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RETURN TO SYLLABUS

JEREMIAH
Lesson #01
INTRODUCTION

• The book of Jeremiah is one of the major prophetic writings of the Old Testament along with Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
  • However, the book of Jeremiah is most unusual from the other books of prophecy.
  • Usually the message of the prophet was of maximum importance and the prophet did not tell us much about himself in order not to detract from the message from God. Jeremiah tells us a lot about himself which makes his book somewhat autobiographical. Why did Jeremiah do that?
    • The call from God to be a prophet was an all-consuming call. It was not to be a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job. Instead it was a calling to give all of your life for the Lord’s use, twenty four hours a day/seven days a week.
      • That calling included your family.
      • That calling included your local community.
      • The calling sometimes included acting out the message and not just speaking it.
      • The calling included one’s clothing so as to appear different from the ordinary people. (John the Baptist of the New Testament is an example.)
    • The call from God to be a prophet was a sacrificial life. The life of a prophet was not easy for they were often ostracized, persecuted, and killed by their own people that did not like God’s message.
    • Jeremiah took his calling seriously. He felt the feelings that God had for His people.
      • Jeremiah writes about his life because his personal life was profoundly affected by his messages from God. Therefore, we can learn about the prophet’s life as well as discern God’s feelings for His people.
      • Because his life was so personally affected and he actually felt the feelings of God, Jeremiah is called, “the weeping prophet”.
• The Author of the book:
  • You already know that the author was Jeremiah. However, Jeremiah used a scribe named Baruch.
  • Who was Jeremiah?
    • He was born a priest just north of Jerusalem in Anathoth. (Jer 1:1)
    • He was chosen by God to be a prophet before he was born. (Jer 1:5)
    • He was called to the official position of a prophet when he was a youth. (about 628 BC) (Jer 1:6)
    • He was commissioned by God. (Jer 1:9-10)
    • He began his ministry during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 BC). (2Chr 35:25)
    • He was not married because God forbade it due to the terrible times in which he lived. (Jer 16:1-4)
    • He never converted anyone to God.
    • He was rejected by his people, hated, beaten, put in stocks, imprisoned, and charged with being a traitor. (Jer 11:18-21 Jer 12:6 Jer 18:18 Jer 20:1-3)
    • His message broke his own heart to the point that he wanted to resign, but God would not let him. (Jer 19:1 Jer 20:9)
    • He was forced to go to Egypt with a remnant of Jews even though he warned them not to go to Egypt. (Jer 43:6-7)
    • He died in Egypt and tradition says he was stoned to death by the remnant in Egypt.
    • Jeremiah had a tender heart of compassion for his people.
      • Jeremiah had a gift of mercy.
      • God chose this soft-hearted man to give a very hard message of judgment.
  • The Historic Context of the book:
    • Israel was a divided nation. After King Solomon, a civil war broke the nation into two separate nations:
      • =1= The Northern Kingdom of Israel sometimes called Ephraim after the tribe that initiated the break.
      • =2= The Southern Kingdom of Judah that had possession of the city of Jerusalem.
    • Jeremiah lived in the Southern Kingdom during a time when the nation of Judah was sliding rapidly toward total destruction.
      • The Northern Kingdom of Israel had already fallen under the destruction of the Assyrian army, and its people had been deported. (721 BC)
      • Jeremiah’s messages from God prophesied of the coming destruction of the Southern Kingdom as a warning to the people.
      • Jeremiah gave his life in an attempt to stop the inevitable judgment that finally came in 586 BC with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.
    • Jeremiah’s ministry was about 100 years after Isaiah.
      • In Isaiah’s prophecies, Israel is told to resist the coming Babylonian Captivity.
      • In Jeremiah’s prophecies, Israel is told to submit to the coming Babylonian Captivity;
        • Why was there this difference between the messages of Isaiah and Jeremiah?

It is a matter of time.

The Southern Kingdom had no means to resist the Babylonian Captivity in Jeremiah’s day. Surrender was all that was left.

• • • • • The Southern Kingdom was a backsliding nation.

The word, “backsliding” occurs 13 times in Jeremiah’s messages and only 4 other times in the rest of the Old Testament.

In other words, The Southern Kingdom was too far gone to reverse the situation in Jeremiah’s day.

• • • Geographically Israel was situated between the powerful nation of Egypt to the South and the powerful emerging kingdom of Babylon to the Northeast. Egypt, worried about the emerging power of Babylon, came to aid Judah against the attacks of Babylon.
      • The Southern Kingdom was beginning to break free of foreign domination that had occurred in 730 BC when King Ahaz gave power to Assyrian control over Israel.
      • Assyria fell to Babylon (617-610 BC). Some said that now was the time to be independent before Babylon became too strong.
    • What kind of king was Josiah (639-609 BC)?
      • King Josiah began to reign when he was an eight year old child during a time when Israel was a vassal state of Assyria
      • King Josiah began a spiritual reformation from 631-610 BC when the Southern Kingdom had more freedom. The last king of Assyria died in 626 BC and the political hold on Israel loosened even more.
    • King Josiah died (609 BC) in a foolish battle with Egypt at Meggido. Jeremiah was at the funeral of his king. The death of King Josiah ended Judah’s freedom.
    • Read 2Kings 22:1-20 2Kings 23:1-30
  • The religious context of the book:
    • For many years the Israelites had ceased to worship only Jehovah and had included in their worship the gods of the Canaanites and of the Assyrians.
    • The average Israelite did not know the laws of God for the priests had ceased teaching the Torah.
  • A Broad Outline of the book:
    • God’s call to Jeremiah (Jer 1)
    • Prophecies to Judah and Jerusalem before the reign of Zedekiah. (Jer 2-20)
    • Prophecies during the reign of King Zedekiah (Jer 21-29)
    • Prophecies about the future of the Twelve Tribes and Judah’s coming captivity. (Jer 30-39)
    • Prophecies to the remnant left in the land after the destruction of Jerusalem. (Jer 40-42)
    • Prophecies during Jeremiah’s last days in Egypt. (Jer 43-51)
    • The fulfillment of the prophesied destruction of Jerusalem. (Jer 52)
• The Theme of the book of Jeremiah:
  • The prophet wrote the book to warn His people of coming judgment.
    • As we know, the people did not take seriously the messages God gave to Jeremiah.
    • Of course, God knew the people would not listen and would not repent.
  • The lesson for the New Testament Christian is very much the same.
    • God calls the Christian to be a light in this dark world in the same way He called Jeremiah. We are going to discover in this book, what our message should be in this time in which we live.
    • The Christian in the United States can see the same backsliding of a nation that Jeremiah experienced. This nation is not what it once was. We are living in the last days, when the Christian can look around and discern the times in which we live in light of Biblical truth.
      • As in Jeremiah’s day, it is a time when voices say the following:
        • “People have followed God for 2,000 years and where has it gotten us?”
        • “Look to the government to get us out of these deep problems.”
        • “If God is in control of this world, why is it in such a mess?”
        • “What we need is one man who has the wisdom to guide us.”
        • “We are God’s people on earth, blessed as a nation. He will not let anything happen to us!”
        • “We are not a decaying culture, a nation in decline. We have great possibilities ahead of us. We have not yet seen what this nation can do.”
      • The message today is the same as in Jeremiah’s day…judgment is coming upon this nation and upon the world. What must we do? How then shall we live?
  • Jeremiah’s plea was for obedience to God’s Word.
  • Key verse: Jer 7:23
  • “But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.”
• A Technical Note:
  • There are actually two versions of the book of Jeremiah that have small variations. We will see in Jer 36 why there are two versions.
    • One is the Septuagint version.
    • The other is the Masoretic text which is the basis of the King James Bible.
• Sources for our study:
  • Jeremiah and Lamentations by J. Vernon McGee
  • All the Parables of the Bible by Herbert Lockyer
  • Jeremiah, Meet the 20^th Century by James W. Sire
  • Chronology of the Old Testament by Floyd Nolan Jones
  • Matthew Henry’s Commentary by Matthew Henry

HOMEWORK
Jeremiah 1

• Preparation for Jer 1
  • Read 2Kin 22-23 2Chr 34-35 about the reign of King Josiah.
    • From what you know from the Introduction in lesson #1, why do you think that even a good king did not change the course of history?
    • What sparked the revival during the reign of King Josiah?
  • Read Jer 1:4-19
    • In what way does verse 5 tell you that the fetus inside the womb is a viable person?
• Memory Verse: Jer 1:5