Introducing..... Jeremiah. The Pilgrims Guide to the Bible No. 39

The problem with the Book of Jeremiah is that it does go on a bit!

At 52 chapters, only the books of Psalms and Isaiah can beat Jeremiah on length. Psalms is a songbook, whilst Isaiah can be divided into easily defined sections. But Jeremiah is a difficult book to divide into any useful framework. The prophet offers us his lifetime’s collection of prophecies, delivered over a period of forty years, with a fair amount of repetition, not necessarily arranged in any logical order.

The other problem with Jeremiah is that he does have a reputation for being something of a moaner and complainer. Still today, we use his name to describe someone who is pessimistic, always expecting the worst possible outcome. His questioning of God in chapter 12 seems to highlight this attitude:

But I want to ask you about some things that don’t seem right. Why are wicked people successful? Why do people you cannot trust have such easy lives? You have put these wicked people here like plants with strong roots. They grow and produce fruit. With their mouths they say that you are near and dear to them, but in their hearts they are really far away from you. But you know my heart, Lord. You see me and test my mind. Drag the evil people away like sheep to be killed. Choose them for the day of slaughter. How much longer will the land be dry? How long will the grass be dry and dead? The birds and the animals of this land have all died,and it is the fault of the wicked. But they are saying, “Jeremiah will not live long enough to see what happens to us.” (Jeremiah 12:1 – 4)

But although Jeremiah did have some hard things to say to his compatriots, there are also some significant ‘high points’ in his writing, and some very well-known verses of encouragement.

‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord. ‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the Lord. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’  (31:31-34)

Who was this Jeremiah, who had such a long career?

‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as prophet to the nations.’ (Jeremiah 1:5)

Jeremiah can have had no doubt as to his calling. He was set apart by God to bring His word to the people of Judah. His task was never easy. How badly he must have needed to remember this sense of vocation when faced with the trials of his ministry.

Jeremiah came from Anathoth, a small town, about two miles north of Jerusalem. He was working during the final years of the kingdom of Judah, during the time when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was attacking the kingdom, culminating with the sack of Jerusalam, and the deportation of most of the population to Babylon. These were hard years – hard for the nation, and hard for poor old Jeremiah. He was living during the final years of the nation of Judah.

After the death of Solomon, the kingdom divided into two: Israel in the north, capital Samaria, Judah in the south, capital Jerusalem. The nation of Israel was a sorry tale of apostacy and degeneration, which was finally brought to an end when the Assyrians conquered Israel, and led the entire nation away into exile and captivity, from which Israel never recovered. All this happened in the year 722BC. The nation of Judah staggered on for another 136 years, until Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon sacked Jerusalem, and the people of Judah were also taken into captivity. The nation was no more.

Jeremiah was active for the last 40 years of the kingdom of Judah. His prophecies cover the reigns of five monarchs, He was born towards the end of the reign of King Manasseh, the most evil and godless of all of Judah’s monarchs. Not only did Manasseh turn from the Lord, but he reintroduced the worst excesses of pagan worship – establishing altars to the false god Baal, including pagan priests, and even condoning child sacrifice.

Jeremiah was first called to prophecy during the reign of Manasseh’s son, Josiah. He was the last ‘godly’ king of Judah. It was during his reign that the Book of Deuteronomy was found in the Temple, and Josiah immediately set about a thorough reform of the nation’s morals and worship. At this stage Jeremiah would undoubtedly have been one of the voices adding his support to the reform movement. The first twelve chapters of Jeremiah can probably be dated to his reign.

Josiah was killed by the Egyptians at the Battle of Megiddo, and was succeeded by his son, Jehoahaz, who lasted just three months before being deposed by the Egyptian Pharaoh, Neco, who then installed his brother, Jehoiakim in his place. His eleven-year reign turned out to be an evil time. To compound his internal problems, he was forced to pay exorbitant tribute to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. On his death, his son, Jehoiachin reigned for three months before the siege of Jerusalem and his deportation (597BC), along with the entire ruling class, to Babylon. Finally, Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, reigned for the last ten years of Judah’s existence, as a Babylonian puppet before Nebuchadnezzar’s second siege and the final destruction of Jerusalem (587BC).

Jeremiah himself did not go to Babylon but remained behind with a small ‘remnant’ of the people. Later, however, he was compelled to flee to Egypt with a group of zealots who had murdered the Babylonian Governor of Jerusalem. Here he died a lonely death.

It is against this troubled political background that we must read the prophet’s writings.

But Jeremiah didn’t just bring “The word of God”, he was obliged to live out his message in some very dramatic ways. As an object lesson to Judah, he was not allowed to marry (16:2). Because of his radical message of God’s judgment through the Babylonian invasion, he was constantly coming into conflict with the monarch, and the false prophets who surrounded the royal court.

·  He was threatened in his home town of Anathoth (11:21-23), by people who didn’t want to receive his message.

·  He was tried by the priests and prophets in Jerusalem, who threatened him with death (chapter 26).

·  He was put in stocks (20:2-3).

·  He bought a field when the land was being conquered by the Babylonians – the worst possible time to invest in property (chapter 32)

·  He was thrown into a cistern (chapter 38).

What did Jeremiah say? 

Most of the book consists of a series of prophecies that are difficult to locate or to date. What we have in this book is Jeremiah’s lifetime’s collection of work, organised by his faithful scribe, Baruch. Most of the writing is addressed to the nation of Judah, but there are sections, towards the end of the book, which speak to the surrounding nations as well. They are not arranged in any particular chronological order.

The basic message is clear: obedience to God is the only way to escape calamity. Judgment will come – the nation has strayed too far from God, but the promise of restoration is still there.

Chapter 2 sets the scene. The people, who in the past had so faithfully followed after God, had forsaken their devotion to Him, and gone off after false gods, which offered only a useless alternative as a life choice.

