THE
BOOK OF JEREMIAH
INTRODUCTION:
1.This BOOK might be called “Warnings to Pre-Exile
a.During Isaiah’s time (about seventy years before
Jeremiah),
b.As the years passed,
c.Jeremiah’s mission: To warn a sinful and stubborn people
of coming doom at the hands of a foreign nation (
2.We know more about Jeremiah’s life than any other Old
Testament prophet.
a.He was the son of Hilkiah the priest - 1:1.
b.He began his work in the thirteenth year of Josiah - 1:2.
c.Thus the BOOK is dated -- Jeremiah’s ministry was 627-580
BC. For additional discussion see DATE
AND SETTING on the last page of these notes.
d.He prophesied nearly fifty years, until after the fall of
e.He saw the Nation pass from good conditions under Josiah
to a state of iniquity under the last four kings - 1:2-3.
f.Although he was
bold and courageous, and unsparing in rebukes to his Nation, his advice and
teaching was ignored and he was subjected to suffering and sorrow.
g.His somber tone of judgment caused him to be called THE
PROPHET OF DOOM.
h.His distress at disobedience and apostasy marked him as
THE WEEPING PROPHET. “Jeremiah has been unjustly called the
‘weeping prophet,’ as
if he were a sort of weakling; whereas, there never was a more heroic
soul. Nothing turned him aside from his
duty. If he wept, it was because he
loved
his nation, and his people. He would
have been cold-blooded, if he had
not wept.” -- R. L. Whiteside.
i.Other prophets who
were contemporary with Jeremiah: Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Daniel, Ezekiel.
3.The context of JEREMIAH -- 2Kg 22-25; 2Chapters 34-36.
4.Condition of the nations of the world at the time:
a.Israel had been carried into Assyrian captivity;
b.Assyria,
c.King Josiah had brought some reforms to
1)
2)In the last forty years of the monarchy lonely Jeremiah
stood as a pathetic figure, giving God’s last message to the idolatrous people,
pleading with them to repent of their sins and serve the Lord -- But they
refused.
3)
4)
5.The poor among the people were left in
6.Fearing Nebuchadnezzar’s retaliation, the few people who
remained in
7.The BOOK tells of the agony and oppressions of the Jewish
Nation, but points to a brighter day for the people of God.
8.“Here is the solemn
truth . . . that all national deterioration and disaster is due fundamentally
to the disregarding and disobeying of God.” - J. Sidlow Baxter.
9.We should be aware that the events and the chapters of
JEREMIAH are not arranged in chronological order.
1.INTRODUCTION:
THE CALL OF JEREMIAH -- CHAPTER 1.
A.Josiah’s reforms could not stem the tide of apostasy.
B.The people perverted the worship of God; They gave
themselves to immoral ungodliness.
C.They refused to repent, or even listen: Judgment had to
come.
D.1:4-19, Jeremiah was called to pronounce judgment against
them.
E.9:1; 13:17, He was rejected and persecuted; Being lonely,
he wept.
2.PROPHECIES
-- GENERAL AND UNDATED:
TO REPENTANCE -- CHAPTERS 2-20.
A.Chapters 2-6,
1.2:1-3:5, FIRST message:
2.3:6-6:30, SECOND message:
a.Chapter 3, Under evil King Manasseh
b.Chapter 4, Describes destroying armies advancing on
c.Chapter 5, There were no good leaders or good citizens;
They were promiscuous like animals; They rejected Jeremiah’s warning; And they
were lying thieves, unconcerned for good government.
d.Chapter 6, Jeremiah warned of destruction to come from the
north; showed repentance as being the only hope for escape.
B.Chapters 7-10, THIRD message (at the temple gate):
1.Chapter 7, God’s call to repentance; Jeremiah’s broken
heart (all his pleadings and warnings had been in vain).
2.Chapter 8, So certain was their ruin to come that Jeremiah
could speak of it in the past tense - Verse 20.
But false prophets insisted there was nothing to be alarmed about.
3.Chapter 9, The people had reached the depths of sin;
Jeremiah went among them night and day weeping, begging, pleading for them to
turn back to God; But they would not listen.
