“You are always righteous, LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak

with you about your justice…” Jer 12:1

Lessons from the life and dangers

of Jeremiah

40 years of trouble, tears, and perseverance with some

complaining

A book written by a person renowned for his

lamentsJeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made these a rule in Israel; behold, they are written in the Laments.

2 Chronicles 35:25

The style of the book• Written in a style of refugee or holocaust literature (according

to Paul House)

• The beginning is Jeremiah’s call as a teen or young man

• The in between chapters not chronological

• The end is the end of the book, although not the end of Jeremiah which is left to tradition ( Jerusalem has fallen in 52 )

• Most of the book is like an anthology of object lessons drawn from Jeremiah’s 40 years or so of preaching

• Jeremiah was not even told to write down his prophesies the first 20 years or so of ministry

‘Before you were born I knew you’• Before Jeremiah was born, Manasseh was already ruling

a long time already as perhaps the worse king in Israel

• When Jeremiah was a teen or so, Josiah, a godly king rose to power. At this time a bible was discovered, showing how far the nation lapsed.

• Called before Jeremiah did anything good or bad

• A sovereign call of God

• Isaiah’s mouth was ‘touched by coals by an angel, but Jeremiah by the hand of God Himself

Why significant?• 5.2% of the Bible is Jeremiah (add Lamentations and

Jeremiah wrote 5.6% of the Bible)

• It is the longest book in the Old Testament by the number of words: Jeremiah has 33,002 words. Additionally Lamentations also written by Jeremiah has 2,324 words

• Jeremiah is the 9th most (directly) quoted Old Testament in the New Testament

• Additionally there are 119 allusions, indirect quotes of it as well in the New Testament

He preached repentance but was largely ignored

• about 45 times will call Israel to ‘return to God’• only a few people listened• Jeremiah would not see (most) of the fruit of his

preaching in his lifetime• Jeremiah probably dies in Egypt, away from the

land of Israel

Lesson: do not judge a prophet by his youth or inexperience

Jeremiah’s prophecies will:• tear down and build up• uproot and plant• throw down and build up

the nations

These words will often repeat in various places in the book

Jeremiah’s name some say is form ‘to throw’ and may related to throwing down destroying and throwing down a foundation

“Then the Lord put out His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me “see I have set you

this day over nations and kingdoms.” Jer 1:9, 10

The times of Jeremiah

• Jeremiah was born during the time of Manasseh, perhaps the worst king of Judah

• Manassas’s son Josiah was the next king and a great reformer. Popular with the people and much got done, but the changes weren’t internalized with the people and were short lived. The one good king on the list.

• Jehoiakim was the next (long reigning) king and a puppet king of Egypt. Jeremiah spoke of God sending the king of Babylon to discipline Judah and Jeremiah experienced the worse persecution from this time on.

• Last was Zedekiah, some (like Derek Kidner) call a weather vane, listening to false prophets, opposing the King of Babylon. Not a good king either.

Jeremiah prophesied during the administrations of five of Judah’s kings: 1 Josiah (639-608 B.C.)—31 years 2 Jehoahaz (608 B.C.)—3 months <— notice the repetition of 3m 11y 3 Jehoiakim (608-597 B.C.)—11 years 4 Johoiachin (597 B.C.)—3 months <— notice the repetition of 3m 11y 5 Zedekiah (597-586 B.C.)—11 years

For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;

    I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead?

    Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my

people not been restored? Jer 8:21-22

Jeremiah, the weeping prophets

My people have made for themselves broken cisterns

• and forsaken Me the fountain of living water

• that’s evil

The life of Jeremiah• Not allowed to marry

• Not allowed to celebrate happy things with people as a sign judgement was coming

• His message that God was going to send Babylon to punish Judah and they should surrender was largely rejected and viewed as treasonous

• He was beaten, imprisoned and very few people listened to his message believing and repenting

Hosea is Prequel to Jeremiah

The unlikely marriage between a prophet and a prostituteHosea and Gomer, where God shows his stunning love

and mercy buying back an unfaithful wife portraying grace, grace toward Israel and grace toward the church the church

Hosea precedes and influences the book

• The analogy of marriage and faithfulness is carried over from Hosea to Jeremiah

• A case is made that Israel was unfaithful

• The book looks forward to a redemption

• Jeremiah will see the redemption mostly distantly

Jeremiah looks for a just man among the people, the priests, the rulers

• And doesn’t find one (a bit like Diogenes)

“… search her squares to see if you can find a man who does justice and seeks truth that I may pardon her… “ Jer 5:1

Lesson: Ask the right questions

• God says ‘the priests did not even ask “where is the Lord”?’

