The weeping prophet
Reflections on the experience of Jeremiah
Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)
All Scripture…
It has long been my conviction that God’s revelation to us through the Bible and in the person of Jesus Christ is of exceptional importance. When carefully considered, Scripture, by which I mean the whole Bible, tells us things that we could not otherwise know. And several years ago I wrote a book — The Big Reveal, freely available to read on a Substack here — with a view to trying to explain what God has disclosed and why it matters.
The apostle Paul was originally a zealous Jew named Saul who was a leading persecutor of Christians. But following his extraordinary conversion on the road to Damascus, he was personally appointed by God to take the gospel message to the non-Jewish world. And one of the most well-known things that he wrote is that “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
I find two things striking about the phrase “all Scripture”. Firstly, in Paul’s day the New Testament did not exist as such1 and “Scripture” was then essentially what we now know as the Old Testament. Secondly, “all Scripture” presumably means just that: every part of it. Even those bits of the Old Testament that might appear, on the face of it, rather dull — Numbers 1-4 anyone? And/or hard to understand — Numbers 5 springs to mind.
When I see a church with any form of online sermon availability, I take it as a promising sign that the preaching of the word of God is being taken seriously. But when I find a church whose back catalogue includes the likes of Numbers — or indeed e.g. Ruth, Ecclesiastes and Habakkuk, i.e. some of the lesser-thumbed books of the Old Testament — I am inclined to think that it is definitely worth a second look.
If the idea that sermons on such parts of the Old Testament might be worth hearing sounds surprising, then try listening (for example) to this 23-minute sermon on Numbers 21:4-9, which is among the most striking I have heard.2 Moreover, this apparently obscure passage, featuring a bronze snake, is actually the one to which Jesus refers just before his famous declaration in John 3:16, which is perhaps the most cited of all Bible verses, depicted particularly creatively in the motto of this group of Christian footballers:
Some parts more than others
Some parts of Scripture naturally get rather more attention than others in preaching schedules: the accounts of Creation and the Fall and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount spring to mind. As do passages from the Old Testament prophets which feature regularly at Christmas services. And a somewhat selective approach does seem reasonable, not least given that some parts of the Old Testament get rather more attention than others in the New Testament.
But the passages Old Testament passages that feature in the New Testament are not necessarily the ones that we might expect. Take the book of Daniel for example. There are to my knowledge no New Testament references to the fiery furnace, or the writing on the wall or the lion’s den. Instead we find quotes from (or allusions to) the lesser-known latter parts of the book,3 not least Daniel’s extraordinary dream in chapter 7.4 And a strong contender for the Old Testament verse most often cited in the New Testament5 comes from Leviticus:
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.
There is thus a strong case to be made for preaching systematically through the whole of Scripture. This is not to advocate e.g. sermons on 1 Chronicles 1-10 chapter by chapter, week by week. Or indeed Numbers 1-4. But such passages are part of what God has, in his infinite wisdom, chosen to disclose to us. And God has plenty to teach us from all books of the Bible — including Numbers and 1 Chronicles.
I am thus grateful for churches where the whole of Scripture is taught, putting those Christmas prophecies — and the rest of the Bible — in context. As I have described in some detail here, it is my experience that, when carefully considered, the Old Testament provides some of the most compelling evidence for the truth of the Christian message.
And at the church I attend, which has an impressive sermon catalogue going back 35 years, there are not many gaps. Particularly since the time when a former vicar realised that he would not live much longer, and in his final year or so of this life focused on preaching through parts of the Bible which had not previously been taught from the pulpit during his 20+ years at the church — such as Song of Songs, Daniel 9-12 and Lamentations.
Which brings us to Jeremiah.
The book of Jeremiah
For Jeremiah is the writer of the book of Lamentations. And, unsurprisingly, the book of Jeremiah — which in terms of word count is the longest in the Bible, just ahead of Genesis and Psalms.
As Old Testament prophets go, Jeremiah, who is considered one of the so-called major prophets,6 is among the better known. His name is even a word in its own right,7 with the Collins English Dictionary defining a “Jeremiah” as “a person who habitually prophesies doom or denounces contemporary society”. There is also the word “jeremiad”, defined as “a long mournful lamentation or complaint”.
Jeremiah is, as it happens, the book of the Bible I have been reading recently. I try to look at least a few verses of Scripture each day, making occasional notes. I alternate between different parts — history, law, prophets, gospels, epistles etc. — with a view to covering the whole. And, having reached the end of Acts a few weeks ago, I turned to Jeremiah. Partly because it was a long time since had last read it. And partly because I was interested to see what it says about Babylon8 — a subject which I plan to discuss in forthcoming posts.
For anyone wanting a short overview, I recommend this 7-minutes Bible Project video:9
In short, the book of Jeremiah contains both warnings of judgement and the promise of hope to the people of Judah — the last remnant of the once-great kingdom of Israel.
Warnings of judgement
Through Jeremiah, God speaks repeatedly of the coming destruction of Judah and Jerusalem (its capital city) as a result of his people’s persistent idolatry and violation of his covenant. He uses various images convey his message. Among the most graphic is that of a broken potter’s jar:
This is what the Lord says: ‘Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests… and proclaim the words I tell you: “Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal — something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will… call this place… the Valley of Slaughter.
‘In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds and the wild animals. I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.”
‘Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, and say to them, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth [the place where God sent Jeremiah to prophesy,10 and which was associated with child sacrifice in ancient times11] until there is no more room… The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth — all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”’ (Jeremiah 19:1-13)
Through Jeremiah, God calls his people to change their ways, and warns of devastating consequences if they do not repent.
But the warnings go unheeded. And the result is terrible.
In the final chapter of Jeremiah, we read that:
…in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. (Emphasis added)
By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled… (Jeremiah 52:4-7)
Many months of siege and hunger. Then military conquest, with those who survived being driven into exile.
It is in that context that we read of Jeremiah’s sorrow, both in the book of Jeremiah:
Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. (Jeremiah 9:1, emphasis added)
And in the book of Lamentations:
The Lord has rejected all the warriors in my midst; he has summoned an army against me to crush my young men. In his winepress the Lord has trampled Virgin Daughter Judah. This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed… My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within; my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. (Lamentations 1:15-16, 2:11, emphasis added)
The weeping prophet had more reasons to weep than most.
The promise of hope
But amid the warnings of coming judgement, Jeremiah also offers a positive vision of the future. He assures his people that, although Jerusalem will be destroyed, and although they will go into exile, God will eventually bring them back to their land:
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you… and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.’ (Jeremiah 29:10-14)
And the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt:
‘I will restore the fortunes [my people]… the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place.’ (Jeremiah 30:18)
Moreover, in the depths of the darkness there are hints of a much greater restoration.
A truly righteous king:
‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.’ (Jeremiah 23:5-6)
And a new covenant:
‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the [old] covenant I made with their ancestors… ‘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. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the Lord. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’ (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
Such passages are fulfilled in Jesus Christ as I discuss in the final chapter of The Big Reveal.
In the New Testament we read that shortly before he died (and rose again)…
…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.’ 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. (Luke 22:19-20, emphasis added)
This new covenant…
…of which [Jesus] is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and [spoke the words of Jeremiah 31:31-34]. By calling this covenant ‘new’, he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. (Hebrews 8:6-13, emphasis added)
Jesus Christ is portrayed as someone who is greater even than King Solomon12 and whose kingdom will never end.13 And the apostle John writes:
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2, emphasis added)
A reluctant prophet
Jeremiah was reluctant to speak for God, not least because he regarded himself as too young. Presumably he felt relatively unqualified, and perhaps afraid.
But as with Moses — who asked God to send someone else, and Jonah — who went in the opposite direction, God had his own plans:
‘Do not say, “I am too young.” You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord.
Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.’ (Jeremiah 1:7-10)
God enabled Jeremiah to see the bigger picture:
The word of the Lord came to me: ‘What do you see, Jeremiah?’
‘I see the branch of an almond tree,’ I replied.
The Lord said to me, ‘You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.’
The word of the Lord came to me again: ‘What do you see?’
‘I see a pot that is boiling,’ I answered. ‘It is tilting towards us from the north.’
The Lord said to me, ‘From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,’ declares the Lord.
‘Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem; they will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah. I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshipping what their hands have made.’ (Jeremiah 1:11-16)
He thus commanded Jeremiah:
‘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. 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. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 1:17-19)
And, according to this analysis, the Bible now contains more words from the weeping prophet than anyone else bar Moses, Ezra and Luke.
An unwelcome message
Because of the rebellion of Judah, God had resolved to send the Babylonians — led by King Nebuchadnezzar — to destroy Jerusalem and send the survivors into exile. (This is part of a wider biblical pattern, outlined in Jeremiah 25:8-14, where God raises up an enemy nation to bring judgement on his people, and then in turn brings judgement on that same enemy nation.14)
And it is not difficult to see, even from just the first chapter (above), why Jeremiah’s message — warning of what was to come — might be unpopular.
And as we read on, God’s verdict unfolds. Consider for example Jeremiah 2:11-13:
…my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,’ declares the Lord. ‘My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
And Jeremiah 7:1-11, where God commanded his prophet to stand at the gate of the temple and there proclaim this message:
Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!’ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave to your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.” (Emphasis added)
Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’ — safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.
God had been watching his people, and longing for them to return to him — not least for their own benefit:
‘If you, Israel, will return, then return to me,’ declares the Lord. ‘If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, “As surely as the Lord lives,” then the nations will invoke blessings by him and in him they will boast.’ (Jeremiah 4:1-2)
But this call to repentance — delivered by Jeremiah — was destined not to be heeded:
When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. Therefore say to them, “This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.” (Jeremiah 7:27-28, emphasis added)
And it was met with strong opposition.
A hostile response
The people were resolute in their rebellion against God. In the words of Jeremiah:
Then the Lord said to me, ‘There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them… Therefore this is what the Lord says: “I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes...” (Jeremiah 11:9-12)
“Conspiracy” actually features quite a lot in the Bible, as does “plotting”. And some people were sufficiently hostile to Jeremiah — presumably mainly because of what he was saying — that they planned to kill him:
Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realise that they had plotted against me, saying, ‘Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.’ (Jeremiah 11:18-19)
And these were the people of Jeremiah’s home town! As God says to his prophet in the next chapter:
Your relatives, members of your own family — even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.
But while Jeremiah escaped with his life — consistent with God’s promise of rescue in chapter 1 — he suffered greatly at the hands of his fellow Israelites. For example, we read in Jeremiah 20, in the context of the prophet’s warning of judgement that we considered earlier, that:
When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the official in charge of the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lord’s temple. The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, ‘The Lord’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side.
It is no wonder that Jeremiah cried out to God:
You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived;15 you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.
But it seems that the prophet was compelled to speak:
…if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.
Even though he was aware that even his friends were against him:
I hear many whispering, ‘Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!’ All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, ‘Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.’
Jeremiah knew that God was with him and on the side of truth and justice. He was also aware of the fate of his persecutors…
…the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonour will never be forgotten.
…and he goes so far as to pray:
Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause.
Remarkably, he could still recognise that God is worthy of praise…
Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.
…even though he — like Job — wished that he had never been born:
Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, ‘A child is born to you – a son!’ …Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?
And it was not only Job’s family and friends who were against him. In Jeremiah 26 — in the context of the prophet again calling the people to repentance — we read that:
…as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, ‘You must die!…’
The opposition here was apparently led by people of the religious establishment of the day:
…the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, ‘This man [Jeremiah] should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!’
It was the officials and all the people who pushed back, saying to the priests and the prophets:
‘This man should not be sentenced to death! He has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.’
Though in Jeremiah 29 it is revealed that at least one person — Shemaiah the Nehelamite — was campaigning for the priests to act against Jeremiah.
Here is the context:
Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: you sent letters in your own name to all the people in Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah… and to all the other priests. You said to Zephaniah, “The Lord has appointed you priest… to be in charge of the house of the Lord; you should put any maniac who acts like a prophet into the stocks and neck-irons. So why have you not reprimanded Jeremiah from Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you?”’ (Emphasis added)
There was apparently no attempt from Shemaiah to engage with what Jeremiah was actually saying. Instead there is the charge — on no apparent foundation — that Jeremiah is “a maniac” who is “acting like” a prophet. He has presumably said things that Shemaiah does not want to hear.
Here is what happened next:
Zephaniah the priest, however, read the letter to Jeremiah the prophet. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ‘Send this message to all the exiles: “This is what the Lord says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and has persuaded you to trust in lies, this is what the Lord says: I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good things I will do for my people, declares the Lord, because he has preached rebellion against me.”’ (Emphasis added)
It is not easy to discern what was on Shemaiah’s heart. But it appears that God takes seriously the fact that he has persuaded others — including perhaps even Zephaniah the priest — to trust in lies.
A lonely and painful experience
For Jeremiah, his ministry was at times a lonely and painful experience. In Jeremiah 15 he prayed:
Lord, you understand; remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. You are long-suffering — do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revellers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. (Emphasis added)
Jeremiah was evidently someone who ordinarily delighted in what God had to say. But in the context of having to deliver such an unwelcome message, and the hostile response that he was repeatedly facing, he appeared to be at his wits’ end:
Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? You are to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails.
