A quiz question - on seeing and hearing (not)

 A quiz: Who was the first in the Bible to make the point of having ears and not hearing, and eyes and not seeing? This question was prompted by having found the following in Jeremiah (5:21): Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not

I had thought that Jesus was the first to give this warning, but like so many of his statements, he had them from the prophets. He said... O! Wait a minute... He mentions Isaiah (Esaias): Therefore speak to them in parables: because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing seeing ye shall not see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. (See Matthew 13:13-17, where he quotes Isaiah 6:10.)

But Jesus adds a healing message: But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them (Matt. 13:16-17). He then interprets to them the parable of the sower.

Paul also quotes from Isaiah. See Acts 28:26-29. (Ed. This is a fascinating passage to read in the context of Paul's imprisonment by the Romans.)

Yes. Isaiah was the first to share this idea. And, yes, he wrote before Jeremiah, although Deuteronomy has, “Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day” (29:4).

In her Bible timeline Ann Putcamp tells us that Jeremiah was the greatest prophet of the Old Testament (Guide for Bible Teaching II, published 1975 by The Christian Science Publishing Society).

And what of Mary Baker Eddy (from the Christian Science angle)? She gives specific meanings of the ideas of ears and eyes in the Glossary to Science and Health - see pages 585 and 586. 

Here is a related quote at page 38 line 24: “Jesus mapped out the path for others. He unveiled the Christ, the spiritual idea of divine Love. To those buried in the belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure or the gratification of the senses, he said in substance: Having eyes ye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should understand and be converted and I might heal you. He taught that the material senses shut out Truth and its healing power.”

Joyce Voysey 

ed. So, any more quiz questions anyone?

ed. The Christian Science Monitor's Perspective article a few days ago had a related article of interest.

 

We must listen to our prophets

I finally come to the actual reading of the text of Jeremiah. And I am stunned by the wording of his call. I will quote from the NRSV:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations

 

And the King James Version:

Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Jeremiah felt that he was a child being given a huge task. But we find that he was sustained by the writings of the prophets who had gone before him.

I wonder what the Jews of to-day take to heart from their sacred writings...or the Christians...or the Islamists. All are under the banner of Abraham. All have the Ten Commandments. We all have the same prophets up until Jesus. We must all eventually listen to our prophets.

I wondered about the Islam attitude to Christian Science. Interestingly, most of the information listed about this I found in the Christian Science Sentinel and The Christian Science Monitor. The Sentinel of May 14, 2001 records an interview with Al-Haaj Ghazi Y. Khankan. He gives very full answers to the questions raised, a couple of which are:

·         “What attitude makes peace?”

·         “Tell us about the Muslim view of Jerusalem.”

·         “How do Muslims feel about Christians and Jews?”

·         “Do you feel Westerners understand Islam?”

I asked myself what is different about the Islamic attitude to Jesus. I found that a very satisfactory site to find answers to this question and others is christiancentury.org. The following excerpts are from a May 2017 interview of Zeki Saritoprak. It is really something. I feel it can enlighten us all about Islam:

·         According to Islam, Jesus always speaks the truth. The question is how we understand it.

·         Beyond believing Jesus is one of the five elite messengers of God, Muslims believe that Jesus will return to bring justice to the world. Muslim theologians call this “the descent of Jesus” to earth. This eschatological return of Jesus is unique among the prophets of God.

The following was gleaned from a different web site which included information about the Ten Commandments:

·         These commandments are among the core teachings of Judaism and Christianity that are taught to children at an early age, and all of them are included within the teachings of Islam. Some believe these commands go back as far as the seven laws of Noah, peace and blessings be upon him.

·         As such, these commandments can be the basis of interfaith dialogue and mutually-beneficial cooperation between Muslims, Jews, and Christians. They are the “common word” for which we can all come together in agreement.

·         These common teachings can be distilled into two main principles: love for Allah and love for our neighbors. In other words, we should respect the rights of Allah by holding sound beliefs and performing acts of worship in the best manner, and we should respect the rights of people by treating them in the way we would love to be treated. All of the divine revelations throughout history are founded upon these two principles.

Isn’t it good that when a person is mentioned, a blessing is included? As in “...Noah, peace and blessings be upon him.”

My conclusion after all that is that none of the three religions is practised perfectly. Each has its own sects and offshoots and interpretations and traditions, which adulterate the original teaching.

