Leader's letter
I have been reading through the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament. With the following book called Lamentations it is not often in the lectionary in church services possibly because it is full of woe and to be called a Jeremiah is to be a person of woe. He had a hard life and witnessed the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 which caused starvation and death for many in the city. Zedekiah, the King of Judah, tried to flee but was caught and for this had his eyes gouged out and he saw the massacre of his sons in front of him. Most of the people in Jerusalem were carted off into exile in Babylon.
The reasons I am mentioning this is because of the situation in the Gaza area today which as you know has been in torment for many months following the unforgiveable massacre of the Israelis by Hamas in early October. Little can they have imagined the terrible revenge that Israel would inflict on them which is still ongoing when I am writing this in March. The suffering of the people in Gaza is indescribable.
This area in the Middle East has seen some terrible events situated in its long history as it was situated between Egypt to the south and powerful empires to the north, firstly Assyria and then Babylon. The reason that the Jews suffered so badly was mainly because they turned their back on God and worshipped foreign idols and indulged in awful practices such as child sacrifice. These two books are not easy reading and Jeremiah suffered greatly because of his unflinching denouncement of the bad ways of the Jews. He also told them that if they submitted to the Babylonian army, they would be spared which didn’t go down too well.
I don’t want to put you off reading these two texts, but it just struck home to me the similarities of then and now although the situations were not altogether comparable. There was no turning the left cheek here.
If you think these are rather depressing texts, the next prophet called Ezekiel gives perhaps an even more depressing picture of God’s anger!
However, the very last verses in Lamentations are a plea to God to not forsake his people and ultimately they did return from exile back to Jerusalem.
“You, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? Restore us to yourself O Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.”
Let us pray and hope that this current calamity in the Middle East can be brought to a conclusion with compassion and forgiveness rather than anger and retribution. Hatred and violence surely can never win?
Roger Hull