articlesforchristians

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Before you were born I sanctified you I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

• Author
  • Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah
  • Jeremiah was told not to marry or have children
    • Jeremiah 16:1-2 “The word of the LORD also came to me, saying. You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”
  • Called the “Weeping Prophet
• Date
  • 626-586 B.C.
  • Jeremiah’s ministry started during the reign of Josiah, King of Judah. He delivered prophecies throughout the reigns of Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, continuing his work even after the fall of Jerusalem.
• Theme
  • Failure to repent will lead to destruction
    • Jeremiah 2:19 Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and the fear of Me is not in you,” Says the Lord GOD of hosts.
    • John 12:48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.
    • The book of Jeremiah has more words in it then any other book. It has at total word count of approximately 788,280.
• Purpose
  • The book of Jeremiah is filled with warning, guidance, and hope. It warns of the coming destruction due to Judah’s refusal to repent, offers instructions to the Jewish people taken into Babylonian exile, and shares a hopeful message about the restoration of Jerusalem and the arrival of the Messiah.
• Content
  • The call of Jeremiah: Jeremiah 1:1-19
    • Jeremiah 1:5-10 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I sanctified your I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Then said I: “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” But the LORD said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,” For you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD. Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”
  • The condition of Judah: Jeremiah 2:1-6:30
    • Jeremiah 2:2-5 “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying. Thus says the LORD: I remember you, the kindness of your youth, The love of your betrothal When you went after Me in the wilderness, In a land not sown Israel was holiness to the LORD, The firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; Disaster will come upon them,” says the LORD. “Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel “Thus says the LORD: “What injustice have your fathers found in Me That they have gone far from Me, Have followed idols, And have become idolaters?
  • The temple, law, and covenant: Jeremiah 7:1-12:17
    • Jeremiah 7:2-3 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
    • Jeremiah 7:28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
  • Jeremiah 11:6-8 Then the Lord said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do: but they did them not.
    • “imagination” or “Dictates” is how it is written in the New King James Version.
      • This word comes from שְׁרִירוּת shᵉrîyrûwth, sher-ee-rooth’; from H8324 in the sense of twisted, i.e. firm; obstinacy:—imagination, lust.
        • it means stubbornness, hardness, firmness
      • This word is found ten times in the Bible. Eight of the ten are in the book of Jeremiah referring to Israel’s refusal to respond to God’s warnings.
  • The certainty of captivity: Jeremiah 13:1-18:23
    • Jeremiah 13:19 The cities of the South shall be shut up, And no one shall open them, Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it; It shall be wholly carried away captive.
  • The confrontation of leaders: Jeremiah 19:1-28:17
    • Jeremiah 25:11-12  And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
  • The promise of restoration: Jeremiah 29:1-33-26
    • Jeremiah 29:10.11(NKJV) For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
  • The kingdom falls: Jeremiah 34:1-29:18
    • Jeremiah 39:1-2 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem, and besieged it. In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the city was penetrated
  • The trip to Egypt: Jeremiah 40:1-45:5
    • Jeremiah 42:10-17 If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the Lord: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land. But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the Lord your God, Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell: And now therefore hear the word of the Lord, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there; Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die. So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
  • The word to foreign nations: Jeremiah 46:1-51:64
    • Judgment on
      • Egypt
      • Philistia
      • Moab
      • Ammon
      • Damascus
      • Babylon
  • The fall of Jerusalem reviewed: Jeremiah 52:1-34
    • Jeremiah 52:4-5  And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
• Christ in the Book of Jeremiah
  • The lifestyle of Jeremiah was similar to that of Jesus. Jeremiah is considered a type of Christ in the Old Testament.
    • Jeremiah was accused on political treason, so was Christ
    • Jeremiah was tried, persecuted, and imprisoned for the words he spoke
    • Jeremiah and Jesus both foretold the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and their own people rejected them
    • Jeremiah wept with compassion over the people of Israel
      •  Luke 19:41-44 As He (Jesus) approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it [and the spiritual ignorance of its people], ⁴² saying, “If [only] you had known on this day [of salvation], even you, the things which make for peace [and on which peace depends]! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For a time [of siege] is coming when your enemies will put up a barricade [with pointed stakes] against you, and surround you [with armies] and hem you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and they will level you to the ground, you [Jerusalem] and your children within you. They will not leave in you one stone on another, all because you did not [come progressively to] recognize [from observation and personal experience] the time of your visitation [when God was gracious toward you and offered you salvation].”
    • Jeremiah was mistreated yet chose to forgive