Having Two Legs

Showing posts with label Bible - Lamentations. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Slavery breeds Captivity

Michael Walzer again:

While Israel entered the promised land, much of their experience in that land was a return to Egypt. Walzer explains: "So the land of Canaan did not exactly flow with milk and honey, but there was milk and honey and flesh to fill the pots. The extended meaning of the promise -- the end of oppression -- that was more problematic. Pharaoh reappeared in Moabite and Philistine form and then in Israelite form... The textual explanation for the new oppression is simple and straightforward: 'The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.'... The prophets make a larger argument: the oppression of Israelites by foreigners finds its deepest cause in the oppression of Israelites by one another. The argument is briefly and sharply put in the first chapter of Lamentations: 'Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude.' (1:3)

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Truth and History

One other thought on Jeremiah's indictment of Israel's false prophets:

Not only is Truth a question of present and future, but given what Jeremiah says concerning the requirement of prophets to expose the sins of the people, Truth has everything to do with the past as well. Exposing sins is a task which includes recounting what has already taken place in a particular way. Confessing sins is the act of telling the story like God does and not massaging the facts to appease our conscience.

Truth, in order to be Truth, must bind up past, present, and future together.

Truth and Eschatology

The prophet Jeremiah explains the "false and deceptive visions" of the prophets of Israel in these words: "They have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading" (Lam. 2:14).

The falseness and deceptiveness of the visions and oracles is not merely a question of the factual truth or falsity of their words. It is primarily found in the trajectory of their words, where they lead. The immorality of their words is in their refusal to expose the sins of their people and thereby deliver the people from the judgment of God. False visions are false because they lead people into judgment. True visions are true because they lead people to restore their fortunes, they lead to the blessing of God.

In this sense, a prophet could say *true* things all day long about politics, the weather, religion, and history and still be a false prophet full of deceptive visions and oracles that are misleading. Truth is not merely a question of factual reality. Truth is a question of trajectory and eschatology.