JEREMIAH

Introduction

AT A GLANCE

Author: Traditionally Jeremiah

Audience: Originally Israel, but these revelations speak to everyone

Date: 627–586 BC

Type of Literature: Prophetic literature

Major Themes: Speaking prophetic truth; the coming righteous judgment; the coming hopeful restoration; the new covenant; seeing Jesus in the book

Outline:

I.Jeremiah’s call and commission — 1:1–19

II.Prophecies before the captivity — 2:1–38:28

III.The captivity of Judah — 39:1–18; 52:1–34

IV.Prophecies after the captivity — 40:1–51:64

ABOUT THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH

You are about to encounter one of the most unique books in the Bible, a book that plunges into the depths of despair while soaring to the heights of hope. The book of Jeremiah doesn’t shy away from warnings of judgment and destruction, chronicling the fallout from Judah’s unheeded prophetic revelation-insights. It serves as a warning that the patient heart of God also judges and punishes the hardened, unrepentant hearts of people. Yet running parallel to these warnings are words of tender compassion, holding out the possibility of forgiveness, redemption, and restoration.

It was written by a man known as the Weeping Prophet, the prophet Jeremiah. Before he was even born, he was divinely chosen by God, and he longed through tears for the nation of Judah to respond to the heart of God. God commissioned him to bear a message warning of judgment. God said, “My people … have abandoned me, the Spring of Living Water, and they have dug for themselves cisterns—cracked cisterns that hold no water” (Jer. 2:13). Idolatry was the taproot that fed Israel’s rebellion, which led to their destruction. For generations, God was waiting for them to repent; his heart, overflowing with love, was ready to pour out his forgiveness and grace. But his people refused to heed his voice.

The resulting judgment was disastrous: in vivid, highdefinition, color detail, Jeremiah gives us the sordid history of the last five kings of Judah, the cataclysmic destruction of the t emple, the utter desolation of Jerusalem, and the heartrending captivity of Judah in Babylon. It is a warning for all of the eventual judgment that befalls those whose hardened hearts refuse to listen to YAHWEH’s voice and obey his decrees. And yet this prophetic work is also one of hope. For although Israel had broken her covenant with YAHWEH, leading to the city’s destruction, there was a remarkable promise: “I, the Lord, promise you that a time is coming when I will raise up a righteous Branch who will sprout from David’s lineage. He will rule as their King, and his reign will prosper with wisdom and understanding. He will succeed in bringing justice and righteousness to all” (23:5).

This “Branch” is Jesus Christ, who is from the Tree of Life, the Rod of priestly authority that budded in the Holy Place, the Branch of the Lampstand, and the Righteous One, who makes righteous before God all who believe in him. Jeremiah reveals the message of the new covenant that God makes with his people today: “ ‘This is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel when the time has come,’ declares YAHWEH. ‘I will embed my law into the core of their being and write it on their hearts and minds. Then I will truly be their God, and they will truly be my people. … From the least to the greatest, they will all know me intimately,’ YAHWEH declares, ‘for I will remove their guilt and wipe their sin from my memory’ ” (31:33–34).

Vast in its scope, enduring in its truth, the revelation given to Jeremiah is meant to pierce the hardest of hearts, reminding people that alongside God’s judgment and destruction is his enduring promise of forgiveness and redemption. The Weeping Prophet’s message will convict you and lead you deeper into the ways of God, drawing you closer to his heart.

PURPOSE

Jeremiah was called to follow King Josiah’s national reformation by calling Judah to repentance. He lived in a time of crisis, political turmoil, and national disasters. He was the evening star of the declining days of the Jewish commonwealth before being taken into captivity. YAHWEH spoke to him as a teenager and called him into his true calling—to be a spokesman for God, bearing his message of repentance and forgiveness, punishment and ultimate renewal. This message and its purpose unfolded within a broader historical context, unveiling important revelation-insights into God’s spiritual purposes for the world.

