Jeremiah And Lamentations Series

July 10, 2021

Jeremiah was born during the reign of Manasseh – Judah’s worst king. Little is known about his early life, but in the 13th year of Josiah’s reign {627 BC}, Jeremiah got THE CALL.

Which brings us to My Favorite Thing About JEREMIAH. He was a reluctant prophet. He did not apply for the job and when God called, he protested:

• Jeremiah 1:6 - "Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

And would continue to protest throughout his ministry:

• Jeremiah 15:15-21 - You understand, O LORD; 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. 16 When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight …. 17 I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. 18 Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails? ....

• Jeremiah 20:7-18 - O LORD, you deceived; me, and I was deceived you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. 8 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. 9 But if I say, "I will not mention him 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. …

Yet, he did what God asked him to do – at great personal cost:

• He was not allowed to marry or have a family (16:2).

• God gave him all sorts of crazy object lessons to perform before the people:

o Buy a new belt – go bury it behind a rock – go retrieve the belt – ruined and completely useless - Jeremiah 13:1-10 - …. 9 "This is what the LORD says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt-- completely useless!

o Go buy a clay pot – take some elders and priests with you to the Valley of Hinnom – break the jar - Jeremiah 19:1-11 -…. say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O 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. 4 For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent…. 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….

o Go make a yoke – put it on and carry it around Jerusalem - Jeremiah 27:2-12 "Then send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 …. "Tell this to your masters: 5 With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please. 6 Now I will hand all your countries over to my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon…. 8 If, however, any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or bow its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation with the sword, famine and plague, declares the LORD, until I destroy it by his hand…. 11 But if any nation will bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let that nation remain in its own land to till it and to live there, declares the LORD." '" 12 I gave the same message to Zedekiah king of Judah. I said, "Bow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and you will live.

• His life was threatened by the leaders who opposed his message, including his own family: