Jeremiah

After Isaiah we have another “major” prophet, Jeremiah. He is the type of personality that if he took his girlfriend to a sad movie he would have to bring along a box of tissue. Not for her, but for himself. He was called “the weeping prophet.” Not only did he write this book (the longest book in the Bible), but he also wrote the Book of Lamentations. Jeremiah lived to see the invasion by the Babylonians and the taking captive of fellow Jews. Tradition has it that he fled to Egypt and was stoned to death.

We should not be surprised if we find some of the same condemnations in Jeremiah’s book as we have seen in earlier prophets. Imagine if you were to study some of the greatest sermons of the last two thousand years. You would find the same themes as we hear preached today. This is because people have not changed. We still struggle with greed, lust, pride, etc.

Jeremiah’s call to ministry is found in chapter 1:5-8; Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

It sounds like he did not have much choice. He was drafted into the ministry before he was born. Of course, God knew exactly what type of person Jeremiah would become and God knew that he would be exactly the right person for this job, even if Jeremiah didn’t always agree.

His response to the calling was much like other prophets and leaders (Moses and Gideon). He felt unsure of himself. He says, “I am only a child.” This could be mean, “young and inexperienced.” But the Lord reassured him saying, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.” And we will see that he will need rescuing, not only from the Babylonians, but from his own people. True prophets of God are not always welcomed.

Jer 1:14; From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land.

This is predicting that the Babylonians will invade Judah. Though Babylon is not due north, they came from “the north” because that was the route they would take.

Why on earth would God want to do this to Judah? Weren’t they God’s chosen people? Wasn’t His beautiful Temple in Jerusalem?

Jer 1:16; I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshipping what their hands have made.

Jer 2:8; The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.

Notice that leaders, once again, come under special condemnation. They should have known better, like lawyers who break the law.

Jer 2:35; In spite of all this (idolatry) you say, ‘I am innocent, he is not angry with me.’ In psychology they call this “denial”.

Jer 3:8, 10; I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of her adulteries. In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense.

Judah did not recognize her guilt before God; nor did she learn from the lesson of her older sister Israel. Do you remember seeing an older sibling being punished by Mom or Dad? If you were smart, you learned from their punishment. Apparently Judah was not that smart.

Jer 4:16; Tell this to the nations, proclaim it to Jerusalem: ‘A besieging army is coming from a distant land, raising a war cry against the cities of Judah.'

Now Jeremiah was a sensitive sort of guy. When he heard what was about to happen to his people, he got upset.

Jer 4:19; Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet I have heard the battle cry.

Jer 5:12-13; They have lied about the Lord; they said, “He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine." 

The people thought, “Hey, we are God’s chosen people and this is his city and temple. Surely nothing bad will happen to us. We are such pious, religious people."

Jer 6:10; To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.

I hope this does not describe your church or Sunday school class. So here we have a long history of unethical behavior, denial of their own guilt, and deafness to the warnings of Jeremiah.

Jer 6:13-14; From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace’ they say, when there is no peace.

They say, “We’re not so bad. Everything is fine. We’ll be all right." This is like going to the emergency room, bleeding profusely and the doctor saying, “Take an aspirin and call me in the morning. You’ll be all right.” It sounds like the “clergy” were guilty of “malpractice.”

Jer 7:16; So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen.

We are usually encouraged to pray for one another. Here God says, “Don’t waste your breath on them.”



Jer 9:8; With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him. 

I hope this doesn’t sound like people in your church. They are pleasant to you to your face while they slander you behind your back.

Jer 10:23; I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.

In Chapter 13; Jeremiah does something similar to what Hosea did. He acts out his message. He puts on a nice clean linen belt. Linen was the material that a priest’s garments were made of, a symbol of holiness and now a symbol of intimacy with God. He then takes the belt off and hides in the rocks. Some days later he retrieves it. By then it was a real mess, and useless. This symbolized the people’s wasting away in exile. He is telling the people that they are like the linen belt, once pure and valued, but not soiled by sin and useless.

Jer 15:17, 18; I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them. I sat alone (he never married) because your hand was on me. Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable?

God told Jeremiah that he was not to get married. This was for the same reason the Apostle Paul recommended that marriage be delayed. It was because of the times they lived in. Imagine wanting to get married in the days leading up to World War II. Being married would create too many hardships for everyone, better to wait.

Jeremiah’s emotional response reminds me of Elijah. After his confrontation with King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the prophets of Baal, he found himself exhausted and depressed, wanting to die. Jeremiah seems to be feeling sorry for himself and, like Elijah; he needed some encouragement, a hot meal, some sleep and a few vacation days.

