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| Jeremiah by Michelangelo at the Sistine Chapel |
The Life and Times of Jeremiah
The Gentiles
The world events that form the backdrop of Jeremiah not only
greatly help us understand the prophecy at hand, but also much other parts of
the Old Testament. So it’s worthwhile to
know what was going on. For well over a
century Assyria ruled over the world.
But as with so many world empires, people revolt. Eventually, in 612 BC, the Babylonians teamed
up with the Egyptians and overthrew Ninevah, the Assyrian capitol. Assyria’s power began to weaken. Taking advantage of this, Judah, led by King
Josiah, threw off their Assyrian bondage and enjoyed momentary, relative
freedom. For as Assyria weakened,
Babylon grew in strength. Fearing that
one task master might just replace the previous one, Egypt then joined forces
with its former enemy and with Egypt, gained control of the land of
Israel. God’s people were in bondage,
again. Then, in 605, two important
things happen: the king of Babylon, Nebopolassar, dies, and his son
Nebuchadnezzar becomes king. Also, the
new king of Judah, Jehoiakim (his father, good King Josiah, dies in a battle
against the Egyptian invasion) seeks to escape Egyptian rule by promising
allegiance to Babylon. (This is the same
year that several Jews are taken captive to promote “peace,” including Daniel
and his three friends.) But this new
commitment is short lived and four years later, in 601, after Babylon suffers a
major defeat, King Jehoiakim changes allegiance back to Egypt. As you might expect, Nebuchadnezzar is less
than pleased with Judah’s fickle allegiance.
To make an example of them, he attacks the country, city by city, until
Jerusalem is seiged and falls in 586.
Most of the people either die or are taken captive. Only the poorest of the land remain.
The Jews
The last good king of Judah before the fall was King
Josiah. Starting when he was eight, he
reigned for 31 years and brought about much reform. He tore down idols and enforced God’s
law. But for all his efforts, he did not
undo the spiritual damage that had been done by his father, Amon, and
grandfather, Manasseh. All of his reform
did not change people’s hearts and so after Josiah’s death, the people went
back to their sinful ways. The order of
the kings that follow Josiah are as follows: Josiah’s son Jehoahaz (who reigned
for 3 months), then Josiah’s second son Jehoiakim (who reigned 11 years), then
Jehoiakim’s son, Josiah’s grandson, Jehoiachin (who reigned for 3 months), and
then finally the third son of Josiah – Zedekiah (who reigned for 11
years). These four kings (3 months – 11
years – 3 months – 11 years) all fail to see the importance of correcting the
nation’s spiritual sickness. Instead,
they go back and forth in their allegiance, hoping to benefit from whoever is
strongest.
Jeremiah
Born to a priest in the small village of Anathoth, Jeremiah
is called by God to be a prophet at young age.
He was reluctant to this call but God uses him anyway. And starts in his
twenties and ministers for over forty years, past the fall of Jerusalem. As mentioned earlier, he is a profoundly sad
prophet. God forbids him to marry and he
often weeps over the coming destruction of his people. He prophecies publically a couple times
during the reign of Josiah (chapter 1 and 11-12) and then at crucial junctures
in Judah’s history. In response to the
fall of Jerusalem he write Lamentations.
The Septuigant, the Greek translation of the Old Testament used by the
early church, starts Lamentations with “And it came to pass, after Israel was
taken captive, and Jerusalem made desolate, that Jeremiah sat weeping, and
lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem and said. . .” His sadness
extends beyond his knowledge of the future of his people however. He seems to be rejected at every turn. He is imprisoned and almost dies for his
prophecy. King Zedekiah asks for his
advice and then doesn’t take it, resulting in the fall of the city. When the poorest of the poor stay in the
land, they still will not listen to Jeremiah in spite of all their discipline
and so Jeremiah goes with them to Egypt, where he continues to plead with them
and, according to tradition, he is martyred.
