The Day Jeremiah Wept

CEBU, Philippines - He wept. Crumpled to his side, he groaned and wailed after God told Jeremiah the prophet that his people would die of hunger, famine, pestilence and strife. He banged the ground with clenched fists then raised his arms, wailing, knowing of the coming hunger and slow death that was about to take place. Faint sobs of children could be heard too weak for tears as they had not eaten for weeks. A mother stared at her dead child as flies feasted on what was left of emaciated flesh. God had warned them of sins in worshipping idols, false gods and adultery. And now their sins would find them in the slow death of hunger.

With prophetic fingerprint, the very hunger that confronted the Israelites in the Old Testament takes place in the 21st  century at a time of peace and where there is supposedly advanced technology in agriculture and food production. Why there continues to be hunger?

The National Nutrition Council blames hunger to poverty. Hunger is defined as a condition in which people do not get enough food to provide the nutrients for fully productive, active and healthy lives. Prolonged hunger is said to lead to malnutrition and eventually death. From a 2008 National Nutrition Survey, seven out of ten Filipinos are hungry, based on inadequacies in food requirements. Another stigma of hunger is food insecurity – this is the insecurity of not knowing where to get the next meal if there is any meal at all.

Government surveys have been accurate in blaming hunger to several factors including poverty, armed conflict where hostilities displace farmers from agricultural lands or turn agricultural lands into hamlets. Likewise, governments often spend more on arms than on social programs. Other factors blamed to cause hunger are natural disasters, rapid population growth and even lack of agricultural infrastructure.

Because these are the perceived causes, the proposed ways to mitigate hunger include vegetable gardening, supplementary feeding, nutrition-sensitive agriculture and development programs and preventing food wastage. The problem with these programs is that these are as emaciated as these are hungry of wisdom.

Carnal Obesity.

Everything seems to have been blamed to cause hunger except sin. Spiritual hunger withholds the very food that God is willing to give. Could it be that the real cause of hunger is that people continue to worship graven idols? Could it be that there is hunger because God is blasphemed by adulterous lifestyles? Could it be that there is hunger because of the emaciated spirit in man to repent and turn away from wicked ways? Could it be that there is hunger because there is no stewardship of resources? Could it be that there is hunger because people take God’s warning lightly? Could it be that there is hunger because of carnal obesity? Could it be that there is hunger because of the greed to monopolize resources to a few?

It is emaciated, misdirected planning that millions are spent on weapons to resolve armed conflict when the problem is the heart. More specifically, it only takes the Word of God to make hostile fighters see that a loving God has the gift of salvation and the gift of peace to address armed conflict.

It is emaciated, ill-suited family planning to say that responsible parenthood is birth control. In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah wept with exceeding grief that mothers ate and killed their babies and children. Controlling birth in the guise of responsible parenthood bears some semblance to baby-eating, children-sacrificing parents. The only responsible parenthood is having God at the center of the family. God only blesses homes that nourish in God’s food.

Jeremiah wept. He is a three year old boy who lost his parents when they fought to protect their farmlands. When the smoke settled, government soldiers found him in swaddled rags crying for food. He hungered for people who could at least be hungry for God’s salvation in their hearts. (FREEMAN)