Jesse Tree: Jeremiah (December 18, 2014)

Day 18:  Exile (Jeremiah 1:4-10; 2:4-13; 7:1-15; 8:22-9:11)

Jeremiah (646-626 B.C.) was called by YAHWEH to be his prophet during the 13^th year of the reign of Josiah. 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

Before you were born I set you apart;

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah worried he was too young.  He worried he wasn’t eloquent enough.  But YAHWEH was with him.

It was a chaotic era.  Hezekiah’s 8^th century reforms were long gone and syncretistic worship had wormed its way in under Manasseh’s ungodly reign.  Jeremiah called the people to a place of true repentance but they had fallen too far.  They no longer responded to God’s call.[1] 

YAHWEH did not give up on them easily.  He continued to reach out to them through his prophet. 

Jeremiah would not easily give up on them either. 

His life was marked by constant sadness.  His expressions of sorrow are classic.  But the trials he endures show him to be a bulwark for God’s truth.  He was “by temperament gentle and timid, yet constantly contending against the forces of sin; and by natural desire a seeker after the love of a companion, his family, friends, and, above all, his people – which were all denied him….  [He was]  sad and despairing because of the rejection of his message, he yet loved, prayed for, and agonized over his people…  Even when the Lord forbade him to pray for them, he continued to intercede.”[2]

But Jeremiah knew that when the time came for God to judge them it was futile to resist.  The people would not be any more receptive to this message than earlier ones . 

He was misunderstood.

He was persecuted relentlessly.

But his faithfulness to YAHWEH did not waver.

In Jeremiah’s life there is reflected something of Christ who didn’t just bring a message, he was the good news himself! 

Both used God’s creation to bring truth’s to light.  Both were deeply aware of God’s call on their life and though they resisted it, they were at the same time drawn to follow him whether in life or death.  They condemned the commercialism that temple worship had acquired – with similar demonstrations (7:11; Matt 21:13).  They were both tried, persecuted, and imprisoned.  They both foretold the destruction of the temple (6:14; Mark 13:2), wept for Jerusalem (9:1; Luke 19:41), and condemned the priests of their day.  They were rejected by their families (12:6; John 1:11).  They loved Israel with a deep love.  They knew loneliness (15:10; Isa 53:3).  They enjoyed unusual fellowship with God.  One of the unique features of Jeremiah’s life was that he could be so free and honest in communion and conversation with God (20:7; John 11:41-42).[3]

It was also Jeremiah who prophesied hope of a New Covenant that would come through the long awaited messiah:

“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.
³² It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband to^[d] them,^[e]”
declares the Lord.
³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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 they teach their neighbor,
    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.” (31:31-34)

Jesus was born to mediate this new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance (Hebrews 8).  

Jeremiah wept for the people as Jesus would one day weep for Jerusalem – for the people that he came to save but did not recognize him.  He wept for their sin, their blindness, for their distance from the God who would be so near to them.  And isn’t that the heart of God?  Shouldn’t it be our heart to weep for those who have turned from him?

What can you do to celebrate this today?    Who does your heart weep for, that they might return to God?  That they might meet him at the manger this Christmas?  Out of the brokenness of your heart, pray for their restoration.

Prayer:  Jesus, we weep with you.  We weep for the sheep who are lost.  With broken hearts we seek them out.

Worship: 

The New Covenant (Jer 31:31-34) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzOKVK5CxEQ

O Holy Night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al88wRH-EsU

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[1] The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 2., p. 986.

[2] The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 358.

[3] The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 360.