Jeremiah

Overview

Jeremiah preached for forty years and, so far as the record shows, changed almost nobody’s mind. He was beaten, put in stocks, thrown into a cistern, and accused of treason for saying the city would fall — which it did.

He is called the weeping prophet for good reason: the book keeps breaking into grief, including complaints addressed to God about the job God gave him. And through it he announces a new covenant, written on hearts rather than stone.

Background

Called as a young man in Josiah’s thirteenth year, Jeremiah saw the last good reform fail, then five kings, then Babylon in three waves. He was offered comfort in Babylon and stayed with the poor who remained, and was finally carried to Egypt against his will.

The book is not in chronological order, which surprises first-time readers. Chapter 36 tells how a first scroll was cut up and burned by the king, and a second written with more added.

Key themes

• God appoints and equips His messengers before they are born.
• Faithfulness is not measured by results.
• The heart is deceitful above all things — which is why the law on stone was not enough.
• Judgment comes because the warnings were ignored, not because God was unwilling to relent.
• A new covenant: I will write my law in their hearts, and remember their sin no more.

Outline

1. The callChapter 1

   Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee — and a rod and a boiling pot.

2. Sermons against JudahChapters 2–20

   Broken cisterns, the temple sermon, the potter’s house, and the prophet in the stocks.

3. Kings, prophets and exilesChapters 21–29

   Warnings to the last kings, false prophets answered, and a letter to those already in Babylon.

4. The book of consolationChapters 30–33

   Restoration promised, and the new covenant written on the heart.

5. The siege and afterChapters 34–45

   The scroll burned, Jeremiah in the cistern, the fall of the city, and flight to Egypt.

6. The nations, and an epilogueChapters 46–52

   Judgments on Egypt, Moab, Babylon and others, and the fall of Jerusalem retold.

Key passages

• Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.
• Jeremiah 2:13 They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns.
• Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things.
• Jeremiah 18:6 As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand.
• Jeremiah 20:9 His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones.
• Jeremiah 29:11 I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD.
• Jeremiah 31:31-34 I will make a new covenant — I will write it in their hearts.
• Jeremiah 36:23 The king cut the roll with a penknife and cast it into the fire.

Christ in Jeremiah

The new covenant of chapter 31 is the one Jesus announced at the last supper: this cup is the new testament in my blood. Jeremiah also names a righteous Branch raised up to David, a king who will be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS — and Hebrews quotes his covenant promise at length to show it has come.

Reading it

• Read chapter 1, then 31, then start at the beginning; you will read the rest differently.
• Note that the chapters are not in order; the headings tell you which king is reigning.
• Read his complaints (11:18-23, 15:10-21, 20:7-18) as prayers, because that is what they are.