Application
Jeremiah is the quintessential biblical prophet. His rejection, his unpopularity, his
sufferings, his weeping and pleading on account of sin and judgment are a slap
in the face to the million dollar preachers of today. He is living proof that “those who want to
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” His mournful attitude is a necessary balance
to the oversimplified view that Christians should always be happy. While he retains his hope in God’s
restoration and continues to rest in God’s goodness and mercy, the sinful state
of the people around him cause him much pain.
He is a great example of what we read in Ecclesiastes – “there is a time
to weep and a time to laugh.” May we be
people who learn from his example and are so moved by the tragedy of sin that
we bring God’s remedy to those who desperately need it.
The Layout and Themes of Jeremiah
The Prophecy of
Jeremiah
A little bit of outline can go a long way in Jeremiah. It is the largest book of the Bible, except
for Psalms, and so it’s easy to get lost when reading it. This is especially so if you don’t know that
Jeremiah was not written chronologically.
We are told throughout the book that Jeremiah dictated his messages to
scribe named Baruch. He evidently
ordered them according to theme and not according to time. We’ll keep our outline simply so you can
remember it for future readings of Jeremiah.
It begins with an introduction and ends with a, you guessed it, a conclusion. The introduction (chapter one) describes
God’s call of Jeremiah as a youth and his struggle to accept God’s will for his
life. The conclusion (chapter 52) is not
written by Jeremiah but is a historical appendix that reads very similarly to
the account in 2 Kings of Jerusalem’s fall.
It is a historical explanation that what Jeremiah prophesied did come in
fact come true. So a one chapter
introduction and a one chapter conclusion is easy enough to remember. The middle section is broken up into two
parts. The first deals with Judah and,
as you would expect, is longer. It goes
from chapter two to forty five. The
second deals with other nations and goes from forty six to fifty one. That section from two to forty five is quite
large, so it might be helpful to break it up further. It divides nicely into two halves, the first
focusing on God’s judgment on the nation in chapters two to twenty five, and
the second focusing on the people’s rejection of this message from chapters
twenty six to forty five. If you feel
overly depressed as you read through Jeremiah, know that there is a section
which is like a parenthesis in the book, from chapters thirty to thirty three,
called the book of consolation which focuses on the nation’s future hope and is
extremely exciting and encouraging to read.
1 –
Jeremiah’s call
2-45 –
Prophecies about Judah
God’s judgment 2-25
The People’s resistance 26-45, with a break of hope in 30-33
46-51 –
Prophecies about Judah
52 –
Historical appendix
Lamentations
In response to the fall of Jerusalem in 586, Jeremiah writes
the most depressing book of the Bible – Lamentations. Its five chapters are five dirges, or funeral
laments. Today we don’t usually write a
song to be sung at a funeral in remembrance for someone, so the very genre
itself takes some getting used to. But
when we remember that Israel’s culture was much more emotionally open than ours
(i.e. tearing clothes and putting ashes on our head to show grief), this
category of literature makes more sense.
Each dirge personifies the city as an individual, sometimes as a widow,
sometimes as Jeremiah himself to communicate the intense feelings Jeremiah
had. Each of the songs are in sets of
twenty two. The third and middle song is
three times longer than the others, so as you flip through this book you’ll
notice that the order is 22 verses – 22 verses – 66 verses – 22 verses – 22
verses. A feature that you won’t notice
is that the first four are acrostic poetry (there are 22 letters in the Hebrew
alphabet.) So if it was in English, the
first verse would starts with A, the second with B, etc. Though we can’t tell it in our English
translations, this feature would have made each of the dirges easier to
remember as well as give them each a sense of completeness – sadness from A to
Z. As with the prophesy of Jeremiah,
Lamentations isn’t entirely grief. There
is, as with the prophesy, hope in the middle – 3:22-42 with those famous words “It
is because of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.”
The Lessons and Teachings of Jeremiah
Jeremiah and Lamentations are full of the severity of sin
and the sorrow of its sentence. God sees
all their wickedness and is furious with it.
