Intro to the Prophets: Jeremiah

Introduction

The prophet we’ll look at today is Jeremiah, the second of the so-called Major Prophets. There is hardly a prophet who had it harder than Jeremiah, which is why he is known as the Weeping Prophet. He is also traditionally attributed as the author of the small book that comes right after his called Lamentations. You can probably see the connection between the Weeping Prophet writing a book of Laments.

All-in-all Jeremiah is the epitome of why being a prophet called by God was hardly an honor.

Who was Jeremiah

1. Jeremiah was a prophet who lived during the final years of the kingdom of Judah. This was about 627-587, although 587 isn’t when we are told he died (we don’t know that detail), but 587 is when Jerusalem fell and the book abruptly ends.

2. He was the son of a priest named Hilkiah, a priest of Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. We are not told if he himself was a priest. He also was not married, which was rare at the time, but he was explicitly forbidden to do so in Jeremiah 16:1-4. Why? As an object lesson. The wives and children of the land would all die, so no need for Jeremiah to get married and have kids.

3. Unlike Isaiah, we learn a lot about Jeremiah’s personality throughout his book because there is quite a bit of narrative. He underwent alternating moods of despair and exaltation (and we’ll see why). At times he had courage, compassion, and sensitivity. Other times he was moody, introspective, lonely, had doubt, and retribution towards his personal enemies.

a. One one hand he could call for vengeance on those who attacked him. But on the other hand he could intercede passionately for God to spare his people.

b. He could stand his ground against personal attacks while also weep uncontrollably as he considered the suffering of his people.

4. If one were to judge Jeremiah by how many converts he made, he would be considered a total failure. Nobody really liked or cared for Jeremiah and they hated his message. But despite this he was faithful to God to the end, boldly proclaiming the Lord’s messages as he was commanded to.

5. In the historical books, Jeremiah lived through the time periods covered by 2 Kings 22-25 and 2 Chronicles 34-36. He lived through five kings, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. It progressively went from good to bad, with Josiah having great religious reforms, but the other kings being pretty evil.

The Background of Jeremiah

In Isaiah we saw how it was prophesied that eventually Babylon would come and capture Judah. In Jeremiah that is exactly what happened. During Jeremiah’s life, the Babylonian Empire grew and overcame the previously dominant empire the Assyrians.

When Jeremiah became a prophet, Josiah was king. A war broke out between Egypt (to the south) and Babylon (to the north). This placed Judah/Israel smack dab in the middle. Josiah tried to intervene, but was killed in battle.

With that Egypt, and their Pharoah Neco II took control of Judah and appointed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz as king. But he quickly realized that Jehoahaz was anti-Egyptian, so he was deposed of and taken captive to Egypt. His brother, Jehoiakim was made king in his place.

Egypt was eventually defeated by the Babylonians, and so Jehoiakim transferred his allegiance to Babylon. Once he felt Egypt was strong again, he rebelled against Babylon. This was a bad idea.

King Nebuchadnezzar (of Babylon), attacked Jerusalem to put down the rebellion in 598, and Jehoiakim conveniently died before any real seige happened (he may have been assassinated). His son Jehoiachin was take captive after only 3 months on the throne and remained in Babylonian captivity for over 30 years, before eventually being released.

Nebby placed Zedekiah on the throne. But he also rebelled, leading to Babylon to once again attack Jerusalem, and this time completely conquer it after 18 months. This date, in 587, is known as the day Judah fell. Jerusalem and the temple were completely destroyed. The people were taken into captivity for 70 years.

Jeremiah lived through all of this.

What to expect when reading Jeremiah

Prophecy - but in the form of warnings to repent. This was Jeremiah’s regular message, and as we’ll see it came in all sorts of forms and fashions. But, he was hardly ever listened to.

Lots of object lessons. He was a preacher after all, and so the Lord had Jeremiah go through many tasks to make a point. This will be a recurring theme in several of the prophets. A few of Jeremiah’s “object lessons”:

Forbidden to get married

A ruined linen garment (13:1-11)

Smashed Wineskins (13:1-14)

Jeremiah visits a potter

Jeremiah buys and breaks a clay jar

Jeremiah has to eat two types of figs

Jeremiah has to wear a yoke

Jeremiah has to buy a field from his cousin

Jeremiah and the Recabites

The mistreatment of Jeremiah - few prophets were as battered and bruised as Jeremiah.

