To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it. – Jeremiah 6:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 14, 2014): Jeremiah 6

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart only 73 seconds into its flight, killing all of the crew members onboard. The cause of the failure of the Challenger was determined to be a defective O-ring seal. The O-ring failed at liftoff, and while none of the observers knew it, as Challenger was lifting off of the ground a more deadly countdown had already started. The reality is that even if the experts at NASA had realized what was happening at the time of the O-ring failure at liftoff, there was really nothing that could be done to stop the disaster.

But that has not stopped armchair analysts from wondering ever since the days of Challenger if there was something that should have done. Specifically the question has been, were there warning signs of the disaster that we should have noticed, but didn’t? With the incredible history of the Space Program, was there a relaxation of safety procedures? And there have been those that in hindsight have pointed to several things that should have warned us that a disaster was on its way. But the accusation is that those in charge simply refused to listen to the warnings.

Of course, this is not a new phenomenon. Every time disaster strikes, someone looks back at the situation and points out the warning signs that we should have observed, but for some reason at the time were not believed to be credible. The Challenger Disaster, the Bombing of Pearl Harbor at the beginning of World War II and the tragic events of 9/11 are all entries into a journal of what some believe should have been avoidable tragedies – if only we had watched and listened for the warning signs.

But the history of avoidable tragedies is much older than even that. Jeremiah complains that the people of his day refused to listen to the warnings of the impending disaster knocking at the door of Judah – their ears were closed to the predictions of the coming disaster. Like every other disaster in history, during the days that lead up to the Judean Exile no one really believed that God would allow Judah to go into exile. But the truth is that the solid predictors of disaster, as with the Challenger Disaster, often occur too late for appropriate counter measures. We have left things too long to avoid the events that are coming - even if we are willing to listen to the warning.

That is definitely the situation with Jeremiah. During the days of Josiah, which was also the time of the beginning of Jeremiah’s reign as a prophet (Jeremiah’s prophecy began in the thirteenth year of Josiah [Jeremiah 1:2] and at the time both Jeremiah and Josiah would have been barely into their 20’s), God had already said that the disaster that was to come to Judah was already set up – and even the good king Josiah could do nothing to change the impending disaster. And if Josiah could not change it, neither could Jeremiah. But although the deadly countdown had begun for Judah – Jeremiah wanted to make sure that the people understood why the exile was coming – and also understand that if they had listened to the words of the prophets that had preceded him, even this disaster could have been avoided.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 11