Let’s read a couple portions to get a feel for the sort of thing that is
recorded.
“Oh, that my head were
waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For
the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh, that I had in the wilderness A
lodging place for travelers; That I might leave my people, And go from them!
For they are all adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men. "And like
their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the
truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know
Me," says the Lord” (Jer. 9:1-3).
"For of old I have
broken your yoke and burst your bonds; And you said, 'I will not transgress,'
When on every high hill and under every green tree You lay down, playing the
harlot. Yet I had planted you a noble
vine, a seed of highest quality. How
then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine? For
though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is
marked before Me," says the Lord God. "How can you say, 'I am not
polluted, I have not gone after the Baals'? See your way in the valley; Know
what you have done: You are a swift dromedary breaking loose in her ways, A
wild donkey used to the wilderness, That sniffs at the wind in her desire; In
her time of mating, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not
weary themselves; in her month they will find her. Withhold your foot from
being unshod, and your throat from thirst. But you said, 'There is no hope. No!
For I have loved aliens, and after them I will go” (Jer. 2:20-25, 33-37).
The Severity of Sin
Their Hypocrisy
These verses are representative of Jeremiah’s message in
that they show the severity of sin. Sin
is a big deal to God. Remember that
Jeremiah prophesies at different situations in Judah’s history. During the reform of good King Josiah’s rule,
God saw through their hypocrisy to their evil heart. In fact, it’s in Jeremiah
that we have those solemn words about man’s condition – “the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? I the Lord
search the heart” (17:9). Though people
was themselves with soap and look good on the outside, God knows that their
heart is far from them. Though they
claim “I am not polluted” and put on a good front, God knows the real
deal.
We can never hear too much that the heart of the matter is
the matter of the heart. Ever since
Ananias and Saphira, the church has struggled with hypocrisy. God demands that our relationship is more
than skin deep. How easy it is to look the
part. To perform ceremonies. To sit and listen in church. To put up an occasional status update about
the Lord. But in reality there is not a
vital, healthy love for Jesus Christ.
That is the important question.
Not do we do what we do because “the love of Christ compels us.” When we neglect our true relationship with
the Lord and make ourselves our own covering of leaves, the world notices. And thus the constant complaint that the
church is full of hypocrites. The world
can smell a fake and it doesn’t sit well with them. But more importantly, God can see a
fake. He saw the pretense in Jeremiah’s
day. He sees the hypocrisy of today. And it sickens Him. It grieves Him. It makes him want to leave and cry all day
and night.
Their Harlotry
The seriousness of sin can be seen in the metaphor that God
uses in the verses above and throughout Jeremiah and Lamentation – the image of
harlotry. Which is worse – fornication
or adultery? As bad as they both are,
adultery is worse! For in that situation
not only is their sexual immorality, but there is a betrayal of trust and
commitment. In the same way, we could
ask, whose sin does God take more seriously – His people’s or the world’s? The answer is of course His people’s! A Christian’s drunkenness is more offensive
than an unbeliever’s and grieves the heart of God in a much deeper way because
it is a betrayal. We belong to Him! And notice the powerful use of this metaphor
by Jeremiah. Judah is like a donkey
sniffing in the air during mating time.
Her betrayal is not a one-time act, but over and over again she goes
from lover to lover. And as if this
image wasn’t strong enough, Jeremiah takes it one step further. Not only is it fornication, it is
adultery. And not only is it adultery,
its prostitution. The nation refuses to
trust in the Lord, but goes to the nations that he has forbidden because of the
financial and economic benefits they can afford.
Imagine how my wife, Anna, would feel if I told her that I
had been having an affair. Not only
would she be disappointed in my immorality, but she would feel personally
injured because of my betrayal. These
sorts of intense feelings are but a shadow of the pain that God feels when His
people leave Him for other gods.
