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I did not sit in the gathering of revelers to make merry. Because of Your hand, alone I sat, for with wrath You filled me.Jeremiah 15:17 Robert Alter
Alone – Brené Brown convincingly argues that being human means being connected. The greatest punishment a man can feel is isolation:
“ . . . the most terrifying and destructive feeling that a person can experience is psychological isolation. This is not the same as being alone. It is a feeling that one is locked out of the possibility of human connection and of being powerless to change the situation. In the extreme, psychological isolation can lead to a sense of hopelessness and desperation. People will do almost anything to escape this combination of condemned isolation and powerlessness.”[1]
This is Jeremiah—the man alone. In Hebrew, bādād. A comparable word would be “abandoned.” We know this word intimately from the story of Jacob. Jacob encountered “the man” when he was experiencing bādād—isolation. Jeremiah experiences an even more intense isolation since it is God’s hand that has driven him out. Notice Brown’s comments:
“Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which are not only hollow substitutes for belonging, but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”[2]
“At the heart of loneliness is the absence of meaningful social interaction—an intimate relationship, friendships, family gatherings, or even community or work group connections.”[3]
Now let’s be bold. Can you draw a connection between Jeremiah’s existential loneliness and Genesis 3:24 (“So He drove the man out”)? Do you think Jeremiah might have experienced what it was like to be driven from the presence of God? Does the prophet feel the pathos of a broken creation like God felt it when He drove the man out? And while you are contemplating how much Jeremiah’s experience touches the real heart of the human dilemma, you might consider Mark 1:12 (“The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness”).
Is it possible to be truly human without being driven to the experience of abandonment and isolation? What I mean is this: None of us want to feel this way, but until we do perhaps we haven’t appreciated how much connection is indispensable to human existence. Jacob, Jeremiah, and Yeshua give us a glimpse of how important bādād is to spiritual-human existence. Adam does too, but Adam’s response was defiance, not acceptance. That raises a crucial question for us. If bādād is part of the intended journey to God, who are we going to follow: Jeremiah or Adam?
Topical Index: bādād, alone, isolation, abandoned, human, connection, Jeremiah 15:17
[1] Miller, J. B. and Stiver, I. P. The healing connection: How women form relationships in both therapy and in life (Beacon Press, 1997).
[2] Brené Brown Braving the Wilderness, p. 32 cited from The Gifts of Imperfection
[3] Ibid., p. 52.
