Jeremiah 6 - Destruction threatens immediately from the North, and the Lord encourages it; for Jerusalem has become full of violence and oppression.  There is no one in her to whom the Lord can appeal.  “[T]heir ears are uncircumcised, they cannot give heed; See, the word of the Lord has become for them an object of scorn, which they will not have. Therefore my wrath brims up within me, I am weary of holding it in” (6:10-11). It will be poured out on all—men, women and children—“small and great alike, all are greedy for gain; prophet and priest, all practice fraud” (6:13).

The prophets [the ones people LIKE to listen to] say, “Peace, peace,” but there is not peace, and the people feel no shame (6:14). “Put yourselves on the ways of long ago; enquire about the ancient paths; which was the good way?  Take it then and you shall find rest” (JB 6:16).  But they will not.  The evil the Lord brings on here is “the fruit of their own schemes, because they heeded not my words, because they despised my law” (6:19). He does not want their sacrifices (6:20).

Commentary: An interesting commentary on Jeremiah is on the web. It’s called “Messengers of God: A Theological and Psychological Perspective” by Moshe Reiss (moshereiss@moshereiss.org). There are many good insights and bits of information that can help us appreciate Jeremiah more in the article posted there.

• While most sources list Jeremiah’s birth at 650 or 655 BCE, he cites an authority, W. L. Holladay, who thinks his birth was closer to 622. That would make him a mere 18 years old when he gives his first prophetic pronouncement, in 609, the year of the reformer Josiah’s death.
• A big question is if Josiah’s reign was one of reform based on the discovery of the Book of Deuteronomy, then why was Jeremiah so very critical of what was going on around him as he was growing up and why is there no mention of Josiah in Jeremiah?
• Reiss does not really answer this, but having just finished Deuteronomy, I am struck by the fact that some of what I found most difficult in Deuteronomy – the harshness of the Law presented there and the constant pushing of people to remember it, obey it, obey it, may have struck Jeremiah as too legalistic and NOT what was needed to reform people’s hearts.
• Reiss DOES point out that “Jeremiah marks the beginning of the possibility of an inward and personal relationship with God – independent of Jerusalem and the Temple. . . . The rituals of the Temple – when unaccompanied by appropriate faith and ethical behavior appeared empty to him and he therefore rejected them” (1).
• Jeremiah learned in the course of his life that the reforms Josiah tries to institute were not adequate, were not reflective of the New Covenant he believed God was revealing through him. 

1 Corinthians 10:14-33 - Christians face the same choices as the people of Israel and Judah did—we must not fall into idolatry (10:14).  We must accept the idea that we too may be tested; we too may be punished by God for our hard-headedness and unfaithfulness. We will not be “tested beyond [our] power to remain firm,” Paul reassures us. When I think about what these early Christians faced, and I use my imagination to “feel my way” back to the dangers and persecutions they endured, I realize how important Paul’s words are.

The Lord has given us amazing resources. “The cup we use in the Lord’s Supper . . . when we drink from it, we are sharing in the blood of Christ. And the bread we break: when we eat it, we are sharing in the body of Christ” (19:16). These are pretty unequivocal words.

We are given “freedom” from all the old rules, but we must be aware that our freedom cannot be exercised thoughtlessly. When you eat of food sacrificed to demons [in the religious feasts of the pagan people of Paul’s day], you are seen by those who believe in those idols/demons as acknowledging and worshipping those demons. This is destructive to those who may be encouraged by your actions to believe in them. So, even though we may know that these “gods” are “really” nothing, we must not do that. We must remember that what we want to do is “build up” the body of Christ, not bring it into disrepute. 

Chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians presents in a very unequivocal way the idea that things in the Old Testament narrative are to be seen as “types” and “figures” of events and lessons from Christ’s life. No one in my experience focused more on this than George Fox:

“. . .as man comes through by the Spirit and power of God to Christ who fullfils the types, figures, shadows, promises, and prophecies that were of him, and is led by the Holy Ghost into the truth and substance of the Scriptures, sitting down in him who is the author and end of them, then are they read and understood with profit and great delight.” George Fox, Journal, 32

A Catholic Perspective: This is an idea that has meant a great deal to me, but I have also come to see more in it than Fox and early Friends saw. They saw the types and figures as “shadows” of the substance – Christ – that preceded his ascendance into the world we live in. But Fox never considered that the time that was to come AFTER Christ’s time here on earth would also be a time when we would need the physical presence of some “shadows” to remind us of him. Like the sun rising and setting, shadows are cast on both sides of the noon of His Presence. And I think I see those sacramental “types” and “figures” as still playing a significant role in reminding us of the eternal spiritual substance, which is Christ.