4.Chapter 10, The Babylonian cloud hanging over them seems
to have increased their production of handmade idols (for them to trust!);
Jeremiah warns about this sinful foolishness.
C.Chapters 11-12, FOURTH message (the broken covenant):
Jeremiah’s support of God’s covenant with the people, and his appeal to the
covenant in an effort to turn the Nation back to God.
1.Chapter 11, Under Josiah there had been a reformation (2Kg
23); Now the people had already gone back to idolatry and broken the covenant
with God; They planned to kill Jeremiah.
2.Chapter 12, Jeremiah complained that the evil people were
prospering while he was suffering; God said Jeremiah would have more trouble,
the wicked Nation would lose its prosperity, and then there would come a time
of restoration.
D.Chapter 13, FIFTH message (sign of the linen girdle):
Lamentations; Warnings that just as Jeremiah’s beautiful sash lost its glory,
so Judah’s glory would be marred and cast away.
E.Chapters 14-19, Rejection and captivity foretold.
1.Chapters 14-15, SIXTH message (on the severe drought):
Other punishments to come against the Land.
a.A long drought had taken away the food; Jeremiah sorrowed
because of the suffering of the people (though he was suffering at their
hands).
b.15:1, God’s release of this hopeless people.
c.15:4, “Because of
Manasseh” the Nation was lost (in spite of Manasseh’s later penitence - See
2Ch 33:11-20).
2.Chapters 16-17, More pictures of
a.16:1-17:18, SEVENTH message (sign of the unmarried
prophet): Jeremiah’s remaining unmarried and childless would reinforce his
message from God that it would be unkind to bring children into the trouble and
sorrow soon to come.
b.17:19-27, EIGHTH message (at the city gates): Profaning of
sabbath added to their evil -- IF they would just repent!
3.Chapter 18, NINTH message (the potter’s vessel): God has
power to change the course, and the destiny, of nations -- IF.
a.18:1-6,7-10, A ruined vessel can be repaired while still
wet; There is hope
for a nation as long as the people are responsive (that is also true for the
individual -- So we sing “Have Thine Own
Way, Lord”).
b.18:11-12,15-17, The reason judgment had to come is seen in
the people’s inflexible attitude.
c.18:18, The reason for Jeremiah’s many tears.
4.Chapter 19, TENTH message (the earthen vessel).
a.19:1-4,10-11, Once dried, a broken vessel is no longer of
any use, and it has to be thrown away.
b.The warning is clear:
F.Chapter 20, The result: Jeremiah was persecuted and
imprisoned; All of this made him want to quit preaching - cf Verses 7b,9.
3.PROPHECIES
-- PARTICULAR AND DATED: CONSOLATION
OF FUTURE HOPE -- BUT MORE PROPHECIES OF DOOM: CHAPTERS 21-39.
A.21-23, FIRST Prophecy (to Zedekiah): The coming Babylonian
captivity; Then the future restoration of the remnant.
1.Chapter 21, Zedekiah was frightened by the beginning of
the Babylonian siege.
a.21:1-3, He asked Jeremiah to intercede with God.
b.21:6-7,9-10, Jeremiah advised Zedekiah to submit to the
Babylonians, so the people would not die.
2.Chapter 22, These events were in the reign of Jehoiakim,
thus they happened earlier than the events of Chapter 21.
a.22:1-2,8-9, The people of
b.22:24-30, Coniah would be childless so far as earthly
kings on David’s throne were concerned.
c.The Lord Jesus Christ descended from Coniah (Jeconiah),
but He reigns over the spiritual kingdom (not the temporal kingdom) - Mt
1:11-12; Jn 18:36.
3.Chapter 23, Warning about false prophets.
a.23:5-6, A glimpse of the Messiah to come.
b.The false prophets denied Jeremiah’s words; They said
B.Chapter 24, SECOND Prophecy (more visions after the first
deportation): There is a vision of two baskets of figs -- One good,
representing good people who had been taken to
C.Chapter 25, THIRD Prophecy (fourth year of Jehoiakim, 604
BC): Prophecy of the coming seventy years’ captivity, which Jeremiah could not
have known except by inspiration.
1.25:3, The beginning of Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry.
2.25:11-12,1, He predicts the seventy years’
captivity, twenty years in advance.
