NOTES for Jer 7:23-28

A paradoxical situation: God sends the prophet to people about whom He Himself tells His messenger that no one will listen to him! If everything is so clear, why send him? One could think that God does this just in case: what if someone is still found who can and wants to hear? But God is not a human being; in His case there can be no "what if" or "perhaps." He knows everyone and each person, and at any moment He can say exactly whether there are people among the nation who are ready to listen and hear, or not.

Rather, the point is different: the situation's fundamental lack of predetermination. Yes, things are bad. Yes, the people are little inclined to listen to those who speak on God's behalf. Worse still, this situation did not develop today or yesterday: judging by God's words, the people have always been marked by spiritual insensitivity (or at least slight sensitivity), from the very beginning of their history, from the Exodus itself. And still there is hope; it is always there as long as human history continues.

Of course, past sins are always a heavy burden, whether the matter concerns an individual person or a whole people. But fortunately, repentance and turning back are always possible; neither one depends on human merits or achievements. Today's sinner can repent and set out on the path of righteousness not even tomorrow, but in the next minute, and God will accept his repentance and rejoice at his turning. Or he may not repent, and then the prophet's words will be wasted.

Of course, the prophet himself will remain a man of God, and he will do the work entrusted to him by God; in this respect God will have nothing to reproach him for (to the extent that we are speaking of a sinful human being). But from the point of view of God's desire to save each person from sin and death, a desire He expresses so clearly, the prophet's words in such a case will prove useless.

God takes a risk, without which nothing can be done in the fallen world. A risk without which no work of God is accomplished and which, therefore, no one who agrees to do it can avoid. If even the Messiah Himself, from the very beginning of His ministry, knows exactly that He will die on the Cross, what is there to say about the rest? And still the prophet goes to do the work God has entrusted to him. Just as many went before him and many after him. Just as the Messiah went to the Cross. Not only because otherwise God's plan will not be fulfilled, but above all because otherwise they will lose God, His love, His Kingdom. And they all know this.