Jeremiah's Prophecies Under Zedekiah (Continued) - Jeremiah 51:59, 50:1-40
So there is this running joke in prophesy. I've seen a couple of references to it now. And here it is in today's reading. And that's to call out a group of warriors as "women."
Here Jeremiah comments on Babylon's fighting force: "A sword against her horses and chariots and all the foreigners in her ranks! They will become women." Jeremiah 50:37. In tomorrow's reading, we see the same sophomoric jab: "Babylon's warriors have stopped fighting; they remain in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women." Jeremiah 51:30.
So is God or Jeremiah or both sexist? Are they denigrating the gender? I think God is just speaking in the vernacular of the time. He speaks to us in a way we will understand. If that's through a talking ass, so be it. If it's a wrestling match, ok. If that's in a parable that has the sneaky servant rewarded, He'll do it. If that means telling women jokes, well...hmmmm, I know. The gender-sensitive age we live in sort of cringes. Seems juvenile, insensitive to women and decidedly un-divine.
Or is it more a reflection of our inability to see the forest for the trees? Is it more of a condemnation of how our views are so influenced by the sensitivities of our age. The truth is something bigger than the things we seem to focus on. The Devil and not God is in the details. God is far bigger and more obvious. He is the elephant in the room we walk by unnoticed...until He makes some gender joke and we go, "Ohhhhh, that's Him!" No, He's just God trying to get your attention. And it's working.
Lord knows.
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