Making Sense of Jeremiah

It had been 100 years since Isaiah, Micah, Amos and other prophets had started warning the people of Judah and Jerusalem that judgment was coming. 100 years is a long time. People had started to think it wasn’t going to happen, or that it was some kind of spiritual judgment. When the Assyrians threatened to attack Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah, God had miraculously protected them. They firmly believed as long as the Temple stood in Jerusalem that God would magically protect them. No matter what they did. They were God’s people after all. 

Jeremiah was probably born around 646 BC. He grew up about the same time as Josiah, the eight-year-old boy King of Judah. The one who found a copy of God’s Law during Temple renovations in the 18th year of his reign, when he was 26—then led the country in reformation and tried really hard to get the people to be faithful to the Lord. At that point, Jeremiah would have already been a prophet for five years or so because chapter one says “The word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah.” 

God came to Jeremiah when he was about 20-years-old and said,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

What were you doing when you were 20? Jeremiah was having two-way conversations with God. He said he was too young and not great at speaking. This is going to remind you of when Isaiah was called to be a prophet, but God reaches out and touches Jeremiah’s mouth—says

“don’t worry about what to say, I will put my words in your mouth.” Jeremiah 1:7

Verse ten is the basic summary of Jeremiah’s ministry:

“See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:10

Tear down, destroy and overthrow but also to build up and plant something new.

Then God does a couple of beta tests to see if the transmission is working—”Let’s see if my young prophet is going to work out.” He gives Jeremiah his first vision and says, “what do you see, Jeremiah?”

Jeremiah says, “I see the branch of an almond tree.”

And God’s like, “Cool! That’s exactly what you’re supposed to see. Let’s do one more, just to make sure you’re getting the message of my word right. What do you see now?”

Jeremiah said, “I see a pot that’s boiling and tilting toward the north.”

God says, “Okay, tell me more. What does it mean?”

And Jeremiah starts talking—goes into his first prophecy.

“The Lord said to me, “From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land.” Jeremah 1:14

He has visions of kings and thrones and the gates of Jerusalem being torn down because of the people’s unfaithfulness. 

God says, “I’m going to have a bunch of these messages for you. Verse 17:

“Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.”  Jeremiah 1:17-19

Just say what I tell you to say and do what I tell you to do. Don’t be freaked out by it, and don’t be surprised when the people who hear the message are not pleased with you—God says He’s got his back. 

It’s a very interesting glimpse into how prophecy works—at least how it worked for Jeremiah.

And it was true, nobody wanted to hear his doom and gloom messages. But they didn’t think anything was really going to happen—I mean, they had the magic Temple. They were the chosen people. Other than being the most unpopular guy in town (maybe in the country) no one really paid any attention to him for a long time.

But Jeremiah kept churning out his depressing prophetic poems anyway. “Babylon is going to come and burn this place down! The people of Jerusalem are unfaithful! They’re like an adulterous woman. God is not happy with you at all. Nations will be broken down, destroyed, overthrown, by sword and famine. Faithless shepherds, turn in repentance. Stop worshiping other gods, stop sacrificing your children to idols, stop breaking the Ten Commandments—Jeremiah is all about the Ten Commandments. Day after day, year after year, he told everyone he saw, “You guys are just the worst, Babylon is coming and everything is going to be destroyed!”

But the priests, the government officials, the men and women—everyone—they just dug in and kept worshiping all the demonic Canaanite gods. I mean, they still went to the Temple and did their Jewish thing, too. But they were also going to the sex shrines and slaughtering their children on the side. So strange.

There’s this one prophecy where God says the Hebrews are unique in how completely unfaithful they are. He seems like He’s actually shocked. God says in chapter 2 that cultures don’t usually abandon their religions and change their gods. Verse 10:

“see if there has ever been anything like this: Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 2:10-12

Sometimes cultures will leave their religions behind when they stop working for them—when the culture is overwhelmed by new outside forces and the old religion gets in the way of prosperity. People are generally pragmatic and selfish, they go with whatever works. But Israel was always more successful and prosperous when they were faithful to God. It was always the same, it was when they became indifferent to God that things went bad for them. Even God seems shocked that the people turn away from Him at times of success, wealth and prosperity—that’s when they would turn to the false gods of the other nations. We’re supposed to be shocked, too.

Jeremiah’s message was a downer. It was not popular, so Jeremiah wasn’t too popular either. They called him “Jeremiah the Prophet”—so he had some respect—but they were always looking for his prophecies to be wrong so they could get rid of him.