We also can find ourselves depressed and feeling sorry for ourselves if we allow ourselves to not get enough sleep or take time off from the pressures of our lives. 

Jer 17:9; The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

One way we deceive ourselves is with defense mechanisms such as rationalization, denial, etc. We like to hide from our real selves.

Jer 19:1-10; Here Jeremiah acts out his message again. He takes a clay pot out to the city gate where the elders could see him. He denounces their behavior and then takes the clay plot, raises it above his head and throws it down to the ground, smashing it into pieces. Jeremiah says, this is what is going to happen to you. Verse 9 describes in vivid terms how bad conditions will get when the Babylonians attack. The people of Jerusalem will turn to cannibalism.

Jer 20:3, 7, 14; Pashhur (the priest) had Jeremiah beaten and put in stocks. v7 I am ridiculed all day long, everyone mocks me. Cursed by the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed.

It sounds like Jeremiah is depressed again. He, along with Moses, Elijah and Job, each had gotten to the point where he wished he had never been born or had died.

Jer 21:9; As the Babylonians are attacking Judah, the kings suggests, “Hey, maybe this would be a good time to cry out to God.” 

Well, Jeremiah tells them that if they stay in the city, they will die either by the sword, famine or disease. He tells them that they should all surrender. This message makes Jeremiah sound like a traitor and is not well received.

Jer 23:1; Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture.

Have you known pastors or priests who are guilty of doing the same today?

Jer 23:5; The days are coming when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.

Here Jeremiah is saying, “Unlike the bums who are running our country and churches, there will come a ruler (the Messiah) who will rule wisely.

Jer 23:30, 32; Therefore, I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. I am against those who prophesy false dreams.

In Exodus 20:7; it says that we are not to take the Lord’s name in vain. The Jews have translated this to say that we are not to “carry” the Lord’s name in vain. Meaning that we should not say, “The Lord told me . . . .” when he didn’t. This appears to be what the false prophets did. They claimed revelation from God. The problem with this is that when a person does evil, he tarnishes his reputation. But when he says that God told him to do something evil, he tarnishes the reputation of God, also. We must not use God as a justification for our selfish causes.

Jer 24; Jeremiah acts out another lesson, as he did with the linen belt and the clay pot. This time he uses a basket of figs. He says that the good figs are the ones who go to Babylon, where God will watch over them. The bad figs are those who resist and try to remain in Jerusalem.

Jer 25:11, 12; This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

There it is, a specific prophecy of what is going to happen and the duration of their captivity. And when God is done using the Babylonians to punish Judah, He will then punish the Babylonians.

Jer 26:7, 8; The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the Lord. . . . the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die!”

Jer 27; Here is another acting out by Jeremiah. This time he wears a yoke around his neck. His message is to surrounding nations who will also be overtaken by Babylon, along with Judah.

Jer 28; The false prophet Hananiah said to Jeremiah, that God told him that He will break the yoke of the king of Babylon within two years.

Here Hananiah is doing exactly what the Jews said we must not do in Ex 20, He claimed that God told him something when He had not. So when the false prophecy of Hananiah do not come true, not only is Hananiah thought to be a liar, but so is God.

Jer 28:15-17; Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies.

This sounds like a cult leader who God is not speaking through, but people believe. Does the name Jim Jones come to mind? 

Jeremiah predicted that Hananiah would die before the end of the year, and he did. So, who is the true prophet of God, Hananiah or Jeremiah?

Jer 29:5; Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what your produce.

Jeremiah writes to those in exile telling them that they will stay in Babylon for seventy years. He suggests that they make the best of it by settling in for the long haul.

Jer 30:3; The days are coming when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their forefathers to possess.

Jeremiah gives them the reassuring reminder that the land that God gave Abraham and his descendants is unconditionally theirs. They remain the owners of the land, even though they can’t live there for the time being.

Jer 32:3; Now Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him there, saying “Why do you prophesy as you do?”

While in prison he had a visitor who offered to sell him some land. Jeremiah bought up the land as an expression of his confidence that “houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land” (v15). I imagine he got the land for a very good price. 

Jer 38; Here we see Jeremiah telling the people, once again, to submit to the Babylonians. He is considered a traitor and is thrown into a cistern (dry well with mud at the bottom).

Jer 39; Here we see the fall of Jerusalem. Only the poorest people were left in the country. The King of Babylon told those in control to be kind to Jeremiah.

Jer 41; The governor of Judah, appointed by the king of Babylon is assassinated and Jeremiah heads off to Egypt.

Chapters 46-51; Much like Amos; Jeremiah has something to say to other nations. As you might imagine, it is not good news for them.

You might have noticed that this book is not written in chronological order. The highly emotional Jeremiah seems to be jumping from subject to subject.