Getting Biblical in Daily Life
The Book of Jeremiah isn't exactly a "love your enemies" kind of book. God's wrath is the main force at play, while his mercy hovers in the background. Jeremiah isn't exactly being merciful either when he asks God to destroy the wicked people who are persecuting him and ravaging the land, although his frustration's pretty understandable.
The God of Jeremiah is, as discussed in the "God" Figures section, really, really, really angry. Like, really angry. He's not only in the mood to destroy his own people, but in the prophecies "against the nations" that fill up the chapters 46-51, he slates nearly everyone for destruction: Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, Egyptians, i.e., most of the locals. He even says that the people he's using to carry out all this destruction—the Babylonians—will be destroyed.
So who is this God, exactly? Jeremiah's God is a challenging figure because he probably represents the notion of an "Angry God" more ferociously than any other book of the Bible. In other books, God often presents mercy as a counterbalance to justice, but in this book, mercy's less of a deterrent to God's anger. When people ask for it they generally don't get it, and those who do get it, like Baruch or Ebed-melech or Jeremiah himself, tend to get it in a fairly minimal way: they're allowed to keep living.
Of course, as God emphasizes about fifty-trillion times, he's got good reason to be furious. Israel has broken their covenant with God, mostly through worshipping other gods but sometimes just through being pretty selfish and hypocritical meanies. God's not just mad because he feels accidentally slighted—he's mad because they made a deal, a covenant in which Israel promised to be loyal to God in exchange for his protection. They had a personal, intimate relationship, that Israel seemingly tossed aside like old potato salad. God does not take this sort of passive-aggressive rejection well at all. So, his anger is more "lover scorned" than "guy flying off the handle for no reason."
Your turn: do you find this depiction of God inspiring? Depressing?