Hevel is what Ecclesiastes laments — emptiness, nothingness.

Utter nothingness (hevel). Everything is nothingness (hevel). (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

We live in a world permeated by a movement from life to death. This too is hevel. Jeremiah says that hevel comes from moving away from the life of God. Israel disappeared from the land because they followed hevel instead of God (Jer 2:5). But Jeremiah also points to the good news. We don’t have to fade into hevel. We can remain with God if we stay put, trust that he is with us and talk to him.

In this post, I’m going to develop this thought in three movements:

1. Israel and Adam: Jeremiah chapter 2 sets Israel’s story on analogy to Adam’s story in the garden.
2. Losing the Land as Hevel: Both Israel and Adam moved away from God, lost their land, and ultimately faded away — they became hevel.
3. The Prevalence of Hevel and the Life of God: Hevel inhabits our world. This is exactly what Ecclesiastes laments. Everything fades away.
4. Staying with God in Christ: Jeremiah 1–2 points to the life of God as the ever-present hope, even in the midst of hevel.
   

I find it helpful to think through these connections because I believe I inhabit the same world as Adam and Israel and the author of Ecclesiastes. If we follow Adam and Israel, we will fade away too. We’ll be overwhelmed by the flood of hevel that inhabits the world. Jeremiah points the way forward.

Israel and Adam

First, notice how Israel’s exodus from Egypt is portrayed as a new creation event. This is the key to recognizing the analogy between Israel and Adam.

Just like Adam and Eden were created from a barren, dusty field (Gen 2:5–7), in the Exodus Yahweh carried Israel through a waterless wilderness (Jer 2:2, 6: מִדְבָר), which was not sown (לֹא זְרוּעָה). He gave birth to them (Jer 2:27, ילד) in a dry, cavernous, desert, marked by darkness and death (Jer 2:6, בְּאֶרֶץ עֲרָבָה וְשׁוּחָה בְּאֶרֶץ צִיָּה וְצַלְמָוֶת). He brought them to a garden-land (Jer 2:7, וָאָבִיא אֶתְכֶם אֶל־אֶרֶץ הַכַּרְמֶל), a land where they could eat its good fruit (לֶאֱכֹל פִּרְיָהּ וְטוּבָה).

In the Exodus, Israel was itself the first produce (2:3, רֵאשִׁית תְּבוּאָתֹה), and then they were placed in a garden-land (Jer 2:7), and Yahweh himself was for them a source of living water (Jer 2:13, מְקוֹר מַיִם חַיִּים). Genesis tells the story of Adam in the same sequence. First, Adam was formed from the waterless dust (Gen 2:7), and then he was placed in an abundant garden-land (Gen 2:8). In the first creation of Adam and in the new creation of Israel, Yahweh was the source of life (Gen 2:7; Jer 2:13).

Losing the Land as Hevel

Second, Jeremiah 2 emphasizes Israel’s loss of the land. The circumstances are similar Adam’s loss of the garden. Adam and Israel both lost their garden-lands and were separated from God. Adam and Eve listened to the snake, instead of Yahweh (Gen 3:6). They took, they ate, and they exiled from Eden (Gen 3:23–24).

Adam and Eve’s choice to eat from the tree impacted the world around them, too (Gen 3:16–19). It’s here that you can see hevel in Genesis 3. Adam was created from the dust (Gen 2:7, עָפָר), and his choice to move away from God leads to nothingness:

You are dust (עָפָר), and to dust (עָפָר) you will return. (Genesis 3:19)

God breathed life into the dust and created Adam (Gen 2:7), but when Adam moved away from God he walked towards hevel. Jeremiah describes Israel’s experience in the land just like that:

They walked after nothingness (hevel), and they became nothing (hvl is the root in וַיֶּהְבָּלוּ). (Jeremiah 2:5)

Israel lost the land because they abandoned Yahweh (Jer 2:13, 19, 27, 32), they did not say, “Where is Yahweh?” (Jer 2:6, 8: אַיֵּה יְהוָה). That’s what they didn’t do. Here is what they did do: “They walked after nothingness (הֶבֶל), and they became nothing (Jer 2:5, וַיֶּהְבָּלוּ). Adam and Israel both walked away from God, the source of life and reality, and towards hevel, emptiness, nothingness.

The Prevalence of Hevel and the Life of God

Finally, Ecclesiastes makes clear that hevel permeates our world. Adam and Israel’s experience can become our experience if we walk after them:

Utter nothingness (hevel). Everything is nothingness (hevel). (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

We inhabit a world of hevel, but Jeremiah makes clear how to find refuge. Can you hear the the solution in Jeremiah’s diagnosis of the problem: Israel went wrong because they would not ask “Where is Yahweh?” (Jer 2:6–8). Israel forsook Yahweh (Jer 2:13, 19, 27, 32). The implication is that they should look for Yahweh and call out for him. They should stay still instead of walking after hevel.

When God called Jeremiah to be his prophet in the first chapter of the book, Jeremiah said, “I can’t. I don’t know how to speak well” (Jer 1:6).¹ Yahweh didn’t respond by striking Jeremiah. God provided for him by touching his mouth (Jer 1:9). Jeremiah stayed close and talked to God about his problem, and he received God’s help. The only refuge in the midst of hevel is the life of God, and he makes it available to those who say, “Where is Yahweh?”

Jeremiah’s call is bookended with words that point to refuge. Yahweh says twice,

I am with you to deliver you. (Jeremiah 1:8, 19)

Staying with God in Christ

Hevel permeates our world. Adam and Israel’s situation is our situation, but the good news is that there has and always will be refuge in the life of God. We don’t have to walk after hevel. We can follow Christ. God was with Adam and Eve in the garden (Gen 3:8), he was with Israel in the land (Deut 1–4)², he was with Jeremiah (Jer 1:8, 19), and he is with us (Matt 28:18–20).

Thinking through these analogies between Adam, Israel, Jeremiah, and Ecclesiastes helps assure our doubtful hearts that the stories of Scripture are not one-offs. The patterns repeat to draw us in. The human predicament is the same, and the source of hope and help and life is the same, too. God’s presence has always been the heart of the gospel. It always will be. He looks to those who say, “Where is God?” It’s good to be the type of person that says, “Where are you, God?”

※ Lord, help us to stay close to you even when we wonder where you are. Don’t allow the flood of hevel we see so clearly become more real to us than your life giving presence. Have mercy, Lord. ※

1. Jeremiah’s call exhibits a familiar pattern, which I discuss here: The Familiar Pattern of Jeremiah’s Call. ↩
2. See The Gospel of God with Us in Deuteronomy 1–4. ↩