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Running with the Horses!
: 1-
Introductory Notes to Jeremiah
I.
The Man
The name “Jeremiah” means “whom Jehovah appoints.”
Apart from this appointment by God, certainly the prophet could not have continued to minister faithfully.
He was of the priestly line and lived in the priests’ city of Anathoth.
Apparently he had some personal wealth because he was able to purchase real estate and even hire a scribe.
He was called to the ministry when but “a child” (1:4–6); this was in the year 627 B.C.
II.
The Times
Jeremiah ministered during the last forty years of Judah’s history, from the thirteenth year of Josiah (627 B.C.) to the destruction of Jerusalem and beyond (587 B.C.).
He lists the kings during whose reigns he served (1:1–3), the last leaders of the once-prosperous kingdom of Judah.
Josiah was a godly king; he died in 608 B.C.
It was during his reign that the Law was found and the temple worship restored.
Jehoahaz followed, but reigned only three months, so Jeremiah does not mention him.
Jehoiakim was next (608–597 B.C.); he was a godless man and did his utmost to persecute Jeremiah.
It was he who burned the scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecies in Jer.
36.
Jehoiachin was the next king, but he too reigned just three months before being taken captive to Babylon.
The last king was Zedekiah (597–586 B.C.); he presided over the ruin of the nation and the capture of the city of Jerusalem.
So, the Prophet Jeremiah lived to see his beloved nation go down into sin, war, and judgment; yet through it all he was faithful to preach God’s Word throughout all the lands.
When Jeremiah began his ministry, Assyria was the leading power in the world, but Egypt and Babylon were rapidly gaining strength.
In 607 B.C. the Babylonians took Nineveh and destroyed the power of Assyria.
Babylon then turned to Judah, and Judah’s “politicians” advised the king to ask Egypt for help.
Jeremiah was always against an Egyptian alliance.
He knew that Judah’s only hope was the Lord, but her sins were so great, the nation had lost the blessing of God.
Babylon finally did capture Judah and take Jerusalem (606–586).
Jeremiah wrote Lamentations to commemorate the death of the Holy City.
III.
The Message
Jeremiah’s task was not an easy one because he had to sound the death knell for his nation.
The first part of his book records several of his sermons, given in Jerusalem, in which he denounces the people, priests, and princes for their sins, especially the sin of idolatry.
In chapter 25 he announces that the nation will go into captivity for seventy years, and then return to reestablish the nation.
In chapter 31 he prophesies a “new covenant” between Jehovah and His people, not a covenant of law and works written on stones, but a covenant of love and faith, written in the heart.
In the final chapters, Jeremiah deals with the Gentile nations around Judah and tells of God’s plans for them.
One of the key words in the book is “backslide” (2:19; 3:6, 8, 11–12, 14, 22; 49:4).
The nation had turned her back on the Lord and was following false prophets who led them to worship idols.
Eleven times the word “repent” is used by the prophet, but the nation did not repent.
We read of Jeremiah weeping, so burdened was he for his fallen nation.
See 9:1; 13:17; 14:17; 15:17–18; and Lam.
1:2; 2:11, 18.
Because he prophesied the captivity and told the kings to surrender to Babylon, Jeremiah was called a traitor and was persecuted by his own people.
No OT prophet faced more opposition from false prophets than did Jeremiah (see 2:8, 26; 4:9; 5:31; 6:14; 14:13–16; 18:18; 23:9–40; 26:8–19; 27:9–16; chaps.
28 and 29).
If Judah had repented and turned to God, He would have delivered them from Babylon.
Because they persisted in their sins, the nation had to be punished, but then God promised restoration “for His name’s sake.”
Jeremiah used many dramatic illustrations to get his messages across: fountains and cisterns (2:13); medicine (8:22); a “good-for-nothing” girdle or sash (13:1–11); a clay vessel (chaps.
18–19); yokes (chap.
27); drowning a book (51:59–64).
IV.
Jeremiah and Jesus
The similarities between Jeremiah and Jesus Christ are worth noting.
Neither married (16:2), and both were rejected by their own towns (11:21 and 12:6 with Luke 4:16–30).
Jeremiah ministered under the menacing shadow of Babylon, Jesus under the shadow of Rome.
Both were considered traitors by their people.
Jeremiah was viciously opposed by the false prophets, Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees, the false leaders of His day.
Both wept over the city of Jerusalem, and both predicted its ruin.
Jeremiah gathered few disciples about him; Jesus had a small following.
Both were arrested falsely and persecuted.
Both emphasized a religion of the heart, and not merely one of outward forms and ceremonies.
It was Jeremiah 7:11 that Jesus quoted when He cleansed the temple and told the priests they had made it “a den of thieves.”
Both emphasized the new covenant in the heart (Jer.
31:31–37; Heb.
8:7ff).
In their preaching, both used striking illustrations and comparisons.
Both revealed a tender, sympathetic heart that was crushed by the wickedness of a nation that should have obeyed God’s Word.
In the end, it seemed that both were failures in their lives and ministries, but God honored them and made their work successful.
JEREMIAH 18–19
Jeremiah never saw it coming.
He was caught totally off guard.
He was like the quarterback who gets blindsided while he is looking downfield.
Or the corporate executive who suffers a hostile takeover while he is on vacation in the Bahamas.
Or the mother who hears her toddler smash a vase on the floor while her back is turned.
Jeremiah did not realize that men were plotting against him.
He was “like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter” (11:19).
THE CONSPIRACY
This portion of the book of Jeremiah reads like a spy novel.
At the end of chapter 11 Jeremiah is caught up in a web of intrigue.
The enemies plotting to assassinate him say, “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more” (v.
19b).
These conspirators were out to get Jeremiah.
They were “seeking [his] life” (v.
21).
They did not want to leave any trace of him behind.
They wanted to destroy the tree and its fruit.
In other words, they wanted to kill Jeremiah before he had any offspring, so his name would vanish from the earth.
Who were Jeremiah’s enemies?
The men plotting against him were “the men of Anathoth” (v.
21).
Jeremiah was the “son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin” (1:1).
Little wonder, then, that he was taken by surprise.
The men plotting against him were citizens of his hometown!
They were friends of the family!
Some were even members of his own household:
Your brothers, your own family—
even they have betrayed you;
they have raised a loud cry against you.
Do not trust them,
though they speak well of you.
(12:6)
Jeremiah was a despised and rejected prophet.
He was without honor in his hometown.
Why the conspiracy?
The men of Anathoth did not like Jeremiah’s preaching.
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