I wrote this in my Quarterly (Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lessons) on Sunday at church: “We should no more fear the zealots of Islam than those of Christianity or Judaism.” And, as students of Christian Science, we will find that all are blessed children of God, having the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus. 

Joyce Voysey

(Phil. 2: 5 -- "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.")

Dispose of the chaff but keep the wheat

It's tempting to see the Bible chronologically in order of the layout of its books, whereas this is not always the case. So I have returned to the time-line which accompanies a book we read recently, The Reforming Power of the Scriptures by Mary Trammell and William Dawley. Here are the entries which help us see where Jeremiah fits in, i.e. in the lead up to the fall of Jerusalem in 587BC --

·        Israel Divided into Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel and Judah 922 - 721 B.C. (Amos, Hosea, I Isaiah, Micah)  

·        Judah Stands Alone 721 - 587 B.C. (Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Daniel story, Ezekiel, Destruction of Jerusalem)

·        Exile in Babylonia 587 - 538 B.C. (Lamentations, II Isaiah)

While much of Jeremiah’s message is very stern (especially on a particular recording I have of it), there are many passages which gleam with light. One such occurs in chapter 23 verse 28, which concludes: What is the chaff to the wheat? This question concludes a beautiful and moving poem by Diane W. Allison in the August 2014 issue of The Christian Science Journal and it prompted a deep study of the concept of tares and wheat for a testimony meeting this week.

I’d love to hear what others think of the poem. (Subscribers to jsh-online.org can listen to it read by the author—what a treat!)

Jeremiah’s question

By Diane W. Allison

From the August 2014 issue of The Christian Science Journal

---

 “What is the chaff to the wheat?”^*
      What is the husk to the seed?
      Is it the thing that is gathered and cherished?
      Is it the thing that we need?
      Is it the thing that can grow and bear fruit?
      Is it the thing that can feed?

  What is the chaff to the wheat—
      the mortal lies to God’s thought?
      Which is the one 
            to be gathered and cherished?
      Which is the one to be taught?
      Which will cause us to grow and bear fruit?
      Which is the one to be bought?

   When chaff is flown and kernels are gathered,
      and their substance transformed to bread,
      the baker is recompensed, 
           the child is nourished, 
           and all of the multitudes fed.
    Even so—
    When lies are flown 
           and God’s thoughts are gathered
               Mind’s universe understood, known, 
           divine Love will thrive in us, 
           all heaven alive in us—
           we’ll see that God’s Life is our own.

    Children beloved, complete.
    What is the chaff to the wheat?

—Diane W. Allison

^* Jeremiah 23:28

The following statement by Mary Baker Eddy seems apt for our friend Jeremiah:

“It requires the spirit of our blessed Master to tell a man his faults, and so risk human displeasure for the sake of doing right and benefiting our race.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 571:7–10)

So, we might conclude that within Jeremiah’s lament, he discerns (maybe only faintly) what’s worth hanging on to as opposed to what’s worthless chaff.

Julie Swannell

Jeremiah sets the tone

Oh dear! Dummelow’s One Volume Bible Commentary states that in Judea, “On every side among high and low there was dishonesty, false swearing, murder, and open licentiousness. (For an account of the local Baal-worship, see Intro. to Hosea.)”

My goodness! Do we have a Jeremiah in our time to point out the dangers of breaking the Ten Commandments through exactly the same behaviour? Where is the prophet today who says, “If you live and practise the Ten Commandments you will not have epidemics of cases of rape, domestic violence, murder, licentiousness, disease contagion”?

(Definition of licentious 1: lacking legal or moral restraints especially: disregarding sexual restraints [Miriam-Webster])

If there is one prophet, male or female, that one is probably as discouraged as Jeremiah was. The world needs the discipline of the Christ – it is the only solution to the world’s problems – including climate change. God controls the weather. On the other hand, God says of each one of his children: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 4:17).

About the Ten Commandments. The first one covers it all really: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. But we can get down to the nitty gritty of specifics. Is there a specific commandment to handle specific errors?

·         Murder is an easy one, isn’t it? Thou shalt not kill.

·         Sexual promiscuity, rape, sexual violence? Thou shalt not commit adultery.

·         Swearing, obscenities? Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

·         Worship of bodily image, making idols of food, alcohol, coffee, exercise? Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

·         Dishonesty, crime, stealing? Thou shalt not steal.

