Panorama of the Prophets
Jeremiah Overview:
Jeremiah was a Bullfrog
- Three dog night!
Jeremiah
is called “the eleventh hour prophet”.
A)He prophesied as God’s clock of
judgment struck
B)He was the final call to
the nation
Jeremiah
oversaw the nation’s fall to the Babylonians. 1)Three times the foreign
invaders defeated
C)The final invasion led to
the destruction of the city and its
1)Jeremiah
witnessed his people’s demise – and saw them led away to
That
is why he was also called the weeping Prophet:
A)He so cared for the people
of
B)Jeremiah
also wrote the book of Lamentations – the book is subtitled the Tears of Jeremiah.
C)Lamentations was written
after the final destruction of
1)Prophet
bearing his heart- It served as an expression of sorrow but also a reminder of
God’s faithfulness.
D)Not well received by his
contemporaries
– Laugh and the
world laughs with you – Weep & you weep alone
Let me give you an outline
of the Book of Jeremiah
I.
Preparation of Jeremiah formulated -
Chapter 1 The prophet’s call.
II. Proclamations of Jeremiah foretold –
Chapters 2-51 His messages
A.
Chapters 2-45 Proclamations for
B.
Chapters 46-51 Proclamations for the other nations
III. Predictions
foretold.
Chapter 52
Let’s
Start with His Calling:
Jeremiah writes in verse 4, “Then the word of the LORD
came to me,
saying: "Before I formed you in the womb I
knew you; before
you were born I sanctified you; I ordained
you a prophet to
the nations."
I love this passage –great
passage for the SANCTITY OF LIFE - Before Jeremiah was FORMED, God knew Him
he was in the mind of God.
Knew = in the form of a
relationship – God saw what Jeremiah would become- He knew him.
God conceived a purpose for Jeremiah before he was conceived in the
womb.
I believe the same is true for you and me. Before you
were a gleam in your father’s eye – your Father in heaven ordained you
for a specific purpose.
He has a specific
designs for each of us.
A)Some of you hear that and right away start to doubt – not me – I can’t
/ not smart/ too scared / no gifts
B)Jeremiah could relate -Notice his response.
Jeremiah says in verse 6, “Then said I: "Ah, Lord GOD!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth."
C)The Hebrew word translated
“youth” does not refer to an elementary aged child, but to a maturing young man
– even as old as 20.
Age was a crucial
factor in Hebrew culture. A priest
could not begin
his ministry until he was 30 years old. A)Perhaps this
is why Jesus waited until He reached His thirties before he began His ministry.
B)The Jews equated age with wisdom.
C)Which probably explains why Jeremiah was reluctant to respond.
He was afraid people would
look
down on him because of his
youth.
D)Inspired by Young guys who like to dream – SEND
1)Joey Buran’s Son Luke – My nephew Anthony -
God responds to Jeremiah in
verse 7… “Do not say, 'I am
a youth,' for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and
whatever I command you, you shall speak.”
A) Here, God dismisses the excuse once and for all… “I
can’t serve the Lord because I’m too young.”
B)God doesn’t look
at age, but attitude…Heart – faith
1)More than ability –
availability
C)Men and women of faith come in all ages.
Notice too, the Lord says to Jeremiah,V.8 “Do not be afraid
of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you". A)Jeremiah was a sensitive person. As
a result he was vulnerable to subtle
intimidation.
B)He was effected by facial expressions.
1)Faces can be Intimidating –
Scowl –
C)God warns Jeremiah not to let their faces feedback of people alter his message.
1)Speak the truth in love,
and let the chips fall where they may.
D)Great word to anyone who is called to proclaim God’s word.
In the next verses
God gives Jeremiah two visions that
outline his
ministry.
A)In verse 11 he sees an
almond tree. The Lord says “I am ready to perform My
word."
B)The almond is one of the first trees to
blossom.
1)It flowers in mid-January.
It’s a foreshadowing of things to come – a leading indicator spring is on the
way.
C)Likewise, Jeremiah’s ministry would be the first warning of the coming
judgment.
D)In verse 13 Jeremiah
sees a boiling pot coming from
the north.
1) He says, "Out of the north calamity shall break
forth on all the
inhabitants of the land.”
E)
One of the things
that I like about Jeremiah – is he is a picture Painter – Max Lucado of his
time – more serious
A)Jeremiah preached with visual aides – Dramatic illustrations of –
God’s message –
Focus the rest of tonight – on 5 pictures
The first one we
want to notice is in Chapter 2 – the picture painted here really sums up
A)In
committed two
evils: they have forsaken Me, the
fountain of
living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns
- broken
cisterns that can hold no water.”
B)Let me explain this: In
C)One way was from Rivers and Streams!
1)The other way was from
rainfall that was collected in carved out rock basin’s called cisterns.
The water from the
streams and rivers because it was moving – was called Living water.
A)Alive – moving – it wasn’t stagnate.
B)The problem
with the cisterns – was there were easily cracked and broken –
1)The water would seep out.
C)Here is what the Lord was saying to
D)You have left my refreshment and traded it for cisterns that hold no
water.
Jesus – Jn4
drinks of this water – thirst again…
Water I give
never thirst living water – always flowing. – Perpetual supply.
A)Spiritually speaking, the world we live in is a
cracked cistern.
B)Its pleasures are quickly depleted, and unreliable. 1)Often when they’re needed
they’re not there.
C)Whereas God is an eternal spring who constantly
bubbles up with refreshment.
D)We all have needs, but where to we go to meet those needs?
1)Do we drink from the
wellspring of God’s love, or do we turn to the broken cisterns of this world?
In
Chapter 3 The Lord refers to his people as Backslidden. –
A)In
backslidings."
B)The word “backsliding” occurs 16 times
in the Bible, and 13 of the
16 times it
appears in the book of
Jeremiah.
C)And of those 13 times, 7
times the
word occurs in this one
chapter,
And how do you avoid spiritual
backsliding?
A)Jeremiah 4:3 answers that
question:, "Break up
your fallow ground”.
B)In other words, repent!
Take the backhoe of humility,
and clear out the rocks and
roots and crusty earth.
C)Get rid of the obstacles between you and God.
You know what they are.
1)Ask the Lord to give you a
soft and sensitive heart.
Jump to Chapter 8 the next dramatic
illustration.
A)At the end of chapter 8 Jeremiah is overwhelmed with sorrow for his
rebellious people.
B)He cries out in verse 20, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are
not saved.”
C)What’s sad is
that all
Jeremiah says in verse 22, “Is there no balm in
A)Here is the point of the picture There was healing available, but the people
of
B)The doctor was ready to treat their disease the medicine was available
but they refused to take it.
Don’t let that be
the case tonight. If you hurt – if you’re bruised, or battered, or bleeding.
A)Jesus is the great phsycian – He is the one who says bring your heart
to me tonight.
B)His word is healing balm –
comforts
1) Holy Spirit touches hearts
C)May take time – but let it begin. – Don’t refuse like
Chapter 9:23-24 We have a great exhortation:
"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not
the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I
am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the
earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.”
The world’s
values really haven’t changed a lot over the last 2500 years.
A)People still prioritize wisdom,
might, and riches – academics, athleticism, acquisition – mind, muscle, money –
B)but none of these things are lasting - none of them fill the
emptiness inside the human heart.
C)The most valuable commodity on earth is the knowledge of God.
D)This is what the wise man seeks – to know God,
to understand His ways and character.
1)Because Only a connection
with the God who created us brings lasting joy, and fills the void inside.
Chapter 11 ends with mention of an
assignation plot against Jeremiah.
A)People who so disliked his message and ministry they were trying to kill him.
B)That led to the prayer He prays in Chapter 12
“Righteous are You, O
LORD, when I plead with You; yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why
does the way of the wicked prosper?”
B)Ever feel that way? David did! – I
know I have – Lord that doesn’t seem fair!
C) In essence he says, “Lord,
I know you’re always right and fair, but I’ve got a few questions… All I want
to do is serve You, and people are trying to kill me?”
D)At
this point Jeremiah has been serving God for 18 years, and all he has to show for
it are death-threats.
1)He
wants some relief. Where are the blessings?
E)God
answers Jeremiah, but not in the way we’d anticipate. He says in verse 5, "If you have run with the footmen, and they have
wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?”
In
other words, buck up, hunker down, pull up your bootstraps –
A)If you think it’s
difficult now, just wait, it’s only going to get harder.
B)Jeremiah
thinks the answer to his problem is a blessing – he wants relief – but God
tells him he needs endurance.
C) If he can’t hang with the
foot soldiers how will he
survive the cavalry?
Life
will only get tougher/the challenges more severe.
A)We
live in a fallen world, and the longer we live the more opportunity exists for
us to become a target for the pain and suffering it dishes out.
B)None of us are immune. We need to develop a faith
strong enough to stand the challenges.
Once
the
A)Running
back Walter Payton cut off tackle for a nice pick-up.
B)One
of the announcers commented, “Walter Payton has now
carried the football for over 9 miles.” But his sidekick put it in
perspective, “Yes, and he’s been knocked down every 4.6 yards.”
C)We need a faith that gets
back up – keeps trusting God – a faith that helps us overcome.
The next Dramatic illustration takes place in
Thus the Lord said to me: "Go and get yourself a linen sash, An undergarment worn next to
the skin. and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water."
So
the Lord told Jeremiah to buy a new pair of linen shorts, to put them on, but
not to wash them.
A)He
was teaching him something from this. What in the world would God be teaching
by this?
B)If
you skip ahead to Verse 11 for a moment, you will see what he is after:
For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused
the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,' says
the Lord, 'that they may become My people, for renown, for praise, and for
glory; but they would not hear.'
C)In
other words, God chose them, designed them, for intimacy.
1)A
pair of undershorts is the most intimate garment a man can wear.
D)God
uses that as a wonderful figure here to instruct us that this is what he had
designed his people for -- to be as intimate to him as a pair of shorts would
be to a man.
I
remember the advertisement of an underwear company a number of years ago -- you
do not see it very often anymore.
A)Remember
that saying, "Next to yourself,
you'll love BVD's."
B)That is what
God is saying here. Next to himself, closest to himself, in the most
intimate relationship possible, he wants his people –
C)in
order that they might be a people, a name, a praise, a glory, unto him, a
people for his name.
And so he is
teaching Jeremiah what his people meant to him, and what he had designed for
them, A)and the glory which was possible to them
in the intimacy of a relationship with God.
B)But now Jeremiah was sent
to do something with these shorts. We read, in Verses 2-4:
V.2 So I got a sash
according to the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist. [We do not know how long he wore it, but it
evidently got quite dirty, because he was forbidden to wash it.]
3 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying, 4
"Take the sash that you acquired, which is around your waist, and arise,
go to the
The
Euphrates River was about two hundred miles away, on the border of Babylon.
A)God
is saying something here about the nation which would come to bring judgment
upon this people.
B)Jeremiah
had to journey two hundred miles to the
C)Then he tells us, in
Verses 6-7,
6
Now it came to pass after many days that the Lord said to me, "Arise, go to the
You can
imagine the shape it was in.
A)It
was already soiled and dirty when Jeremiah had hidden it there. Exposed to the
elements -- the rain, the wind, the sun -- the cloth would rot and shred.
B)Finally,
when Jeremiah came back and dug it out of the cleft of the rock, it was dirty,
rotten, shredding, hardly able to hold together, worthless.
C)Standing
there with those worthless shorts in his hand, he tells us, in
Verses 8-10,
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
9 "Thus says the Lord: 'In this manner I will ruin the pride
of
D)This was a vivid
illustration of what happens to a life that turns away from God.
1)No
more intimacy – tattered worn – ruined by the elements of this world.
The
rest of the chapter goes on to show how moved and stirred Jeremiah is by this.
He pleads with the people, to turn back to God.
Chapter
18 our next Dramatic illustration -
familiar with Mike Rozell – familiar with this. RD V.1-6
A)Throughout Scripture God
uses the potter as an
example of His dealings with
His people.
B)As the potter molds the
clay God molds our lives – and the clay has no say what the
potter will make him.
C)His job is to be pliable and impressionable.
D)Jeremiah sees the potter
working a piece of clay. It’s
turning on the spindle, but
He doesn’t like what he
sees.
He hammers it down, and
begins to reshape it
into another vessel. { Mike
Dramatic – Vase/ Pot
Here’s the point
of the parable, the potter can change his mind, and shift directions with the
clay, without the clay’s permission or approval.
A)This is what’s happened
with
to build her up, and make her
great – but because of
her sin He has chosen instead
to tear her down.
B)In chapter 19 God speaks
through a cracked pot.
C)2 Corinthians 4 Earthen
Vessels – Clay pots
God has put his treasure in.
D)Jesus is seen the most when
we are broken
The
Next dramatic picture comes in Ch.24
A)Jeremiah finds two baskets
of figs outside the temple.