3.25:13-26, This shows that Chapters 46-51 (Jeremiah’s
prophecies on the Gentile nations) were already in book form in the “fourth year of Jehoiakim,” twenty years
before the exile.
D.Chapter 26, FOURTH Prophecy (early reign of Jehoiakim).
1.Jeremiah’s temple address and its consequences (Rejection
of Jeremiah and his message; His trial before the princes).
2.See Verses 12-13 as a clear and gracious eleventh hour
offer from God; But there was no response.
E.Chapters 27-28, FIFTH Prophecy (early reign of Jehoiakim):
Sign of the ox yoke on Jeremiah’s neck showed the coming submission to
Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon (Jeremiah’s effort to restrain the Judeans in their
rebellion). A false prophet broke the
yoke; He soon died.
F.Chapters 29-33, The restoration; Jeremiah’s hope for the
future.
1.29-31, SIXTH Prophecy (to captives of the first
deportation).
a.Chapter 29, Jeremiah’s first written message, comforting
the exiles; Urging them to be good citizens; Promising their return after the
seventy years. False prophets continued
to oppose Jeremiah.
b.Chapters 30-31, A new covenant promised; (At the heart of
this Book of sadness, God’s Love announces the Gospel to come).
1)30:1-3,9, Continuing comfort to the captives.
2)31:15-16, Verse 15 is quoted in Mt 2 as a picture of the
sorrow of Bethlehem over the murder of the children at the time Jesus of
Nazareth was born.
3)31:31-34, Prophecy of the New Covenant; The Book of
Hebrews concerns the fulfillment of this prophecy.
2.Chapters 32-33, SEVENTH: Prophecy (tenth year of Zedekiah,
one year before Jerusalem fell).
a.Chapter 32, Jeremiah was persecuted, and the captivity was
foretold. God told Jeremiah to buy a
field and put away the deed, and thus emphasize that the captivity would end,
and people would use the Land again.
b.Chapter 33, Most of the kings of Judah were bad; A remnant
would be delivered and there would come a time of blessing through the One
Great King (Christ) Who is here called THE
BRANCH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
G.Chapters 34-36, Doom of Jerusalem due to the people’s
wickedness (Jeremiah’s sufferings increase as opposition mounts.)
1.Chapter 34, EIGHTH Prophecy (during the Babylonian siege):
Zedekiah proclaimed freedom to all slaves.
2.Chapter 35, NINTH Prophecy (days of Jehoiakim): Good
example of the obedience of the Rechabites (a Midianite tribe who worshipped
Jehovah, and were blessed for their faithfulness).
3.Chapter 36, TENTH Prophecy (fourth year of Jehoiakim):
Jeremiah was not allowed to speak, so God told him to gather the prophecies of
his twenty-three years ministry and write them in a book. He worked a year or more to write the
book. The king burned the book; Jeremiah
wrote it again.
H.Chapters 37-39, ELEVENTH Prophecy (during the siege): The
Result: Jeremiah was imprisoned; Jerusalem was burned and conquered.
1.Chapters 37-38, Jeremiah tried to go from Jerusalem to his
home in Anathoth. His enemies used his
advice to yield to the Babylonians as evidence he was a traitor and had fled to
the enemy; So he was imprisoned.
2.Chapter 39, Jerusalem was burned; Nebuchadnezzar, because
of Jeremiah’s advice to the people to submit, offered him a place of honor.
4.PROPHECIES
AFTER THE FALL OF JERUSALEM: CHAPTERS 40-45.
A.Chapter 40, The poor people of the Nation were left in the
Land as husbandmen; The Babylonians placed Gedaliah over them as governor;
Jeremiah was freed.
B.Chapter 41, After only two months Gedaliah was murdered;
Many Jewish captives were released.
C.Chapter 42, The people feared Nebuchadnezzar would punish
them for the death of Gedaliah; God warned them not to flee to Egypt.
D.Chapter 43, They disobeyed and went to Egypt, taking
Jeremiah.
1.43:1-7, Jeremiah carried down to Egypt.
2.43:8-13, First prophetic message to refugees in Egypt.