·         Criticising our fellows? Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

·         Coveting what others have; feeling hard done by? Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou slat not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

·         Not keeping a day for worship, for giving thanks for blessings? Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

I am wondering if Jeremiah tells us how to go about obeying all those commandments.

On another occasion I endeavoured to compare the Commandments with the Beatitudes. This is what they look like side-by-side:

	Commandments (Exodus 20)		Beatitudes (Matthew 5)
1	Thou shalt have no other gods before me.	1	Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2	Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.	2	Blessed are they that morn: for they shall be comforted.
3	Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.	3	Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth
4	Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, not thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.	4	Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.
5	Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.	5	Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
6	Thou shalt not kill.	6	Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
7	Thou shalt not commit adultery.	7	Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
8	Thou shalt not steal.	8	Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
9	Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.	9	Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
10	Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, not his man servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.	10

Each of us has our own divine calling. “What can [I] do to hasten the time /The time that shall surely be / When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God / As the waters cover the sea?” (Christian Science Hymnal - Hymn 82. Also Habakkuk 2: 14).

I can be a good example by endeavouring to live by those Commandments and Beatitudes. I quote from Mary Baker Eddy’s Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896: “No reproof is so potent as the silent lesson of a good example” (p. 126:20-21).

Joyce Voysey

A divine calling

My approach this morning to Jeremiah was to read the Introduction from the New Revised Standard Version, followed by the one from Dummelow (The One Volume Bible Commentary). I have only read up to the beginning of paragraph Reign of Josiah so far.

I must say that, to me, the NRSV was dry bones compared to the first page of Dummelow - a very different tone. Dummelow is more gentle; NRSV merely historic and scholarly.

We hear of the divine calling of Jeremiah only in Dummelow, and he writes, “Jeremiah is one who reveals with frankness the workings of his mind. His prophesies are charged with a large element of human interest.”

In case readers do not have access to Dummelow, I am going to copy in full the last paragraph which I have read:

"Belonging to the orders both of priest and prophet, and living at the very time when each had sunk to its lowest degree of degradation, he was compelled to submit to the buffeting which they each bestowed on one who by his every word and deed was passing sentence upon them. Hostility, abuse, powerlessness to avert the coming ills, a solitary life and prohibition of marriage (16:2)-- these were the conditions of life allotted to a man of shy and timid disposition and naturally despondent mind. No miracle was wrought for his benefit. His predictions were scorned. He failed to induce his compatriots to recognise the solidity of his claims to a hearing. At times he despaired even, as it seems, of life (20:14-18). And yet he could not be silent. The divine message must find its utterance (20:8, 9), and in fact the promise made to him at the time of his call (1:18), and renewed later (15:10), did not fail."

Joyce Voysey

Jeremiah: an important voice

Most of us would prefer not to hear bad news. Maybe that's why I've not really been excited about delving into the book of Jeremiah. After all, if someone or something is called a "jeremiad", the expectation is of impending gloom and lots of bad news. 

An online dictionary explains a jeremiad as 

1. a long, mournful complaint or lamentation; a list of woes.

   "the jeremiads of puritan preachers warning of moral decay"
2. 
   
3. [There's an interesting novel by American author Nathanael West called "The Day of the Locust" which has been described as a jeremiad. Its cover calls it "the great novel of Hollywood dreams turning sour".]

A quick search for "Jeremiah" in the Bible shows references in the Old Testament in II Kings, I and II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, and in the New Testament in Matthew and Hebrews. Here's a familiar passage from Matthew 16:14 "Disciples: Some say John the Baptist. And some say Elijah. And some say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets" (The Voice Bible). And from Hebrews 10:15 "the Holy Spirit keeps testifying to us through the prophet Jeremiah" (The Voice).

Jeremiah's pronouncements have been described as laments (which could be sung). Does anyone have an example of a lament?  I recently heard a YouTube recording of jazz legend (singer/pianist) Nina Simone performing what I would call a lament: very soulful and impassioned. Perhaps that was how Jeremiah sounded. 

Michelangelo (1475-1654) included Jeremiah in his painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which some readers may have visited.

Source: https://www.michelangelo-gallery.com/the-prophet-jeremiah.aspx

We understand that Jeremiah was born 650 BCE. The Assyrian capital, Nineveh had fallen to the Babylonians. Now Judah fell also. The people were in captivity. Jeremiah gets an important commission.  

Julie Swannell 

226.