Historically, the events of the book of Jeremiah occurred during a time of remarkable change in the ancient Near East. The Assyrian Empire collapsed, and the dreaded foe from the north, the kingdom of Babylon, strengthened and extended its rule. During this period, the kingdom of Judah experienced its own cataclysmic disaster. This prophetic history is not in chronological order. Instead, it was arranged to address God’s people in the midst of their catastrophe in order to turn their hearts to repentance and offer the hope of rescue and restoration.

Spiritually, Jeremiah reveals heaven’s mercy in calling a rebellious nation back to God. Sin breaks the heart of God, but mercy triumphs! Jeremiah’s book is full of mercy. It reveals the righteous judgments of God, for God’s discipline is a demonstration of his love; it shows God’s principle of restoration; it unveils the revelation of the Branch of YAHWEH; and it prophesies the new covenant that will draw people into an intimate relationship with God, imparting a new heart and wiping clean the stains of guilt and shame.

AUTHOR AND AUDIENCE

There can be little doubt that the book bearing his name was written by the prophet Jeremiah with the assistance of his scribe, Baruch ben Neriah. Jewish tradition holds that Jeremiah also wrote the two books of Kings and Lamentations. He appears on the scene as one full of passion and emotion; Jeremiah was known as the Weeping Prophet. His writing clearly reveals his personality: he wept many tears over his nation and their refusal to repent and honor the God of glory. Perhaps no better patriotic Jew ever lived compared to Jeremiah. Even the prophet Daniel consulted the words of his predecessor, Jeremiah (Dan. 9:2).

The Lord did not permit Jeremiah to marry (Jer. 16:2). He was a priest by birth and a prophet by grace. Jeremiah unceasingly advised Jerusalem to surrender to Babylon, so much so that he was considered a traitor to his nation. He suffered much for the sake of his people. In fact, because of the depths of his sufferings, Jewish tradition holds that Jeremiah is the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. His ministry endured for almost fifty years until he was finally carried off to Egypt and stoned to death at Tahpanhes.

Jeremiah lived about one hundred years after the prophet Isaiah. There were several prophetic voices in Israel and Judah during the lifetime and ministry of Jeremiah, including Zephaniah, Habakkuk (Hab. 2:1), Nahum, Obadiah, Ezekiel (Ezek. 3:17–21; 33:7), and Uriah (Jer. 26:20–23). Additionally, Jewish tradition states that Jeremiah and Zechariah were contemporaries with an overlapping ministry of a few years. God always gave both warning and comfort to his people through his prophets. When Nebuchadnezzar finally destroyed Jerusalem, Jeremiah would have been about fifty-seven years old. He likely lived several decades after that.

Jeremiah pleaded with the people of Judah and Jerusalem to repent of their idolatry and turn from their wicked ways, lest YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, rise up against them with promised punishment. He called them back to faithfulness in their devotion and dependence on YAHWEH. The book also served as a clarion call to subsequent generations of God’s people, with a warning to repent of their sins, a call to worship the one true God, and a reminder of the reality and possibility of YAHWEH’s judgment. It also gave them hope that God’s punishing hand still offered them grace, forgiveness, and redemption while anticipating a period of ultimate renewal through the restoration of Jerusalem and a new covenant between God and his people. We join that same audience, sitting in the same prophetic utterances. These revelation-insights still speak to us with warning and hope.

MAJOR THEMES

Speaking Prophetic Truth. Someone has described prophecy as not only fore-telling events to come but also forth-t elling truth today. As much as he articulated YAHWEH’s plans for the future, Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry pronounced moral truths in the present, confronting people with God’s Word to bring about radical change. In Jeremiah, we find a bold and brave, fierce and fiery, courageous and caring articulator of God’s plans for his people, not only to those in power—t he kings, priests, and prophets of Judah—but also to the regular men and women on Jerusalem’s streets. Even at the expense of his life, when a mob threatened to murder him, Jeremiah spoke truth to power, resting in YAHWEH’s promise that he was “always with you to rescue you” (1:19).

Our world is desperate for a new generation of forth-tellers to proclaim in our day the same moral truths found in this prophetic book, doing what Jeremiah did with his people: urging them to worship YAHWEH alone, orient their lives around his truths, submit to his...