B)One basket is full of choice figs. The other is full of
rotten figs.
C)God tells
1)Hey go figure -
after they learn their lesson - God will give them a new heart, and bring them
back to the land.
D)But if they fight against the will of God, they’ll suffer severely.
1)They’ll deteriorate and rot - like the bag figs.
Guys, it’s okay
to ask God to spare you from the consequences of your sin.
A)It’s proper to plead for mercy.
But when God’s punishment ordered the degree to which you
submit is the degree to
which you’re repentant.
B)Try to by-pass the
judgment – buck it – fight against it – try to shirk and slip past the
consequences
- and you’ll only make matters
worse.
C)A repentant person wants to turn from his sin, so he’s ready to learn
even from God’s discipline.
Chapter
27-28 brings us to our next dramatic
message{ Context
In
the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this
word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 "Thus says the Lord to me: 'Make for yourselves bonds and yokes,
and put them on your neck, 3 and send them to the king of Edom, the king of
Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by
the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.
The
word “duel” means “a war of two” – and that’s what we have in
chapter 27-28.
A)A
duel between two prophets – our hero, Jeremiah, and the villain, Hananiah.
B)God
tells Jeremiah to make several yokes - the wooden
harness
used to steer the oxen that ploughed the fields.
C)He
sends a yoke to each of the kings bordering
1)The
Yoke sent a choking message.
D)Each
king would be harnessed by the Babylonians, and forced to serve Nebuchadnezzar.
Jeremiah
likewise brought this message to his own people, Judah. Came wearing a Yoke on his neck
A)Apparently, there were
false prophets who predicted God’s deliverance.
B)Even though the
Babylonians had already invaded
Bb)The
false prophets predicted God would turn the tide, and in short order restore
the stolen vessels.
C)Jeremiah
says “not so“. Not only will the vessels not be returned any time soon,
the treasures that are left will likewise be stolen.
D)In
essence, Jeremiah says, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
And
that’s when the false prophet, Hananiah, enters the picture.
A)In
a daring, dramatic maneuver Hananiah breaks the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck, and
shouts, “God will break the yoke of
B)It’s a lie. It won’t
happen. But Hananiah has presented his lie with such boldness and flare the
people leave impressed. He shows up Jeremiah.
C)He’d
been made a laughingstock – and Jeremiah
just
walked away with yoke all over his face.
1)He
had been out-performed, and apparently that was okay with Jeremiah.
D)Jeremiah’s example teaches
a lesson.
Our job is to
simply
declare the truth. We’re not expected to look good, or defend ourselves, or out-perform anyone –
but be faithful to the message.
E)God will take care of his
messenger!
And
that’s exactly what happens in this situation.
God
sends Jeremiah back to Hananiah, and tells him
he’s
speaking lies.
A)God
will not bring back the temple treasures from
B)It’s
interesting, Hananiah dies in the 7th month of the
year
or around the feast of tabernacles - which means he
died
while everyone was in
C))In
the end, everyone saw that Jeremiah was vindicated, Hananiah refuted,
and God’s Word confirmed.
1)In
the end the yoke was on Hananiah.
This
scene is the setting for one of the most well known and often quoted verses in
Jeremiah.
A)In the midst of prophecies
depicting – coming doom and captivity
B)The Lord gives this
promise and reminder of Hope
God promises in 29:11-12,
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of
peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon
Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.”
What a glorious promise, and
it applies to all God’s people – even you and me.
God’s thoughts toward us are always full of peace, and hope,
and future blessing.
God is like any
good parent – He would never wish harm or evil on His kids.
A)Guys, God’s intentions can
be trusted. No matter how difficult our current circumstances become
B)God has a plan that culminates
with blessing!
1)He says too in verse 13,
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
C)God has the attitude of a two year old playing hide and seek.
1)He’ll hide in the middle
of the room where everyone can see him, because he wants to be found.
D)For him the fun is not in
hiding, but in being discovered. God
also wants to be discovered.
1)If we seek Him, God sees to
it He gets found.
AW Tozer once wrote, “It’s not that we don’t
want God, we do. We just want other things more.” Do you want God enough to
seek His face with all your heart?
Chapters 30-33
The promise of restoration and the new Covenant that Jesus sets up – result of
his first coming
A)Focus of our time next week.
Chapters 46-51 Judgment on the nations
Final dramatic illustration - Chapter 51:59-64