Application
In Judah’s day, the idols were literal images of gold or
silver. In our day, the idolatry is more
subtle, but it is no less real. We read
in the New Testament that covetousness is idolatry. By putting things in the position of trust
and worship that belong to God alone, we make them idols. And God reacts to this idolatry like a
husband would to adultery. It is a big
deal. In the spirit of Jeremiah, Paul
says concerning Christians “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and
now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose
end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their
shame—who set their mind on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18-19). What a tragedy to see Christians who go
whoring after the things of this world.
It does not go unnoticed by God.
I know that things come and sometimes because of
circumstances a person cannot come to a meeting of the church. But God knows the heart and sees past the
excuses. He does not “understand the way
it is.” He knows if the reason you are
not at Bible study is because you care more about the things this life has to
offer than the Word of God. Remember the
charge in Philippians – they set their mind on earthly things. That is a cause for weeping. That is spiritual harlotry. God is very passionate about His relationship
with us and these things hurt Him deeply.
We need to take seriously the exhortations that are given to Christians
about truly giving Christ the preeminence in all things. We need to think seriously about the charge
to Christians in James 4:4 – “You adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the
world is enmity against God? Whoever
therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
The Sorrow of its
Sentence
The seriousness of sin is seen in the sorrow of sin’s
sentence. God does not simply say “What
you did hurts Me and I just want you to know that.” No, He is furious and there are serious
consequences for sin. When Jeremiah is
called to proclaim the judgment that fall on Israel, it moves him to tears.
“Let my eyes flow with
tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my
people has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow. If I go out to the field, then behold, those
slain with the sword! and if I enter the city, then behold, those sick from famine!
Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.” Jer. 14:17,
“My eyes fail with tears, My heart is troubled; My bile is poured on the
ground Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the
children and the infants Faint in the streets of the city. They say to their
mothers, "Where is grain and wine?" As they swoon like the wounded In
the streets of the city, As their life is poured out In their mothers' bosom. How shall I console you? To what shall
I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with you, that I may
comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is spread wide as the
sea; Who can heal you?” Lam. 2:11-13
Breaking the Yoke
It is our natural reaction to avoid such negative statements
of judgments. That’s the first stage of
grief, right? Isn’t it denial? But instead of denial, it moves Jeremiah to
tears. He believes that judgment will
indeed come because of sin. One of the
features of Jeremiah’s prophecy that we haven’t mentioned yet is the use of
object lessons. On one occasion, found
in chapter 28, Jeremiah wears a yoke to symbolize that the people of Judah will
be taken as prisoners and be made to work as slaves. But, as today, so it was back then, there
were those who were in a state of denial when they heard about the impending
doom of God’s judgment. A false prophet
named Hananiah took that wooden yoke and broke it Jeremiah’s presence, claiming
that God told him that within two years Judah would be free of the
Babylonians. In response, Jeremiah makes
an iron yoke to symbolize that God’s judgment is sure. When God foretells judgment, He isn’t
bluffing.
The Bowl of Figs
In fact, one of the themes in Jeremiah is that relative
peace would come by embracing God’s judgment.
In another symbolic object lesson (in chapter 24) Jeremiah puts forth
two bowls of figs. One was good and the
other terribly bad. He message was that
Judah would be like the bad figs – disgusting and good for nothing if they
tried to fight against the Babylonians.
On the other hand, they would be like the bowl of good figs if they
believed God’s message that the Babylonians would overtake them and surrender to
them. This was seen as unpatriotic and
Jeremiah was branded a traitor. But it
was God’s message.
The Hope Sandwich
There is a somber future of judgment coming because of
sin. The worst thing a person can do is
live in denial, ignoring the facts of God’s Word . What they need to do is embrace God’s
judgment and agree with the Lord that they are guilty. Acknowledging our guilt is so important
because it is only after that that we can seek for mercy. And it is only after we admit our sin and
seek mercy that God promises us His peace.