• A good question left unasked

Lesson: Place your awe on the right things

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water Jer 2:13

Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts. Jer 2:19

Lesson: relentless warnings of God are often followed by a promise of mercy

• The first 22 chapters describe a lack of godliness in the people, the rulers, the priests

• But then God holds out hope

• A branch is promised ( a messiah figure)

Jeremiah 5:21 English Standard Version (ESV) 21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,     who have eyes, but see not,    who have ears, but hear notThis will show up in Mark 8:18

Lesson: do not have a false sense of assurance

• Trust in God for the right and not wrong reasons

• The people in Jeremiah’s day in Jerusalem felt an entitlement to peace because of the temple despite their sin ( and judgement would not come to them)

• They were saying “this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord”

After 23 chapters of not finding a righteous man

the priest being godless the rulers being godless..

A God centered righteousness the man who is the branch will be characterized by the name “The Lord our Righteousness”

Lesson: What to boast in• Not in wisdom, riches or strength

• …but in knowing God and knowing God executes kindness mercy and justice on earth (although it doesn’t always feel so to Jeremiah)

• Nations are listed following this (and spoiler alert, toward the end of the book the same nations will be judged who probably follow the ‘gods’ of wisdom, riches and strength )

Jeremiah 9:23 English Standard Version (ESV) 23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,

This will show up in 1 Co 1:31, 2 Co 10:17

Lesson: even a prophet gets it wrong sometimes as is corrected by God

• Jeremiah laments that he should have been like a tree planted by waters and bearing fruit in it’s time

• God tells him he has it superficially wrong and should speak more wisely

Lesson: obedience and honoring God

• Jeremiah offers wine to an unusual group who refuses it

• The Rechabites live in tents (as their forefather Jonadab instructed them.)

• The Rechabites do not grown vines and do not drink wine (as their forefather Jonadab instructed them.)

• The Rechabites refuse wine offered by the prophet Jeremiah and God blessed them for it

• After all they honored their father, and the nation should honor God

Lesson: how not to listen to God’s word

• The king of Jerusalem listened to Jeremiah’s words from the scroll, cutting it in pieces, burning the pieces as he went

• Jeremiah rewrote it with God adding more, mostly curses for the king

Lesson: how the mighty have fallen

• A fellow named Ishmael son of Baalis makes a plot ( someone in the royal line with a father named after Baal should be a red flag in itself )

• Ishmael opposes the godly Gedaliah (and kills him… and kills most of a group of people coming to worship God, but not the handful of people with enough assets to bribe there way out)

• The royal line stood in opposition of the godly Gedaliah (who ironically or providentially was set up as governor by the king of Babylon )

• Ironically… or providentially…. the King of Babylon recognized Jeremiah and the godly Gedaliah which most people of Jerusalem did not

Time for an answer• Answer: Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe

• A thumbprint was found on one on a clay artifact bearing his name

see http://ancientroadpublications.com/Studies/BiblicalStudies/SealofBaruch.html

(OK, this is not withoutcontroversy as a few Bulls

are considered by some to be forgeries by some)

Lesson: sometimes God blesses those who look worse off

• Jeremiah sees two baskets of figs

• one good, one bad

• the good ones eyed at the time re the people carried off to Babylon

• the bad ones are the people who stayed at the time in Jerusalem, who would later be judged and under siege by Babylon

Daniel and his friends would be part of the ‘good figs’ carried off to Babylon

Lesson: God disciplines and also judges and they are not the same• The bad figs were judged, they were left in

Jerusalem and may have even been proud and overconfident in their sin

• The good figs were disciplined, by sending them to Babylon (in the end for their good) “I know the plans I have for you, plans of welfare and not of calamity to give you a future and a hope” Jer 29:11

Lesson: trust God for the future - A future New (and final) Covenant promised

• The people carried to Babylon are told to work and pray for the welfare of that place

• For in Babylon’s welfare will be theirs

• and a promise “I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a future and a hope: in Jer 29:11

• and an even better promise “I will make a new covenant and I will never turn from doing you good, and I will put My Spirit in you and you will never turn from following Me” Jer 32:40

chapters 29 to 33 point to a ‘New Covenant’

Even in the block of chapters on the New Covenant Rachel, the mother of Israel, so to speak weeps

over a related tragedy

Jeremiah 31:15 English Standard Version (ESV) 15 Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah,    lamentation and bitter weeping.Rachel is weeping for her children;    she refuses to be comforted for her children,    because they are no more.”This is repeated in Matt 2:18

