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CHAPTER 24 – Jeremiah: 627 B.C.-31 A.D.

Jeremiah is the twenty-fourth book of the Bible. The title of the book in the Hebrew Bible is Yirmeyah which may mean “Yahweh is exalted” or “Yahweh casts.” The English title comes from the Septuagint which has the title Ieremias, “Jeremiah.”

Authorship

The prophet Jeremiah is the author of at least most the book of Jeremiah, but the actual writing was done by his trusted secretary, Baruch, at Jeremiah’s dictation. The book implies that the final chapter was written by someone else, possibly Baruch. Jeremiah was written during Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry which lasted from 627 B.C. to approximately 576 B.C.

Summary

The book of Jeremiah covers the period from 627 B.C. to 31 A.D. The book opens with Jeremiah’s call by God to his prophetic mission and God’s promises to Jeremiah of God’s protection. God then describes and denounces Judah’s sins and calls faithless Israel to return to Him. God next prophesies that Judah will be invaded by a hostile nation and He describes their doom.

After this, God commands Jeremiah to go to the Temple and warn the people of the fate that awaited them unless they should repent. Jeremiah mourns about this, and he goes as commanded. God then pronounces a curse upon Judah because they have broken their covenant with God.

In reaction to Jeremiah’s peaching, the men of Anathoth and Jeremiah’s own relatives, plot to silence him by taking his life. God tells Jeremiah of the plot and Jeremiah appeals to God for justice. After this, there is a drought in Judah and God forbids Jeremiah to pray to Him for the good of the people.

Jeremiah laments his conflict with the people and God encourages him. God then commands Jeremiah not to marry, nor to mourn for the dead, nor attend festive assemblies. After this, God describes Judah’s idolatry, promises to restore Judah from their captivity, and sends Jeremiah to call the people to faithful Sabbath observance.

About this time, Pashur, governor of the Temple, puts Jeremiah in the stocks. Jeremiah complains to God that he is in derision daily and everyone mocks him, and Jeremiah decides to resign from his commission from God. But God will not release Jeremiah from God’s calling upon his life. So, Jeremiah curses the day he was born and laments the role God has given him. Nevertheless, Jeremiah shoulders the prophetic yoke once more.

King Zedekiah sends to Jeremiah to enquire of God and Jeremiah prophesies to the king of Judah’s captivity to Babylon, the fate of Zedekiah himself, and the fate of other members of the royal house, namely, Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin.

God then prophesies that a righteous King will reign in Judah, denounces the false prophets, prophesies that Judah will be in exile for 70 years, and of His, God’s, judgments upon all the nations. God next sends Jeremiah to the court of the Temple to announce the 70-year captivity of Judah, and the utter desolation of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple.

In response, the priests and the prophets arrest Jeremiah and threaten to kill him, but Jeremiah is rescued by the princes of Judah. God then sends Jeremiah to warn the nations not to revolt against Babylon and to counsel king Zedekiah to do likewise and live.

Jeremiah is opposed by a group of false prophets and so Jeremiah prophesies that their leader, Hananiah, would die that year, and Hananiah does indeed die that same year. Jeremiah then writes to the exiles in Babylon that they should settle down there for a long captivity. The Jewish leaders in captivity in Babylon write back demanding that Jeremiah be imprisoned as a false prophet.

God then prophesies that He will deliver, restore, and reunite both Israel and Judah, and establish them in their homeland under a new covenant that God will make with both kingdoms. Next, God renews His promises of a glorious future for Israel with the elevation of Jerusalem to a place of honour among the nations, and the re-establishment of their kings and priests.

After this, Jeremiah prophesies of the fate of Judah and of king Zedekiah and denounces Judah’s breach of faith in re-enslaving the people they had previously freed. Jeremiah then acts out a lesson to the people regarding the faithfulness of the Rechabites to their father’s command not to drink wine.

Next, Jeremiah has his secretary, Baruch, write his messages from God on a scroll and read them in the Temple on a certain day of fasting in Israel. Word of this act comes to the princes, who ask for the scroll and they take it to king Jehoiakim, and the king burns the scroll in the fire. Therefore, God commissions Jeremiah to have the scroll rewritten, which Jeremiah does and Jeremiah adds more words.

Soon after this, king Nebuchadnezzar again invades Judah and lays siege to Jerusalem. But when Nebuchadnezzar hears that Pharaoh’s army is come out of Egypt, he departs from Jerusalem. Jeremiah then prophesies that Pharaoh’s army could not help Judah, that the Egyptians would return to Egypt, and that the Babylonian army would return to invade Judah.

