Gen. 1-3 and Jer. 1-4: Reversing Reversal

(This was originally posted on the now top-secret APPKA blog; I am including it here for the sake of fun and Tim LeCroy who preached a fantastic sermon on this very topic in New Orleans recently.)

Reading in Jeremiah, I was struck by a familiar sounding theme—APPKA. What an odd place to have found such a theme, I thought, until I considered it further. Jeremiah, just like the rest of Scripture is rooted in Genesis 1-3. So I began to explore and compare Jeremiah 1-4 to Genesis 1-3 and found some interesting interconnections.

Adamic Dominion

In Jeremiah 1:9-10, a strong taste of the dominion mandate exists: “Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.’” These are the words of the Lord spoken to Jeremiah. It seems evident that Jeremiah, in the office of a prophet, is about to embark upon his mission of serving as a new Adam. Like Adam, he is given the word of God, made a ruler, given powers of judgment, and restructuring role.

Adamic Multiplication

A tension builds in 3:16, “’It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again.” Being “multiplied and increased in the land” is a good thing, a sign of things going well, a marker of obedience to the LORD (cf. Exodus 1:7ff). Yet here it is followed by a statement that they will forget and “not miss” the Ark of the Covenant, and even that is marked as something good by what follows in 3:17ff. The limited, symbolic presence of the LORD will be then replaced by His throne and His people’s obedience and peace. This is a future reality for Israel and, by extension, Judah. Multiplication is necessary and coming for them, but is “delayed” by the “treacherous dealings” of Israel toward God (3:20). Thus, obedience brings multiplication, unfaithfulness brings de-multiplication. There is a tension between righteousness and treachery—the latter acts to un-do the doing of the former.

Reversing Sin

At the beginning of chapter 4 of Jeremiah, there is a pattern set forth. That pattern is what occurs in repentance and what occurs because of it. In 4:1-2 it is said that returning to the LORD involves the removal of anything God finds detestable (i.e. sin, idols, etc) and the subsequent blessing and glorifying which comes through such repentance. So, there is here simply the familiar “Obey and I will (continue to) bless you” (cf. Gen 2:15-17, Deut. 27-30, etc.) theme recurrent throughout the Old and New Testaments. Here, it has a twist, saying that moving from God’s curse to God’s blessing runs through repentance.

More “clues” about reversing sin are in verses 3-4 of chapter 4, spoken to Judah. It reads, “For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.’” “Thorns,” “fallow ground” and the reference to Covenant membership and identity (in this case, “circumcision”) should throw us back to Genesis 1-3, specifically Genesis 2:15.

Interestingly enough, there too is the Covenant identity preceded by a reference to working the ground. The pattern is then this: Covenant membership introduced by cultivation of the ground. Jeremiah 4:3-4 follow this pattern: “Break up your fallow ground [. . . and] circumcise.” We should not be surprised that there is a difference in the content and lexical elements. In Genesis, it is “cultivate the ground.” In Jeremiah, it is “break up your fallow ground and do not sow among thorns.” “Fallow” ground? Thorns? Where are those in Genesis? The presence of thorns is reminiscent of Genesis 3 curses, and because the whole of Jeremiah has its historical context in the post-lapsarian age, fallow ground is a reference to the almost expected state in a lapsed covenant. Jeremiah here is then not only speaking of covenant renewal, but also of a reversal of sorts—going back through the cultivation mandate (which has seen neglect, hence its fallowness) and arriving yet again at a covenant theme, which is here circumcision.

Reversing Creation

Moving now further into the fourth chapter of Jeremiah, a different sort of reversal begins to develop—that of what sin and disobedience really is. It is not so explicitly set forth in the words that we may read an ontology of sin, but the general framework, in my opinion, is there; we may set our understanding of sin on that. In 4:22, we are told that God’s people are wise to do evil and have no knowledge to do good. That is the exact opposite of righteousness which would be no knowledge to do evil and wise to do good. The entire paradigm of knowledge and wisdom and good and evil has had a four-cornered swap.

Looking at 4:23-26, the results of such reversal are listed. In one word it can be summed up as “desolation” (cf. 4:27). One can be very certain that verses 23-26 are to be taken together, considered as communicating one idea, and flowing from one source. Each verse in Jeremiah 4:23-26 begins with the same word (da’iti or “I behold” in BHS, though no repetition in LXX). It is a sort of high narrative verging on poetic. Everything spoken of in 23-26 echoes Genesis 1-2 and the creation narrative, yet in a black and ominous tone.

In those verses, there is a more than just an undertone of reversal—it is explicit. The “earth is formless and void,” the heavens “have no light,” there was “no man,” and “the fruitful land was a wilderness.” My goodness, it is as if time had been turned backward and Creation itself had been un-created! This is exactly what is being communicated here. Look at the flow of 4:22-26: Children which are not faithful judges, they do evil, and creation becomes desolate. Sound familiar? It should, it’s also the flow of Genesis 1-3. It is a failure and reversal of APPKA! But what does it tell us?

It tells us that the Fall—in all its disobedience, evil, and unfaithfulness—was a reversal of Creation. This is key for understanding sin (and by extension, repentance). Sin exists not in and of itself as a competing entity of evil, but only as that which opposes righteousness by seeking to reverse or undo righteousness. There is no great ball or package of sin out there and that is what we drink from or stain our souls with when we disobey God. Sin is not real. Yes I said it—sin is not real. Only righteousness is real, only righteousness and truth and goodness exist in any real sense. There are not two bars on the ontological spectrum—a righteous bar and a sin bar…and they are both racing ahead to beat the other bar to the “finish.” There is one path, one bar. Sin has only a real consequence, it is not real in and of itself, and it only has that real consequence because it is related to the realness of righteousness. Otherwise, sin would not be fundamentally ridiculous.

Righteousness is moving forward on that path, sin is moving backward on that path. To move backward, though, presupposes that there is space and direction in which to move; it presupposes previous forward movement (righteousness). There could be no sin without righteousness. There can be righteousness without sin, though. A lie is meaningless and not a lie without the truth it contradicts, yet a truth is true regardless of any lies contradicting it. Why is our God supreme? Because He is righteous. Why is He righteous? Because He is supreme. Why are we sustained by God even in our occasionally backwards living? Because, as we are told in Jeremiah 4:27, God “will not execute a complete destruction,” but will keep to Himself a remnant. He will uphold righteousness on the path. For that, praise God and remember to keep moving forward. Here is yet another reason and call for the Christian to pick the story up back in Genesis united to Christ.