Very early on there was a plot to try and kill Jeremiah (chapter 11)

On several occasions he got into fights with other false prophets and priests (and later on, kings). They tried their best to silence him.

A major part of the book is based around a sermon he was told to give in the temple courts. Ultimately he is arrested for this and put on trial. (Chapter 26)

We are also that there was another prophet of God, named Uriah, who was also captured and ultimately killed - an ominous story of how close Jeremiah himself is to death.

While Jeremiah was wearing the (wooden) yoke and preaching to the people, a false prophet named Hananiah came up and ripped it off him, declaring that the Lord would break Babylon like he broke the yoke. In response the Lord has Jeremiah tell the people, “Congrats, you will now have a yoke of iron instead.”

The king burns all of Jeremiah’s scrolls out of anger, so his assistant Baruch is forced to rewrite them.

Jeremiah is arrested and accused of treason when he tried to go take care of the field he had bought. He was kept in prison for a while.

While being held prisoner, some people who didn’t like Jeremiah came and kidnapped him and tossed him into an empty Cistern in an attempt to kill him. At the last moment some men from the king’s court intervened and saved him.

After the fall of the city, forced to go to Egypt, even though the people have been warned not to.

Messages of judgement and messages of hope

Many of the things Jeremiah had to say weren’t great. The people were sinning greatly, and God wanted them to know that he was going to punish them for their sins. And he did, by sending Babylon.

But he also had Jeremiah preach messages of hope and redemption. There are many prophecies of Christ sprinkled throughout this book. I would argue that the central prophecy (literally it’s in the middle of the book, chapter 23), is the announcement of a coming righteous king.

Jeremiah 23:5–6 ““Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

Jeremiah also predicted the people would be in captivity for 70 years. This would be influential later for Daniel, who realized he was going to experience the end of captivity.

A solid portion of the end of Jeremiah is various prophecies to not only Judah but the surrounding nations.

Like was pointed out with Isaiah, this was very unique in the ancient world. The God of one particular people group didn’t usually talk to other people groups. But Yahweh did.

This ends with a prophetic word against Babylon and the promise of their destruction (50-52). While this literally happened, Babylon in Scripture came to symbolize all things evil - from sin and death, to the ungodly nations of the world. As Christians we see these prophecies fulfilled in Christ defeating the “Babylon” of sin and death, while also having hope that he will conquer and destroy the “Babylons” we find ourselves living in (1 Peter, Revelation).

The impact of the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. It cannot be overstated just how terrifying this moment was, and Jeremiah lived through the whole thing.

He experienced the first attack by Babylon nearly 10 years earlier when that king was taken into captivity. But the seige of Jerusalem leading to its fall was terrible.

It lasted about a year, and the people slowly starved to death. Eventually the wall was breached, and as cowardly leaders do, the king and his soldiers abandoned the people by fleeing at night. They were caught, and the king was forced to watch his children slaughtered before him and then had his eyes gouged out before being carried off the prison in Babylon.

The city was razed, and the temple destroyed. The Babylonians took all the valuables out of the temple. They also deported most of the people. They only left behind the poorest of the poor to tend to the land. After the fact, one of Nebby’s guards slaughtered the remaining officials in the city.

Nebby set up a governor over the territory who was quickly assassinated by some rebels. Fearing another Babylonian conquest, the people fled to Egypt, even though God warned them not to (through Jeremiah). Despite the warning, they kidnapped Jeremiah and dragged him to Egypt too. As God said he would, judgement eventually reached the people in Egypt, too.

Conclusion

Having lived through all of these horrifying events, and shed many tears for his people, it is no surprise that Jeremiah wrote the Lamentations. This small book mourns for the loss of their city and the punishment for their sins. And yet in the midst of so much suffering and mourning, Jeremiah declares in Lamentations 3:22–24 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.””