Jeremiah proclaims that the evil of Jerusalem is so terrible that the earth itself is returning to the chaos of the beginning, a world that does not know YHWH, a world on the verge of a return to chaos. In this new/old, terrible world, the skies are devoid of light (like the world at its origins), the birds have disappeared from the skies, and human beings are not present. Monstrous evil, says the prophet, can lead to monstrous results. This is no simple announcement of human sin that results in merely human consequences; human sin can lead to cosmic cataclysm where all ecological facets are compromised.
Surely, only a prophet with prophetic sight can see such vast implications in a world gone bad. But is that so? Must we wait for great and eloquent prophets to warn us of the consequences of our wanton actions? Can you and I not gain at least a measure of prophetic sight? It is far past time for us as a world to take with the greatest seriousness the threats to the ecological envelope in which we all live. Without doubt, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, along with all humans are under threat from the certain heating of the planet. It is time for us to act. No more gas guzzling cars! No more reliance on oil and gas and coal as the only and future sources of our energy needs! We need massive changes in our behaviors if we all are to live on this blue ball of earth. We all need to be prophets as we sharpen our eyes and find conversion in our hearts to the love and service of our earth, rather than its unimpeded exploitation.
"For thus says YHWH, 'The whole earth will be desolate; all of this I will do'" (Jer. 4:27)! However, that is only one way to read this verse. The NRSV translates it, "The whole land will be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end." This is a possible reading of the text, though it does appear a bit incongruous in the midst of all those harsh pictures of doom and destruction. And yet, is not YHWH a God always in search of ways "not to make a full end"? Is not this YHWH always anxious for us to wise up, to start doing good, to change our lives in ways so as to see the truth and to act on it? Must we make a return to chaos? Is that our inevitable fate? The hot wind is blowing on the earth. What will we do in the face of its roaring blast?
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