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit," he tells them (29:5). He goes on to tell them to marry and raise families so that they might increase even in captivity. Moreover, they were to pray for their captors and seek their welfare – "for their welfare means your welfare."

  The prophet is telling them what Scripture says to us all – God is gracious to you, so you be gracious to others, even your enemies. One does not have to await the New Testament to find this high level of morality – be a model of goodness even in bondage. It is no time for whining and complaining. Get to work both for your good and the good of your captors. It is grace’s tough love.

  And he tells them not to be deceived by the false voices they may be inclined to heed. Their bondage will not be of short duration. They were destined to be captives in a foreign land for generations to come. But that doesn’t mean that God is not with them even in captivity. And here is where grace overflows in the prophet’s ministry. He assures them that they can sing the songs of Zion in a foreign land, for God is in Babylon as well as in Jerusalem.

  "You will seek me and find me" – even in Babylon – "when you seek me with your whole heart" (29:13). Jeremiah was a prophet of the heart. He was aware of  "the deceitful heart," and saw God as the one who searches the heart (17:9-10). He even refers to God as writing his law upon the heart (31:33). Wherever one is, it is the heart that matters.

  He goes on in this letter to show that grace always has a future. "I know the thoughts that I have toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." (29:11). He goes on: "I will be found by you, says the Lord, and bring you back from your captivity." Even faraway Babylon – pagan Babylon – is not beyond the reach of God’s grace. His people will find him there. He gives them hope and a future. He will bring them back home. But grace will have taught them that "home" is where God is.

  Hope! A future! These are grace words, and they appeal to our longing hearts. If God reached out to Israel in Babylonian captivity, he will reach out to us in our debilitating captivities. It may be the captivity of selfish pride, or prejudice, or legalism. It may be a bondage beyond our control – a crippling disease, a wayward child, a failing marriage, indebtedness. We face despair when there is no hope, no future.

  But our extremity is God’s opportunity. The grace God wanted to bestow on Israel had to await Babylon, their extremity. Sometimes God does not get our attention until we are in our Babylon. Then he lets us find him, and in finding him we find hope and a future.

Sometime back I wrote about the wife of a Churches of Christ minister in Tennessee who murdered her husband. She is presently out of prison on bond and working, awaiting trial. This week there was another such tragedy, this time in Dallas, involving a Churches of Christ couple, African Americans. This time it was the husband who shot and killed his wife. They had arrived at church, in the parking lot, for the Sunday a.m. assembly. They were arguing. She said she wanted a divorce. He drew a revolver and shot her, right there in their automobile, after decades of marriage. He fled the scene, was at-large for a time, but at last turned himself over to authorities.

  At this grim news on TV, which showed the church and the "Church of Christ" sign in front, I shook my head in dismay and said to Ouida – not altogether joking – that people are going to think we in Churches of Christ solve our marital problems by shooting each other. But the disturbing facts are, as per recent research, that Christians generally, of whatever church, are just as likely to divorce, have financial problems and dysfunctional families, as non-Christians, and to have values not all that different from those of the world.

  I am persuaded that the problem is related to what I have said in the essay above. Even in the church our hearts are not sufficiently touched by the grace of God, and many Christians have lost their way and are in bondage, hopeless and hapless. We must show our people that God loves them even in their captivity, and that his grace is sufficient for hope and a future.

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