WWUTT 2279 An Introduction to the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1-3)

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Jeremiah was famously known as the weeping prophet. He wept watching his fellow countrymen go after sin and come into the judgment of God.

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But he also rejoiced to hear that God would deliver. When we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an

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Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. Welcome to the introductory lesson to the longest book of the

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Bible, the book of Jeremiah. Yeah, you thought the longest book was Psalms, right?

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Well, that one has the most number of chapters at 150, but it's really the third longest book of the

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Bible. The longest book by number of words is Jeremiah, with a word count of 33 ,002.

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That's about as long as a mid -level novel by comparison. If you're familiar with The Lion, the

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Witch, and the Wardrobe by C .S. Lewis, that has 36 ,000 words, just a little bit longer than Jeremiah.

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So for this lesson today, we wanna do an overview of the book. We'll consider the prophet himself, the man known as the weeping prophet, a little bit of his background.

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Also the timeframe in which these things were written, the events that are chronicled in Jeremiah.

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Also some main themes that we'll find in the book and we'll do an outline toward the end.

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But to get started, why don't we read a little scripture? In fact, we'll go through the whole first chapter here because this serves as an introduction to the rest of this prophetic book.

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Here is Jeremiah 1, verses one through 19. Hear the word of the

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Lord. The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the

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Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign.

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It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

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Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb,

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I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

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Then I said, ah, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak for I am only a youth.

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But the Lord said to me, do not say I am only a youth for to all to whom

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I send you, you shall go. And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the

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Lord. Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the

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Lord said to me, behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

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And the word of the Lord came to me saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said,

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I see an almond branch. Then the Lord said to me, you have seen well for I am watching over my word to perform it.

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The word of the Lord came to me a second time saying, what do you see? And I said,

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I see a boiling pot facing away from the North. Then the Lord said to me, out of the

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North disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. For behold,

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I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the North, declares the Lord. And they shall come and everyone shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.

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And I will declare my judgments against them for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.

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But you dress yourself for work, arise and say to them everything that I command you.

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Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I behold,

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I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land.

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They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you for I am with you, declares the

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Lord to deliver you. And there is the first chapter of this study of the book of Jeremiah, often called the weeping prophet, as I said, because of the sorrow that he experienced.

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Considering this message about God's judgment that he has been commissioned to deliver to the nation of Judah.

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As you could no doubt tell from these introductory words right at the very start of the chapter, this began during the reign of Josiah in about 627

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BC and would continue until sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem.

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So about 586, Jeremiah was a contemporary of Habakkuk's, so he would have prophesied and Habakkuk would have prophesied at roughly the same time.

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That was before the destruction of Jerusalem. Daniel would have been born during the time of Jeremiah, but he lived well past Jeremiah.

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And Ezekiel's ministry began before Jeremiah's had concluded.

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So that tells you a little bit about where Jeremiah lived and ministered even during the time of some other prophets.

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Nahum and Zephaniah were still prophesying at the time that Jeremiah was born and then later began to prophesy.

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Now, Jeremiah's prophecies were dictated to a scribe named Baruch. We'll see Baruch's name come up a couple of times here in this book.

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And Jeremiah's task was to declare the coming judgment of God, especially upon Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem.

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However, throughout the book, we also see God's concern for Judah, his desire that they would repent and that they would live righteously.

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He even calls nations to this, not just Judah, but even

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Gentiles. And we see this in chapter one, verse 10, the very mission that God gives to Jeremiah.

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I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms. So not just Judah, but even the pagans that were around Judah, that were seeking to destroy

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Judah. And so God tells him, you are going to pluck up and break down. You are going to destroy and overthrow to build and to plant.

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This is kind of the dual focus of Jeremiah's ministry. So some of these things prophetically that will be spoken, not just to the people of God, but even to nations all around.

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And this ultimately builds to a declaration of a new covenant that comes about in Jeremiah 31.

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The heart of the book is right at Jeremiah chapters 30 and 31. It's kind of where all of these events culminate.

