The “Weeping” Prophet
1
The “Weeping” Prophet
• What does this book teach?
• What was the OCCASION?
• When was it written?
• The last chapter records the fall of
Jerusalem
• The story of Jehoiachin is about 560 BC
2
What questions were being asked in
560 BC?
WHY?
Whose fault?
Is God vengeful towards Israel? Did they
really deserve this?
What kind of God would allow this to
happen to his people?
3
Is God vengeful & sadistic to Israel?
Absolutely not:
God only reluctantly carried out the
ultimate curse of the Law (exile)
after the people forced him to
by their conscious and continuous
rejection of Jeremiah.
4
2A, 1B, 1C General Messages
3:6-11, How does Judah compare with Israel?
6 During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me,
“Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone
up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has
committed adultery there.
7 I thought that after she had done all this she would return
to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.
8 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent
her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her
unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and
5
committed adultery.
2A, 1B, 1C General Messages
3:6-11, How does Judah compare with Israel?
9 Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she
(Judah) defiled the land and committed adultery with stone
and wood.
11 The LORD said to me,
“Faithless Israel is more righteous
than unfaithful Judah.”
6
1A Jeremiah’s Call
1:10 What’s the percentage of positive to negative??
Jeremiah 1:10
“See, today I appoint you over nations and
kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy
and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
7
1A Jeremiah’s Call
1:10 What’s the percentage?
1:17-20 What’s the prediction?
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.
18 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.
19 They will fight against you but will not overcome
you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares
the LORD.
8
1C General Messages . . .
12:1-2, J’s discouragment
1 You are always righteous, O LORD,
when I bring a case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about your justice:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the faithless live at ease?
2 You have planted them, and they have taken root;
they grow and bear fruit.
You are always on their lips
but far from their hearts.
9
1C General Messages . . .
15: 10, 17-21, J’s complaint
10 Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth,
a man with whom the whole land strives and contends!
I have neither lent nor borrowed,
yet everyone curses me.
Jeremiah 15:17-18
17 I never sat in the company of revelers,
never made merry with them;
I sat alone because your hand was on me
and you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unending
and my wound grievous and incurable?
Will you be to me like a deceptive brook,
like a spring that fails?
10
Jeremiah 15:19-20
19 Therefore this is what the LORD says: (to Jeremiah
himself)
“If you repent, I will restore you
that you may serve me;
if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,
you will be my spokesman.
Let this people turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20 I will make you a wall to this people,
a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you
but will not overcome you,
for I am with you
to rescue and save you,”
declares the LORD.
11
1:17-20 What’s the prediction?
Jeremiah 1:17-19
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. 18 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. 19
They will fight against you but will not overcome you,
for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the
LORD.
12
• The peoples’ continuous, and harsh rejection
of Jeremiah has driven the man to distraction,
and basically caused him to forfeit his
ministry!
• Now God tells JEREMIAH to repent! And
graciously re-installs him to his prophetic
office!
• What does this ultimately tell you about the
people of Judah?
13
14
2A
2B
3C
2D Contempt for Prophecy: Jehoiakim and the Scroll, 36:23-26
Jeremiah 36:23-24
23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the
scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw
them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in
the fire. 24 The king and all his attendants who heard all
these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes.
15
Jeremiah 36:25-26
25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged
the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to
them. 26 Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son
of the king, to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the
prophet. But the LORD had hidden them.
What would you have done with these people if you
were God?
16
2A
2B
2C The book of Consolation, 30-33
1D Section #1, the promise in
poetry, 31:31-34
17
Jeremiah 31:31-32 “The time is coming,”
declares the LORD, “when I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant I made
with their forefathers when I took them by
the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because
they broke my covenant, though I was a
husband to them,” declares the LORD.
18
Jer 31
49
15
12:1-3
3:15
Jer 31
Mosaic
Covenant
1 Sided
2 Sided
UNconditional
Conditional
19
31:33-34 “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.
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a
man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,... “For I will
forgive their wickedness...
20
Jer 31
Mosaic
Covenant
21
Notice Jesus’ words at the last supper
• Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks
and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
“This is my body given for you; do this in
remembrance of me.”
• 20 In the same way, after the supper he took
the cup, saying, “This cup is the new
covenant in my blood, which is poured out
for you.
22
So is the New Covenant given to the
Church instead of Israel, and has the
Church actually replaced Israel?
• The Peppermint gum principle
– God can give New Covenant blessings to the
Church without taking them away from Israel.
• Partial blessing now (AD 33--2015) ( i.e.,
indwelling Spirit to the Church) . . .
• Does not preclude full New Covenant
blessing to Israel in the future.
23
And now for 10,000 bonus points
• Where was this New Covenant theology, so
clearly described by Jeremiah, FIRST
mentioned ? ?
24
5A The Address of Moses
2B A Vision of Ultimate Realization of ...
Deut 30:1-6
When
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6
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25
Deut 28
Deut 28
Married
Divorced
Covenant
Relationship
No Covenant
Relationship
Marriage
refused
No Covenant
Relationship
New Covenant
Relationship
People
Nation
Nation?
Nation?
Nation!
2000 BC
1446
586
33
2015?
Abe
Moses
Exile
Jesus?
Jesus!
Deut 30
Re-Married
26
4A, 2B, Things Preserved for Future
“Planting” 52: 31-34
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin
king of Judah, in the year Merodach became king of
Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed
him from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth
month. 32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat
of honor higher than those of the other kings who were
with him in Babylon.
28
33 So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the
rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table. 34 Day
by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin a regular
allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his death.
Matthew 1:12-16
12 After the exile to Babylon: Jehoiachin was the father
of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, . . .
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary,
of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
2 Sam 7
49
15
12:1-3
3:15
29
• Notice its dependence upon Deuteronomy
– The exile is not an accident, but a fulfillment
• Notice its acrostic form
– As the alphabet is exhausted, our grief and destruction
is complete. The ultimate & final curse of the law
(exile) has happened.
• Notice the hope
– In the worst part of the pain, chapter 3
30
31