JEREMIAH:

JEREMIAH: Jeremiah has always been called the weeping prophet, but that nickname almost makes him sound fragile. Read the book closely and you get a very different man. He preached for more than forty years to people who mostly did not want to hear him. Priests fought him, kings threatened him, his own hometown wanted him dead, he was beaten, imprisoned and eventually lowered into a cistern where he sank into the mud. He still wouldn't shut up. Jeremiah was from Anathoth, a priestly town in Benjamin, and his father Hilkiah was a priest. So he grew up around Israel's religious system before God called him to stand in front of that same system and expose how corrupt it had become. His Hebrew name is Yirmeyahu, יִרְמְיָהוּ. The exact meaning is debated, but the name contains the divine name Yahweh and is commonly understood along the lines of Yahweh exalts or Yahweh appoints. The Greek form is Ieremias, Ἰερεμίας, which is the form used in the Septuagint and later appears in the New Testament. His calling came during the thirteenth year of Josiah, around 627 BC. God told him, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5 KJV The Hebrew here is worth digging into. “I knew thee” comes from yada, יָדַע. It can mean much more than simply knowing information about someone. The word often carries the idea of personal and intimate knowledge. “I sanctified thee” comes from qadash, קָדַשׁ, meaning to set apart or consecrate. Before Jeremiah ever stood in front of a king, before he preached one sermon and before anybody knew his name, God had already set him apart for the work. Jeremiah's response was not confidence. “Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” Jeremiah 1:6 KJV The word translated “child” is na'ar, נַעַר. It can refer to a youth or young man, not necessarily a little boy. Jeremiah knew what God was asking him to do and immediately saw the problem. He was young, inexperienced and about to confront people with far more authority than he had. God answered by touching his mouth. “Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth.” Jeremiah 1:9 KJV The Hebrew is naga, נָגַע, to touch or make contact. Jeremiah's authority was never going to come from age, position or personality. God put His words in his mouth. Then comes one of the clearest descriptions of Jeremiah's entire ministry. “To root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:10 KJV The Hebrew verbs are strong. Nathash, נָתַשׁ means uproot. Nathats, נָתַץ means tear down. Abad, אָבַד carries the idea of destroying. Haras, הָרַס means demolish or overthrow. Only after all of that come banah, בָּנָה, to build, and nata, נָטַע, to plant. Four words of demolition followed by two words of restoration. That was Jeremiah's job. He had to tear down lies people had believed for generations before he could tell them what God intended to rebuild. God then showed him an almond branch. The Hebrew word is shaqed, שָׁקֵד. God answered, “Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.” Jeremiah 1:12 KJV The word translated “hasten” carries the sense of watching over and is related to shoqed, שֹׁקֵד. Shaqed and shoqed. The similarity is intentional Hebrew wordplay. The almond tree was known for awakening early, and God was telling Jeremiah that He was awake and watching over His word to perform it. Jeremiah would spend decades telling Judah that judgment was coming while false prophets kept telling everybody they were safe. That made him extremely unpopular. The men of Anathoth plotted against him. Pashur had him beaten and placed in stocks. King Jehoiakim took Jeremiah's scroll, cut it apart and burned it piece by piece. God told Jeremiah to write it again. Later he was imprisoned and thrown into a cistern. The most interesting part of Jeremiah to me is that the Bible does not pretend any of this was easy for him. He struggled badly. There are sections scholars often call Jeremiah's Confessions where he opens up about the emotional weight of his calling. He complains to God, questions what is happening and even curses the day he was born. At one point he decides he is finished preaching. Then he writes, “His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Jeremiah 20:9 KJV That verse probably tells us more about the man than the nickname “weeping prophet” ever could. He was exhausted with preaching, exhausted with rejection and exhausted with carrying a message nobody wanted. The Word was still burning in him. Jeremiah also understood something important about loving your nation. Loving your people does not mean lying to them. Judah wanted prophets who would tell them Jerusalem was safe, the temple was safe and God would never allow Babylon to destroy the city. Jeremiah told them Babylon was coming. For saying it, people treated him like a traitor. Then Babylon came. Jeremiah had also prophesied that the captivity would last seventy years. Much later, Daniel was sitting in Babylon studying Jeremiah's writings and realized the prophetic period was approaching its completion. “I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet.” Daniel 9:2 KJV I love that connection. Jeremiah spent much of his life looking like a man nobody listened to. Years later Daniel was studying his writings to understand what God was about to do. There is another moment in Jeremiah that says a lot about him. While Babylon had Jerusalem surrounded and Judah was about to lose the land, God told Jeremiah to buy a field in Anathoth. From a human perspective that was a ridiculous investment. Jeremiah bought it. “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.” Jeremiah 32:15 KJV The purchase itself became prophecy. Jeremiah believed Israel had a future even while Jerusalem was collapsing around him. That is why it is a mistake to remember Jeremiah only for judgment. He gave us one of the greatest promises of restoration anywhere in Scripture. “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.” Jeremiah 31:31 KJV The writer of Hebrews later reaches straight back into Jeremiah when explaining the New Covenant. There is even an interesting connection to Jesus. When Jesus asked the disciples who people thought He was, one of the answers was Jeremiah. That makes sense when you think about it. Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem and so did Jesus. Both confronted corruption connected with the temple. Both warned Jerusalem that judgment was coming. Both loved people who rejected the warning. Jeremiah's ministry also destroys the modern idea that faithfulness can be measured by visible success. He never led some massive national revival. Most of Judah did not repent. Jerusalem fell. The temple burned. The people went into captivity. Jeremiah lived long enough to watch almost everything he had warned about actually happen. Yet God never asked him to make Judah listen. He told him to speak. That is what Jeremiah did. A priest's son from a little town in Benjamin stood against kings, priests, false prophets and an entire culture because God put His words in his mouth. The man cried plenty. He just never quit. #MoreJoyMinistries