5 min read

With What Face Can We Possibly Come Back to God

The mountains where they had burned offerings still stood every morning. Jeremiah brought that shame upstairs. God did not wait for them to climb.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Jeremiah Told Them to Turn and They Froze
  2. The Mountains Would Not Leave the Horizon
  3. God Sent Him Down as a Father
  4. The Wise Servant Walked Where the Son Would Not
  5. Rahab Hid the Spies Without a Clean Record
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Jeremiah Told Them to Turn and They Froze

God gave Jeremiah one sentence. Go. Tell Israel to turn back. Do teshuvah (תשובה), return.

The prophet walked into the people with that sentence still warm. They did not mock him. They did not argue. They stood with their eyes on the ground.

"Our master Jeremiah. How do we do this? With what face do we come before the Place?"

Not we refuse. Not we do not believe. They knew what their faces looked like. They knew what they had done.

The Mountains Would Not Leave the Horizon

The evidence still stood. The mountains where they had burned offerings to idols were still there. The hills were still there. Every morning they walked out of their houses and looked up, and the high places refused to disappear. Upon the tops of the mountains they sacrificed, and upon the hills they burned incense (Hosea 4:13).

"Let us lie down in our shame," they said, "and let our disgrace cover us" (Jeremiah 3:25). A blanket at least hides a face.

Jeremiah had been sent to collect a return. He collected a paralysis instead. He carried it back upstairs, because that was the job. Here is what they said. Here is the shame that is holding them still.

God Sent Him Down as a Father

God did not answer with a new demand. He sent Jeremiah down with a memory.

"Did I write in the Torah that I would set my face against a man and cut him off from his people, and then do that to you? I will not drop my face on you. I am kind, saith the Lord. I do not keep anger forever" (Jeremiah 3:12).

Then another line, harder to hide from. "If you come, you are not coming to a stranger. You are coming to your father. I have been a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn" (Jeremiah 31:9).

The people were still calculating whether they deserved the door. God had already put himself on the road. Return, in His mouth, was not a test they had to pass before He moved. He had moved. Their work was to notice.

The Wise Servant Walked Where the Son Would Not

A wise servant, says the old line, will rule over a son who causes shame, and among brothers he will take a share of the inheritance (Proverbs 17:2). Jeremiah was that servant. Israel was the son who had shamed himself with idols. The servant could enter the house. The son stood outside with his eyes down and could not make his feet go through.

Jeremiah kept walking the distance the son would not walk. Out to the people. Back to God. Out again with the father's sentence unedited. He did not add a condition God had not added. He did not sand the shame down to make it polite. He carried the prior movement and put it in their ears.

How long will fools love scoffing, the other warning ran. A man eats something that stinks for two or three days, and his soul is sick of it. Israel had served idols for years, the thing of which it is said, "Thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence" (Isaiah 30:22), and their souls were not sick. Scoffing starts as a bruise and ends as a ruin. If they returned to the rebuke, God would pour His spirit through Ezekiel. If they did not, they would get Jeremiah's words, which do not come as a breeze.

Rahab Hid the Spies Without a Clean Record

Rahab of Jericho had no list of commandments behind her. She had one act. She hid the Israelite spies on her roof, under the stalks of flax, and she said why. "I know the Lord hath given you the land. I know what He did to Egypt. I know what He did to the kings of the Amorites. Your God is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath" (Joshua 2:9-11).

What is written of Israel as disgrace is written of Rahab as praise. Israel swore falsely. Rahab made the spies swear by the Lord because she had done them kindness. Israel slighted father and mother. Rahab asked life for her father and her mother. Israel bowed on rooftops to the host of heaven. Rahab brought the spies up to the roof to hide them. Israel called a tree "my father." Rahab hid men in the flax of a tree. Israel sacrificed on the mountain tops. Rahab sent the spies to the mountain to wait. Israel would not speak truth. Rahab asked for a true token.

She had nothing to stand on but the report she believed, and she moved. Israel, frozen under a skyline of old altars, thought it had nothing to stand on at all. The servant was already at the door with the father's sentence. The mountains were still there. The face still had to lift. God had not waited for the lift.

Pesikta De Rav KahanaRepentanceProphecyIdolatry
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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Pesikta DeRav Kahana 24:16Pesikta de-Rav Kahana

Translation of the source text.Pesikta de Rav Kahana according to an Oxford manuscript, Dov Mandelbaum ed., N.Y. 1987 · CC-BY

Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Yitzchak. Rabbi Levi said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Jeremiah, Go and tell Israel to repent. He came and told them, and they said to him, Our master Jeremiah, how can we repent? With what face do we come before the Omnipresent? Have we not angered Him and provoked Him? Those very mountains and hills where we worshiped idols still stand, as it says, On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice (Hosea 4:13). Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us (Jeremiah 3:25). He came before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said so. He said to him, Go and tell them: Have I not written this for you in My Torah, And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people (Leviticus 20:6)? Have I done such a thing to you? Rather, I will not cause My face to fall upon you, for I am loving, says the LORD; I will not bear a grudge forever (Jeremiah 3:12).

