On dust

And when to shake it off

Last year when we read Jeremiah, I was confused and a little disturbed by two instances when God told the prophet, “do not pray for these people.”¹ In both of these scenarios, God recounted to Jeremiah how the people had turned away and refused to listen, and then warned that the time had come for them to receive justice. He told Jeremiah, “do not pray for them!” Their time was up, and he was not willing to hear the prayers anymore.

What can this possibly mean? Isn’t God merciful and forgiving? I have wrestled with these questions for months, wondering how they speak into the balance of God’s mercy and justice. This week millions of people around the world observed Ash Wednesday, collectively hearing the ancient words, “you are dust, and to dust you will return.” As I meditate on those words, the puzzle of Jeremiah grows a little clearer.

Meditations on dust and our lives being like dust lead me to think about dust in other parts of Scripture, such as Matthew 6:11 and 10:14.

“And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet as a testimony against them.”

Matthew 6:10-11

Dust is a powerful reminder of our humanity and limitations during the lenten season, but it is also a reality of everyday life. We remember we are dust as we wipe dust off the surfaces of our homes to keep them clean. We remember we are dust as we clean our shoes after a walk in the park or an afternoon in the garden.

Photo by Bakir Custovic on Unsplash

We shake or wipe the dust off of our feet when we enter our homes and remember how Jesus warned us that there are times to shake the dust of spiritual rejection off our feet. And maybe that’s what God was telling Jeremiah to do hundreds of years before Jesus: shake the dust off his feet. Accept the limits of his own teaching. Accept that the time for judgment had arrived, and it was not his place to intervene anymore.

Jesus told us to love our enemies, and he also told his followers to dust off their feet as a sign against those who refused to hear their message of repentance. He warned them not to throw their “pearls before pigs.”²

God demonstrated extravagant mercy several times in the Bible after hearing the prayers of a prophetic intercessor. Abraham bargained with God about saving Sodom if there were 10 righteous men to be found, and God went along without a single pushback.³ Moses pleaded on Mount Sinai when God threatened to wipe out the people for their blatant disobedience, and God “relented of the harm which He said He would do to His people.”⁴ Despite the prophet Jonah’s most mediocre preaching attempts, God heard the repentant cries of the wicked Ninevites and withheld judgment.

However, in these passages God told Jeremiah NOT to pray for the disobedient people. It was not time for intervention but acceptance. The people had been given many warnings, but they made their choice and therefore God had also made a choice. The evil and injustice needed to end.

Accepting our limits

As I think about shaking the dust off of my feet, I think about the last decade of my life. I’ve spent countless hours trying to change people’s minds, pleading with them to care about others more than their own comfort. I spent several years working in immigration advocacy educating people about the rights of immigrants and the biblical framework for a more compassionate approach to our laws. I took an immigration law course and completed an internship with an immigration attorney to become more educated on the system and better explain it to others. But no matter how much I learned or how much I shared, I eventually had to admit that even if I were to become the most educated person in the United States on immigration law, many people would still choose not to listen. You cannot move hearts that have hardened into stone.

Over the years I have met many others with a similar story – perhaps you have experienced this, too. We have tried to appeal to any who would hear, begging them to see the humanity in the neighbors that our government marginalizes. Our hearts have been broken at the apathy and denial, but at some point we must move on from the outrage and heartbreak and recognize that not everybody is going to share our values.

The majority of Germany was not on the side of the oppressed during the 1930’s rise of Nazism, and most people in the U.S. were not on the side of the oppressed during slavery, the violent displacement of indigenous people, or the Civil Rights Movement either. It’s normal to believe the best about your people, but history shows that most people do not pick the right side on human rights.

We can no longer afford to spend so much energy trying to make people care when they have made it clear for years that they have no interest. The time eventually comes when we must move on with or without them. We cannot get stuck playing human rights apologetics when there is a lot of work to be done. We have to shake the dust off of our feet and move forward. We will welcome the latecomers if and when they change their minds to join the work, of course. But our focus can no longer center on them.

Sometimes we need to repent of our stubborn refusal to walk away from dead spaces that cause harm and inhibit our growth. Sometimes the dust we shake off our feet feels like home.

That’s an uncomfortable challenge to accept, but we are humans who came from dust and live within limits of energy and time. We cannot continue wasting water and sunlight on dead plants when there are living plants that need our attention and care.

What about praying for our leaders?

I recently heard a prayer for elected officials that balanced these ideas well. The speaker⁵ included a prayer for our elected officials, as is encouraged in Scripture,⁶ but they did not pray for our government leaders to prosper in their current ungodly path. Instead, they asked that leaders “would not rest” until they brought justice for those who are being oppressed. I was struck by the prophetic phrasing, and have borrowed the words for my own daily prayers.

Like Jeremiah, we should not pray for the prospering of those who are oppressing the vulnerable and spreading injustice. Between large scale detention of immigrants who have not been charged with any crimes, the extrajudicial killing of residents and citizens by government agents, and the horrific accusations and mountains of evidence linking key leaders to Epstein’s criminal human-trafficking ring, there should be no rest for our leaders in the United States.

“Woe to those who enact unjust statutes

And to those who constantly record harmful decisions,

So as to deprive the needy of justice

And rob the poor among My people of their rights,

So that widows may be their spoil

And that they may plunder the orphans.”

Isaiah 10:1-2 NASB2020

Photo by Niklas Ohlrogge (niamoh.de) on Unsplash

Striking a balance

Reading Scripture well requires a balance and a commitment to seeking wisdom. So many of these verses conflict when taken out of context and made into separate, individual commands. But a sense of balance arises when we meditate on the deeper meaning beneath the words God uses to shape people into alignment with his character.

God’s instruction for Jeremiah not to pray for his rebellious nation maps onto Jesus’ guidance for the disciples to shake the dust off of their feet when their teachings were rejected, which helps illuminate the parable about throwing pearls to pigs. This principle applied alongside Paul’s pastoral teaching to pray for our leaders guides us to use our voices and our prayers to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”⁷

Like many other teachings of Jesus, these are “hard sayings.”⁸ Perhaps they bring a sword of division to our families or our congregations. This season is an ideal time to reflect on these things: our limits, the limits of our relationships, and the guides that help us pray and repent.

We are dust, we live surrounded by dust, and we will someday return to dust. In the meantime, what will we do with this precious life and the limits within it?

1. Jeremiah 7:16 and Jeremiah 11:14

2. Matthew 7:6

3. Genesis 18:22-33

4. Deuteronomy 32:11-14

5. I apologize because I don’t remember the original author or speaker.

6. 1 Timothy 2:1-3

7. This widely adopted phrase is attributed to Finley Peter Dunne as the original author.

8. John 6:60 - the KJV uses the phrase “hard sayings,” but other translations include “hard teaching,” (NIV) “difficult statement,” (NASB95) and the Message paraphrase, ““This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.”