OT -- Jeremiah 51:54-52:34
And so we come to the end of Jeremiah. Depressing right to the end. I am trying to think what I have learned from reading this section of scripture and I hope that I don't sound too heretical when I say -- I am never going to read this book again.
And when I look in my heart and ask why? it comes down to this: no God I know would behave that way to an entire group of people. The Babylonians and the Assyrians before them were stronger than the Israelites. Plain and simple. It was not the wickedness of the people or the king. It was their lack of military might and accoutrements. To hear Jeremiah, it was the dual worship. And that certainly earns condemnation. But not destruction.
Plenty of rabbis and rabbinic students in Auschwitz. Lots of secular Jews too. That was not the work of God, speaking destruction on the ones who had drifted away and ate bacon with their latkes. It was a tyrannical man who had an incredible war machine behind him.
Same with Assyria and Babylon.
Psalm 100:1-5
It is fitting that I read this psalm after I have read the end of Jeremiah.
"For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations."
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