NOTES for Jer 26:1-24

Here is further evidence that the Lord, who warns through the prophets of the disasters approaching the people, has no wish to destroy them, but warns them of the consequences of their sins. The prophets seem to have addressed the people many times already; one might think that would be enough. But no: again and again God sends the prophet to bear witness before the people in the hope of repentance. Admittedly, there was no repentance this time either, but the response of those who prevented violence against Jeremiah shows that by no means every heart had become completely hardened. There was still a possibility that people would not merely hear the preaching but respond to it.

The attempt to condemn Jeremiah reminds us of how, several centuries later, ‘zealots for piety’ would accuse the Saviour in a somewhat similar way. But we also see a fundamental difference between these events: among those on whom an acquittal depended, there were far more people in Jeremiah's day than at the sham trial of Christ who were capable of listening to the words of prophecy, or at least were in no hurry to pronounce a hasty condemnation.

Although this preaching by Jeremiah did not bring about full repentance, the call to repentance was not in vain. The seeds of words scattered by Jeremiah sprouted, if not in the hearts of all his hearers, then in the hearts of many of their children.