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What the Bible says about Jeremiah
(From Forerunner Commentary)

God chose Jeremiah to serve Him in a momentous period of His people's history. Among other things, God charged Jeremiah with nothing less than destroying and throwing down the Davidic monarchy from its seed grounds in Palestine, and replanting it in the West (see Jeremiah 1:10).

Charles Whitaker
Servant of God, Act One: Going Around, Coming Around

Related Topics: Jeremiah


 

1 Kings 19:3-5

The pressures placed on us are no different in principle from what God put Elijah and Jeremiah under. Their examples leave no doubt about their humanity. Their discouragement proves that, for a while, running back into the world seemed attractive to them too. Know this, however: His servants endured and overcame because of God's patience, faithfulness, and power. Given all the depressing things that happen in this world, it is easy to think that we would be better off never having been called. But God reminds us that He is continuously judging those in the world as He oversees the purpose toward which He is guiding His servants.

Do we believe that in God's promises we are given the certainty of salvation if we remain faithful? If we believe, it gives us hope and joy. It is when we doubt that the level of temptation to flee rises. Yet, unlike them, we know the rest of the story. God did not abandon them; they survived and will be in God's Kingdom.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Ecclesiastes and Christian Living (Part Five): Comparisons

Jeremiah 1:4-5

Jeremiah had a history even before he was born! Before Jeremiah's conception, God had a plan for him. Then He formed him and set him apart as a prophet while still in the womb. God clearly infers personal human life in Jeremiah going all the way back to conception, though he was unaware of God's activity.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Murder?

Jeremiah 1:5

This verse shows how far ahead God was planning. The key prophet during the sixth-century Axial Period is Jeremiah, and God prepared him from his conception.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prophets and Prophecy (Part Three)

Jeremiah 1:6-10

Above all others, Jeremiah is the "Axial Man," prepared by God. God told him that he was a prophet not only to Israel and Judah, but to many other nations and kingdoms, and his job was to root out, pull down, destroy, throw down, build, and plant. Jeremiah 25:15-30 greatly fleshes out Jeremiah's commission.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prophecy and the Sixth-Century Axial Period

Jeremiah 1:6-10

Above all others, Jeremiah is the "axial" man prepared by God. God told Jeremiah, a prophet not only to Israel and Judah but to the nations and kingdoms, to root out, pull down, destroy, throw down, build, and plant. Many of us understand this verse in light of Jeremiah's influence on the destruction of Judah and the replanting of David's dynasty in Ireland. However, Jeremiah 25:15-29 shows that his responsibility extended much farther than Israel and Judah.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prophets and Prophecy (Part Three)

Jeremiah 1:9-10

Jeremiah 1:9-10 recounts God's commission to Jeremiah, at the time a teenager.

Jeremiah's task was so important that God had prepared him for it from his conception (verse 5). He encouraged Jeremiah by telling him not to fear those to whom he would be sent, "for I am with you to deliver you" (verse 8). He ends His commission in verse 19, assuring Jeremiah that the people to whom he would be sent will "fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you, . . . to deliver you."

Jeremiah was destined to carry on God's work over the objections of entire nations and kingdoms (note the plurals). As Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:2-3, God knows full well that there is "a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; . . . a time to break down, and a time to build up." God did not only use Jeremiah in His purpose to root out, pull down, destroy, and overthrow the Perez-centered monarchy, but also to plant and build a Zerah-Perez monarchy.

Charles Whitaker
Searching for Israel (Part Nine): The Migration of a Monarchy

Related Topics: Jeremiah | Jeremiah's Commission | Zerah


 

Jeremiah 3:12-13

Jeremiah, pleading for Israel to repent, to "acknowledge your iniquity" (verse 13), asks that his words be proclaimed "toward the north." Jeremiah, remember, lived at the time of Judah's fall to the Babylonians, some 130 years after the Kingdom of Israel had been forcibly moved out of its homeland. So, he was not writing to Israelites domiciled within a hundred miles north of Jerusalem—residing in and around Samaria. No, he is addressing a people living somewhere else further north.

