_A Taste of Martyrdom._
Jeremiah returned home a very sad man, but not a wiser one from the
point of view of his safety. He kept much to himself in the city of
Anathoth and devoted his time to teaching a group of young men with
whom he had surrounded himself.
Among them was Baruch, son of Neriah, of a distinguished Jerusalem
family, whose members had always stood high in the counsels of the
kings. Baruch was not only a disciple of Jeremiah, but also acted as
his secretary when writing was to be done.
Baruch was intimate with Jeremiah's family in Anathoth, and he
informed Jeremiah that his cousins did not approve of his actions in
the Temple. They did not like the notoriety it brought them and hoped
he would hold his peace.
These cousins did not have the courage to speak their mind to Jeremiah
face to face, and so he did not trouble about them, their likes or
dislikes, their approval or disapproval. He had on his mind a very
troublesome problem when it began to be rumored that Jehoiakim was
about to re-introduce human sacrifices in Ge-Hinnom.
Ge-Hinnom was the "valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry
of the gate of potsherds, called Tophet." The southwestern gate of the
City of Jerusalem overlooked this valley where an altar had been
erected for the atrocious Moloch-worship, but which was destroyed by
Josiah during the Reformation.
Jeremiah had but to hear of the king's proposal to re-establish the
Moloch-rites, to act.
He went to Jerusalem, despite the pleading of Baruch not to go,
gathered a number of the Elders who had been his father's and Josiah's
friends and co-workers, and asked them to accompany him to Tophet.
They proceeded through the southwestern gate, "the gate of the
valley," followed by a number of idlers, the curious who keep at a
distance to see what will happen.
Arrived at the ruins of the altar of Moloch, Jeremiah drew from under
his mantle a potter's earthen bottle, and, without giving a hint of
what he was about to do, broke it on one of the altar stones. Turning
to the Elders, he said:
"Thus said the Lord of Hosts: 'Even so will I break this
people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel,
that cannot be made whole again.'"
That was all! He had portrayed more vividly than he could ever have
done in a long speech what would be the consequences if the king
persisted in bringing back the horrible worship of Moloch.
Returning to the city, Jeremiah stopped at the Temple. He had not been
in Jerusalem since he narrowly escaped stoning at the hands of the
mob. As soon as he was recognized--and the word of his coming had been
spread by the onlookers, who had returned from Tophet ahead of him--the
crowd gathered about him, anxious to hear what he would have to say.
He told them a story first. He had been down at a potter's house that
morning, watching the potter at work. The vessel the potter made
didn't suit him, so he destroyed it while the clay was yet soft and
pliable. Then he made another vessel out of that same clay, "as seemed
good to the potter to make it." This story he followed up with a
passionate plea to the people:
"'O house of Israel cannot I do with you as this potter?'
saith the Lord. 'Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand,
so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.'
"'At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and
concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to
destroy it; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken,
turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I
thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and
to plant it; if they do that which is evil in my sight, that
they obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good,
wherewith I said I would benefit them.'
"'Now, therefore,' thus saith the Lord: 'Behold, I frame
evil against you, and devise a device against you. Return
ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and
your deeds.'"
Several of the Jerusalem prophets, upon Jeremiah's coming to the
Temple, gathered quickly in Pashhur's chambers to talk the matter
over. They had thought that the charge of blasphemy had frightened
Jeremiah so that he would not return; but here he was again, as
persistent in his course as ever. Not one was willing to admit that
there was some truth in Jeremiah's pleadings and threats, but all of
them came to this conclusion:
"Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law
shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise,
nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him
with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words."
Pashhur listened to all their talk with amusemsnt. Jeremiah had been a
nuisance around the Temple, of which he was chief officer, long
enough. Here was his chance to fix him, he thought.
"Come, and let us smite him with the tongue?" he asked, with a jeering
laugh. He told them that they were fools to argue with the pest. He
would show them how to deal with him.
Pashhur buckled up his mantle, gritting his teeth. He fairly ran to
the open place where Jeremiah was speaking. He burst through the crowd
with curses upon them all. Facing Jeremiah, he shouted:
"Thou--" but his anger and hate overcame him. He almost foamed at the
mouth with rage and could not speak a word.
Before Jeremiah understood what the matter was, Pashhur slapped him on
both cheeks with his hands. Then he struck him square on the jaw with
his right fist--and Jeremiah dropped to the slabbed marble of the
courtyard, where he had been standing.
The crowd was startled and amazed at what had happened. But Pashhur
gave no opportunity for remonstrance. A number of the Temple guards,
who had come up with their chief, dispersed the people with curses and
blows.
Pashhur stood over the prostrate body of Jeremiah, like the victor
over his defeated adversary--waiting for him to show signs of rising
that he might strike him again. When Jeremiah regained consciousness,
however, the brutal Pashhur had thought better of it. Another such
blow and he would have killed the prophet--and Pashhur knew the law on
shedding innocent blood.
Therefore, when Jeremiah had fully recovered and had once more risen
to his feet, Pashhur arrested him and had him led to the upper Temple
gate, which is the gate of Benjamin. There he put him into the stocks
with his own hands.
That whole day and that whole night Jeremiah remained pilloried.
Hundreds of people passed him. Some, urged on by the priests and the
false prophets, mocked at him; some, pitying him from the depths of
their hearts, sympathized with him; some spat upon him.
Near the pillory, all that day and night, there hovered a gray-haired
Ethiopian who longed to speak a word of cheer and comfort to the
unfortunate prophet and to give him water to drink and food to eat,
but he dared not because of the guard that Pashhur had placed over him.
During all the terrible agony and shame, Jeremiah did not utter a loud
word of complaint or condemnation.
On the following morning Pashhur ordered Jeremiah to be brought to his
chamber. There twenty-one stripes were administered to him; and after
warning him never to enter Jerusalem again, Pashhur ordered him to
leave the city and be thankful he wasn't carried out of it a corpse.
Before going, however, Jeremiah turned on Pashhur and said to him:
"The Lord hath not called thy name Pashhur, but Magor
(Terror), for thus saith the Lord: 'Behold I am about to
make thee a terror to thyself and to all thy friends; and
they shall fall by the sword of your enemy before your very
eyes. But thee and all Judah will I give into the hands of
the King of Babylon, and he will carry them into captivity
and slay them with the sword.
"'Moreover, I will give all the riches of this city and all
its possessions and all the treasures of the king of Judah
into the hands of their enemies, and they shall carry them
away to Babylon; and thou and all that dwell in thy house
shall go into captivity, and thou shalt die at Babylon and
be buried there, together with all thy friends to whom thou
hast prophesied falsely.'"
Here, for the first time, Jeremiah spoke of Babylon as the source from
which all the evil impending over Judah was to come. For, one of the
Elders who had accompanied him to Tophet, the day before, had
whispered to him that Jehoiakim was preparing for a revolt from
Nebuchadrezzar.
The reason why such a dangerous idea had entered the mind of Jehoiakim
was that Nebuchadrezzar had received word, while yet at Riblah, that
his father, Nabopolassar, had died. Without delay, and before having
subdued the Palestinian states to his entire satisfaction, he marched
to Babylon to be crowned and to establish himself firmly upon his
throne.
Jehoiakim thought he saw an opportunity here to regain his
independence. Jeremiah knew how foolhardy and impossible this
undertaking would be. He so informed Pashhur, therefore, and received
a kick and a cuff for his pains, as a farewell from that worthy
officer upon leaving Jerusalem.