NOTES for Jer 6:1-30
In Jeremiah's prophecies, God's relationship with Jerusalem appears as a constant struggle. God tries to make His people hear Him, but they stop their ears and close their eyes. He sends them trials and punishments, but they shut themselves away and feel no pain. He melts them as a refiner melts silver to cleanse it of its lead alloy, but nothing comes of it, and the silver has to be thrown away with the slag. This struggle also passes through the prophet's own life: in God's name he threatens Jerusalem with siege and destruction, but he is regarded as a traitor and imprisoned for his defeatist views. This is how divine and human freedom are realized: God's striving to save people, to find a way to their hearts and reveal His love to them, and a person's freedom at any moment to turn away, cover his face, fail to recognize, and refuse to hear. Perhaps this freedom is the most terrible of God's gifts. Yet if it is so important that God endures its consequences, then perhaps it is also the path to the response God awaits from us: the free choice of His will, the freedom of purity and love...