Slide 1:

• Presenting.. Jeremiah

• Why did you pick Jeremiah ?

• What do you know about the Prophet ?

Slide 2:

• Most famous quote:

Jeremiah 31:33

• I will be their God, and they shall be my people, says the Lord. (also
found in chap 33: 38, and continues:

“One heart and one way I will give them, that they may fear me
always, to their own good and that of their children after them. “

• This is one of the key verses of Jeremiah

Slide 3

• Jeremiah means, “Yahweh will raise”

• Year of calling: 627, during the reign of Josiah

• Place of calling: Anathoth (In the land of Benjamin), Israel [refer to

map]

• In the year 627, during the reign of Josiah, he was called at a

youthful age to be a prophet, and for nearly half a century, at least
from 627 to 585, he bore the burden of the prophetic office.

• Place of prophesy: Jerusalem and Judah [refer to map]

Slide 4

• His calling

• Flip open bible, someone reads Jeremiah 1: 4-10

 • God spoke to Jeremiah in his early youth declaring in a few precise
statements why He chose to send him: “Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you”

• Jeremiah, still quite young, is frightened at the prospect of this

divinely appointed mission. He meekly protests, “Ah, Lord God!
Behold I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”

• But God encouraged him: Jeremiah was not to speak on the basis of
what he had in himself, God put forth His hand and touched the
young man’s mouth saying, “Behold, I have put my words in your
mouth.” God would reveal things to him which he must faithfully
transmit to others. “See, I have this day set you ... to root out and to
pull down, to destroy and to throw down.”

Slide 5

• Jeremiah struggled during his prophesy

• His work was extremely difficult: the kings were against him, hence
people were perverse and obstinate

• Jeremiah responded to God's call with protests of his personal

inadequacies. His sense of inadequacy did not derive from petty
problems overcome by cheerful determination, from false modesty,
nor was it a mere rhetorical device used by the writer. Across four
decades of ministry Jeremiah struggled mightily with God's call on
his life, with a sense of failure, with virulent [violently or spitefully
hostile] opposition from detractors, and with deep discouragement.

Slide 6

• Secular events that took place in history during the prophetic office
of Jeremiah
• 612 BC — Fall of the Assyrian Empire and Rise of the Neo-
Babylonian Empire.

• 605 BC — Battle of Carchemish: Crown Prince Nebuchadrezzar of

Babylon defeats the army of Necho II of Egypt, securing the
Babylonian conquest of Assyria. The Babylonians pursue through
Syria and Palestine.
 • 587 BC — Jerusalem falls to the Babylonians, ending the Kingdom of
Judah. The conquerors destroy the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem and
exile some of the land's inhabitants.

Slide 7

• Show map

• Assyrian Empire did not last long, Babylonian Empire was also short-
lived

Slide 8

• The essential part of his message consists of warning the people

about the unavoidable judgments which they will endure because of
their proud and obstinate hearts.

• Jeremiah’s task was primarily to announce judgment and

destruction.

Slide 9

• Jeremiah spoke more about repentance than any other prophet.

• The message of Jeremiah was a call to moral reform to establish a

personal relationship between God and humankind. He advocated
resignation in the face of political and religious crisis and denounced
sin as a perversion of creation. He called urgently for repentance so
that turning to God might lead to a new creation; he thus prefigured
the New Testament notion of the "new covenant."

• First chap in which he spoke of God’s message: chap 3: 12 -16

• More messages of repentance and conversion for the people

Slide 10

• On the other occasion he speaks to King Jehoiakim himself (22:1,18).

• Without hesitation, he points out the king’s pride and hardness, his
selfishness, his vain-glory, his lack of concern for the welfare of his
people

• Because the people refused to listen to the Lord's words and had
rejected
His Law, the Lord announced to the whole earth that He would
bring disaster on His
people
• People were sinful but not willing to repent, worship idols

Slide 11
• Invasion of Israel by Babylonians: chap 4

• Punishment : chap 21 onwards

• Condemnation of false prophets

• 25:10 He would remove everyday joy from their lives, even the joy
of new
marriages, as well as the productivity of the people. They would run out of
grain, oil, and other necessities. He would leave them dwelling in
darkness.
• 25:11 The whole land would remain a horrible desolation for 70
years during
which Israel and Judah would be absent from the Promised Land. This is
the first prophecy of the length of the Babylonian captivity. The Israelites
had not observed 70 sabbatical years, so the seventy-year exile restored
rest to the land
• Judgments on nations : chap 25: 15

Slide 12

• Israel rebuilt and planted by a loving God

• 33:6 The Lord promised to bring health and healing to the city and
to restore
His people, He would bless them with much peace and truth in
the future
• 33:7 He would restore the fortunes of both the Northern and
Southern
Kingdoms and would rebuild these nations as they had been formerly.
• 33:8 He would cleanse them of their iniquities against Him, and He
would
pardon their sins and transgressions
• 33:9 Jerusalem would become a city associated with joy, praise, and
glory in
the thinking of all the world when people heard of all the good things that
Yahweh had done for her. The nations would fear and tremble because of
all the good and the peace that He would make for her.

Slide 13
• The New covenant
• Many commentators believe that Jeremiah's revelation of the New
Covenant was his
greatest theological contribution. They view it as the high point of the
book, the climax of
the prophet's teaching.
"The prophecy of Jeremiah marks a watershed in Hebrew religious and
cultic life. From this point onwards there is a significant divergence
between what has obtained in the past and what will characterize the
future religious observances of Israel."
• core of the new covenant is God's gift of a new heart
• enter into intimate relationship with His people

Slide 14

• fall of Jerusalem
• Siege of Jerusalem (588-586 B.C.), when Zedekiah was king
• 39:1-2 Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army captured
Jerusalem and began its siege in 588 B.C. It took the Babylonians
about eighteen months to
• breach the walls of the city, which they did in 586 B.C.
• Chaldeans burned the royal palace, the other houses in the city,
including the temple (52:13), and broke down the city
• walls to make it uninhabitable and indefensible

Slide 15
• destruction of temple
• Before the Babylonians burned the temple, they looted it. This was the second time
they had done this, the first being in 597 B.C. ( Jer. 27:19-22).

Slide 16
• Conclusion
• Summarise the book: people were committing sins, refused to repent, God punished
them, they converted
• Main message was repentance
• Next session ?

Slide 17

• Famous Quote