Lesson: sometimes God asked prophets to do strange things

• Jeremiah buys a new belt (more like a fancy girdle)

• God tells him to bury it somewhere in Babylon (long trip and he does)

• God tells him later to make the trip again and dig it up now spoiled

• The lesson was God’s people were to be like a girdle, clinging to God for God’s glory but did not

The longest quote from the Old Testament in the New is regarding the New Covenant

Jeremiah 31:31-34English Standard Version (ESV) 31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”see Heb 8:8-12

Lesson: God can remake and restore

• Jeremiah sees a potter with a damaged piece of pottery

• The potter shapes it back in a ball

• The potter remakes the pot, now into a proper pot

Lesson: when the New Testament longest quote of the Old is from Jeremiah, pay

attentions

• A new covenant is coming: hearts of stone will become hearts of flesh with God’s laws written on them

Lesson: trust God for the far future as will

• “I will make a new covenant and I will NEVER turn from doing you good, and I will put my Spirit in you and you will NEVER turn from following Me” Jer 32:40

Lesson: there is a time not to celebrate

• Jeremiah was not allowed to celebrate with people of his community

• Jeremiah was not even allowed to marry

• Judgement was coming

Lesson: a time to celebrate• The time will come with farms and herds will be

restored

• There will be thankfulness to God

• There will be weddings and celebrations

• Redemption is coming

good figs carried off to babylon a future and a hope

and a glimpse of a new covenant

“I will make a new covenant and I will NEVER turn from

doing you good, and I will put my Spirit in you and you will

NEVER turn from following Me” Jer 32:40

Time for another answer

• Answer: Ebed Melech the Ethiopian, meaning servant of the king

Lesson: God never calls His people to a fair fight

• Jeremiah is called to meet with the King three times

• Each time mistreated and once even left in a well, sinking in mud, with a potential of starving.

• But Obed Melech showed sympathy

Lesson: Show sympathy to the prisoners as the book of Hebrew says

• Ebed Melech got some old clothes and some rope

• Lowered the rope and told Jeremiah to put the ropes under his arms, softening them with the old clothes

• And he rescued Jeremiah

• Ebed Melech also spoke up for Jeremiah even in the presence of the King

Lesson: personal experience can be misleading

• A group lamented problems that came upon them after they stopped making cakes to ‘the queen of heaven’

• Didn’t we have less problems then?

Memo to the nations….

Jeremiah contacts leaders of surrounding nations

telling them God has given them overto the King of Babylon in judgement for

sin and they should serve him

Jeremiah puts on a yoke toillustrate a willingness

to serve the King of Babylon

After 70 years Israel will return to the land

This is seen as treason and sedition

Jeremiah illustrated the state of Jerusalem publicly smashing a pot against the city wall

Jeremiah is seen by some as a little crazy

Lesson: freedom and justice

• Zedekiah frees the slaves

• Zedekiah un-frees the slaves

• God frees the sword, pestilence and famine

Lesson: God sometimes offers unpopular choices

• Jeremiah told the people to go over to serve the Babylon King and live

• An unpopular and uncomfortable choice

Lesson: If you promise to do whatever God tells you…and He tells you…

then do it!

• Men came to Jeremiah with ideas they apparently already decided and asked his wisdom from God. Should they return to Egypt?

• Jeremiah waited 10 days… similar to the testing of the youth with Daniel eating vegetables… 10 days. Then gave the answer

• God told the Jews never to return to Egypt… should be one clue … and Jeremiah likewise warned them

• The men (described as proud men ) did as they already decided and ignored Jeremiah’s advice (after promising to keep it. They even call Jeremiah a liar.)

Whateveryousaywewilldo!

Don’tever

returnto

Egypt!

Liar!