E.Chapter 44, Second prophetic message in Egypt; Jeremiah’s
last appeal to the people to turn from idolatry; But they continued to reject
his message, and continued to engage in immorality.
F.Chapter 45, This is an introductory note to Baruch, the
faithful scribe who wrote the prophecies that follow.
1.Some students insist Chapter 45 is out of place; But
consider:
2.“But is this Forty-Fifth Chapter connected with the
prophecies on the Gentile nations, which come after it? It is; and surely the connection is disclosed
in Chapter 25. The prophecy in Chapter
25, which, as we have just seen, men-tions the “book” of Jeremiah’s prophecies on the Gentile peoples as being
already written, is dated, “the fourth
year of Jehoiakim.” Probably this “book” of prophecies on the Gentiles was
written actually in that year. Who was
the scribe? Baruch was Jeremiah’s
scribe, or writer (36:4,17; 43:6, etc.).
It would be he who wrote out this “book”
of prophecies on the Gentile nations.
See now how Chapter 45 begins: “The
word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch, the son of Neriah. when he
had written these words in a book, at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year
of Jehoiakim.” Is not the connection
too clear to doubt? When it says he wrote
“these words” it means those that
follow, in the prophecies on the Gentile kingdoms; for Verse 4 speaks of
judgment coming on “the whole earth”
(not just “this whole land” as in
A.V.), and Verse 5 speaks of evil coming on “all
flesh” -- referring, surely, to the world-prophecies which follow. After all, then, Chapter 45 is in its right
place -- as a prefatory note to Chapters 46-51.” -- J. Sidlow Baxter.
5.PROPHECIES
AGAINST FOREIGN GENTILE NATIONS:
CHAPTERS 46-51.
A.Chapter 46, FIRST Prophecy (against Egypt): Concerns
Nebuchadnezzar’s coming invasion and defeat of Egypt.
B.Chapter 47, SECOND Prophecy (against the Philistines):
Philistia was to be conquered in about 20 years by Babylonia.
C.Chapter 48, THIRD Prophecy (against Moab): Moab helped
Nebuchadnezzar against Judah, but was soon devastated at his hand.
D.Chapter 49, A prophecy that Nebuchadnezzar would soon
conquer all the nations listed below:
1.49:1-6, FOURTH Prophecy (against the Ammonites).
2.49:7-22, FIFTH Prophecy (against Edom).
3.49:23-27, SIXTH Prophecy (against Damascus).
4.49:28-33, SEVENTH Prophecy (against Kedar and Hazor).
5.49:34-39, EIGHTH Prophecy (against Elam).
E.Chapters 50-51, NINTH Prophecy (against Babylon).
1.This covers 110 verses -- The longest prophecy in the
Book.
2.These two Chapters were written as a book, and sent to
Nebuchadnezzar seven years before he burned Jerusalem.
3.The prophecy is that Babylon later would be conquered by
the Medes.
4.It was fulfilled exactly (some of it six hundred years
later).
5.The book was to be read publicly, then sunk in the
Euphrates River as a picture of Babylon’s sinking, never to rise again.
6.CONCLUSION
- HISTORICAL RECOUNTING OF THE FALL
OF JERUSALEM: CHAPTER 52.
A.In this concluding supplement, Jerusalem is captured and
destroyed; The leaders are killed, and captives are taken to Babylon.
B.This Chapter is practically identical to 2Kg 24-25.
**JEREMIAH IN
THREE WORDS:
Book Of Judgment.
**CONTRIBUTION
OF THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH TO THE BIBLE:
1.It presents Jehovah as Sovereign Lord of all people and
nations.
2.It shows Him as the One Holy God Who hates idolatry and
the immorality it produces.
3.He is loving and compassionate, but also He is just;
Therefore wickedness must be punished.
**CHRIST IN
THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH:
He is THE RIGHTEOUS
BRANCH Who reigns over His people in the New Covenant.
**SOME OF THE
IMPORTANT PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH:
1.The duration of the Babylonian captivity - 25:11-12.
2.The downfall of Babylon - 25:12; 50; 51.
3.The coming of the Messiah - 23:3-8; 30:9.
