Interdiction to Jeremiah

Jeremiah was called to be a prophet when only a child (1:6-7). Jeremiah prophesied for eighteen years during the reign of Josiah. He was thus about a hundred years later than the prophet Isaiah. His home was in the village of Anathoth, a few miles north of Jerusalem, and he was by birth a priest. His father, Hilkiah, was the high priest who discovered the book of Law in the Temple during the reign of Josiah.
In 608 B.E. Josiah was killed in battle and many saw this as evidence that G-d did not favor his reforms. Jeremiah came forward and stationed himself at the edge of the mob. Since the area of Jerusalem was strong during the siege of Sennacherib, the belief was that gated was impregnable. When the scroll was read to King Jehoiakim, he confiscated it and tore it. Jeremiah demonstrated his faith that Israel would return to Jerusalem by purchasing the land. The name Jeremiah means Yaway establishes. Jeremiah and Scribe Baruch that was his secretary wrote the book He was a priest as well as a prophet from the tribe of Benjamin.
Three major world powers during this time were:
1. Assyria 300 years.
2. Babylon 586 A.D.
3. Egypt.
The book covers approximately 44 years and Jeremiah’s ministry covers about 66 years. The basic message is to call Judah back from backsliding. The key words are:
1. Judah 181 times. 5. Sins 52 times.
2. Babylon 160 times. 6. Judgment 27 times.
3. Jerusalem 108 times. 7. Forsake 24 times.
4. Heart 62 times. 8. Backsliding 13 times.
Six-fold purpose of the book:
1. The final history of Judah.
2. Show G-d’s mercy and grace.
3. Main prophet was not in the largest congregation.
4. All evil will be judged and cause captivity.
5. If not repented - sin gets judgment.
6. After captivity - return to Jerusalem.
Three illustrations of absolute certainty of these ancient prophets:
1. Bought the land because people would return.
2. Jeremiah was told not to marry - war in the land.
3. Wore a girdle and worn it out - city will weak out.
Four sermon illustrations of Jeremiah:
1. Yolk on neck - Babylon will put a yolk on Israel.
2. Weeping Prophet - weep for G-d.
3. Greatest compliment - people ask Yeshua if he was Jeremiah.
4. Stood on G-d’s Word.
Days of darkness followed and Jeremiah exhorted his people to obey the voice of the L-rd and remain in the land, and not flee into Egypt. But they refused to obey, and they carried him with them where tradition says, he was stoned to death. Doctorial of invariability: thought they would escape before G-d’s raft (rapture?) G-d will deliver before any tribulation -- not before.
Jeremiah wrote of the New Covenant, means of the remnant of G-d’s people. The two baskets of figs stood for: bad - few skilled, and good - good Jews taken to Babylon. Rechabites were a testimony in Jerusalem to G-d’s plan.
At the commandment of the L-rd, Jeremiah took great stones and hit them under the large platform, or pavement of brickwork, at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, and prophesied that over these stones Nebuchadnezzar should one day set his throne and spread his royal pavilion. Tahpanhes seems to have been an old fort on the Syrian frontier, guarding the road to Egypt, and evidently a constant refuge for the Jews. In front of the fort is a large platform or pavement of brickwork, suitable for outdoor business, such as loading goods, pitching tents, etc – just what is now called a mastaba. Now Jeremiah writes of the pavement (or brickwork) which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes; this passage, which has been an unexplained stumbling-block to translators hitherto, is the exact description of the mastaba and this would be the most likely place for Nebuchadnezzar to pitch his royal tent as stated.
Jeremiah was of all the prophets of the OT, the supreme prophet of G-d to the human heart. In season and out of season, for a long lifetime, he laid siege to the hearts of his hearers. The cure of all your famines, he cried, and all your plagues and all your defeats and all your captivities – the cause and the cure of them all are in your own heart: in the heart of each inhabitant. In consequence he was the prophet of unwelcome truths, hated of all, but feared as well by all.
Jeremiah’s book wrote two times since the first was torn up. For when the monarch had heard three or four leaves of the roll he had heard enough. He asked for the roll, cut it in pieces with a penknife, and cast it into the fire that was upon the hearth. It was his last chance, his last offer of mercy: as he threw the torn fragments of the roll on the fire he threw there, in symbol, his royal house, his doomed city, the Temple, and all the people of the land.
While in seclusion, Jeremiah and Baruch rewrote the book. Other words were added, but the body of the sacred book was word by word the same as the first. Man may cut G-d’s Word to pieces with a penknife of his intellect. Like Jehoiakim he may cast his hope of salvation in the fire. But the word of the L-rd endureth forever and by that word shall he be judged in the last day. (1 Peter. 1:25; John.12:48).
The stern messages he had to give were so foreign to his sensitive nature that it could only have been the deep conviction that they were the words of the L-rd that enabled him to give utterance to them. He says: His Word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. With such a fire burning in his heart is it any wonder that the L-rd’s promise was fulfilled, ‘Behold, I will make My words in thy mouth fire’? ‘If you take forth the precious form the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth..’ Jeremiah answered? ‘Thy words were found and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart!’ Amen and Amen!!!