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And it's there in chapter 31 that we read of the new covenant. Behold, the days are coming, declares the

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Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when

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I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the

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Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the

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Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their

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God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, no, the

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Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the

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Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

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And that is a covenant promise that we know was fulfilled in Christ. And the book of Hebrews mentions exactly that new covenant promise from Jeremiah 31, 31, beginning in verse 31.

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And we see that talk about in Hebrews and how it's fulfilled in Christ. And we have all become partakers of the new covenant if we believe in Jesus Christ.

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So you see the foreshadowing in the book of Jeremiah toward Christ in that way. Of course, the most famous verse in Jeremiah is not that one.

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It's the one that comes a couple of chapters before in Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans

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I have for you, declares the Lord, a plan to prosper and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.

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One of the most popular verses in the entire Bible. Of course, we're gonna look at that in context when we get there, but really that was a promise that was given to Israel, the promise that God would not destroy them even though they had wickedly rebelled against God.

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That reminder of their wickedness comes up pretty often in the book of Jeremiah, as a matter of fact.

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It's one of the prevailing themes, that their sin and their evil is mentioned more than 53 times, over 47 verses in this book.

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There are over 60 mentions of false gods in the book of Jeremiah because that's what

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Judah hoard themselves after, just as we had read in Hosea and in Isaiah that had happened with the

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Northern kingdom of Israel, so it happened with Judah as well. Babylon, the kingdom of Babylon is mentioned more often in Jeremiah than all the rest of the books of the

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Old Testament combined. So there is a lot of mention about Judah's sin since this is the reason why

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God is bringing this judgment against them. The destruction of Jerusalem is kind of a main focus of the book of Jeremiah.

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But one phrase that you'll hear come up a lot, in fact, you hear it come up more often, I believe in this book than any of the other prophetic books, is the phrase, word of the

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Lord. That is said over 50 times in this book. In fact, my idea for the podcast, hear the word of the

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Lord, is inspired by those words that occur exactly in Jeremiah. The word hear comes up a lot in this book also.

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So hear and word of the Lord and heart also seems to be a main focus.

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But I think if anything, we can summarize this book with these two phrases,

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I will punish and I will restore. God will bring judgment against Judah because of their sin.

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And so there are continual reminders that he is going to punish, just like we read in Hosea, just like we read in Isaiah.

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So it comes up in Jeremiah as well. But God is not gonna leave them to their destruction. That's really the whole meaning behind Jeremiah 29, 11.

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He is also going to restore them. God's clear and gracious offer to Judah, which was an offer that they obviously rejected because destruction comes upon Judah anyway.

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But the promise of God continues to be given to Judah that he will fulfill his promise through them.

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Now, regarding this particular book, J .C. Ryle, the famous Anglican of the 19th century, he said the following, the book of the prophet

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Jeremiah receives from most Christians far less attention than it deserves.

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It is a noteworthy fact that hardly any portion of Holy Scripture is the subject of so few exhaustive commentaries and expositions.

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And I believe those words of J .C. Ryle, though they were over a hundred years ago, are still true even to this day.

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Jeremiah is an often neglected book. In fact, I had that accusation made of me when after finishing

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Isaiah, I didn't go straight into Jeremiah. Why are you skipping Jeremiah and going to some other books? Well, because I wanted to do something else short after doing something really long like Isaiah.

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It seems like Isaiah and Ezekiel will get far more attention than Jeremiah does.

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But Jeremiah is not just an important book to the Old Testament, but also to the New. As I mentioned, it being talked about in Hebrews, exposited even in the book of Hebrews.

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It also has significance to the New Testament in this way. It is the prophet,

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Jeremiah is the prophet that Paul seems to most emulate. Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet.

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His character and his personality come out in this book, probably more so than any other prophets.

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And because Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet, his mourning over the destruction that he knows is going to come upon his people.

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Paul seems to emulate that in his own attitudes and behaviors. He talked about with the

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Corinthians, the grief that he would feel, the burden that he had upon him for all of the churches, weeping and praying for them.

