The Days of Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:1 KJV 1900

1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

Jeremiah lived in the later days of the divided kingdom

Assyria and Babylon were the big powers of the day around them. Assyria to the north and Babylon to the east

Strife between Assyria and Babylon let Judah have a small period of reprieve from invasions and such, so they had a bit of a peaceful period

This was actually useful to Judah, because Josiah found the old dusty scrolls in the temple

2 Kings 22:3–13 KJV 1900

3 And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying, 4 Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people: 5 And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord: and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the Lord, to repair the breaches of the house, 6 Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. 7 Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully. 8 And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord. 10 And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. 11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. 12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king’s, saying, 13 Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

We can see here that Jeremiah’s dad was involved in this story and was actually the one who found the scrolls

Jeremiah would be a prophet around the time that Judah was carried into babylonian captivity

Jeremiah was young when he started prophesying, as stated in chapter 1:

Jeremiah 1:4–10 KJV 1900

4 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. 6 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. 7 But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. 8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. 9 Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. 10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

in v5 we see the sovereignty of God, how He is over all, and like how we talked about recently, God has His plans and will for everyone

we see that Jeremiah was to have a special role in Israel/Judah’s history

v6 - Jeremiah was young when God called him to be a prophet, and we see that he was kind of vervous, or felt unprepared for the task

when you look at the hebrew behind “child” in this verse, he was seemingly around an adolescent type of age, perhaps a young adolescent

regardless of how young or old we are, often we feel unprepared for doing God’s work

you may think, “I’m not smart enough, or I don’t think well enough, or I don’t speak well enough”

example: sometimes a couple will say, “we want to have children, but we want to wait until we have enough money or we’re prepared enough”

but sometimes when people have this attitude, they never feel like they’re prepared enough

or maybe by the time they have prepared enough, too much time has passed by for them to be able to have children

so while they were waiting to get to a point where they felt good enough to do it, so much time and life has passed them by

so we don’t want to get caught up in this thinking, “well I’m not prepared enough” and by the time you do feel like you’re prepared enough practically all your life has passed you by

Sometimes, you just need to jump in and act now, life is short, and the more we can do God’s work on earth the better

there are actually a good bit of examples of people who said things like this in the Bible

moses said this, and look at the things God accomplished through him

gideon said “I’m just a regular dude, how can God use me in this great way?”

the prophet Amos was just a regular farmer from the northern kingdom, not expecting or thinking about being a prophet

Peter certainly didn’t expect to be used the way he was

Paul was actively against Christianity, he certainly wasn’t expecting to be used in such a way

v7-8 - God says “Go do the work that I’m giving you, and you don’t have to be afraid, because I’m going to be with you”

what better blessing could Jeremiah have than to have God with him? and we know that God would keep his promises throughout Jeremiah’s life

we talk about what a great blessing Jeremiah had, but it’s a blessing that we have as well

not only do we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us everywhere we go, but God knew us before we were born as well

the fact that God cares about each and every one of us on an individual level is truly amazing, as just right now there are over 6 BILLION people in the world

v10 - we see here some foreshadowing of what Jeremiah’s message would be, that he was going to warn of Judah’s destruction for departing from God and His ways

Jeremiah 1:11–19 KJV 1900

11 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. 12 Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. 13 And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north. 14 Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. 16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. 17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. 18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. 19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.

v11 - almond tree -

“The Hebrew used here (shâkêd) is not the ordinary word for an almond tree, but a poetical expression, meaning that which is awakening, and referring to the blossoming of this tree as taking place while others are still in their winter sleep.”

The almond, blossoming in January, is the first to "wake" from the sleep of winter.

so what we see is that while the nation of Judah is consumed with idol worship and generally being far from God, there is one who stick out among the crowd, as in Jeremiah

additionally, there is about to the dawn of a new time, or a new era, in Judah’s history

v12 - God will hasten to perform His Word which He had given to Jeremiah

v13 - Jeremiah sees a “seething” pot, or a boiling pot of water, the face of which is in the north

so it’s saying he’s looking north, and there is the face of it

so when we think about what will later happen in Judah’s history, the invasion from the Babylonians happened from the north

we see this confirmed in v14...

v14 - so we see a clear Word from God telling of what’s going to happen for Israel having fallen away from God

v15 - so God says the kings from the north will come, and be in Jerusalem and sit on his throne

back in these days, kings would sometimes travel with, and sometimes even fight with, their armies

when they traveled with their army, they had a “mobile throne” that they would ride upon or be carried upon *SHOW PICTURE*

v16 - we know that ultimately, God WILL punish sin, sin is an affront to an all loving God. Israel was rebelling against the God who had saved them so many times

we think about America today, America largely had been a Christian nation for many years, and God had been with America

America was very blessed in many ways and we see that throughout history

we have had lots of scientific achievement, we’ve had lots of advantages when it came to not being destroyed in war, we’ve had prosperity

but if we look at the last few years, all this has started slowing down

as soon as America started falling away from God, things started getting worse and worse

whether it be because people are not held back from destructive behavior, or any other reason, as sin has went up, America has started to decline

So America is very quickly heading to the very same place that Judah was at in the story of Jeremiah

Israel had been greatly blessed by God and many great things had happened there, but when they fell away from God, they were destroyed and carried off to babylon

America had been greatly blessed by God, and now we are starting to fall away from God, and God sees this happening, and there will be consequences for the evil that’s going on

v17-19 - but God had called Jeremiah to stand up in the age of sin that he lived in

he was a diamond in the rough, so to speak,and even though it may have been uncomfortable, or it may have been unpopular, he was called to deliver God’s message

think about us in the world today, we have all been called to deliver God’s message in an increasingly sinful world

but just because we may be in the minority or we may be unpopular, it doesn’t mean anything

Just like Jeremiah in his day, we in our day need to stand up in the midst of the evil in this world, we need to stand up and fight for the right thing in this world

an increasingly sinful world needs the Word of God more than ever

Just like Jesus said that He came to deliver His message to the “sick”, that’s what we need to do as well

this world is “sick”, they are really in need of the light of Christ, His love, His message, His mercy, His forgiveness

and who else is going oto give it out to the world if not for the believers

someone has to do it, and we are the believers, there is a lot of work to do, and not so many people to do it

so each and every one of us need to get on it

we need to be like Jeremiah, and go out there and just do it

whether we feel like we are a good enough speaker or not, whether we feel like we can think clearly enough or not, whether we feel like we know absolutely everything about the Bible or not

God’s message of salvation is simple, and each and every one of us are capable of delivering it to the world, to people we know, to people on the street, whomever

Just like Jeremiah spoke up in the midst of sin in his own day, so we need to speak up today.