Renamed Valley

Jeremiah 19:1-2 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests ² and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you,

There can be a tendency by humanity to try to erase negative events from our past. Some of this is the way the LORD made our minds. We blank out events that are too overwhelming for us to handle as a way to cope and survive. Often those who make it through child abuse have blocked off the memories.

Whole societies have purged their histories. Both the Chinese and Russian governments have rewritten their histories to eliminate the slaughter of almost 100 million of their own citizens. And they are not alone in selective blindness. All societies have the tendency to spin toward the positive. It helps people move forward.

But tearing down statues doesn’t help. It merely moves the past out of sight, making it easier to forget. The public monuments are a common reminder of both the positive and negative in our history. If we wipe the negative clean, then the opportunities to learn from the mistakes of the past get eliminated. And if we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it.

The ancient Israelites were just like us. They didn’t really want to remember the full story of their history. They wanted to remember the glories but not the failures. They wanted rosy and red, but not bloody and beaten.

The prophet Jeremiah had the difficult task of bringing up their past and putting it under their noses. And in the LORD’s usual style with the prophets of the Scriptures, the LORD used a visual object lesson to bring his message. Often visual lessons sink in when words alone don’t seem to work.

So Jeremiah gets a clay pot for the illustration. He takes some elders from their community, those who have the longest view of history, both personally and with their collective memory. And Jeremiah takes them to a place that carries with it a boatload of baggage, a place that demonstrates the depth of their sin.

Jeremiah brings them to this place and then announces the coming judgment, their exile into Babylon and the death and destruction that will accompany that military campaign against them. And as he is pronouncing this judgment he mentions the names given to the place where they stand.

In Hebrew narratives, when there are mentions of place names, it is important for us to ask “Why is this name mentioned here?” These seemingly out of place details are like hyperlinks to the other texts of the Scriptures. Let me illustrate from our lives.

When I say “9/11” you have a whole set of images, both of that day and of the days and years that follow connected to that event. I don’t need to spell out the whole history of 9/11 in order for you to understand what I am talking about. It is part of our common understanding of the world.

So it is with Israel. When Jeremiah brings them to that place and mentions the names, they know the history of evil and idolatry that happened in that place, their minds would have linked back to the accounts in 2 Kings 23 when the young King Josiah cleaned house. He systematically removed all the idols and places of idolatrous worship in the land. He even made those places unacceptable for future sacrifice.

So what kind of sacrifices took place in the Valley of Ben Hinnom? Child sacrifice! The Israelites had so forsaken the LORD, that they were killing their own children in hopes of getting their prayers answered! Jeremiah takes these leaders to this place and names the sin. And then he does something unexpected.

Jeremiah renames that very place “Valley of Slaughter.” The name has a double meaning, pointing both to the slaughter of the innocent children to the false gods, but also pointing to the reality of the coming battle and exile. Their community members would be slaughtered in this place, the place of sin, as a punishment for their own continued rebellion and unrepentant hearts.

Jeremiah smashes the clay pot. Crack! The judgment is on its way. No way to put the pot back together. The LORD has had His fill of rebellion. It is time for judgment. That very place will become an over crowded graveyard, a “no go zone” for observant Jews.

So in our cultural zeal to face the reality of the dark side of our history, we would do well to face squarely the history, own it, confess it, and come together in Jesus. This includes people from all sides of the issue. No selective blaming is allowed. Those in power have their responsibilities, and so do those who have historically been in the less powerful position. Both have contributed, and both need the grace and mercy that Jesus provides.

Tearing down the past and locking it away from public view does not solve the injustice of history. It only puts salve on a festering wound. We must be willing to allow the Great Physician to apply the balm which only He has. Then and only then will Justice reign.