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He said to the Philippians in Philippians chapter three, I warn you with tears of those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

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The emotions of these two men appear to be very similar. In fact, even in what we read here at the start of Jeremiah in chapter one, where it says that even from the womb,

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I knew you. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you.

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Well, Paul has a very similar testimony in Galatians 1 .15.

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When he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the

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Gentiles. So Paul shares sort of a similar thing there with the Galatians, that God had appointed him before he was even born to be an apostle and preach the gospel among the nations.

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There's also this section that we read here where the Lord gave assurance to Jeremiah, though he was very young.

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Jeremiah said, I'm only a youth. And God said, well, don't say you're just a youth.

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For to all to whom I send you, you shall go. And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.

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That sounds very similar to some counsel that Paul gave to Timothy. Let no one look down on you because of your youth.

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I have to wonder if Paul had that in mind. There's also the statement in 1

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Timothy 2, where Paul says that I desire that all men pray for kings and for all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

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Well, that's similar to an instruction that Jeremiah gave to Judah after they were exiled, that they would continue in faithfulness to the

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Lord and to seek the welfare of their captors because where their captors would receive blessing, so they would receive blessing also.

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And Paul gives the same counsel to Christians who are living in exile in this world. So in that way,

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Jeremiah has some similarity to the apostle Paul. We see similarities in their personalities. I think that's the case actually with a lot of the

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New Testament writers. You can find an Old Testament prophet closely aligned with that New Testament apostle.

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Like Matthew, for example, seems to mimic a lot of Daniel's writing style, but also

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Isaiah comes up a lot in Matthew. With John, he draws a lot from Ezekiel.

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So you'll see major prophetic influences among the apostles in the

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New Testament. And with Jeremiah, I think there's a lot of similarity with Paul. I haven't spent as much time with Jeremiah as I've spent with Paul, but I've spent enough time with Paul to see the similarities between his character and Jeremiah's.

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Now, what about Jeremiah? Well, we know that he was a youth because he says to God, I'm just a youth.

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Who am I? Who am I that you're gonna use me to do this thing? I don't even know how to speak.

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I have no experience as a public speaker. So we know that he was very young. We don't know what his occupation was.

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Here at the very beginning where it says, the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, that's not describing

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Jeremiah. That's about his father, Hilkiah. And Hilkiah may very well have been the high priest who was serving at the time of Josiah.

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Hilkiah was the guy who found the scroll in the temple when Josiah commissioned that the temple would be cleansed.

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And then the scroll is brought before, it was the book of the law that was brought before Josiah and read in his presence.

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And Josiah wept and tore his garments because he realized listening to the law of God that Judah had not been doing these things.

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And they were far from God. They had rebelled against God. And thus would begin the largest legal reform that had happened in Israel's history by the leadership of Josiah.

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God had told Josiah, because of your faithfulness, I'm gonna spare you from the judgment that is gonna come upon this people.

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But even though you have done these great things in the land, even though Josiah had torn his garments and had wept before the

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Lord, yet it had not changed the hearts of the people. Josiah had certainly issued many reforms, but he could not reform the heart.

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And the people after Josiah died, went right back to doing the things that they had been doing before Josiah's reign, thus coming into judgment because of their wickedness and rebellion against God.

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So that may well have been Jeremiah's father. It could be that it's just a similar name, but I think it's more likely that Hilkiah was the same

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Hilkiah that is described in 2 Kings 21 as the high priest during the reign of Josiah.

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So it goes on to say here that the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign.

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Josiah began to reign, I believe, at the age of eight. So 13 years later, that means when

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Josiah was 21 years old, that's when Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry.

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The word of the Lord also came in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

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So this is over a 40 -year period of time that the word of the Lord is coming to Jeremiah and this book is therefore being written.

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And those things that God would say to Jeremiah, he would say to his scribe Baruch, and these things would be written down.

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Not only would Jeremiah live to see the fall of Jerusalem, but he would also be exiled into the land of Egypt.

