As a matter of help for the average Bible student, let’s make a dossier as we examine a few things regarding Jeremiah the prophet to help us to know some elementary things about him, his relationship with God, and with God’s rebellious people.
Who:
- Jeremiah, aka “The Weeping Prophet.”
- His father was Hilkiah was the priest (who found the Book of the Law in the temple in Josiah’s reign. 2 Kings 22).
- He was from the priest city of Anathoth just north of Jerusalem in the land of Benjamin (Jer. 1:1).
- He was born and raised under the wicked king Manasseh (2 Kings 21). He would have seen Judah’s wicked priests firsthand, the end of Assyrian dominance on the world stage, and how Josiah reacted when he found the Book of the Law and instituted godly reforms throughout Judah. Yet, Jeremiah became the bitter enemy of Josiah’s sons as Jeremiah preached to them about forsaking God’s law, their blatant wickedness, and the destruction to come by Babylon.
- He never married as God showed him to be an object lesson to Judah (16:1-4).
What:
- His prophetic career was one of weeping, hardship and sorrow.
- His prophecies were often dictated to a scribe named Baruch (36:4-5). Baruch later worried about his association with Jeremiah (cf. Jer. 45).
- The book of Jeremiah contains the phrase “the word of the LORD” 157 times. The Old Testament itself contains the phrase a total of 349 times.
- His prophecies brought about great personal difficulty from the nobility, priests, and prophets who didn’t want to hear him. In fact a repeated phrase is, “but they will not listen” (7:27, 13:10, 17:23, 18:12, 19:15).
- He was beaten, sentenced to death, spent time in prison, was confined to a muddy cistern, and taken captive. He did this all for a message that God knew the people would reject.
When:
- Jeremiah was called to be a prophet from his youth (perhaps in his late teen years) (1:2-8).
- God knew Jeremiah before his birth and God purposed him for this task (Jer. 1:5).
- He preached during the twilight and darkness of Judah (c. 627-580 BC). He preached for about 40 years and watched everyone he preached to be killed, be captured, or flee.
- He preached during the great things that Josiah did to bring about reforms in Israel (2 Kings 22-23; Jer. 1:2).
- He lived through the 3-month reign of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:31-33).
- He preached through the wickedness of Jehoiakim (Eliakim) as he paid tribute to Egypt and later paid tribute to Babylon (2 Kings 23:34-24; Jer. 1:3).
- He preached through the 3-month reign of Jehoiachin (who was carried prisoner to Babylon) and all the way until Nebuchadnezzar came in Zedekiah’s ninth year, besieged Jerusalem until the eleventh year, destroyed Jerusalem, killed Zedekiah’s sons, put out his eyes, and carried a blinded Zedekiah to Babylon in chains (2 Kings 25; Jer. 1:3).
- The book of Jeremiah begins with this timeline so the reader knows how it ends as it begins.
Where:
- Primarily Jeremiah preached in the temple and royal court in Jerusalem, but later after the fall of Jerusalem, he is kidnapped and taken captive to Egypt.
- We do not know what happened to Jeremiah. The end of what we know about his life is at the end of Jer. 44:30.
- Some believe he escaped from Egypt and went back to Judah.
- Some believe he was offered to live in Babylon with Nebuchadnezzar.
- One tradition holds that he was stoned to death and his bones were moved to Alexandria, Egypt by Alexander the Great.
How:
- Jeremiah’s prophecy is a collection of poetry, illustrations, narrative, apocalyptic literature and straightforward messages about the coming destruction but also the hope that God brings.
- In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah literally weeps “from A to Z” in the Hebrew language for the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of God’s people.
Why:
- Because God promised punishment for disobedience and made it crystal clear that the coming destruction of Judah was from Him (Deu. 27-28).
- Because God wanted the people to know how heartbroken He was over their treachery, disobedience and their stubbornness to change (Jer. 8:21; 9:1; 9:18; 13:17).
- Because God loved His people and wanted them back more than anything (Jer. 3-4).
- To show the coming hope of a better covenant based upon better promises (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8-10).