Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 176:704 (Oct 2019)
Article: The Storm Of YHWH: Jeremiah’s Theology Of God’s Heart And Motives
Author: J. Michael Thigpen

BSac 176:704 (October-December 2019) p. 418

The Storm Of YHWH: Jeremiah’s Theology Of God’s Heart And Motives

J. Michael Thigpen

J. Michael Thigpen is associate professor of Old Testament and Semitics, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, La Mirada, California.

Abstract

The “storm of YHWH” in Jeremiah 23:19–20 and 30:23–24 offers a window into divine and human motives, revealing the complex and changing relationship between YHWH and his people in Jeremiah’s time and after destruction. The use of these storm texts in contexts of judgment (23:19–20) and of salvation (30:23–24) prompts readers to explore the theological relationship between judgment and salvation, by paying attention to the complexity of God’s motives.

Introduction

Look! YHWH’s storm!
Wrath has gone forth.
A whirling storm—upon the head of the wicked it shall whirl down.
The anger of YHWH shall not turn back
until he has accomplished and until he has fulfilled
the intentions of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly (Jer 23:19–20).1

A perennial issue in Jeremiah studies is the relationship between judgment and redemption, between the call for repentance and the announcement of hope. Some scholars understand Jeremiah to have begun preaching judgment with a genuine hope that the people could, and would, turn in repentance. Then when the reality of the exile hit, Jeremiah abandoned his belief

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in the possibility of repentance and instead developed a concept of hope based on YHWH’s actions on behalf of the nation. Others have proposed that the exile itself created a new condition that facilitated the shift. Now that the ultimate punishment had been meted out, the nation could be given hope that God might yet be merciful in their future.

The goal of this study is not to assess and interact with all the studies that have touched on the relationship between judgment and hope in Jeremiah. Rather, this research will explore an overlooked dimension of the relationship between the assured judgment and assured salvation of YHWH’s people in Jeremiah’s description of the intentions of YHWH’s heart.

Two prior studies provide a helpful starting point. First, Thomas Raitt in his 1974 work “Jeremiah’s Deliverance Message to Judah” sought to show th...