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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780802420244 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Moody Publishers |
| Publication date: | 06/01/1966 |
| Series: | Everyman's Bible Commentaries |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 156 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.38(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Jeremiah and Lamentations
By Irving L. Jensen
Moody Press
Copyright © 1974 The Moody Bible Institute of ChicagoAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8024-2024-4
CHAPTER 1
JEREMIAH
BOOK ONE
(Chapters 1-20)
I. INTRODUCTION (1:1-19)
A. Jeremiah, Priest of Anathoth (1:1-3)
B. Jeremiah, Prophet unto the Nations (1:4-19)
1. Sovereign Appointment (1:4-10)
2. Sovereign Word (1:11-16)
3. Sovereign Protection (1:17-19)
II. DISCOURSES (2:1—20:18)
A. Public Sermons (2:1—10:25)
1. Backsliding Israel (2:1-37)
2. A Call to Return unto God (3:1—4:4)
3. Woes of the Judgment from the North (4:5-31)
4. Exposure of the Enemies from Within (5:1-31)
5. A City to Be Visited (6:1-30)
6. False Trusts That Cannot Profit (7:1—8:3)
7. Rejection of God's Word (8:4-17)
8. The Prophet's Lament: We Are Not Saved! (8:18—9:26)
9. None Like Jehovah (10:1-25)
B. Personal Experiences (11:1—20:18)
1. Covenant and Conspiracy: Jeremiah and the Men of Anathoth (11:1—12:17)
2. Pride of Judah: Jeremiah and the Linen Girdle (13:1-27)
3. The Drought: Jeremiah As the Interceding Priest (14:1-22)
4. From Despondency to Hope: Jeremiah As the Rejected Intercessor (15:121)
5. In This Place: Jeremiah Alone in a Punished Place (16:1-18)
6. The Heart: Jeremiah Remains True in Heart (16:19—17:18)
7. The Law of the Sabbath: Jeremiah Preaches at the City's Gates (17:1927)
8. Lessons from Pottery: Jeremiah Learns and Preaches from Pottery (18:1—20:18)
I. INTRODUCTION (1:1-19)
No More fitting introduction to the prophecy of Jeremiah could be given in the opening words of the prophecy than by stating where God "found" Jeremiah (among the priests), and what He made of him (a prophet unto the nations).
A. Jeremiah, Priest of Anathoth (1:1-3)
Anathoth, a town about three miles northeast of Jerusalem, was assigned to and inhabited by priests (Joshua 21:13-19; I Chron. 6:57-60). Here Jeremiah was born, son of the priest Hilkiah. The name his parents gave him literally meant "Jah is high," or "Whom Jah appoints." Jeremiah was evidently a very young man when, in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign (627 B.C.), he was called to be a prophetic word-bearer for God. That ministry was to continue during the reigns of the two major kings succeeding Josiah, namely, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, "unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive" (1:3).
B. Jeremiah, Prophet unto the Nations (1:4-19)
The formal introduction has been given. (Most of the chapters in the book are introduced in the style of a reporter's writing, with the formal third person, in phrases such as "The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah," 7:1.) Now Jeremiah begins to write in the testimonial first person, "Now the word of Jehovah came unto me" (1:4). Here, at the time of his appointment, when God has called him from the priesthood and has commissioned him to be a prophet, Jeremiah's autobiographical style points up the emotional experience of a critical day in his life.
1. Sovereign Appointment (1:4-10)
Far more important than learning what task he must accomplish, Jeremiah needed to know with assurance the person who was commissioning him. God identified Himself to be sovereign over Jeremiah in that He (1) foreknew Jeremiah before he was born, (2) had caused him to be born, and (3) had separated him for a holy service. On this basis, He also had the sovereign prerogative to appoint Jeremiah to be a prophet. Could Jeremiah avoid this moment of truth upon which his future career depended?
