We may get rather bored with the repetition in Jeremiah, for sometimes it seems like the many words don’t say anything new. Jeremiah’s original audience felt the same way, and got tired of hearing it. His friends became his enemies. The prophet himself felt deceived, that God would foretell destruction and foretell destruction that never came about. One wonders why God would sort of discredit His word by foretelling disaster so long before He actually brought it about.
The account of King Zedekiah gives us one reason. Jeremiah had been prophesying openly, foretelling destruction like a broken record, gaining many enemies in high places and a bad reputation, when Zedekiah sent for him to inquire of the Lord about the looming threat from Babylon. If he had heard the message Jeremiah preached, he should have humbled himself and led the nation in doing the same; however, he acted as if he had not heard a word Jeremiah had said. “Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make (the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar) withdraw from us,” was his hope. If the king, the leader of the people, didn’t get the message, not many would.
This seems incredibly obtuse, but it is what God meant when He spoke to many of the prophets about people who had ears to hear but didn’t hear, and had eyes to see but failed to see. He called them the deaf and the blind. People are no different today. The example of God’s Old Testament people challenges us to examine ourselves: do we hear God any better than they did? Are we hearing only what we want to hear from Him, or are we hearing what He wants us to hear? How do we know if we are hearing Him, or are only thinking we hear Him when we are truly putting our words in His mouth? He alone can tell us, but will only do so if we are seeking Him. How would a true seeker respond to the challenge presented in today’s reading?