Transcript Jeremiah The Weeping Prophet

St. Mina Coptic Church
Hamilton, On
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Jeremiah
About the Prophet Jeremiah
 Began young, and could say, from his own experience, that
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it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth, the yoke
both of service and of affliction
God touched Jeremiah’s mouth, who was yet but young,
nothing was said of the purging of his iniquity (1:9), reason
of his tender years, he had not so much sin to answer for
Continued long a prophet, 50 years
Began in the thirteenth year of Josiah, when things went
well under that good king
he continued through all the wicked reigns that followed
About the Prophet Jeremiah
 A reproving prophet, sent in God’s name to tell Jacob of
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their sins
To warn them of the judgments of God that were coming
upon them
A weeping prophet; commonly called
A mournful observer of the sins of his people and of the
desolating judgments that were coming upon them
Those who imagined our Saviour to be one of the prophets
thought him to be Jeremiah (Matthew 16:14), because he
was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
Persecuted by his own people more than any of the
prophets
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Outline of the Book
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The Call of Jeremiah (1)
Prophecies to Jerusalem and Judah (2-35)
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Warnings and Exhortations to Judah
Promises of Restoration
The Sufferings of Jeremiah (36-38)
The Fall of Jerusalem
Prophecies to Foreign Nations (46-51)
Historical Appendix (52)
Introduction
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“’This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will put my law in their
minds and write it on their hearts I will be their God, and they
will be my people’” (31:33)
 Jeremiah means (“Yahweh lays a foundation.”)
 Date: 626 BC ~ sometime after 586
 Written, was destroyed (by King Jehoiakim), rewritten in a
state of constant turmoil and danger
 Theme: The Judgment of God
Kings
 Josiah (640-609) Jeremiah came in the 13th yr of his reign
 Jehoahaz (609)
 Jehoiakim (~597): A king under Egypt and Babylon.
 Revolted against Nebu. Died in captivity.
 Burned the scroll of God’s word. (36)
 Jehoiachin (597) A political prisoner in Babylon for 37 yrs
 Zedekiah (~587)
 Jeremiah pleaded to submit to Babylon. Caused a famine. (32:36)
 Imprisoned Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesies 70 yrs of exile (25).
 His sons were slain and his own eyes were put out.
 Carried in chains to Babylon.
Invasions
 Josiah (640-609)
 Jehoahaz (609)
 Jehoiakim (~597)
 Babylon becomes a super power nation.
 Babylon’s 1st invasion (606) – Daniel…
 Jehoiachin (597)
 Babylon’s 2nd invasion (598)
 Zedekiah (~587)
 Babylon’s 3rd invasion (588)
 The Fall of Jerusalem (586) – Jeremiah…
Prophets
 Contemporary Prophets
 Beginning: Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk
 End: Daniel and Ezekiel
 There were false prophets
 Preached good things to the people (14, 23, 30-34)
 Prophesied lies in God’s name.
 People loved to hear them.
 Prophets were persecuted and killed
 i.e. Uriah prophesied against the people of Judah and fled in fear to Egypt.
But he was caught in Egypt and brought back. The king Jehoiakim had him
struck down with a sword.(26)
Prophecies
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Judah’s Forsaking God / Idolatry  God forsakes them.
Coming Destruction
Warnings  Repentance
The Broken Covenant
Drought, Famine, Sword, and Captivity
Messages about Egypt, the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Edom,
Damascus, Kedar, Hazor, Elam, and Babylon (46-51)
Judah In Prophecies
 Idolatry: sacrifices to other gods (7:18), idols inside the temple
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(7,32)
Sacrificed their own children!!! (7:31)
No One Is Upright (5:1)
Godless and Lying Priests & Prophets (23)
“Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” (8:11)
Use their power unjustly (23:10)
Prophesied by Baal and led people astray (23:25)
Judah In Prophecies (cont.)
 Kings, priests, and his people refused to accept Jeremiah’s
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message.
“They made their faces harder than stone and refused to
repent” (5:3)
“A wild donkey sniffing the wind in her craving -- in her heat…”
(2:24)
An unfaithful wife (3:20)
Well fed lusty horses (5:7-9)
Prophecies
 Promises of the Messiah
 “’when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch,’”
(23:5)
 “I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s
line;” (33:15)
 “The LORD Our Righteousness” (23,33)
 Restoration & Deliverance (30,33)
Fulfillments of Prophecies
As a result…
 Jerusalem was besieged by Babylonian army (588586)
 By the sword, famine and plague the city of
Jerusalem was destroyed
 The fall of Jerusalem (586)
 Judah went into captivity. (3,023 people including
King Zedekiah)
Fulfillments of Prophecies
 Restoration & Deliverance
 Zerubbabel (538 BC)
 Ezra (457)
 Nehemiah (445)
 The temple was rebuilt (515)
 Eventually by the Messiah (Righteous Branch)
Jeremiah – The Man
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Seventy years after the death of Isaiah
A native of Anathoth, from a priest’s family
A priest and prophet
When he was very young, God called him.(1:5,6)
Ordained by God
1:17~19 imply how hard his life of mission would be.
Single (16:2)
Forty years with great faithfulness (626 BC ~ sometime after
586)
Jeremiah’s Struggle
 No prophet wrote much about his own agony except
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Jeremiah. (12, 20)
“O Lord , you deceived me, and I was deceived; you
overpowered me and prevailed.” (20:7)
“Cursed be the day I was born!” (20:14)
But
“You are always righteous, O Lord” (12)
“But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior” (20:11)
Jeremiah = We
 Called when we were very young.
 Kingdom of priests – Bible teachers
 Carrying unpopular messages
 Rejected and ignored many times
Jeremiah – His Sufferings
 Threatened and persecuted by people
 “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord or you will die
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by our hands” (11:21)
Social rejection, Betrayed by his own relatives
Mocked and ridiculed by people.
Accused of treason, beaten, and imprisoned
Thrown into a muddy cistern, sank in the mud, and left
starving for dead
(Stoned to death in Egypt  tradition)
God In Jeremiah
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“Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the faithless live at ease?” (12)
Creator of all things (10:12-16; 51:15-19)
Omnipotent (32:27; 48:15; 51:57)
Omnipresent (23:24)
Sovereign Deliverer (20:11, 32:17-25)
Lord of the Nations (5:15; 18:7-10; 25:17-28; 46-51): The
Potter and the Clay(18)
What I learn
 People like good things to hear. They deceive themselves
having false security. (military power & economy)
 How terrible idolatry is! It brings God’s wrath!
 Importance to accept the messages of warning and
repentance
 Having spiritual insight about my life and the world.
 Jeremiah’s life of mission
- used wholly as God’s instrument.
- delivered messages from God to his people faithfully
- Obedience to the will of God until he died
 God’s yearning heart toward Judah
“Obey me and I will be your God and you will be my people”
(7:23)
Q&A