Jeremiah did try to shrink from the appointment, not because of a selfish motive but because he felt incompetent. His record relates that he heaved a deep sigh to God, "Ah!" expressing his feeling that he did not have the know-how. His "I am a child" perhaps revealed his brief experience as well as his comparatively young age. But God objected that he was looking at himself and taking his eyes off his sovereign Master. "Say not, I [Jeremiah] ...," God rebuked Jeremiah. "I [God] shall send thee ... I shall command thee ... I am with thee ... I have put my words in thy mouth ... I have this day set thee over...." (1:7-10). God's words in Jeremiah's mouth were to be mostly words of doom and death ("pluck up, break down, destroy, overthrow"), but they would also be words of hope, and life ("build, plant"), such as the consolation messages of chapters 31 through 33. Jeremiah was to pluck up dead ritual and plant living worship, pluck up vile ways and plant straight paths, pluck up degenerate hearts and plant new hearts of a new covenant. Such were the involvements of Jeremiah's sovereign appointment.
2. Sovereign Word (1:11-16)
Next it was necessary for Jeremiah to get a true perspective of words, to distinguish between God's words and man's words. God has just spoken to Jeremiah of "my words in thy mouth" (1:9). Jeremiah was to be the mere channel; God's words were the product to be delivered. To illustrate to Jeremiah the sovereign nature of the words or the will of God, Jeremiah was given his first two prophetic visions at this time. The vision experience, which would be rather frequent during his prophetic ministry, was given by God for durable impression.
The Almond (Awake) Tree (1:11-12). Jeremiah saw in the first vision a shoot or twig of an almond tree. "Almond tree" is the translation of the Hebrew word shaqed which literally means "awake." "Thou hast seen well," said God, "for I watch over [Hebrew word for 'watch' is shoqed] my word to perform it." The connection of the vision and the application may be seen in the fact that the almond tree, blossoming around January, was the first tree to awaken from the long winter's night, its blossoms appearing before the leaves. The symbol of awake-ness befitted God's Word, for though His people had settled into a dark, cold sleep of spiritual dearth, His Word was ever awake, watched over by Him, bringing about its daily unalterable fulfillment of sovereign design.
The Boiling Caldron (1:13-16). This vision was given Jeremiah to reveal the main forthcoming event of the performance (awakeness) of God's Word, in the life of Israel. One specific of that Word was the inevitable judgment for sin. The sin of God's people is described here as desertion and idolatry (1:16). For this wickedness the seething, scorching judgment of God would be poured out on the people, "out of the north." At the time of this vision Assyria, not Babylon, was the great world empire, but God was prophetically referring to the Babylonians, as can be seen from (1) Jeremiah's specific reference to Babylon and the North as recorded in 25:9, and (2) the actual fulfillment of the prophecy in the taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, in 586 (chap. 39). Although Babylon was located geographically due east of Judah, her invading armies would have to come upon Jerusalem from the North, because of the impassable Arabian Desert.
3. Sovereign Protection (1:17-19)
Compared to Jeremiah's original fears when God earlier commissioned him to be a prophet, his apprehensions by now must have grown intense. Scalding, boiling judgment from the North! And this is the word Jeremiah must speak to his people. "Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them" (1:17). Jeremiah doesn't record his feelings at this point, but they are implied by God's anticipatory "be not dismayed at them" (1:17). On what basis could Jeremiah dispel his fears? On this, that even as he could anchor his life to the design of God's sovereign appointment and the inevitable fulfillment of God's sovereign Word, so now he may rest in the assurance of God's sovereign protection. "As of now," said God, "I have made you a fortified city — impregnable, unassailable — against the onslaughts of kings, princes, priests, and people. They shall fight but not prevail, 'for I am with thee, to deliver thee'" (1:18-19). Jeremiah would be famous but not popular, for who loves a pessimist! However, his triumph was to be "not his fame, but his faithfulness."
* * *
Thus Jeremiah was thrust into the role of word-bearer for God, to be unpopular and hated by men, but loved and protected by his sovereign Lord. Who of us would tread that path?
II. DISCOURSES (2:1—20:18)
A. Public Sermons (2:1—10:25)
Jeremiah, appointed to the mixed task of declaring denunciation, visitation, invitation, and consolation, reported for active duty. The first order of the day was to preach public sermons to the populace: "Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem" (2:2). Chapters 2 through 10 record those sermons. Some were delivered in the temple, others, apparently, on the street corner.
1. Backsliding Israel (2:1-37)
There is a just reason for every judgment of God. Before the first wall of the holy city would totter from the ceaseless batterings of the enemy, its people (God's people! 2:11,32) would be told every reason for the oncoming woeful tragedy; their sins would be spelled out very clearly, from the God-touched lips of Jeremiah. This, Jeremiah's first recorded public sermon, did just that for the people. Its theme: "Thy backslidings [literally, 'turnings back'] shall reprove thee" (2:19).
The message had three parts. The first (2:1-8) compared Israel's past and the present. In the middle section (2:9-25), God asked, in effect, "Why have my people chosen the bad?" The last section (2:26-37) foretold the future.
a. An Unfaithful Wife (God's remorse over rejected love, 2:1-8). Using the intimate figure of love and marriage, God recalls Israel's first tender love toward Him, the kindness of her youth, and how she followed after Him as His own in the wilderness (2:2). Those were days when the people were a holy witness unto the Lord and manifested to others His quickening power in their lives to produce the most precious fruit, eternal fruit (2:3a).
But now! It is tragic that Jeremiah's generation had not gone the way of their fathers; they who had once followed after God and reveled in His love and fellowship now had gone far from Him (2:5). And not only were the laity guilty of breaking the love ties, but also the leaders: priests, teachers of the law, rulers, and prophets (2:8).
b. A Degenerate Vine (God's "Why?" to evil choices, 2:9-25). The import of these verses of many interrogations (ten in the American Standard Version) may be summarized by one question, which actually implies exclamation, "Why have my people left the good and gone after the bad!" What corrupted mentality is here! According to the first paragraph (2:9-13) of this section, Israel had given up her glory for that which did not profit (2:11). How astonishing and horrifying that she should forsake a continuous fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that could hold no water (2:13).
In the second paragraph (2:14-19) another corrupt choice of Israel is scored. God sees His people as servants, slaves, and prey of other nations (2:14-16). But they were not that originally. They were once a people who were enjoying freedom and liberty. But they had chosen servitude to man, getting politically involved with either Egypt to the south, or Assyria to the north (2:18). Israel had asked for trouble ("Hast thou not procured this unto thyself?" 2:17). God's big question is "Why does a people choose the bad?"
Still another example is given in the third paragraph (2:20-25). God, on His part, had planted Israel a noble vine, "a choice vine of completely reliable stock" (2:21, Berkeley Version). How then did they turn into degenerate branches ("bastard shoots," Berkeley) of an alien vine, bearing poisonous berries (2:21)? Concerning their iniquity, (1) their sins were deeper than surface dirt, un-washable by lye or soap (2:22); (2) they could not deny their sin (2:23); and (3) their lust for pleasure and flirting with strangers had blinded their eyes to the judgments for sin—pictured here in the bareness of foot and dryness of throat of a wild desert donkey (2:25, Berkeley).
c. A Caught Thief (God's judgment for persistent sin, 2:26-37). Now God spoke of the future. Tomorrow always catches up with the sinner. When Israel would be found as a thief in her shame (2:26), and when the time of trouble would come, then she would cry to God, "Arise, and save us" (2:27). God's answer was to be a cutting indictment for her former adulterous ways: "Where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise, if they can save thee" (2:28).
In that future day of recompense for sins, the sins were to be identified. Among them would be (1) refusal to receive correction (2:30), (2) forgetting God "days without number" (2:32), and (3) gadding about to court the favor of men and nations (2:36).
The future judgments were inevitable as Judah persisted in the sins about which she had been warned. That there was a possibility of returning to Jehovah before the judgment which was to come, is the main thrust of the next of Jehovah's oracles delivered by Jeremiah.
2. A Call to Return unto God (3:1—4:4)
Jeremiah had just exposed the people of God; they had gone far from their God and had kept their backs turned to Him. This was one of Jeremiah's "pluck up" warnings, addressed to the people's conscience. Now he had the brighter though no less difficult task of delivering a "build and plant" message, addressed to the people's will. Its note of hope lies in God's invitation to return. The key phrase connecting both messages is in 3:12: "Return, thou backsliding Israel." The word return appears ten times in this oracle.