Charles Whitaker
Searching for Israel (Part Eight): The Scattering of Ten-Tribed Israel

Jeremiah 15:10

Notice how he describes himself. The life of a prophet of God was not easy. For Jeremiah, life was exceedingly difficult, and because of it, he was feeling very sorry for himself.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prophets and Prophecy (Part Two)

Related Topics: Jeremiah


 

Jeremiah 15:18

By "my wound incurable," he means his heart.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prophets and Prophecy (Part Two)

Related Topics: Jeremiah


 

Jeremiah 25:15-30

This is a tremendously broad commission to lay on one man's shoulders! His ministry embraced the totality of the biblical world, and some verses can be understood to encompass the entire world. Many of these nations had existed from the time God scattered the people by confusing the languages at Babel (Genesis 11). Did Jeremiah actually, in person, deliver this warning to these nations? We do not know because records are so rare. Jeremiah's writings include specific prophecies against Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Elam, Kedar, Hazor, and Babylon. Did he deliver these prophecies in person, or does the duality principle apply so that the literal fulfillment will occur in a time like ours, when rapid transportation and communication systems exist?

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prophecy and the Sixth-Century Axial Period

Jeremiah 38:7-10

It is not likely that Ebed-Melech sways the king by humanitarian or moral considerations. He simply stresses to the king his belief that Jeremiah is a prophet about to die. Zedekiah probably acts to return Jeremiah to the relatively posh digs of the royal guards because he too realizes that Jeremiah is a prophet. He does not want to lose his crystal ball. Evidently, the king holds an audience with Jeremiah just after his release from the pit (verse 14).

Charles Whitaker
Servant of God, Act One: Going Around, Coming Around

Jeremiah 39:17-18

God recognizes that Ebed-Melech is no superman, but like everyone, is fearful in the face of mortality. He overcomes his fear, subordinating it to his conviction that Jeremiah is God's spokesman. It is his trust in God that empowers him to show mercy by speaking up for—and then by acting on behalf of—Jeremiah.

God, who "shows no partiality" (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11), answers in kind, characteristically granting mercy to the merciful, more specifically in this instance, granting mercy to him who "receives a prophet in the name of a prophet." Christ makes it plain that God is resolute in His promise of reciprocity (Matthew 10:41-42).

Using a different image, Solomon says the same: "Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days" (Ecclesiastes 11:1).

God is adamant: What goes around, comes around.

Charles Whitaker
Servant of God, Act One: Going Around, Coming Around

Jeremiah 51:6-7

Literally, the original Hebrew of the first half of verse 7 means, "A golden cup is Babel in the hand of Yahweh, intoxicating the whole earth." Jeremiah sees the material splendor of Babylon, but the "wine" that she makes the nations of the earth drink will result in God's wrath coming down upon them. As God's hammer, Babylon was strong, and as His cup of gold, she was rich and beautiful—but neither saves her from ruin. Jeremiah therefore admonishes everyone to flee this perverse, world-ruling system.

The global scourge of slavery is the essence of the Babylonian slavery system that the prophet Jeremiah warned about. It exists in its zenith in the last days. Babylon's perversion, audacity, and pride represent the height of direct defiance against almighty God. This humanly devised governmental, religious, educational, and economic system controlling the world today originates from Satan's initial rebellion against God. Satan, the Adversary, has done a tremendous job of enslaving the whole world under his system of slavery.

Martin G. Collins
Slavery and Babylon

Lamentations 2:1-9

Jeremiah is the likely author of Lamentations, writing after reflecting on the devastation of Jerusalem following the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army. A number of prophets, Jeremiah being the most obvious, had thoroughly warned the Jews for many years. God even raised up a righteous king, Josiah, to provide godly governmental and religious leadership, but it was to no avail because the people were not truly repentant and sincere in any changes they made. The changes were only on the surface, not reaching their hearts, so idolatry—especially—continued to rage unabated.

The chapter continues with more of the same, leaving no doubt at all that God was directly responsible for His reaction to their sins. Jerusalem's devastation did not merely happen randomly in the course of history. God was directly involved. He brought on the horrific fear and pain. It was His warnings through the prophets that were ignored because they did not fear the Lord and did not truly believe that they were answerable to Him.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Fully Accepting God's Sovereignty (Part One)

Daniel 9:24

This verse introduces the prophecy. Basically, Gabriel says that, within the seventy weeks, all of these things - the whole plan of God - will be fulfilled. "Weeks" is the Hebrew word shabua, meaning "sevens." In his prayer, Daniel mentions Jeremiah's prophecy of seventy years of captivity (verse 2), but Gabriel says it will not be just seventy years but seventy times seven years.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
'Seventy Weeks Are Determined...'

Zephaniah 2:2-3

Most people do not realize that the name Zephaniah means "Yahweh has hidden or protected." This idea is a major theme of his preaching.

The timing of the book of Zephaniah is also interesting. He prophesied at the same time three other prophets were prophesying as well: Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Nahum. So there were four of them proclaiming God's warning message at the same time. Do these four correspond to the four sections of hair in Ezekiel 5 and the four "I am coming soon" statements in Revelation 2-3? Time will tell.

Notice the urgent warning and loving advice God gives through Zephaniah:

[The time for repentance is speeding by like chaff whirled before the wind!] Therefore consider, before God's decree brings forth [the curse upon you], before the time [to repent] is gone like the drifting chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you—yes, before the day of the wrath of the Lord comes upon you!

Seek the Lord [inquire for Him, inquire of Him, and require Him as the foremost necessity of your life], all you humble of the land who have acted in compliance with His revealed will and have kept His commandments; seek righteousness, seek humility [inquire for them, require them as vital]. It may be you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger.(The Amplified Bible)

The time seems to be drawing ever closer. God tells us that His judgment will begin at His sanctuary (see Ezekiel 9:6; Revelation 11:1), and from there, He says in Ezekiel 5:4, the fire will go out to all Israel! God will decide who is hidden from the hour of trial, and perhaps it will be you!

Ronny H. Graham
Hidden From the Hour of Trial

Revelation 5:1-4

Scripture contains another sealed scroll that rarely receives a second glance, yet it more closely resembles the scroll John agonized over than the scrolls of Ezekiel and Zechariah.

In Jeremiah 32:6-15, just before the siege of Jerusalem, God instructs Jeremiah to perform an act as a sign that the Jews would return to the land. This passage is about inheritance and redemption of property, in which Jeremiah is the kinsman-redeemer, similar to Boaz (Ruth 4:1-11). At God's direction, Jeremiah pays the purchase price, signs and seals the deed, and performs it all in the presence of witnesses.

Verse 11 refers to the purchase deed in the singular but later describes it as “boththat which was sealed . . . and that which was open.” These title deeds consisted of duplicates. One copy was left open so the contents could be read by any interested party, while the second copy was sealed to ensure that no tampering could be done. When it was time to buy back the property, the sealed copy would be unsealed to verify the original agreement. The only person with authority to unseal the deed, however, was the rightful owner—the one redeeming the property.

Consider how this applies to the scroll of Revelation 5. In type, it is not merely a prophetic scroll of judgment but a sealed title deed! Its sealing is not due to its contents being truly secret since the majority of its contents can be found in other places. God's prophets warn about religious deception; wars; famines; pestilences and earthquakes; the deaths of God's servants; great signs in the heavens; and the future Kingdom. In other words, in the words of the prophets, we already have the open deed, though it is fragmented and not in time-sequence. The essence of what John sees as the seals are opened has not been completely hidden from human knowledge; the prophets have already, at least in part, spoken of each of them.

Also, we have Jesus' testimony in the Olivet Prophecy, of which the Revelation scroll is essentially an expansion, particularly regarding the Seventh Seal. The two prophecies describe the same judgment events in the same order. In type, then, the gospel of the Kingdom of God, including the Olivet Prophecy, is like the open deed that we can consult at any time.

Thus, the Revelation scroll remains sealed until the right time for a different purpose—not because of wholly secret contents, but because the seals denote that only the one claiming the property at issue is legally allowed to open the scroll. John sees the scroll in the Father's right hand because the time has come to release the seals. It is time for the property to be redeemed and the proper ownership to be legally determined. With the sealed scroll in the Eternal Judge's right hand, a strong angel—an officer of the court, so to speak—issues a challenge for the worthy party to step forward and claim what is his.

Understanding this scroll answers why John wept so much: He was looking at the title deed of all things! God is praised for creating “all things” (Revelation 4:11), and He has appointed the Son as heir of “all things” (Hebrews 1:2). However, the world and its inhabitants are presently in Satan's hand. He currently holds the property in question, having the whole world under his sway (I John 5:19).

Thus, the ownership of the creation and the whole purpose of Elohim in creating humanity in God's image are hanging in the balance—and nobody is found who could claim it. The weight of what it would mean for the deed to go unredeemed—for the world to continue with Satan as its ruler—must have overwhelmed John.

Having paid the ultimate purchase price for His property, the Lamb alone is worthy to open the sealed deed. The Lamb even provides His own witnesses to testify of His eligibility—His claim on His property—throughout His earthly ministry (John 1:6-8, 15); after His death (Acts 1:8, 22; 2:32; 3:15; 4:33; 5:32; 10:39; 13:31; 14:17; 22:15; 23:11); in every martyr willing to die for his Kingdom and King (Revelation 6:9-11); and in two final witnesses of the Lamb's right to all things (Revelation 11:3-13).

David C. Grabbe
Worthy to Take the Scroll


Find more Bible verses about Jeremiah:
Jeremiah {Nave's}
 




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