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Jeremiah was likely in his 70s by the time that he died, and he had one of the longest prophetic ministries of any of the prophets of the

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Old Testament period. Now, what kind of outline are we looking at here for the book of Jeremiah?

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And like I said, this is probably gonna be a long study for us because it's 52 chapters, but we have the introduction of the book right here in chapter one.

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And already a mission statement has even been given to us as well, that Jeremiah would be a prophet, not just to the

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Jews, but even to the Gentiles, even to the nations that would be affected by all of these huge events that would happen in this part of the world at this particular time.

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This is one of the most major events to happen in all of world history. Perhaps the only other event that's bigger than this, and you're talking about civilized history with the creation of civilizations around the world, the only other event bigger than this one is the coming of the

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Messiah, his birth, his life, his death, the crucifixion at the cross, and his resurrection from the grave.

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Those events surrounding Christ, it's probably the biggest events over the exile.

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This is a major chapter, not just in the Bible, but in world history.

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And even when you read Matthew's genealogy in Matthew chapter one, he centers part of the genealogy around the exile or what he calls the deportation to Babylon.

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So we're reading about some things happening during a very, very important event in world history. So you have the introduction in chapter one verses one through 19.

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And then after that, from chapter two through chapter 20, we have prophecies that are made to Judah, but they are very general prophecies.

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We don't see any specific dates or times so much in about these first 20 chapters of the book of Jeremiah.

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But then after that, starting in chapter 21, we have prophecies that are very particular and dated.

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And more of this narrative unfolds as well in chapters 21 through 39.

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Then in chapters 40 to 44, you have prophecies that are made to Judah after the fall of Jerusalem.

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And then in chapters 45 to 51, you have prophecies that are made even upon the

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Gentiles. And there are nine Gentile nations that are mentioned in those chapters, 45 to 51.

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Finally, chapter 52, the last chapter of Jeremiah is the conclusion to the book.

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So we have an introduction that's a chapter long and a conclusion that is the last chapter. And then these prophecies that are made to Judah in between.

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General prophecies, particular prophecies, prophecies after the fall of Jerusalem, and then prophecies that will be made to those nine

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Gentile nations. So to give you an even simpler outline, you can really divide

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Jeremiah up into three parts, book one, book two, and then supplemental, stuff that's kind of tacked on at the end.

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You have book one, which is chapters one through 20, and that's mostly discourses, sermons of Jeremiah's, mainly oracles and prophecies.

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Book two is chapters 21 through 44, and that's going to be a combination of prophecies and a lot more narrative.

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And then after that, you have everything supplemental, chapters 45 to 52, which includes the writings of Baruch, the prophecies made to foreign nations, and then of course the conclusion in the final chapter.

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Well, there we go. So we've set ourselves up for a study in the book of Jeremiah, and we'll come back to this next week with that first address that God makes of Jeremiah and saying that before you were born,

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I knew you, I consecrated you to be a prophet to the nations.

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The Lord has known each and every one of us before we were born, and he indeed has a plan for every one of us as well.

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For those who are in Christ Jesus, it is to glorify God with all that we say and do, that we would walk in holiness before him, predestined from before the foundation of the world, even that we would live forever with him in his eternal kingdom.

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As Jesus says to the faithful, as talked about in Matthew chapter 25, enter into the kingdom that my father has prepared for you before the foundation of the world.

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And that's for all who are in Christ Jesus, which even the book of Jeremiah points to.

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Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read here today, and I pray that even these things, as we've looked at an introduction to this book, inspires us, draws us near to you.

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We are filled with awe at the wonderful things that you have done throughout history, bringing everything to a point at Calvary, where Christ died on the cross for our sins, so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

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Lord, as we look through this book and we see your judgment against sin, may it also make us tremble, and we recognize that we've been called to holiness in Christ, not to return to those dead works that we were enslaved to before, but we would walk in the righteousness that we have been clothed in, looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

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Bless this study as we do this together, as we read your word and desire to be sanctified by hearing the word of the

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Lord. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. This has been When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com,

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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word,