Truth and Consequences:
A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah
Chapter 20
By Bob Mendelsohn
Given 13 May 2022
Lesson Twenty: Persecution and a “prayer”
INTRODUCTION
Thank you, friends, for joining us today here in the Zoom room, as we unpack chapter 20 of Jeremiah. Let’s dig into it and find out what God has to say to us as 21st Century people wherever you live and for those on YouTube, from wherever and whenever you are watching.
If you on YouTube haven’t yet read the chapter, please pause your playback, read Jeremiah 20, and then re-join us. Thanks.
Today we visit Jeremiah in jail and in a moment of prayer. His actions and those around him will help us understand the scene in which Jeremiah lived and worked. And we will understand him a bit more also. And many of us will wonder how he got such a high position of prominence in the Jewish religion after this chapter. Let’s dig in.
Verse 1, we meet a man named Pashchur פַשְׁח֗וּר who was like Jeremiah, a priest and son of a priest. He was a prominent person in the Temple, and Pashchur had been listening to Jeremiah’s preaching and prophesying. What should have been the result? Remember last week, in chapter 19, Jeremiah took senior leadership along to the potter’s house to buy a pot and to serve as an object lesson. The eldership should have recognized their own sin and should have both repented and then turned to teach the people of Judah to join them in repentance. Instead, Pashchur brings a charge, and it sounds like he is a ranking policeman in the Temple area. He puts Jeremiah in stocks for an entire day and night, after having had him beaten. That could be the 39 lashes, the maximum penalty judgment of the day. Those lashes and stocks would have stayed with Jeremiah all day and for a long, long time afterwards.
Some Christians today would say, Jeremiah shouldn’t have to endure such harshness. After all, he’s God’s elect and he’s doing God’s work. I’ve heard so many believers announce usually with strong volume that ‘no harm will come to you’ and ‘no weapon formed against you will prosper.’ But the reality we see is that “all those who desire to live godly in Messiah Yeshua will suffer persecution.” (2 Tim. 3.12) None of us will escape troubles, as that’s part of the reality of life on this darkened planet.
Pashchur פַשְׁח֗וּר is one of three men whom we meet with this name. They are here in chapter 20, then next week in 21 is another one, and another later. The name is a double noun composite, as well as rooted in Egyptian probably. The name itself probably derives from the Egyptian meaning “son or portion of Horus.” Here the priest and overseer-leader פָקִ֥יד strikes and puts in stocks the prophet who in his call had been appointed Yahweh’s overseer (from same root as Pashchur’s job description-- (הפקדתיך, 1:10). Who is really in charge here? That’s probably not only a subtheme of this book, but of this entire Book, the Bible.
Remember we will ask about that question later in this talk.
Pashchur is a compound name from two Hebrew words: Pash (Fruitful) and Sachur (round about)
Verse two. The stocks. Comes from the word ‘to twist’ so it’s likely that an uncomfortable rack is in view, with a desire but no chance to accomplish a twisting out of it. Interestingly, the three times this word occurs in biblical Hebrew, it is used of action against a prophet/seer because of displeasure at the prophet’s words.
The upper Benjamin gate is the gate up by the Temple; the lower Benjamin gate (or simply as the Benjamin Gate in 37:13 and 38:7 ) was the city gate.
Verse three, the name change:
Magor-missabib. מָג֥וֹר מִסָּבִֽיב Strangely this is the only time it’s not translated. It means “Terror on all sides,” or round about. See Jeremiah 6:25. Jeremiah uses this phrase no less than five times, having probably adopted it as his watchword from Psalm 31:13.
If you take Pashchur’s name as Fruitful round about and compare it to Magor-Missabiv, terror round about, the play on words is clearer yet.
Verse 4, “terror to yourself” but it doesn’t look so terrorible. Pashchur is going to be taken captive, and he’s going to die, perhaps peaceably in Babylon. How is that a terror to self? It has to do with conscience. He’s been instructed by Jeremiah to repent and to teach repentance, and yet, he fails. He then will watch as Jehoiakim is killed and the people are still in ruin. Albert Barnes calls this the “milder fate” as Pashchur would have to watch the land go to ruin, and his conscience would be ruined as he was the cause of the catastrophes.
Verse 4 we see the first reference to “The King of Babylon” although it’s been hinted before, and since we know history, we have read that back into the first 19 chapters, but this is the first reference of the exact location of our exile and captivity.
Verse 7: The prayer of Jeremiah sounds harsh, and that’s ok if you remember the Fiddler on the Roof reflection from earlier chapters. Prayer is honest conversation with the Almighty; it’s not about sanctimonious religious verbiage. God is not impressed with King James English or fluidity in our prayers. He’s longing for a relationship with us that highlights our real feelings and our real convictions that He is the Sovereign over our lives. No matter what.
So we hear it in various versions “You have deceived me, and I was deceived.” Others use the term “persuaded” but I’m ok with the emotional ‘deceived’ word. Jeremiah is upset and tells God about it. I like that. Don’t you?
He says he’s a laughing stock. The word ( לִשְׂחוֹק sechok) is the same as laughter (Psalm 126, which the returning captives used to highlight their own joy in coming back to Zion). Sometimes laughter is with us; sometimes at us, and that means context helps define words more than any other means.
