After the death of Josiah, the evil influences of Jehoahaz the usurper and of Jehoiakim the vassal king resulted in the people becoming more and more corrupt. Jeremiah was never forgiven for his outspoken words in the temple. Since that address he was a marked man – his life was in peril. Jeremiah became the object of conspiracy, instigated by men of his hometown. This was a shattering experience for him, finding that his own household was treacherously plotting his murder. The reason was injured family pride. They said, ‘let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered’, 11. 19. He was proving the words of the Lord Jesus, ‘A man’s foes shall be they of his own household’, Matt. 10. 6. The reaction of Jeremiah was that of a ‘gentle lamb led to the slaughter’. His soul was vexed and troubled. He expostulated with God, which revealed a measure of human impatience. Why is it, he asked, that the wicked prosper? How long, he enquired, shall the land mourn? Jeremiah had never swerved from the path of obedience, but now he was hated, persecuted and threatened with death, whilst the way of the wicked prospered and they were happy who dealt treacherously. Later, when his solemn message of doom was declared in the symbolic breaking of the jar, Pashur, the chief governor in the house of the Lord, arrested the prophet. After smiting him, he put him in the stocks leaving him there all night ignominiously exposed to the taunts of the people. And God did not seem to be doing anything about it. Why? In his dialogue with God Jeremiah confessed, ‘Righteous art thou, O Lord … Thou knowest me’, 12. 1-3. In effect Jeremiah was asking God to contrast him with the wicked. The righteous Lord knew him. Knew his heart, his motives, and knew how he had faithfully warned the people of the outcome of their sins. But now they prospered and he was persecuted. In his confusion he asked God, ‘Why?’ The prophet’s problem has been the problem of the godly down the ages. The Psalmist in similar difficulty said, ‘When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end’, Ps. 73. 17.