Remember than in both Jeremiah and Lamentation, in about the very middle
of both, there is a substantial section dealing with the mercy of God that
comes with repentance. Jeremiah talks
about a New Covenant (in chapter 31) that God will make with Israel in which He
will change the nation’s heart to truly love Him and thus God will establish
them as his people forever. Amidst the
doleful and gloom mourning of Lamentations, there is this section that is so
beautiful that I want to read the whole thing with you. It is in Lam. 3:21-41. We will read a few verses before (starting in
16) and a few after (till 45) so we can get something of the contrast that it
is from the rest of the book.
“He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And
covered me with ashes. 17 You have moved my soul far from peace; I have
forgotten prosperity. 18 And I said, "My strength and my hope Have
perished from the Lord." 19
remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall. 20 My
soul still remembers And sinks within me. 21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope. 22 Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your
faithfulness.24 "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore
I hope in Him!" 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul
who seeks Him. 26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the
salvation of the Lord. 27 It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him; 29 Let
him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope. 30 Let him give his cheek
to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach. 31 For the Lord will not
cast off forever. 32 Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies. 33 For He does not afflict
willingly, Nor grieve the children of men. 34 To crush under one's feet All the prisoners of the earth, 35
To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High, 36 Or
subvert a man in his cause— The Lord does not approve. 37 Who is he who speaks
and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it? 38 Is it not from the
mouth of the Most High That woe and well- being proceed? 39 Why should a living
man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins? 40 Let us search out and
examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord; 41 Let us lift our hearts and
hands To God in heaven. 42 We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not
pardoned. 43 You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and not pitied. 44 You have
covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through. 45 You have
made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.
All this to say that God does have a message for hope in
spite of our sin. But before we can get
to the message of hope we have to embrace the message of judgment, admitting
that we deserve God’s punishment. Because
only if we know there’s a problem will we sincerely call out for mercy. And only if we call out for mercy will there
be blessing.
Application 1 –
salvation
This theme applies to us on several levels. Perhaps you have never come to the place in
your life where you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior. Many people today are in that exact
situation. Like Israel of old, they
surround themselves with yes-men, false prophets who say that nothing bad is
coming down to pipe. Like Israel, they
are in for a rude awakening. God clearly
warns of judgment. He warns that there will
be the small and great perishing forever in the Lake of Fire. And He is not bluffing. A person in Israel’s day could easily say,
“there’s nothing wrong with me – I fit in with everyone else.” Ah, but that’s the problem, you fit in with
everyone else. The Bible says “the whole
world is under the sway of the wicked one.”
Like Israel, you have a choice to make.
Will you embrace God’s judgment and admit you deserve it? Or will you live in a state of denial? If you do see that you are in need of Heaven
because that’s not where you are going, you are in a good place. Because its only from there that you can
receive the savior. Getting saved is
incredibly easy from that place. After
you’ve seen the bankruptcy of your own qualifications, all you need to do is
look and live, look to Jesus Christ and live.
Trust in Him for His mercy.
Believe in Him for eternal life and you will have it, forever.
Application 2 –
Fellowship
On another level, there may be some of you who have been
convicted about being the people of God and yet betraying your relationship
with the Lord. You have seen how this
grieves the Spirit of God that lives in you and the destruction that it will
inevitably bring. The worst thing you
can do is live in denial. Sure, you can
get comfort by comparing yourself with other carnal Christians, but you are
ignoring the truth of the Word of God.
The best day to get things right with God is today. Today is the day of salvation.
Application 3 –
Service
And on yet one more level, we can look at things from
Jeremiah’s perspective. He was a man who
saw judgment, let that sink in, was moved tears, and then compelled to
action! How often do we hear about
someone who has died or listened to a funeral and have been pretty sure that that person is at that moment is in Hell? When
we sense the judgment of God, do we soothe ourselves by saying “well God alone
is the judge” or are we like Jeremiah, moved to tears? We need to be like Paul who was filled with
great heaviness and have continual sorrow in our heart for the lost. We need to be like the Lord Jesus who wept
over Jerusalem for their rejection of salvation. And like these men we need to allow the grief
of this situation to move us to action, to warn people to flee from the wrath
to come.
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