His prayer continues in verse 8: You told me to preach; I’m preaching and now everyone hates me. Verse 9, but if I don’t preach, then my own conscience is unclear and I’m not in good nick. This is a terrible situation you’ve put me in. And I’m not happy about any of it. Even my trusted (men of peace) friends (Heb: enosh sh’lomi) resist my words. This stinks!
Do you hear the prophet’s voice?
Do you hear your own voice?
How would his prayer end, you wonder? Angry. Devastated. Listen, that’s coming to be sure, but first, he calls us to sing with him!
The voice in verse 11 is like a worship leader in church. God is awesome, he’s Gibor; to me. He will triumph over my enemies. Hallelujah! Hey, sing with me. Sing praises to the Lord.
Now, that’s a good ending. That’s a great place for Jeremiah to land. Acknowledging the King, the dominant one, that should be the end of his prophecy, you know?
But, buckle your seatbelt, that’s not the ending. Verse 14 we hear the echo of the bothered one, once again. Jeremiah curses the day he was born, wishes that the day had never come, that the unnamed announcer to his father had not made such a birth announcement. Like Jeremiah himself for whom judgment is the apparent only discourse, so judgment began in his earliest hours. And let that announcer be like the cities (Sodom and Gomorrah) which God overthrew (same Heb word: הָפַ֥ךְ hafach) and without נִחם nicham (relenting/ repenting/ changing his mind) also without comfort!
Verse 17 sounds an abortion theme, if we force it. Jeremiah is wishing that God would have had someone kill him Meirachem (from the womb) but many think it should be B’rachem (inside the womb) which makes more sense as an apologetic for his mother ever being pregnant with a dead child (not understanding miscarriages and their exit from the mother’s body), and her being his graveyard. I won’t battle with anyone about the preposition, but I agree there is probably textual error here.
Verse 18 clarifies that it’s ‘from the womb’, and his regret is showing. He has no more words to share with the people. His regret and his disdain, his story is concluded… you guys win. I am walking away. I cannot convince you otherwise. Next stop for you? Babylon.
Conclusion
OK, we’ve studied this chapter and wondered why this is included in Holy Writ. What is going on in the heart and the mouth of the Prophet of Doom. He knows what’s coming; why is he being so upset with the people today? And why the curse on the one who brought news to his father?
What’s really going on is that this last section is not so much a self-curse or God-curse as a lament. A classic lament. Remember the English word jeremiad, well-derived from this prophet, means lamentable. There is despair to be sure, the despair of trouble and sorrow, personal and national. But closure comes with an unanswered question, unanswered but addressed to God. Still Jeremiah has a glimmer of hope and trust, didn’t he?
Dear friends, I want you to ponder this today. When you think of Vladimir Putin, will you pray for or against him? Will you lament his ending? One youngster in Ukraine asked God either to change his heart or to stop it suddenly. That sounds like Jeremiah in a way.
Invitation
But I want to ask you a question I mentioned earlier. I asked you ‘who’s really in charge?’ Is it Jeremiah who was appointed as such in chapter 1 or is it Pashchur who is announced as such here in chapter 20. Or is it someone else?
That’s a decision you have to ponder and which, honestly, you have to make, today. Who is going to be in charge of your life? Will the God of Jeremiah rule in your life? Will you submit to his lordship, follow his messiah Yeshua, and repent and be saved from despair and the doom Jeremiah predicted? If so, Jimmy will lead you in a prayer in a moment so you can be found in God and not opposed to God. How long will you linger and wonder? Our days, our times are in his hands.
Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house--- we will serve the Lord.
CONCLUSION
God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life.
PRAYER
Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up.
We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 18. Until then, Shabbat shalom!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnes, Albert, Albert Barnes’ Commentary on the Old Testament,
Craigie, Peter; Kelley, Page; Drinkard, Joel. Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah. 1991.
Henry, Matthew, Commentary.
Weirsbe, Warren. Be Decisive. David Cook Publishers, Colorado Springs 1991.
Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.
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ACTUAL TEXT
Jer. 20:1 When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2 Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten, and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the LORD. 3 Then it came about on the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, that Jeremiah said to him, “Pashhur is not the name the LORD has called you, but rather Magor-missabib. 4 “For thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I shall give over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away as exiles to Babylon and will slay them with the sword. 5 ‘I shall also give over all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its costly things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I shall give over to the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away, and bring them to Babylon. 6 ‘And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have falsely prophesied.’”
Jer. 20:7 O LORD, Thou hast deceived me and I was deceived;
Thou hast overcome me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
Everyone mocks me.
8 For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long.
9 But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in,
And I cannot endure it.
10 For I have heard the whispering of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”
All my trusted friends,
Watching for my fall, say:
“Perhaps he will be 2deceived, so that we may prevail against him
And take our revenge on him.”
11 But the LORD is with me like a dread champion;
Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,
With an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
12 Yet, O LORD of hosts, Thou who dost test the righteous,
Who sees the mind and the heart;
Let me see Thy vengeance on them;
For to Thee I have set forth my cause.
13 Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD!
For He has delivered the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.
Jer. 20:14 Cursed be the day when I was born;
Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news
To my father, saying,
“A baby boy has been born to you!”
And made him very happy.
16 But let that man be like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew without relenting,
And let him hear an outcry in the morning
And a shout of alarm at noon;
17 Because he did not kill me before birth,
So that my mother would have been my grave,
And her womb ever pregnant.
18 Why did I ever come forth from the womb
To look on trouble and sorrow,
So that my days have been spent in shame?