Rabbi Yitzchak said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Jeremiah, Go and tell Israel to repent. He came and told them, and they said to him, Our master Jeremiah, how can we repent? With what face do we come before the Holy One? Have we not angered and provoked Him? Those mountains and hills where we worshiped idols still stand, as it says, On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice (Hosea 4:13). Let us lie down in our shame (Jeremiah 3:25). He came and said this before the Holy One, blessed be He. He said to him, Go and tell them: If you are coming, are you not coming to your Father in heaven? As it says, For I have become a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn (Jeremiah 31:9).

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Pesikta DeRav Kahana 13:4Pesikta de-Rav Kahana

Translation of the source text.Pesikta de Rav Kahana according to an Oxford manuscript, Dov Mandelbaum ed., N.Y. 1987 · CC-BY

Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin in the name of Rabbi Levi opened: "A wise servant shall rule over a son who acts shamefully, and shall share the inheritance among the brothers" (Proverbs 17:2). "A wise servant" - this is Jeremiah. "Shall rule over a son who acts shamefully" - this is Israel, who shamed themselves before idolatry.

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: It is written, "You were not even like a harlot, scorning hire" (Ezekiel 16:31). Let the child of the corrupt woman who mended her deeds come and reprove the child of the upright woman who corrupted her deeds. You find that everything written of Israel for disgrace is written of Rahab for praise. Of Rahab it is written, "Now then, swear to me by the LORD" (Joshua 2:12), and of Israel it is written, "surely they swear falsely" (Jeremiah 5:2). Of Rahab it is written, "and you shall keep alive my father and my mother" (Joshua 2:13), and of Israel it is written, "father and mother are treated with contempt in you" (Ezekiel 22:7). Of Rahab it is written, "and she brought them up to the roof" (Joshua 2:6), and of Israel it is written, "and those who bow on the rooftops to the host of heaven" (Zephaniah 1:5). Of Rahab it is written, "and she hid them with the stalks of flax" (Joshua ibid.), and of Israel it is written, "who say to the wood, You are my father" (Jeremiah 2:27). Of Rahab it is written, "and she said to them, Get to the hills" (Joshua 2:16), and of Israel it is written, "on the tops of the mountains they sacrifice" (Hosea 4:13). Of Rahab it is written, "and give me a true sign" (Joshua 2:12), and of Israel it is written, "and they do not speak truth" (Jeremiah 9:4). Thus everything written of Israel for disgrace is written of Rahab for praise.

"And shall share the inheritance among the brothers" (Proverbs ibid.) - this is Jeremiah. It is written of him, "And Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go" (Jeremiah 37:12). Rav said: He went out to take his portion. Rabbi Binyamin ben Levi said: To the encampment there. There are many prophecies; "the prophecy of Jeremiah" is not written here, but rather "the words of Jeremiah." Therefore Scripture requires "The words of Jeremiah" (Jeremiah 1:1).

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Pesikta DeRav Kahana 13:2Pesikta de-Rav Kahana

Translation of the source text.Pesikta de Rav Kahana according to an Oxford manuscript, Dov Mandelbaum ed., N.Y. 1987 · CC-BY

Rabbi Acha opened: "How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity, and scoffers delight in their scoffing?" (Proverbs 1:22). Rabbi Shimon ben Nezirah said: It is the way of the world that a person eats foul-smelling food for two or three days and his soul is sickened by it. You - how many years have you been serving idolatry, the very thing of which it is written "You shall say to it, Get out" (Isaiah 30:22), [a thing fit only for] filth you say to it, and yet your soul is not turned away from it?

Rabbi Yudan said: Two men prophesied about scoffing, and these are they - Solomon and Isaiah. Solomon said, "and scoffers delight in their scoffing" (Proverbs ibid.), and Isaiah said, "And now, do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong" (Isaiah 28:22). Rabbi Pinchas and Rabbi Yirmiah in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Rav Yitzchak: Harsh is scoffing, for its beginning is chastisements and its end is destruction. Its beginning is chastisements, "lest your bonds be made strong" (ibid.); and its end is destruction, "for I have heard of a destruction utterly determined" (ibid.).

"Turn back at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my spirit to you, I will make my words known to you" (Proverbs 1:23). If you turn back at my reproof, I will pour out my spirit to you, by the hand of Ezekiel - "The word of the LORD came indeed to Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest" (Ezekiel 1:3). And if not, "I will make my words known to you" (Proverbs ibid.), by the hand of Jeremiah. Therefore Scripture needs to say, "The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah" (Jeremiah 1:1).

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