Friday, September 10, 2004
The Empress Pulcheria
Kellia: Jeremiah 4:23-31 Epistle: Galatians 4:8-21 Gospel: St. Mark 6:45-53
Jeremiah 4:23-31 RSV, especially vss. 27, 28: "For
thus says the Lord, 'The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. For this
the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I
have not relented nor will I turn back.'" The year 605 BC was fateful for the peoples of Syria,
Lebanon, and Palestine, for on the west bank of the Euphrates River, close to the point where
today it flows south out of Turkey into Syria, a major battle took place at Carchemish between
the armies of Egypt and the forces of Babylon. Crown Prince Nebuchadnezzar, the eldest son of
the Babylonian king, leading his nation's army, threw the Egyptian troops into a total rout,
although a few were able to flee south to Hamath, in present day Syria; but there the Babylonians
overtook them and massacred the last remnants of the Egyptian army. This crushing defeat of
Egypt allowed the Babylonians to begin the conquest of the whole Hatti [Syrian] territory.
Nebuchadnezzar's father died during this first Syrian campaign, and the crown prince had to
return to Babylon and assume the throne. In the years following, he launched a new campaign
against Lebanon and brought it into his expanding empire. The king of nearby Judah readily
submitted to Nebuchadnezzar and paid tribute as the price of national survival (2 Kngs. 24:1).
Nebuchadnezzar's real target was Egypt. Hence, in the fourth year of his reign, the Babylonians
and Egyptians fought another major battle just south of Byblos, close to the modern Beirut. That
battle produced many casualties on both sides and resulted in a standoff. That stalemate induced
the king of Judah to rebel against the Babylonians, trusting in the nearby power of Egypt.
Jeremiah, with his keen historical acuity, foresaw the error of the king of Judah's decision. The
Prophet's visions of utter desolation, portrayed in the present passage, foretell the coming doom
of Judah (Jer. 4:23-26). He understood well that Nebuchadnezzar would come back and settle
accounts with the rebellious little nation and its "independent" king. Notice, as you read the
visions, that each of the four sentences begin: "I looked...." a phrase aptly expressing the
visionary character of the revelation which the Prophet received.
The next section of the reading is a direct word from the Lord confirming what Jeremiah "saw"
(vss. 27-29). In the final verses, the Lord chastises the leadership of Judah, the king and his
advisers, for "flirting" like a seductress with the Egyptians: "in vain you beautify yourself. Your
lovers despise you; they seek your life" (vs. 30). In the end, the nation was to perish like a
woman dying in childbirth as the Lord asserts (vs. 31). The whole reading makes clear how the
people are the victims who suffer in the shoals of national "power politics." Judah might not
have gone through the utter destruction that followed, when Nebuchadnezzar finally took full
revenge on them, had they remained as a vassal state under his dominion and protection.
Jeremiah's visions of desolation not only were accurate predictions of what eventually happened
across the Judean countryside, but also are reminiscent of other devastations that have occurred
as a result of wars and revolutions. One account of the Ukrainian Holocaust, created by Stalin in
1933, matches the Prophet's foresight that "there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert" (vss. 25,26): "Death from starvation mowed down
the villages....At first they dug graves...and then, as things got worse, they stopped. Dead people
lay there in the yards, and in the end they remained right in their huts. Things fell silent. The
whole village died." When God permits desolation, innocent and guilty alike suffer.
O Lord, all trials of this life are given by Thee for our chastisement when we drift away from
Thee. Deal not with us after our sins, but according to Thy bountiful mercies.
