ירמיהו הנביא

Jeremiah the prophet is the prophet of the destruction, commanded to say what no one wished to hear, and who paid for it with his whole life. He was chosen as a prophet even before he was born, 'before I formed you in the womb I knew you' (Jeremiah 1:5), and refused because of his youth, but was sent to herald to Jerusalem the approaching destruction, while everyone else promised peace.

For forty years he cried warning, and was thrown into a pit, imprisoned, mocked and pursued. He did not want his task, 'cursed be the day I was born,' yet he could not stay silent, 'it was in my heart like a burning fire' (Jeremiah 20:9). And when the destruction he had warned of came, he did not rejoice in being right but wept, and sat upon the ruins of Jerusalem and composed the Book of Lamentations.

Tradition calls him 'the prophet of calamity,' yet it was precisely he who bore also the deepest prophecy of consolation: the promise of the return, 'and the children shall return to their border,' and a new covenant to be written upon the heart. One who saw the greatest breaking held also the greatest hope.

What do we learn from him? That sometimes faithfulness is to speak the painful truth when everyone chooses the pleasant lie, and to pay for it alone. Jeremiah teaches that the true prophet does not rejoice in the disaster he foresaw but weeps over it, and that even the one who bore the scroll of laments never gave up the promise that the people would return, for his love for his people was greater than his pain.