Jeremiah next leaves Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin and he is accused of defecting to the Babylonians and, therefore, imprisoned for many days. King Zedekiah then takes Jeremiah out from a dungeon, and he secretly asks Jeremiah what course he, the king, should take. Jeremiah advises Zedekiah to surrender to the Babylonians.

Zedekiah then commits Jeremiah to the court of the prison and commands that they give Jeremiah a daily piece of bread until all the bread in Jerusalem is finished. However, the princes demand that Zedekiah put Jeremiah to death. So, Jeremiah is put into an empty cistern and he sinks into the soft mud on the floor of the cistern.

Jeremiah’s life is spared when an Ethiopian eunuch, Ebed-melech, gains permission from king Zedekiah to draw Jeremiah out of the cistern. Jeremiah is next placed in the court of the prison. Zedekiah then comes and secretly enquires of Jeremiah, and Jeremiah again advises the king to submit to the Babylonians.

Zedekiah asks Jeremiah not to reveal Jeremiah’s advice to the him, Zedekiah, and Zedekiah leaves Jeremiah in the court of the prison. Jeremiah remains there in prison until Jerusalem falls captive to the Babylonians.

King Zedekiah and his entourage flee from Jerusalem, but the Babylonians pursue and overtake them. They are taken to king Nebuchadnezzar in Riblah, and Nebuchadnezzar passes sentence on them. Nebuchadnezzar then kills the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, as well as the nobles of Judah, blinds Zedekiah in both eyes, binds him, and takes him captive to Babylon.

After this, the Babylonians release Jeremiah from prison and Nebuchadnezzar permits Jeremiah to choose whether to go to Babylon or to remain in Judah. God then pronounces a blessing on Ebed-melech.

Jeremiah next attaches himself to Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had made the governor of Judah. Gedaliah is assassinated, and the people in fear of the Babylonians flee to Egypt taking Jeremiah with them.

In Egypt, Jeremiah continues his efforts to turn the people away from idolatry and back to God, but without success. Then Jeremiah prophesies that God will punish the people who had fled to Egypt and only a small remnant of them would return to Judah in the future. After this, Jeremiah prophesies that God will bless Baruch.

Jeremiah then prophesies of the destruction of Egypt, the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Kedar, the kingdoms of Hazor, Elam, and Babylon. Of the latter nation, Babylon, God says that they will fall and Israel will be delivered and restored to their homeland. At that future time, Babylon’s punishment from God will be according to their crimes, and God will then call the Jews to flee Babylon to escape Babylon’s doom.

God next contrasts Himself with idols and calls Israel His battle axe and weapons of war to break the nations in pieces and to destroy kingdoms. God then describes the fall and utter desolation of Babylon.

The book ends with a historical summary of the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, the city’s destruction, and the exile of the people of Israel to Babylon. Lastly, is the account of the king of Babylon releasing king Jehoiachin from prison and exalting him to royal privilege for the rest of his life.

Themes

• Unbelief and idolatry and God’s call to genuine worship of God.
• Human beings are naturally incapable of doing good.
• Promises of a glorious future for those who are true to God.
• A righteous Branch (Christ) of the line of king David of Israel would be humanity’s King.

God as Revealed in the Book

• God calls people to their prophetic ministry.
• God calls people to repent and so avoid His judgments.
• God alone can change human hearts from evil to holiness.
• God who punishes the wicked for their sins.

Connections with the Rest of the Bible

Israel “said [Israel covenanted], All that the LORD [God] hath said will we do, and be obedient.” Exodus 24:7. But “they continued not in [broke] my covenant…saith the Lord [God].” Hebrews 8:9.

Thus, “if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he [God] saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Hebrews 8:7, 8), in that, “I [God] will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” Hebrews 8:10.

This second, new covenant, is actually the everlasting covenant which promised, “I [God] will put enmity” (Genesis 3:15) in human hearts for sin and Satan, and this new covenant has now been confirmed (ratified) by the death of Christ almost 2,000 years ago.

Spiritual Applications

Pray to God sincerely and ask God to help you to do His will, believing that God will help you, and thus you will be enabled to make the spiritual applications noted below:

• Obey God’s call on your life with firmness of purpose, diligence, and joy.
• Do God’s will at all times without questioning and without leaning to your own understanding and your preconceived notions.
• Understand that without God’s help you can do no good.
• Partake of new covenant promises by submission to God’s will, repentance, and faith in Christ as the Deliverer from sin.
• Believe in the glorious future God has in store for the faithful.
• Learn not to be sinful and idolatrous as Israel and Judah were.

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