Out Our Way: The grieving bull - Jeremiah 29:4-9

Out our way, the trail to better pasture often seems to take forever, and few there are willingly take it. The cattle get used to the pasture they are in and though the grass is rapidly dwindling and the reservoir is going dry, they are reluctant to leave it. Yet leave it they must if they are to survive and prosper. And sometimes the trail is hard and foreboding.

I recall moving a herd in the fall and while Charlie pushed the main herd ahead, he left the “good old boys club” — the bulls — to me. These big fellows were reluctant to move and resisted for a time, but old Doc, at 16 1/2 hands high, was big enough to persuade them. And so we too followed the long trail that lay ahead. Things went well until we came to an old cow skeleton. I don’t know if it was his mother that he somehow sensed or just the fact it was dead that spooked him, but one bull began bellowing and would not move. He just stood by the old bones and bawled like a calf. That is why I suspected somehow there was a connection and this was a cry of grief. 

Even so, we had to keep moving — and, with some difficulty, I got him to move along. But I never forgot the seeming grief or fear or whatever that so affected him and me that day. I was saddened the rest of the day, for I, too, have suffered loss and know grief. I, too, have bawled like a calf at the loss of a loved one … at the fear of an unknown trail … and the discomfort of leaving “home” for a place I did not want to go. “I hear you, bro!” as I heard that big old bull’s wail. But I also knew that for his sake and the rest of the herd, the long trail was necessary and as painful and weary as it was to take it, we had to do so.

Jeremiah, the prophet, heard the weeping and wailing of his people as they went into exile in Babylon. Israel and Jerusalem were no more. It had become a barren wasteland because for years the religious and social elites had allowed and encouraged the living waters of faith to be dried up. False prophets led the people astray telling them up was down, right was left, hate was love, and wrong was right. Over the years, such false teaching allowed the Holy Land to become a barren wasteland. So God moved the people to new pastures.

It was a long trail to Babylon — one that would last 70 years. But in that time, the shoots of faith began to grow again and the polluted streams began to be purified. Much of what we call the Old Testament was recorded and written down while in Babylon — and the Jewish faith in God moved from Temple rituals to prayer and remembrance of the Word of God.  

Like Charlie and me, Jeremiah saw the grief and felt the sorrows of those forced to leave “home pasture.” But, like Charlie and me, he also knew the long trail was necessary. He knew the people would be in exile for many generations, but also that it was in that exile they would rediscover the good pasture and living waters they had allowed to be befouled in Jerusalem.

Faced with similar trials here at home these days, we, too, are faced with a long trail. We, too, have gotten lazy and forgotten to care for the faith — letting the good pastures be trampled down and the spring of Living Water be befouled. We have listened to false prophets who have tickled the ear with attractive words and sentiments. But God did not send them and we have been deceived. So it seems that perhaps we too must face a long trail to again find the good pasture and living waters we once took for granted and so lost.

But take hope. As in Jeremiah’s day, there are a few faithful ones who carry the pure seed of faith and unsullied water in their souls, for God has sent them. In time, we will hear them and receive from them these gifts. Though God’s people forget God, God does not forget them. Though we face a long trail ahead — and perhaps even into exile as the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) continues to dominate our worldly consciousness, bear in mind that the “prince” is not the King. And even if exile of the faithful is our lot, the grass will grow and the living waters flow again. 

Take heart and be encouraged. The Lord has overcome the world (John 16:33).

Be blessed and be a blessing.

Brother John

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The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write “Out Our Way.”