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Under God’s orders, Jeremiah has been persistent in preaching warnings about sinful behavior and the effect of national sin on the fortunes of the kingdom of Judah. People don’t like what he is saying. The government doesn’t like to be reminded of how corrupt they are. Even his own family gets tired of it. So, some begin to take action against the preacher. “Justice must be served,” or so they say, but that depends on who is being prosecuted, doesn’t it? Why do those who dema

Jeremiah 19: 1-2. Thus said the LORD: Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jug. Take with you some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. Cultural and Historical Context. The potter’s house is his place of business. Pottery began to appear around 12,000 years ago in Japan, then China, and finally in the Near East by about 10,000 yea

Jeremiah 18: 12. But they say, “It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.” Now, no one would really say this to God; but people certainly act like they secretly believe this. Their behavior reveals how hard-headed and stubborn they are. They refuse to recognize their sin and admit their guilt, let alone apologize and ask for forgiveness. In fact, in our day and age, it’s just the opposite. The tenden

Jeremiah 18: 1-4. The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So, I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working on his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Have you ever watched a potter working at his or her wheel? The potter begins the way God began at creation, with a lump of cla

We have come a long way from depending on the town crier for news. Back in the day, news was announced (cried out) in the town center, then spread from house to house with some adjustments by gossipy neighbors. The medium for messages, either news or proclamations, then moved from voice to print, that is, to newspapers, pamphlets (for example, during the Revolutionary War period), and to books. Still, the news could be slanted as the term ‘the yellow press’ reminds us. N

Sometimes our prayers are driven by desire; we want something to happen and hope that God will grant our wish. Sometimes our prayers are driven by concern; we want someone that we love to be blessed in the face of a threat to health or life. And sometimes our prayers are driven by exasperation; we have been working in the Lord’s service, but no one seems to care. Worse yet, instead of believing the Bible, some cynics seem to think that showing love and compassion for others

One of the practices to begin with in good Bible study is to see what words, concepts, or themes are repeated. In this chapter, the word for ‘heart’ and ‘hearts’ is repeated. In fact, it appears 40 times in the book of Jeremiah, more than any other book of the Bible, except Psalms and Proverbs. In Jeremiah, God says that Judah is close to his heart; but Judah has not kept God in their heart. God says that Judah’s hearts need to be circumcised. This metaphor was stated earli

We learned last week that Jeremiah not only prophesied (preached) but he also performed the word of God. That is, he conformed his behavior to demonstrate the word of God; perhaps for those who were hard of hearing. That’s a joke, but too true as a metaphor. Maybe the people who refused to hear the word of God would believe it if they saw it. Here are some additional instructions for Jeremiah about how to perform as a prophet. 16: 5-9. For thus says the LORD: Do not enter th

Would you like to be a prophet? You’d better think again. There is pain there that eats up your life. Perhaps that is why the prophet Amos loudly proclaimed: “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now then, hear the word of the LORD” (Amos 7: 14-15). We know, because he told us, that Jeremiah was from a

God has had enough of Judah’s disobedience, disrespect, and bad behavior. Through Jeremiah, God has revealed a future that few will survive. Here is how events will play out for the people and their families. 15: 8-9. I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At midday I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men; suddenly I will bring down on them anguish and terror. The mother of seven will grow faint

15: 1-2. Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says: Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity’. Jeremiah’s sermons and the prophecies given to him directly from t

The English term ‘disinformation’ came into everyday use in the 1980s (though it has a longer history). Its origin seems to be with the KGB who used it to describe government-driven campaigns to spread false reports in order to mislead or confuse the people. The Germans under Hitler tended to use a similar term, ‘propaganda’, which has a more neutral understanding in the long history of the Catholic Church where it means to ‘spread’ or ‘propagate’ the Gospel. Disinformation

We have established that this book preserves Jeremiah’s sermons preached over 40 years (627-586 BC). [Remember that BC means Before Christ, so the years go down instead of up.] Jeremiah’s scribe Baruch recorded these sermons and arranged them in this order. We should not expect, however, that the order is strictly chronological, although most of us would use this method. Still, think of novels or even non-fiction books that begin in the middle of a story and then use flashbac

13:20-22. Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock? What will you say when they set as head over you those whom you have groomed to be your allies? Will not pangs seize you like those of a woman in labor? And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things come upon me?” it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up

You can speak, you can give your witness about what God has done for you, you might even preach…but the issue is not only the bold proclamation that you may make but whether or not the people listening can understand what you are saying. I can sincerely say, “Bwe kin an Anij yokwe lol, E ar letok juon wot Nejin.“ However, if I am visiting Dismal Springs United Methodist Church in the midwest where people are not likely to understand a Pacific Islands language, then what good

The Book of Jeremiah is a collection of prophetic sermons arranged by Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch. Jeremiah began preaching in 627 BC, then disappeared as a captive in Egypt around 580 BC. So, these sermons represent over 40 years of prophecy. It looks like Baruch grouped them together chronologically into various eras of Jeremiah’s life. Thus, one should expect some repetition and overlap; cycles of God’s accusations against Judah, declarations of judgments, and offers to fore

When we left the first half of Chapter 12 last week, we could see that Jeremiah was disgusted with the practices of his family, neighbors, and the people and leaders of the Kingdom of Judah. At that moment, he wondered why God had not destroyed them before now. It is not the only emotion that he has had, for we know that he also wept over the coming but deserved destruction of his nation. God commiserated with Jeremiah, but warned him that it was going to get worse before it

Where are we in the story? Get your bearings. If you are lost at the beginning, you are not likely to discover the intended meaning of the story. Jeremiah, a prophet from a family of priests in Anathoth, north of Jerusalem, has been called by God to preach a series of warnings to the king, priests, and people of Judah. Why? Because what they are doing does not match who they pretend to be when they go to temple worship on Sabbath. It's the equivalent of Christians not bein

Where are we? We are studying the Book of Jeremiah who is often called “The Weeping Prophet.” There are several good reasons for that. Jeremiah preached to the government, to the religious leaders, and to the people of Judah, which was the remaining southern kingdom of the people of Israel. Such a task was no fun, and it was dangerous. The people were following the same broad path as the northern Kingdom of Israel, the path that ended in suffering, death, and defeat. The wh

Since this book of the prophet Jeremiah is a collection of his sermons over a period of more than 40 years, we can expect some abrupt starts and stops. Did Baruch the scribe arrange the sermons chronologically? Probably, though it is not out of the question that he might pair up some sermons with similar themes even if one is early and another one later. Also, certain themes might shift in meaning over time. For example, in the early sermons when Jeremiah said, as God told