‘My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.’ (2:13).

The consequence of their sin was stark: punishment.

‘Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,’ declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty. (2:19).

Chapter 3 dates these early prophecies to the reign of Josiah - the last God-fearing king to sit upon Judah’s throne. But it appears that the nation’s repentance was only skin deep. It lacked sincerity. The lesson is that repentance must be genuine.

‘If you will return to me, O Israel, return to me,’ declares the Lord. ‘If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ then the nations will be blessed by him and in him they will glorify.’ (4:1-2).

But it is a big ‘if’. The prophet goes on to warn that judgment is on its way.

‘Put on sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us.’ (4:8)

These are fierce chapters of condemnation. Neither amongst the ordinary people, nor amongst the leaders could a single person be found who followed the way of the Lord. The consequence of all this was that punishment had to come:

‘And when the people ask, ‘Why has the Lord done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.’ (5:19)

In chapter 7, Jeremiah turns his attention upon the Temple, which he likens to ‘a den of robbers’ – a phrase which Jesus himself picks up and quotes when he himself cleanses the Temple. Their burnt offerings are of no value.

 ‘For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.’ (7:22-23)

The prophet continues in similar vein – offering rebukes and warnings. In all this, his single-minded message is one of warning for failure to follow God, and a call for virtuous and godly living.

‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight’, declares the Lord. (9:23-24)

Chapter 11 brings us to the continuing theme of the covenant. He quotes the original terms of the covenant between God and the nation:

“Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. ⁵ Then I will fulfil the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey”– the land you possess today.’ (11:4-5).

Alas! The people had failed to keep their side of the covenant:

But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.”’(11:8)

Perhaps, this is Jeremiah’s response to the discovery of the book of Deuteronomy in the Temple during Josiah’s reign. The prophet contrasts the Lord’s call to obedience under the terms of the covenant to the sin and rebellion of the nation. The theme of woe continues in the following chapters, with Jeremiah often using illustrations from everyday life to show how the Lord will chasten his people.

Jeremiah’s Object Lessons

Throughout the book, Jeremiah is involved in a number of symbolic actions that illustrate his message.

·      The almond rod (1:11-12) – a pun on the Hebrew word for almond, which means ‘watching’, (but which gets completely lost in translation). The Lord is watching for His word to be fulfilled.

·      A boiling cauldron (1:13) – a sign of disaster being poured out over the land.

·      A linen belt (13:1-7) – the prophet was told to bury a belt and leave it to rot – a symbol of the rottenness of people who refuse to heed the word of the Lord.

·      A smashed wineskin (13:12-14) – a message to the kings, priests and prophets. They will be smashed for their failure to live as God’s people.

·      The pot (18:1-6) – not only can the Lord mould His people like the potter working on his wheel, but also, (19:1-15), a baked pot can be smashed just like an ungodly city can be destroyed.

·      The baskets of good and bad figs – representing the good exiles, who the Lord would care for and bring back to the land, whilst the poor figs represent King Zedekiah and the dissolute people who remain in exile.

·      The yoke and cross bars (27:1-15) – a warning that the nation would need to submit to the yoke of bondage under Nebuchadnezzar, or else face punishment.

·      The field at Anathoth (32:6-15) – despite the imminent exile, Jeremiah invests in a piece of real estate, as a sign that the exile will come to an end and fields and vineyards will once more be bought and sold.

·      The buried stones (43:8-13) – now in exile in Egypt, Jeremiah is told to bury some stones as a sign that even Egypt will submit to Nebuchadnezzar’s rule. There will be no escape.

·      The book thrown into the Euphrates (51:59-64) – Jeremiah commands that a scroll which he sends with the exiles to Babylon should be thrown into the Euphrates as a sign that even mighty Babylon would eventually be destroyed.

In addition to these signs of prophetic symbolism, Jeremiah suffered for his message. He was beaten, received death threats, and was even thrown into a muddy cistern, and only dragged out when close to death. He also had to watch whilst the king, (Jehoiakim), burnt the scroll with his prophecies inscribed upon it, and then he patiently sat down with his scribe, Baruch and wrote them all down again. It was no easy life, being a prophet!

A Message of Hope

Despite the endless gloomy predictions that we find in Jeremiah, there is also a promise of redemption, and the hope of the promise of the Messiah, described as ‘The Righteous Branch’.

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up for David^[ a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior. (23:5-6)

He looks forward to the end of the exile, in a passage that can be interpreted, not just as the end of the Babylonian exile, but which also anticipates the end of an even greater Diaspora. Small wonder if Israelis today apply it to the creation of modern day Israel:

‘This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” ‘ (29:10-15)

In chapter 31, this hope is expressed in terms of the covenant relationship between God and mankind, when Jeremiah writes of a new covenant relationship (31:31ff – see the Pilgrim’s Guide to the Bible No. 5). The Lord will not desert His people. The Messiah will come.

 Warnings to the nations

The later chapters of Jeremiah (46-51) concern prophecies and warnings to the nations around Judah. All nations will be judged by how they have behaved. The warning is clear – the Lord is God of all the earth. No one can escape His judgment. Chapter 52 concludes the book with a brief narrative, describing the fall of Jerusalem.

And finally….

Without a doubt, Jeremiah is a serious book and a solemn read. It is best read in small sections, as indeed it was first delivered to the people of Jerusalem. He was a man who quite literally lived out his message, throughout his entire adult life. He brought grave warnings to the people of his own time, which speak across the centuries to us today. But with those warnings come some immense promises. The Lord offers to all people the promise of salvation. Our challenge is to be open to the possibility of being moulded by God, and to allow Him to fashion us into his people.

‘Like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in my hands.’ (18:6)