This week we turn our attention to Jeremiah - sometimes called "the weeping Prophet". Of all the Prophets, Jeremiah - in my opinion - is the easiest to understand...which doesn't mean his message is easy to take in. But, to understand his message, a little history is in order.
Israel - the 10 northern tribes - had one King after another who proved unfaithful to God's Covenant. They disobeyed with religious idolatry that descended into despicable actions such as burning children as sacrifices, cultic prostitution, and injustice towards the poor. Isaiah (read blog before) had prophesied warnings and judgement against the Northern Kingdom; and sure enough, in 722 b.c. Assyria attacked the northern Kingdom and took many of the Israelites into Captivity. The only part of the nation left was the southern Kingdom that was called Judah and was centralized in Jerusalem.
You would think that people in Judah would notice when this unfaithfulness to God in the North led to judgement, captivity and exile, but they didn't. Instead, Judah's Kings were marked by vacillation. Sometimes they were godly Kings like Hezekiah and Josiah, and sometimes they were evil Kings like Manasseh. This is where Jeremiah enters the scene. God called Jeremiah to prophesy into Judah's evil...to warn them that if they persisted in unfaithfulness to God's word, they certainly would experience Judgement.
Look at the commission God gives to him to speak forth both impending judgement & future Hope.
Jeremiah 1:4-5 & 9-10
4 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
70 years of Captivity...this is Jeremiah's message. Do you remember how I started this blog? Jeremiah was the weeping Prophet. "Jesus wept" is the shortest verse in Scripture. They had a lot in common. Both saw the unfaithfulness to God as the downfall of the nation. Rembrandt captured the sadness and heaviness of Jeremiah's heart in a famous painting:
Yet when all seems to be doom and gloom without any hope, Jeremiah hears God once again and this time God promises a New Covenant.
In the midst of sorrow, judgement, exile, God speaks towards the future...Sin will never win, God will overcome Sin through another means...
Of course we know where this goes... the promise of the New Covenant is fulfilled in Jesus. He is the fulfillment of the New Covenant.
If you want to see a fuller video of Jeremiah, watch this:
Israel - the 10 northern tribes - had one King after another who proved unfaithful to God's Covenant. They disobeyed with religious idolatry that descended into despicable actions such as burning children as sacrifices, cultic prostitution, and injustice towards the poor. Isaiah (read blog before) had prophesied warnings and judgement against the Northern Kingdom; and sure enough, in 722 b.c. Assyria attacked the northern Kingdom and took many of the Israelites into Captivity. The only part of the nation left was the southern Kingdom that was called Judah and was centralized in Jerusalem.
You would think that people in Judah would notice when this unfaithfulness to God in the North led to judgement, captivity and exile, but they didn't. Instead, Judah's Kings were marked by vacillation. Sometimes they were godly Kings like Hezekiah and Josiah, and sometimes they were evil Kings like Manasseh. This is where Jeremiah enters the scene. God called Jeremiah to prophesy into Judah's evil...to warn them that if they persisted in unfaithfulness to God's word, they certainly would experience Judgement.
Look at the commission God gives to him to speak forth both impending judgement & future Hope.
Jeremiah 1:4-5 & 9-10
4 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
This is Jeremiah's ministry...to speak to the Kings, the people of Israel, and the nations too...that God will either "pluck up, break down, destroy, overthrow"...or "build and plant"...it depended upon them.
Jeremiah spent his life appealing to them, warning them, and accusing their leaders and priests of being corrupt and unjust. They didn't care. Finally Jeremiah hears God speak to them that enough is enough. Two passages here:
Jeremiah 7:1-4
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.
4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.
4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
Inside the Temple they appealed to God, but outside the Temple they were wicked people.
Jeremiah 7:8-15
8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,
10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?
11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.
12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.
13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,
14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.
8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,
10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?
11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.
12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.
13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,
14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.
God tells Jeremiah to deliver a message - the Babylonians will conquer the nation, killing many, and taking into captivity most of the rest! As you can imagine it didn't go over well.
Jeremiah was arrested, put into a cistern at one time, and repeatedly treated with scorn by both leaders and the religious establishment.
Jeremiah 25:3, 8-11
3 “For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened...
3 “For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened...
8 “Therefore
thus says the LORD of hosts:
Because you have not obeyed my words,
9
behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the
LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the
king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its
inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to
destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.
10 Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
11 This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
10 Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
11 This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
70 years of Captivity...this is Jeremiah's message. Do you remember how I started this blog? Jeremiah was the weeping Prophet. "Jesus wept" is the shortest verse in Scripture. They had a lot in common. Both saw the unfaithfulness to God as the downfall of the nation. Rembrandt captured the sadness and heaviness of Jeremiah's heart in a famous painting:Yet when all seems to be doom and gloom without any hope, Jeremiah hears God once again and this time God promises a New Covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
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.”
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.”
In the midst of sorrow, judgement, exile, God speaks towards the future...Sin will never win, God will overcome Sin through another means...
Of course we know where this goes... the promise of the New Covenant is fulfilled in Jesus. He is the fulfillment of the New Covenant.
If you want to see a fuller video of Jeremiah, watch this:
This next Sunday I'll be teaching Jeremiah's story in the context of our series on the whole Bible story, "From Garden to Glory"... You can catch the message (and all of this series) on our church's website - www.nlfellowship.org- under the "Teachings" tab. Your comments, questions, or thoughts are always welcome (usually :)
Peace
Peace
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