He was pretty miserable—he’s known as the “weeping prophet.” There are several times when he interrupts his prophecies to pray these heartbreaking personal prayers. He accuses God of being unfair to him, that his ministry brought him nothing but suffering and pain. He shows us that we can be completely honest in our prayers, and confident that God hears us with compassion and grace. God always promised to be with him, even when it was hard, and He never scolded him for complaining.

The Babylonians had even heard of Jeremiah the Prophet, that he was telling the people of Judah to get ready because Babylon was coming. It was another reason people hated him —he almost seemed pro-Babylon. “Who’s side are you on, Jeremiah?” 

As bad as things were, they got a lot worse for Jeremiah when Babylon finally did show up at the gates of Jerusalem. 

The first time the Babylonians came to Jerusalem, they took all the useful citizens to Babylon. The craftsmen, the educated, the wealthy. They took King Jehoiakim and left his brother Zedekiah as a puppet king. They gave Jeremiah the choice to go with them and live in Babylon or stay with all the losers in Jerusalem. Most people weren’t given a choice but since they had heard about his pro-Babylon campaign—they probably thought he’d be just as useful in Jerusalem as he would be in Babylonia. But God wanted Jeremiah to stay in Jerusalem and keep preaching. Things were about to get a lot more miserable for him.

Like I said, all the smart and useful people were carried off to Babylon. In that first group of exiles were Daniel and Ezekiel. We’ll get to their books in the next couple weeks. These three guys were doing their thing at the same time. They were prophets during the worst time in Israel’s history. The horrific destruction of Jerusalem. The humiliating enslavement of the Jewish people, carried off to exile in Babylon. The Temple was destroyed, God’s glory left the Temple, their religion—sacrifices, feasts, festivals—all that came to an end. It seemed pretty hopeless.

These three prophets give us three very different perspectives of this time. Ezekiel is in Babylon with the exiles—he sees visions of Jerusalem and what’s going on back home. He’s like a strange cable news network covering the destruction of Jerusalem for the Jews in Babylon. Daniel sees it all from inside the palace—he becomes a trusted advisor to King Nebuchadnezzar. They both have visions of what God has in store for His people in the future that will be echoed in the book of Revelation.

[Clear] Jeremiah saw everything from the front lines. He was in Jerusalem when the Babylonian army came through the gates and took all the prominent people, put them in chains, and marched them hundreds of miles away. He was there when the puppet King Zedikiah tried to lead a rebellion by asking Egypt to help them—that went really bad. Egypt ran away and the Babylonian army surrounded Jerusalem for over a year and starved them to death. Parents were eating their own children, children were eating their parents. When King Zedikiah was captured, his entire family was murdered in front of him and the babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar ordered that Zedikiah’s eyes be torn out.

All during that time, Jeremiah was there. Sometimes preaching at the Temple. Sometimes in prison. One time he was thrown into a muddy cistern and left to die—but he didn’t. The priests were against him, false prophets were against him, the government officials were against him. Once, when he was in prison, he had a scribe named Baruch write down his prophecies and go to the King’s court and read them out loud. Zedikiah mocked him by tearing off the pages of the scroll as it was read and throwing them into the fire.

God told Jeremiah that he wasn’t to marry. He wasn’t even allowed to go to weddings or eat festive food. He wasn’t allowed to go to funerals. This wasn’t to be a time for celebrating or mourning, this was a time of judgment. It was going to be like this for a long time. 70 years. A typical lifespan. A generation. 

In chapter 29, Jeremiah writes a letter to the people who had been carried into exile in Babylon, he tells them to get used to Babylonian food and make themselves at home—they’re going to be there a while. Verse 4:

“This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:4-7

That’s probably not what they wanted to hear. This is a good message for God’s people anytime they find themselves living in a nation run by people who are hostile to God’s Word and people with faith. Like Rome in the New Testament and every nation on earth in our time. What are we supposed to do in this country that rejects Jesus and gets more hostile to the church every day? Build, plant, marry, have families—seek peace and prosperity wherever we live. Pray for God to bless whatever nation we live in because if it prospers, we prosper. 

Verse 8:

“Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD.  Jeremiah 29:8-9

There were a lot of false prophets who just told the people what they wanted to hear. There will always be false prophets who tell us what we want to hear. God’s truth isn’t usually a bunch of nice sounding words that just happen to line up with our opinions. 

Speaking of that, here’s everyone’s favorite Bible verse in its actual context, Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles continues, verse 10: 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. (and here it comes) 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. Jeremiah 29:10-11

So, the next time someone says “Jeremiah 29:11 is my life verse,” remember the context. God is speaking to the exiles in Babylon, He just told them they’re going to die there but they should try and make the best of it. In seventy years He’s going to bring their children and grandchildren back from exile. This promise for prosperity and hope is specifically for the exiles but I supposed we could loosely apply it to all of God’s people, including us. If I was to restate it the way we should hear it, it would basically sound like this, “make the best of your current situation no matter how much trouble you have in your life. Find a way to be thankful, pray for your enemies, bless those who persecute you. You have a hope and a future that you’re not going to see in this life—believe this by faith.” Sounds like something Jesus would say, doesn’t it? Somehow I don’t believe that’s what people are thinking about when they put 29:11 on their coffee mug.

He continues in verse 12:

“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.” Jeremiah 29:12-14

So, when you’re reading through Jeremiah, you get to this letter and it has the first glimmer of hope—you’re probably worn out from all the prophecies of judgment and condemnation calling for people to turn from their sin and unbelief. Thankfully, the next four chapters are some of the brightest moments about everlasting salvation found in the Old Testament. Jeremiah starts talking about a New Covenant—a new testament. Without these words from Jeremiah, people would have lost all hope. But he tells them about the Christ who is yet to come. The King of kings from the line of David who will set everything right. Grace is coming. I’m sure Jeremiah needed those words himself—he ministered in complete misery for over 40 years.

Listen to this from chapter 31, starting at verse 31:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 31:31-32

God has always looked at His relationship with His people as a type of marriage. That’s why when the people are unfaithful He considers it adultery—breaking the Ten Commandments is like cheating on God. 

Verse 33:

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:33-34

This is the new covenant, the New Testament. This is what Jesus was referring to in the Last Supper when He said, “This cup is the new testament of my blood.” On the cross, He poured out His blood to forgive all of your unfaithfulness, to forgive all your sin. “For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”

The Holy Spirit dwells within you and me, to remind us of God’s Word, His Law—it is written in our hearts so we might not sin against Him. Jeremiah told us over and over that “the heart of man is deceitfully wicked above all things” and will not lead us to God. So God is promising to send His Spirit to transform our evil hearts. Ezekiel will say the same thing, that God will replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh.

This new relationship is based on God showing us grace first, then we respond with faith—we trust in the promise of Jesus and we have a right relationship with God. We can’t earn it by being good, by keeping the Commandments, by making sacrifices, by learning about God. You can’t earn it. You have to trust that Jesus earned it for you and then offers it to you as a gift.

In Matthew 16:13, Jesus asked His disciples who the people said He was. They said there were several rumors going around and one of the biggest was that He was some kind of reincarnation of Jeremiah the Prophet. Why would they think that? What was it about Jesus that reminded them of a very sad preacher from 600 years ago? Maybe it was His strong zeal for God and His righteousness. Maybe it was the way He was rejected by the authorities, in spite of the evidence that the power of God was clearly with Him. Maybe it was the way He condemned the leadership of Jerusalem and predicted the city’s destruction—including the Temple. Probably all those things. Jeremiah has come to be known as the prophet of the New Covenant that was established when Jesus the Messiah came.

They say it always seems the darkest just before the dawn, it looked that way to Jeremiah. He warned that God’s judgment was coming and the people ignored him at first, then they doubled down on their sin—made it worse. 

The book ends with Jerusalem in ruins and the people coming to Jeremiah and asking him to pray for God to have mercy on them. So Jeremiah prays and God tells him to tell the people to stay in Jerusalem and He will bless them and protect them—don’t run off to Egypt. Trust in the Lord.

Guess what they did? Yeah. It doesn’t end happily ever after. They tie up Jeremiah and force him to go to Egypt with them like a bunch of punks. Jeremiah dies there preaching the Word of the Lord to those hard hearted unfaithful people.

That’s pretty much where we are these days, too. The end of the world is coming, the judgment of God, and the people rage against Him. They blaspheme and curse His Word. They call His truth lies and His light darkness. These are worse days than Jeremiah saw because now people are rejecting the promised Savior that he talked about.

This is what Luther said about the book of Jeremiah “But Christ will be able to sustain his own, for whose sake he causes his word to shine forth in this shameful time of ours, just as at Babylon he sustained Daniel and those like him, for whose sake Jeremiah’s prophecy had to shine forth.”

It almost seems impossible to get people to listen to the Word of the Lord these days. We can feel like Jeremiah—like no one is listening, no one is interested. Remember Jesus said

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:29

Jesus completed the promise God made to Jeremiah that

“He will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul He will replenish.” Jeremiah 31:25

Jesus shared our suffering, He carried the worst of our burdens and sin into death. It’s been 2,000 since He said to get ready, He’s coming back. 2,000 years is a long time. Maybe people have started to think it’s not really going to happen—or maybe will only happen in some “spiritual” sense. God’s judgment. God’s salvation. Hear the Word of the Lord. Repent and believe. AMEN