Like Fire in the Bones: Listening for the Prophetic Word in Jeremiah by Walter Brueggemann

Author:Walter Brueggemann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fortress Press

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The cosmic reference of Isaiah 54:10 that contrasts “mountains and hills” with “steadfast love and covenant of peace” leads us to our third text, Jeremiah 31:35–37. These verses immediately follow the new covenant passage (vv. 31–34). The announcement of “new covenant” appears to accent the discontinuity between the new covenant and the old covenant that it is not like (v. 32). Indeed the dominant tendency of the Jeremiah tradition is to accent the discontinuity of exile. Oddly, vv. 35–37, immediately following, are a stunning statement of continuity. These verses counter the main tendency of Jeremiah and make a high claim of continuity. Whereas Isaiah 54:10 acknowledges that the structures of creation may indeed “depart” (môs) and “be removed” (môt) in this text it is assumed that the “fixed order” of creation will not “depart” (môs).38 In Isaiah 54:10, God’s ḥesed to Israel is more reliable than creation; in this text, God’s guarantee of Israel “all the days” is as assured as the fixed order of creation, which is utterly assured. The argument on the same subject, to make the same claim, is stated very differently. Whereas Isaiah 54:10 moves beyond the experience of discontinuity to make its claim,39 our verses appeal to the experience of continuity to make a similarly large claim.

This assertion of utter continuity is not one we expect in Jeremiah. It is as though the tradition cannot finally settle the matter of continuity and discontinuity. Each time it makes an assertion, it must follow with a counter assertion. As a result, even in the Jeremiah tradition, preoccupied as it is with discontinuity, there is added this counter voice that insists that God’s guarantee of Israel is not and cannot be disrupted.40 The ostensive protasis-apodosis structure of the passage, twice voiced, appears to be governed by a conditional “if”; the rhetoric, in fact, denies any conditionality (against the grain of Jeremiah), and assumes an unconditional relation between God and Israel. In this text, even the Exile allows no disruption in Israel’s life with God because of God’s steadfast love and fidelity. Unlike Isaiah 54:7–8, Israel’s partner does not abandon and does not act in wrath.

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