The first verse introduces the theme. God's law (Deut. 24:1-4) forbade a wife, divorced by her first husband and married to another, to return to her first love. Though Israel was in the same position as such a woman, for she had "played the harlot with many lovers," yet she was offered one last opportunity to return to her "husband." This is the sun of God's grace outshining the searchlight of God's law.
a. Return unto Me Wholeheartedly, Not Feignedly (3:2-10). Judah had appeared to return to God in the past, but it had not been with a whole heart; rather, the act had been feigned (3:10). God through Jeremiah cited an example. Judah had polluted the land with her wickedness, and God had sent judgment by withholding the crop-producing rains (3:2-3). Bowed by judgment, Judah had repented, outwardly at least: "Have you not just now cried to Me, 'My Father, Thou art a friend from my youth'?" (3:4, Berkeley Version). But these were mere words disguising evil deeds: "See, you have spoken [thus], but you have done all the evil you could do" (3:5, Berkeley).
It is very likely that Jeremiah was referring to Josiah's early reforms when he marked the sham of Judah's intentions (cf. 3:6a). On the surface the people had made good resolutions to fear God and to walk in His ways, but deep down in the heart they wanted to live in their old paths of sin. So the help of national decree or corporate action did not avail. Nor had the example of the judgment of the northern tribes of Israel profited them.7 Israel had sinned (3:6), had refused to return to God (3:7), and had been put away in bondage (3:8), and faithless Judah had seen it all happen to her sister, "but she also went and played the harlot" (3:8). If she ever spoke of returning, it was only pretention, surely not of the heart (3:10).
b. Return unto Me for Future Restoration (3:11-18). Now Jeremiah projects on the screen God's future plans of blessing for His chosen people. However, the blessing was conditioned on the returning. "You return in heart, 'and I will bring you to Zion,' corporately," is the intent of 3:14. This promise was given to both houses, Israel and Judah (cf. 3:18). But when Jeremiah spoke these words, Israel had already been taken captive into the northern land of Assyria. Was there hope for her? Yes: "Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel," by acknowledging iniquity and disobedience (3:12-13). A return of heart was called for to bring blessings that would culminate in the inheritance of the next life. The near future, in the foreknowledge of God, was to be very dark for Judah and Israel. True, there would be a time of restoration and rebuilding the temple, with revivals of heart. But on the whole, the generations of God's people would be generations of stony hearts (cf. Malachi), eventually rejecting the Messiah, Christ. Beyond this, however, in the far, far future, there was a bright picture. God through Jeremiah portrays a touching scene of returners-in-heart when Judah and Israel, led by God (3:14), would walk together out of foreign lands back to the land of inheritance (3:18). The things of the old covenant would give way to glories of the new (3:16), proceeding from the throne of Jehovah in Jerusalem, to which even Gentiles would gather and around which there would be found no evil (3:17).
Six centuries after Jeremiah delivered this promise of God to Judah and Israel, Paul was inspired to expand the truth in Romans 11, and practically two millennia later the prophecy of the regathering to Palestine has begun its fulfillment.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Jeremiah and Lamentations by Irving L. Jensen. Copyright © 1974 The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. Excerpted by permission of Moody Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Preface,Introduction,
JEREMIAH,
Book One (Chapters 1-20),
Introduction (1),
Discourses (2-20),
Book Two (Chapters 21-44),
Later Prophecies (21-33),
Days of Fulfillment (34-44),
Three Supplements (Chapters 45-52),
God's Message to Baruch (45),
God's Message to the Foreign Nations (46-51),
The Fall of Jerusalem (52),
LAMENTATIONS,
Introduction to Lamentations,
Book of Lamentations,
Lament (1-4),
Prayer (5),
Appendixes,
The Chronology of Jeremiah,
Contemporary Kings and World Powers,
The Geography of Jeremiah,
The Written and Living Word of God,
Bibliography,