Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Hopelessness or Faith?
This passage might be one of those “so what” passages of Scripture.
Jeremiah is in prison and a cousin comes with a the deal of a lifetime.
I don’t know what Jeremiah needs a piece of property for, after all, Babylon is knocking on the door and Judah is about to be destroyed.
How did Jeremiah end up in this place?
He began to prophesy during the reign of King Josiah in about 627 BC.
Josiah was one of the good kings.
There was a revival during his reign.
He worked hard to get rid of the idolatry and to focus the people on the worship of Jehovah.
Josiah died and there was a series of kings who were essentially tied to Assyria.
During this time Babylon was growing in power.
Jehoiakim ruled Judah for several years.
When he died his son Jehoichin became king.
Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon invaded Jerusalem and looted the temple and the temple treasury.
Jehoiachin and his mother were taken to Babylon.
Zedekiah his uncle became the king and he was nothing more than a puppet king.
Jeremiah prophesied more and more about the fall of Judah, warning the people that they would live in exile.
His prophecies were not well received by the king.
Despite that fact that so many of them were coming to pass, the king did not want to hear them.
Zedekiah had heard enough and had Jeremiah thrown into prison.
Zedekiah questioned Jeremiah, look at verse 3-5
As I read through those verses it dawned on me that Zedekiah was quoting what Jeremiah had said many different times.
Have you ever had a kid ask you a bunch of times for something?
They come to you again and you begin to quote what they have said so many times in the past.
Jeremiah if nothing, he was persistent with the message that God had told him to give.
Jeremiah had been faithful to God.
Zedekiah did not want to hear the message.
Zedekiah must have felt that the message from God through Jeremiah was putting him in a hopeless situation.
Based on what we’ve learned from Jeremiah, Judah and their current king was rushing headlong into exile.
Jeremiah found no joy in bringing these prophecies.
He was heart broken as we discussed last week.
That is not someone who was gleeful about what was going to happen.
Yet, he was faithful to bring the warning to Judah.
Zedekiah had enough.
I want to believe that he knew the writing was on the wall.
He was going to try one last ditch effort to save his kingdom.
If he didn’t succeed then all hope was gone.
Zedekiah questioned Jeremiah about the aweful things that he had said.
Zedekiah did not want to hear them.
They presented a horrible future.
John Guest wrote:
People like that simply do not understand the Jeremiahs of the world who are committed to obedience, truth, and moral absolutes regardless of how uncomfortable they might make us.
Have you ever felt you were in a hopeless situation?
Zedekiah and Judah was in a hopeless situation.
Jeremiah was in a seemingly hopeless situation.
I was in a training on Thursday about relapse prevention.
The presenter when he got the the nuts and bolts of the training said that we as counselors or therapists are to be purveyors of hope.
We have to sell hope to people who have no hope.
As that ran through my mind I thought about from a Christian viewpoint.
Aren’t we to be purveyors of hope?
Aren’t we to give hope to people who have no hope?
Edward Mote wrote one of the hymns in our hymn book with these words:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' name
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
Is that where your hope is this morning?
Jeremiah had placed his faith and hope in God.
The later part of our scripture text demonstrates that Jeremiah’s hope and faith were in Jehovah.
One author wrote:
He was called to “put his money where his mouth was,” to make a financial investment in the vision of the reconstruction of Jerusalem.
When spiritual reality reaches our wallet, we then know for sure that it has reached our heart and has become more than lip service.
Zedekiah was seeking a way out of a hopeless situation and he must have thought that by locking up Jeremiah that he would shut him up.
The thing is that God’s word is not going to be shut up and shut away.
Jeremiah is in the prison and he wrote:
God spoke to Jeremiah who was locked away in prison.
What a strange thing to happen to Jeremiah.
He has been prophesying that the enemy is going to conquer Judah and the people will be taken into exile.
Why would you buy a piece of property at this time?
Jeremiah is being invited to “put your money where your mouth is” or to “practice what you preach.”
God was testing Jeremiah.
Did Jeremiah believe that they would return from exile one day?
This was an opportunity for Jeremiah to prove that he believed that God’s promise was true.
God was asking him to take a step out in faith.
“Whenever you share the Word with people, expect to be tested.
This is the only way they can tell the reality of your faith.”
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What would you have said had you been in Jeremiah’s shoes?
Would you happily hand over the money for the property or would you tell him, no thanks, no is not a a good time?
Just as the Lord said.
Interesting statement.
It doesn’t seem that he was shocked or surprised that it would happen.
Thomas Rogers told the following story in a sermon he wrote about this event.
Cynthia stood before a church group in a neighboring town.
She had been invited to share the story of her faith in her successful struggle against death.
She stood before the group with a candle in one hand and a pocket lighter in the other.
She began, "Three years ago I went to the hospital for a series of tests and I was told that I had malignant cancer.
I was also told that, although it was possible for me to take chemotherapy treatments, the chance of them offering any help at all was very slim.
My doctors said treatments would most likely only bring misery to my final days.
This was, of course, very bad news for me.
I fell into a deep despair.
I was ready to give up.
All I could see was darkness.
"As I lay in this dark despair in my hospital bed, I started reading a Bible that was in my room.
I happened to turn to the book of Jeremiah.
What I read there changed my life.
It also literally gave me life.
"In the darkest moment of my life, I read about the dark times that Jeremiah and the nation of Judah experienced.
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