Lesson: judgement is coming for other nations as well

• The nations mentioned previously which likely worshiped wisdom, riches and strength (apart from God’s) will be judged and a long stretch of chapters concerned the judgement of those nations

Lesson: sometimes a prophesy shows up, making a splash, in more than one place• Jeremiah is told to judge Babylon

• Words tied to a rock, thrown in the Euphrates

• A similar judgement of spiritual Babylon appears in Revelation with an angel throwing a boulder in the Euphrates

Jerusalem would fall

Lesson: judgement is coming as well to Babylon

• The longest section of judgement and the end of the book concerns the judgement of Babylon

Lesson: judgement will come but there is also redemption

• Jerusalem fell

• Jeremiah spoke of being exiled seventy years then returning

• There is even a ‘mini exile of 7 years’ where the King of Babylon ‘loses his mind and driven from his kingdom 7 years’ in the time of Daniel and restored, perhaps as illustration to the captives that God will restore them in time

Lesson learned: A personal and closing message to Jeremiah’s

scribe Baruch

• Do not seek (the wrong) great things

• Jeremiah isn’t the only one struggling with depression at times

• Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe, is encouraged not to seek great things, but his life will be spared and be satisfied with that

• and of course this is ‘a camera shot’ - i.e. a therapeutic term for a message said to someone meant for someone else i.e us to listen to.

Lesson: Pay attention to opening and closing statements

• The last word to Israel at the end of Jeremiah 46

• God disciplines some (for their good), and also judges

Do not be afraid, Jacob my servant, for I am with you,” declares the Lord. “Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you but only in due measure; I will not let you go entirely unpunished.” Jer 46: 28

God is sovereign over history over good over evil

God used Babylon to accomplish all His good

pleasure and then destroyed it like a parent may break a rod

ofter using it to spank their child

Some main themes•Jeremiah looked but did not find any righteous people in Judah, not in the priests, common people or rulers. He pointed forward to a righteous ruler called ‘the branch’ who’s name would somehow be characterized by ‘The Lord being our righteousness’

•God disciplines those he loves and preserves but judges the wicked. This can be individuals or nations.

•At times Jeremiah experiences Job-like times of complaints. •In the book of consolation, Jeremiah 29-33, a new covenant is looked forward to where God will write his laws on His people’s hearts.

•Throughout the book man’s need of redemption is seen and it is God who will redeem.

•God uses wicked nations to chastise his people and then might judge the wicked nation, being sovereign over history.

Jeremiah like Jesus•He lived among the people •He was rejected •He was arrested, tried, imprisoned •He suffered, even shedding blood •He offered life, but was largely rejected •He was considered mad, a deceiver and worthy of death

•He pointed forward to Jesus as the man called branch

•He pointed forward to the New Covenant where hearts are changed

And someday, the ark would not be remembered or brought to

mind

• The ark of ordinary wood and bronze together with previous gold and silver portended Jesus who was fully man and fully Divine

•Jesus eclipses the ark as He is remembered •and the church in Christ is Jesus visible in the world and a type of the ark in a sense as well.

And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.

Jer 3:16

Five Poems on Sorrow The book of Lamentations

Sorrow surveyed God my enemy God my hope

Dim gold and despair and Sorrows prayer

Jeremiah weeps the fall of JerusalemThe title: in Hebrew is something like ‘Oh Dear!” in Greek is dirge

5 poems: The first two poems are a national collective lament

1) ch1 22 verses Acrostic sorrow from A-Z - surveying the loss 2) ch2 22 verses Acrostic sorrow from A-Z - God is my enemy

The center: 3) ch3 66 verses Acrostic 1st person sorrow from A-Z I am a man of constant sorrow

each group of 3 verses starts with the same letter in Hebrew The middle one (chapter 3): is in the first person and is the personal lament of Jeremiah. Jeremiah laments being laughed at, mocked and not listened to and now look what happened. The is little hope expressed in the book of Lamentations and most of the hope is expressed here in ch 3.

The last two poems are a national collective lament 4) ch4 22 verses acrostic sorrow from A-Z On dim gold and despair

5) ch5 22 verses NOT acrostic sorrow from A-Z - overwhelmed. A prayer written as a sorrowful address to God.

The 5th is not acrostic (like ch 1,2,3 and4) and the usual explanation is that the breakdown in the acrostic pattern portrays an emotionally overwhelmed state of the writer over the tragedy. Jeremiah calls on the people to return to God in the book of Jeremiah. Here Jeremiah ends by asking God to remember and restore the people.

Some see the sorrowful prayer in chapter 5 as the response of the people to the lamentations of Jeremiah. Some see it as Jeremiah breaking down in sorrow and the breakdown reflected in the 5th chapter being not in acrostic order

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,     the wormwood and the gall! 20 My soul continually remembers it     and is bowed down within me. 21 But this I call to mind,     and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love [*in hebrew love is plural - steadfast loves] of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning;     great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,     “therefore I will hope in him.” Lamentations 3

Jeremiah weeps the fall of Jerusalem

A redemption rooted in a love with no beginning or end

“the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore

I have continued my faithfulness to you” Jer 31:3