Jeremiah’s honesty in prayer met with this response from God:
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. 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… from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.
And he continued to speak God’s words.
Censorship
It is important to observe that the attacks were directed not only at Jeremiah himself, but also at his message:
In Jeremiah 36:
[God commanded Jeremiah] ‘Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you…’
And so Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll.
But, remarkably, Jeremiah had been prohibited from proclaiming God’s message at the temple, the very place where the people went to meet with God! And so he sent his scribe instead:
Then Jeremiah told Baruch, ‘I am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the Lord’s temple. So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns… And Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do
Word eventually reached the royal palace, and Baruch was invited to read Jeremiah’s words to some of King Jehoiakim’s officials:
When they heard [Jeremiah’s] words, they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, ‘We must report all these words to the king’… Then the officials said to Baruch, ‘You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don’t let anyone know where you are.’
Whatever they thought of Jeremiah’s words, the officials presumably could see what might be coming:
The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it… and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the brazier in front of him. 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 brazier, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire… Even though [some of the officials] urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel… to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. (Emphasis added)
As so often, censorship goes hand in hand with persecution.
(More) persecution
In due course, as the Babylonians advanced, Jehoiakim died and a new king came to power (Jeremiah 37:1ff):
Zedekiah was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon [but] neither he nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the Lord had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.
While the political leadership had changed, there was still no appetite to hear the inconvenient truth that God had spoken through Jeremiah.
But:
King Zedekiah [did send] Jehukal son of Shelemiah with the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah the prophet with this message: ‘Please pray to the Lord our God for us.’
The context here was that the Babylonians had temporarily withdrawn from Jerusalem because Pharaoh’s army had marched out of Egypt to support Zedekiah. But God spoke through Jeremiah:
‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: tell the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of me, “Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt. Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.”
‘This is what the Lord says: do not deceive yourselves, thinking, “The Babylonians will surely leave us.” They will not! Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn this city down.
When Jeremiah tried to leave the city to go and get his share of the property in his home territory of Benjamin, he was accused of deserting to the Babylonians, and was beaten and imprisoned.
Jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon, where he remained a long time.
Eventually King Zedekiah sent for him and asked:
‘Is there any word from the Lord?’
Jeremiah replied to the king…
‘Yes… you will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.’
…and pleaded not to be sent back to the dungeon.
And King Zedekiah ordered that:
Jeremiah… be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread from the street of the bakers each day until all the bread in the city was gone.
In the next chapter, we are told that, in the context of Jeremiah’s warning from God that…
“Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians will live. They will escape with their lives; they will live… This city will certainly be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.”
…the king’s officials essentially accused the prophet of treason:
Then the officials said to the king, ‘This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.’
And the king seems happy for the officials to do as they like:
‘He is in your hands,’ King Zedekiah answered. ‘The king can do nothing to oppose you.’
The officials then put Jeremiah in a cistern, a pit used to store rainwater…
They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
…but one brave official — named Ebed-Melek — heard what was going on, and approached the king on Jeremiah’s behalf:
‘My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.’
Zedekiah then ordered the Ebed-Melek to rescue Jeremiah:
He took some old rags and worn-out clothes… and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern [saying], ‘Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.’ Jeremiah did so, and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
The king then questioned Jeremiah again, promising not to kill him or to hand him over to those who want to kill him. And Jeremiah replied:
This is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live. But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from them.”
…Obey the Lord by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared.
Jeremiah then remained in the courtyard of the guard until Jerusalem was captured (Jeremiah 39:1ff) and the events that he had prophesied came to pass.16
Exile
Although most of the people remaining in Jerusalem were carried into exile, Jeremiah was set free (Jeremiah 40:1-6).
The others remaining in Judah (the “remnant”) then approached Jeremiah — presumably aware that he had correctly foretold the fate of Jerusalem — and asked him to pray for God for help (Jeremiah 42):
Then all the army officers… and all the people from the least to the greatest approached Jeremiah… and said to him, ‘Please hear our petition and… pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.’
And they promised that:
Whether it is favourable or unfavourable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us…
Ten days later, God spoke through Jeremiah, promising to save the remnant if they stay in Judah:
If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.”
And warning them against going to Egypt:
However, if you say, “We will not stay in this land,” and so disobey the Lord your God, and if you say, “No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,” then hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die…”
But the people ignored Jeremiah. They disobeyed God’s command to stay in the land of Judah and instead entered Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them:
…all the army officers led away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered… And they took Jeremiah… and Baruch… along with them. [And] they entered Egypt in disobedience to the Lord…
In due course, as God had prophesied through Jeremiah,17 Nebuchadnezzar attacked Egypt in much the same way that he had attacked Judah.
Eventually Babylon fell to the Persians led by Cyrus the Great — who was described by God through the prophet Isaiah as:
…my shepherd [who] will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.’” (Isaiah 44:28)18
And the temple was indeed rebuilt, though it was nothing like what it was in its former glory.19 The Old Testament ended with Judah as a shadow of what the original kingdom of Israel had been under David and Solomon. The fulfilment of God’s promises was yet to come.
Jeremiah and Jesus Christ
As discussed earlier, the fulfilment of God’s promises — including those spoken through Jeremiah — came through Jesus Christ.
And during Jesus’ time on earth, there was no shortage of speculation as to his identity. The gospel writer Matthew records that when Jesus asked his disciples:
‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’
They replied:
‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets’ (Emphasis added)
For Jesus had plenty in common with Jeremiah, who:
Was Jewish
Was from a small town
Was chosen and set apart by God before he was born
Used symbolic imagery to convey his message, e.g. broken cisterns, fishermen, shepherd and sheep
Used symbolic actions to convey his message e.g. a linen belt, a potter’s jar, two baskets of figs, a yoke
Was sometimes direct and to the point, particularly in relation to false religion and false prophets
Spoke of people who “have eyes but do not see… ears but do not hear”20
Used the phrase “den of robbers” in relation to the temple
Foretold the destruction of Jerusalem
Wept over Jerusalem
Called for repentance and an inward change of heart
Spoke of a new covenant
Spoke of a close relationship between God and his people
Promised to refresh the weary
Preached everlasting hope for God’s people
Promised restoration
Promised blessing for those who trust in God
Faced opposition from his home town, his family and his friends
Faced opposition from the religious establishment
Suffered as a result of his preaching
Faced a plot to kill him
Saw himself as a “lamb led to the slaughter”22
Of course Jeremiah did not perform miracles (in the way that Moses and Elijah did23). And nor did he rise from the dead!
But the extent of the similarities between Jeremiah and Jesus is nevertheless striking. This should perhaps not surprise us. For Jeremiah was speaking God’s word of truth in a time when truth had perished. And Jesus claimed not only to speak the truth but to be the truth. He was the ultimate teller of truth. And he paid the ultimate price.
Following in the footsteps of Jeremiah
I suspect that plenty of people throughout history could identify with elements of Jeremiah’s experience, which on one level is essentially that of someone speaking unwelcome truth that runs contrary to what most people believe.
There are of course clear differences between those — like Jeremiah — who spoke the very words of God, and those — like almost everybody else — who merely seek to speak the truth as best they can. But there are also similarities. Particularly in relation to speaking unwelcome truth that runs contrary to what most people believe, something which has for me — and for plenty of others — been a running theme of the past few years.
I suspect that for some people it may seem somewhat odd that I have written this article at all. And that for others, reading about Jeremiah may have brought to mind aspects of their own experience and/or that of others they know. Either way, I recommend thinking about the content of this post — and indeed the book of Jeremiah — with the past few years particularly in mind. I plan to share some further reflections on this in the coming weeks.
Dear Church Leaders articles (some of which can also be found on Unexpected Turns)
The Big Reveal — Christianity carefully considered
Although the apostle Peter does implicitly refer to Paul’s letters as Scripture
And which reminds me of this short but perceptive article regarding the symbolism of the snake in medicine:
e.g. Matthew 24:15
e.g. Revelation 1:7
Quoted by Jesus e.g. in Matthew 5:43-44, Matthew 19:16-19 and Matthew 22:34-40; by Paul in Romans 13:8-9 and Galatians 5:13-14; and by James in James 2:8
Described as such because their writings are rather longer than the so-called “minor prophets”
See e.g. Jeremiah 7:31-32
See also e.g. Isaiah 10:5-19 in relation to Assyria
The Hebrew word translated “deceived” has a range of meanings, including “persuaded”
The events are summarised in the final chapter of Jeremiah and also 2 Kings 25
Both in Jeremiah 42:13-22 and Jeremiah 46
See also Jeremiah 51:11-12, 24-64
See e.g. Haggai 2:1-3
See also Ezekiel 12:2
See also Psalm 78:60-64
See e.g. Acts 8:32-34