Jeremiah 1
Notes
Transcript
Jeremiah 1
Jeremiah 1
Good evening church! We are backing up a book from Lamentations that we completed last week, to see the reason why the sad and sorrowful book of Lamentations. The book of Jeremiah is the back story to that. A prophet of God, really a priest, in the role of prophet, from the line of Aaron, faithful in his ministry, and the one that God chose to be the prophet in the days that Jerusalem would fall.
Jeremiah is a wonderful book to study if you are ever discouraged in ministry. He is a wonderful example of a man relying on the Lord to sustain him in his calling, because there really weren’t what we would typically call successes to drive him on.
His ministry was primarily to the southern kingdom of Judah during the 7th century b.c. He was born in a priestly family as I said, and as he will say in verse one, but it appears that he was predestined by God to be a prophet. His ministry began in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah and it continued on after the destruction of Jerusalem in 585 b.c. Most Bible Scholars say that his ministry began when he was 20 years of age and some estimate as young as 16 years of age.
Just to help you with your OT prophet timelines, he was a contemporary to Daniel when Daniel was taken captive by the Babylonians. We know that Daniel possessed and was familiar with the writings of Jeremiah. This would have been about 60 years after the ministry of the prophet Isaiah. So that would put this writing about 100 years after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians. So his warning is very much to the southern region, hey guys, wake up and repent, or what you saw happen up there is going to happen down here.
This would be a great book for our leaders to read. Because as this was being written the Assyrians were really the world controlling super power, but there was also the rising up of this other force, the Babylonians and no one really knew what would happen to who would dominate. Of course the Babylonians ultimately defeated the Assyrians in 605 b.c. But we are living in a time such as that. Powers that were unknown or never amounted to much of a real threat, who knew if you gave them 10 billion dollars what they could do with that. Country like Iran, countries like China, Hamas, and there are others that pretend to be our friends, but are not. We need to take heed and repent as a nation and turn to the Lord.
As a prophet of God, he could see what was coming way before the people saw it, so he begged them to listen. It is interesting to listen to our politicians right now, both those in office and those campaigning to be elected. They are all making all kinds of promises about the prosperity that will come. How blessing and unity will be returned to our country of we just put them in office. The truth is, they are all making promises, they don’t have the authority to make. Blessing and prosperity of a land is directly connected to our hearts and surrender to the Lord. So our leaders 1st are being prideful and presumptuous, but they are doing nothing to change the hearts of the people. Nothing to call for repentance in our land.
Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet, because he loved the people he was prophesying to, and watched their unnecessary fall happen before his eyes because they did not heed the Word of the Lord. We know his ministry lasted at least 40 years, but there is a verse in chapter 25 that lets us know that at that point he was 23 years in, or 23 years deep into his ministry of warning these people that he loves and he says, “this [is] the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened.”
1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
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2 to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
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4 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
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6 Then said I: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”
7 But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord.
County commissioners....Paul to Timothy
12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
9 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”
Often times there needs to be demo, before building and planting can begin. God won’t build on a poor foundation.
11 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”
12 Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”
There is a play on word here that we sort of miss in English. The idea is that the almond tree is the first to bloom in this area. Anathoth…and the word for almond tree is very close to the word for watchful. Indicating that God was ready and waiting, watching as He is ready to fulfill His word of judgement.
13 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, and it is facing away from the north.”
14 Then the Lord said to me: “Out of the north calamity shall break forth On all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For behold, I am calling All the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says the Lord; “They shall come and each one set his throne At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, Against all its walls all around, And against all the cities of Judah.
16 I will utter My judgments Against them concerning all their wickedness, Because they have forsaken Me, Burned incense to other gods, And worshiped the works of their own hands.
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17 “Therefore prepare yourself and arise, And speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before their faces, Lest I dismay you before them.
18 For behold, I have made you this day A fortified city and an iron pillar, And bronze walls against the whole land— Against the kings of Judah, Against its princes, Against its priests, And against the people of the land.
19 They will fight against you, But they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you,” says the Lord, “to deliver you.”
Gird up your loins KJV, Roll up your sleeves and get ready to work
Backsliding…is a common theme we will see in this book. And it really lays out for us the expectation that we should and would take assessment of our condition and our calling before God. So beyond making our calling and election sure, but also measuring our condition. We will see in chapter two…and I don’t want to go there and won’t go there beyond this one thing...
1 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2 “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I remember you, The kindness of your youth, The love of your betrothal, When you went after Me in the wilderness, In a land not sown.
“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil...
“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. It always starts there…departing from that…and then compromise sets in, idolatry sets in…so, lets take account and measure, and if we’ve fallen away, be quick to repent, return to the things that we did at first, and God will restore us…in fact in chapter 3 Jeremiah tells us that God will heal our back sidings.