4.The New Covenant to be established - 31:31-34.
a.The Old Testament was never intended to be a final
revelation of God’s will - Deu 18:15-18.
b.Heb 8 quotes Jer 31 in connection with the everlasting New
Covenant of Christ.
**EXHORTATION:
1.Judgment is the certain result of sin - Rom 6:3.
2.But God is longsuffering - 2Pe 3:9; Ac 2:38.
**READ
JEREMIAH:
“If you become
a little squeamish about denouncing false teachers, READ JEREMIAH. If you begin to wonder if it is necessary to
(teach, DS) the Word
of God, just as it is written, READ JEREMIAH.
If you think people are so hardened in sin that they hate you for
preaching the Word, READ JEREMIAH. A
careful reading of Jeremiah is a good tonic for anyone, and will do you good.”
--
R. L. Whiteside.
**QUOTE FROM
MORGAN:
“We have read
this prophecy very carelessly if we have simply seen in it the sorrows of a
man, ‘Oh that my head were
waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for
the slain of the daughter of my people!’ Can we find anything to match that? We have already done so. We have travelled through the centuries until
we have stood upon the slopes of Olivet with a Man more lonely than Jeremiah,
and have seen Him looking at Jerusalem, and have heard Him pronounce its doom,
weeping as He did so. That is the
fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah . . . The interpretation of Jeremiah’s
suffering is to be found in the suffering of Jesus; and the interpretation of
the suffering of Jesus is to be found in the suffering of God.”
--
G. Campbell Morgan (as quoted by Baxter).
**QUOTE FROM
BAXTER:
“Mark well
then, this remarkable man, Jeremiah; and as the mind lingers appraisingly upon
him let the heart’s prayer be --
Teach me, O
Lord, to serve as Thou deservest,
To give, and
not to count the cost;
To fight and
not to heed the wounds;
To toil, and
not to seek for rest;
To labor and
not to ask any reward,
Save only of
knowing that I do Thy will.”
-- J. Sidlow Baxter.
**DATE AND
SETTING:
Jeremiah was a contemporary of Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Daniel,
and Ezekiel. His ministry stretched from
627 to about 580 BC. Josiah, Judah’s
last good king (640-609 BC), instituted spiritual reforms when the Book of the
Law was discovered in 622 BC. Jeremiah
was on good terms with Josiah and lamented when he was killed in 609 BC by
Pharaoh Necho of Egypt. By this time,
Babylonia had already overthrown Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria (612
BC). Jehoahaz replaced Josiah as king of
Judah but reigned only three months before he was deposed and taken to Egypt by
Necho. Jehoiakim (609-597 BC) was
Judah’s next king, but he reigned as an Egyptian vassal until 605 BC when Egypt
was defeated by Babylonia at Carchemish.
Nebuchadnezzar took Palestine and deported key people like Daniel to
Babylon. Judah’s kind Jehoiakim was now
a Babylonian vassal, but he rejected Jeremiah’s warnings in 601 BC and rebelled
against Babylonia. Jehoiachin became
Judah’s next king in 597 BC, but was replaced by Zedekiah three months later
when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and deported Jehoiachin to Babylon. Zedekiah was the last king of Judah because
his attempted alliance with Egypt led to Nebuchadnezzar’s occupation and overthrow
of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
**KINGS OF
JUDAH WHO WERE CONTEMPORARY WITH JEREMIAH:
MANASSEH, 697-642 BC, Fifty-five years. Very wicked (see 2Ch 33). In his reign Jeremiah was born.
AMON, 641-640 BC, Two years.
The long and wicked reign of his father Manasseh had sealed the doom of
Judah.
JOSIAH, 639-608 BC, Thirty-one years (Jeremiah began his
ministry in Josiah’s thirteenth year).
Good king; Great reformation, but it was only outward -- At heart the
people were still idolaters.
JEHOAHAZ, 608 BC, Three months. Was carried to Egypt.
JEHOIAKIM, 608-597 BC, Eleven years. Was openly for idols, boldly defiant of
Jehovah, a bitter enemy of Jeremiah.
JEHOIACHIN, 597 BC, Three months. Was carried to Babylon.
ZEDEKIAH, 597-586 BC, Eleven years. Rather friendly to Jeremiah, but a weak king,
a tool in the hands of the wicked princes.