The Valley of Hinnom
Before I actually get into this chapter, I’d love to do some
historical research on the blog. The
Hebrew name Gehinnom, which means “The Valley of Hinnom” is the root word for
the place we know in the New Testament as Gehenna. How does this geographic location become the
typology for the place in the New Testament that is symbolic for Hell? Well, that’s a good question.
Prior to Jeremiah’s time, the Valley of Hinnom was a place that
became famous for Canaanite-style ritualistic child sacrifice. (See Jeremiah 7:31) King Ahaz even sacrificed some of his own
sons in this valley in honor of Ba’al.
(See 2 Kings 16:3 and 2 Chronicles 28:3)
Under King Josiah the Valley of Hinnom is purged and cleansed as much as
it could be. It largely becomes a
garbage dump for Jerusalem so that people are not encouraged to spend much time
there at all. (See 2 Kings 23:10) At this time the name transfers from Gehinnom
to Gehenna.
It is likely that since the Valley of Hinnom has roots in the offering
of child sacrifice through burning that this place is connected with the idea
of Hell as being a place of fire.
So, Back to the Pottery Flask
With that in mind, God tells Jeremiah to go buy a pottery flask
and then collect some elders from among the government and priests. Jeremiah was to take the flask and break the
flask in front of the elders as a sign to them.
The broken flask symbolizes how the Lord will break the Hebrew
people. They will be broken in such a
way that they cannot ever be put back together as they once were.
Of course, we know that is true.
The people of Israel were taken by the Assyrians and scattered all over
their empire. The people of Judah were
taken by the Babylonians and scattered all over their empire. Sure, some of the Hebrew people return with
Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. But the
Hebrew people never return to the status they had as a nation. They are perpetually under oppression from
Persia, Greece, Rome, and eventually the Muslim community. God breaks the Hebrew people and they are
never really able to be put back together – even now.
Back to the Children
What I said is bad enough.
But God goes one step further in declaring the trial to come. Through Jeremiah, God declares that in the
same way as the people voluntarily offered their sons and daughters as
sacrifices to foreign gods in the Valley of Hinnom, those who seek refuge from
the Babylonians in Jerusalem will be cannibalistic (literally, “eat the flesh
of their sons and daughters).
Siege warfare is one of the most brutal kinds of warfare. It seems so innocent. No actual battle happens. An army camps outside a walled city, simply
waiting for those inside to starve and lose good water. As they starve, they must choose between
surrender or cannibalism. It is
surprising how many besieged towns turn to cannibalism rather than surrender. While this is a grim topic, it is part of
what Jeremiah is told to forecast for the Hebrew people.
I find this chapter to indeed be very grim. This chapter deals with the ultimate
depravity of the human condition. It is
bad enough to think about cannibalism in circumstances that are uncontrollable
– such as the plane crash in the Andes Mountain Range several decades ago. But to think about cannibalism as a means to
hold onto one’s freedom is almost deplorable.
Yet God goes one step further and connects the act of cannibalism to a
people who were accustomed to sacrificing their own children. As the Hebrew people sought religious freedom
they turned to the Cannanite religious and offered up child sacrifices. Now they will pursue personal freedom in
resisting Babylonian captivity and become cannibalistic. It is simply unbearable. Human beings truly are depraved. We may not all fall to these specific depths,
but we all fall into sin pretty deeply in our own ways.
Public Proclamation
After Jeremiah gives this testimony to the elders of the Hebrew
people, Jeremiah returns from the Valley of Hinnom and goes into the
temple. There Jeremiah gives this grim
prophecy to the people in general. It
would be one thing for the elders to know what Jeremiah said. But now all the people would know.
Why is this happening? The
people are stiff-necked. They refuse to
hear God’s Word. They have turned aside
and followed their own desires – even things as despicable as offering their
own children as a sacrifice. The
deplorable behavior is ultimately rooted in their unwillingness to be humble
before God. There is a great price to
pay for grave disobedience.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment