{"id":70562,"date":"2020-02-23T09:44:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-23T07:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=70562"},"modified":"2023-10-16T16:17:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T13:17:03","slug":"the-celestial-scoreboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-celestial-scoreboard\/","title":{"rendered":"The Celestial Scoreboard\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[384,571],"acf":{"old_id":"70562","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":60873,"related_cahpter":"422","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"How to please the Judge\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

We find great comfort in believing we know what God wants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More selfishly, there are those of us who cling to the notion of a celestial scoreboard. A running meter that shows an up-to-date count of our merits and transgressions, hopefully with the former exceeding the latter. And like in the sporting events on which this image is modeled, an increase on one side cancels out an increase on the other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not so, Jeremiah proclaims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you think you are more a king because you compete in cedar? Your father ate and drank and dispensed justice and equity\u2014 then all went well with him. He upheld the rights of the poor and needy\u2014 then all was well. That is truly heeding Me \u2014declares the LORD (15-16).<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremiah, in prophesying to King Jehoiakim, harkens back to the prior king, his father Josiah, who acted virtuously and supported the most powerless among his people. In sharp contrast, Jeremiah stands outside the lavish palace that Jehoiakim has built and excoriates him: \u201cBut your eyes and your mind are only on ill-gotten gains, on shedding the blood of the innocent, on committing fraud and violence\u201d (17). In one of his harshest prophecies to date, Jeremiah proclaims, \u201cHe shall have the burial of an ass, dragged out and left lying outside the gates of Jerusalem\u201d (19).<\/span><\/p>\n

The commentator Radak cites earlier sources who state that Jehoiakim would abstain from food and drink on a consistent basis because he believed that his fasts would counterbalance his wicked deeds. It is in response to this that Jeremiah emphasizes that King Josiah ate and drank- and nevertheless maintained justice and equity and supported the rights of the poor and the needy. One is not in contrast to the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

One cannot help but be reminded of a similar prophecy in Isaiah when he censured, <\/span><\/p>\n

No, this is the fast [God] desires: To unlock fetters of wickedness, and untie the cords of the yoke to let the oppressed go free; to break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the wretched poor into your home; When you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to ignore your own kin\u201d (Isaiah 58:6-7). <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

God does not rejoice in affliction or feel satisfaction in our asceticism. And God does not seek suffering to balance our scales. Rather, Jeremiah reminds us, God wants us to pursue equity and righteousness, to invoke justice, to protect the stranger, to lift up the poor, to protect the vulnerable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the fast that God desires. This is what it means to know God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":70563,"id":70563,"title":"jer22-scoreboard","filename":"jer22-scoreboard.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer22-scoreboard.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-celestial-scoreboard\/jer22-scoreboard\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer22-scoreboard","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":70562,"date":"2020-02-23 07:43:44","modified":"2020-02-23 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