“Joshua 16—17; Psalm 148; Jeremiah 8; Matthew 22
At each stage of Jeremiah’s description of the rebellion of
God’s people, some facets of their sin are reiterated while others are refined
and some new ones introduced. Here I will focus on two of the latter (Jer. 8).
First, Jeremiah focuses on the sheer unnaturalness
of the people’s unwillingness to learn from their mistakes and repent. The
presentation of the argument turns in part on a pun: The Hebrew word for “turn”
or “repent” is the same as that rendered “return.” The point is that in
ordinary experience someone who “turns away,” i.e., who makes a mistake,
eventually returns, learning from the experience. But Israel always turns away
(8:4)—they never learn from their bitter experiences. That is because they
cherish their sin, they “cling to deceit; they refuse to return” (8:5).
“No one repents of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’”
(8:6).
First-time readers of the Old Testament sometimes wonder how
people can be so thick as not to learn from the repeated cycles of rebellion
and punishment. Rats in a maze learn to adapt to external stimuli; to some
extent, well-brought-up children learn to conform to cultural expectations and
hide their worst instincts. Why doesn’t Judah learn from the history of the
northern kingdom? Or even from her own checkered history? Although some
behavioral modification can be achieved by training, biblical history
demonstrates that the problem is bound up with human nature. We are a
fallen breed. Sinners will sin. Creeds and covenants and vows and liturgy may
domesticate the beast for a while, but what we are will not forever be
suppressed. Israel’s history demonstrates the point, not because Israel is the
worst of all races, but because Israel is typically human—and fallen. Even
people as privileged, chosen, and graced as these cannot escape downward
spirals. How naïve for us to think we can!
Second, not only do many of these people foolishly
think they are “safe” because they “have the law of the LORD” even though they
do not obey it (8:8—a common theme in the prophets), but in this case the
problem is massively exacerbated by “the lying pen of the scribes” who have
“handled it falsely” (8:8). This is the first Old Testament reference to
“scribes” as a class—and the people whose duty it is to study, preserve, and
expound the Scriptures mishandle them. Perhaps they pick up elements they like
and create a synthesis that pleases them, ignoring the whole; perhaps they
deploy clever techniques to make the Law say what their presuppositions and
theology demand. Sound familiar?”
From—For the Love
of God—Volume 2, by D. A. Carson (Crossway Books, Wheaton IL; 1999)
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