Jeremiah – The Weeping Prophet -
Read the Book He who wept!
Name means Established of The Lord
Jeremiah is Known as being the (Major Prophet) of Judah’s Darkest Hour
We know more about the personality of Jeremiah than any other Prophet in the bible.
Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah the Priest (Same priest that found the law for King Josiah and raised King Josiah)
Jer 1:1-3
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
Jeremiah was about 20 years old when he began his prophetic ministry, which he had received at a younger age. ( Jer 1)
Jer 1:4-9
Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 6 Then I said, “Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth.” 7 But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, “I am a youth,’ Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, And all that I command you, you shall speak. 8 “Do not be afraid of them, For I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD.
9 Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
Jeremiah (Like Isaiah) belonged to the upper class in Jerusalem. Because of this he was able to demand the respect of Kings and dignitaries and men of official rank. (We know this because he was able to buy land) and he prophesied openly before the kings many of times.
Time frame of His Ministry
Jeremiah Prophesied in Judah between (40-50 years). Trying to win Judah back to repentance.
Jeremiah Prophesied during 5 kings Reigns of Judah
18 yrs under Josiah and most of the rest under King Jekoiakin , King Zedekiah
Jer 1:1-3
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
2 to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
King Josiah is 8 years old son becomes king. (Josiah raised by a priest Hilkiah + prophetess + Shaphan the Scribe)
Destroys the alters of false worship built by Manasseh and reads the law in Israel.
Restores worship back to the temple and Israel – Help of prophets Jeremiah
King Jehoahaz – Josiah’s son reigns for three months taken captive by Egypt for rebelling
King Jehoiakim- Josiah’s son reigns 11 years in Judah
Known for the evil he committed- killed the prophet Uriah for prophesying against his evil.
King Jekoiakin – Johoiakim’s son ruled in his place. Gets plundered in 2 captivity of Judah and is taken to Babylon.
King Zedekiah – Josiah’s Son Rules in his place. He also rebels against Babylon and the city is destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar and Zedekiah is imprisoned for life
Portrait of Jeremiah’s Life & The Three Captivities of Israel by Babylon.
Jeremiah was known as the weeping Prophet because of his broken heart and Godly sorrow he revealed over the nation of Judah and his own life. His heart and heaviness can be heard in his prophecies.
Jer 8:18-22
18 My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me! 19 Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not within her?” “Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?” 20 “Harvest is past, summer is ended, And we are not saved.” 21 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?
Jer 20:7-9
7 O LORD, You have deceived me and I was deceived; You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; Everyone mocks me. 8 For each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted In reproach and derision all day long. 9 But if I say, “I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name,” Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it. 10. All my trusted friends, Watching for my fall, say: “Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him And take our revenge on him.”
Jer 20:14-18; 14 Cursed be the day when I was born; Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me! 15 Cursed be the man who brought the news To my father, saying, “A baby boy has been born to you!” And made him very happy. 16 But let that man be like the cities Which the LORD overthrew without relenting, And let him hear an outcry in the morning And a shout of alarm at noon; 17 Because he did not kill me before birth, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb ever pregnant. 18 Why did I ever come forth from the womb To look on trouble and sorrow, So that my days have been spent in shame?
Jeremiah is pressed by Gods Anger and Sorrow and the loss of his own life. He was not allowed to marry because of Israel’s pending doom.
Jer 16:1-4- The word of the LORD also came to me saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in this land: 4 “They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be lamented or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.”
Jeremiah Pleaded with the nation and reproved them severly.
Jer 18:3-6
3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.
4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
Jeremiah witnessed the first captivity under Jehoiakim’s reign fulfilling his prophesies against the king and saw the Prophet Daniel carried off to Babylon.
1st Captivity - In
606 BC The Babylonians defeated the Assyrians and The Egyptians. They immediately claimed all of their territory including Judah under King Jehoiakim’s Reign.
Nebuchadnezzar went straight to Jerusalem and forced the loyalty of Judah
To assure the Loyalty he took favored young men to Babylon including The Prophet Daniel
2nd Captivity-
Then Jehoiakin took reign and Jeremiah Then saw the 2nd Captivity by Babylon in which this king was killed and the Prophet Ezekiel was taken to Babylon.
3 Years later Jehoiakim rebelled against Babylon and refused to pay loyalty so Nebuchadnezzar hired certain bands of raiders from the ammonites, Moabites, Syrians, and Chaldeans to plunder Jerusalem.
Jer 25:1-9
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),
2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.
4 “And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear, 5 saying, “Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the LORD has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever; 6 and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.’
7 “Yet you have not listened to Me,” declares the LORD, “in order that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. 8 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, “Because you have not obeyed My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the LORD, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.
Finally Jehoiakim dies and his son becomes king (Jehoiakin)
Three months into Jehoiakin’s reign Nebuchadnezzar attacks Jerusalem and Takes Jehoiakin and his family and 10,000 leading citizens to Babylon leaving mostly poor in Jerusalem.
The Prophet Ezekiel was among these men taken in the 2nd Captivity.
3rd Captivity – Jerusalem Destroyed –
Then Zedekiah took reign and Jeremiah again warned him to repent and live Holy before God. He refused.
Zedekiah Josiah’s son is made ruler in Judah Reigned 11 years
The prophet Jeremiah was the main prophetic voice of the day but Zedekiah
Jer 34:2-6
2 “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, “Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him: “Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire. 3 “You will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be captured and delivered into his hand; and you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.‘”’ 4 “Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the LORD concerning you, “You will not die by the sword. 5 “You will die in peace; and as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you; and they will lament for you, “Alas, lord!”’ For I have spoken the word,” declares the LORD. 6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem
Zedekiah also rebelled against the Babylonians thinking Egypt would help. Nebuchadnezzar immediately attacked the city and starved the city for 3 years until they surrendered
Zedekiah and his army ran and left the city unprotected but was caught in the plains of Jericho/He and his sons were taken to Babylon and his sons were killed in front of him and then he was blinded and left to die in prison.
Jer 39:6-8
6 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slew all the nobles of Judah. 7 He then blinded Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in fetters of bronze to bring him to Babylon.
8 The Chaldeans also burned with fire the king’s palace and the houses of the people, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and plundered the temple and palace of the kings. He burned the city with fire as well.
He took 25,000 people to Babylon and left the poorest people in Judah.
Jer 39:9-10
9 As for the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had gone over to him and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard carried them into exile in Babylon. 10 But some of the poorest people who had nothing, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard left behind in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at that time.
The prophet Jeremiah was able to stay by choice in Jerusalem then was carried to Egypt were he died.
Jerusalem was destroyed and remained that way for the next ½ century Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and saw all of it’s noble taken to Babylon. Jeremiah remained in Jerusalem with the poor and prophesied to those who had gone into captivity. (The book of lamentations)
Judah at this point ceases to exist under Babylonian rule.
Jeremiahs Message after Captivity
Was directed at the scattered Jews in Palestine, Egypt, and those captive in Babylon.
Jeremiah messages were two part
Warnings of Judah’s Future and Captivity
Second half - messages of Hope to scattered & Captive Jews of restoration
Jer 29:10-14
10 “For thus says the LORD, “When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 “I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, “and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, “and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’
Jeremiah like Ezekiel began to preach and pronounce personal responsibility for individual sin. The Exile period produced a spiritual reformation for the Jews. Great Leaders began to arise and Explore the realms of the spirit + mind with heaven-born Inspiration. (Jer 31:29)