Jeremiah Brentwood Oaks Church of Christ, 07/22/18 and 7/29/18

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1 Jeremiah Brentwood Oaks Church of Christ, 07/22/18 and 7/29/18 I. II. Jeremiah 23: Against the Shepherds. A. vv : Against the Prophets. 1. Beware of prophets who say "it will be well with you." a. One of Jeremiah's tests of true prophecy: do they prophecy disaster? False prophets prophecy good things! b. Nature of true and false prophesy and today's church: health and wealth gospel. 2. Only those may be true prophets who stand in the council of the Lord. True test of prophecy: did the Lord send the prophet? 3. Another test: does the prophet teach ethics and morality? And does he reflect accurately the word of God? B. Vv : "I have dreamed!" 1. "I am a God far off..." a. Those who claim to speak the words of God often claim to stand in his council, to be near to the holy presence. b. God here claims to be a God far off, not near! That is, he is transcendent and holy. This is something that both those prophets in antiquity and those contemporary prophets would do well to remember. 2. Part of this conviction of being near to the Lord is the prophets' contention that they received privileged communication from God in dreams. 3. Jeremiah calls this straw, as opposed to the wheat of the divine word. C. Vv : The "Burden of the Lord." 1. The play on words: "burden" and "oracle." 2. Apparently, these prophets also claim to have a massa, an oracle or burden, given from the Lord. 3. The Lord, on the other hand, has become weary of false prophets claiming to have secret and privileged knowledge from God. His response is "You are the burden of the Lord." Jeremiah 24: The baskets of figs. A. Jeremiah's parables: the potter's house and the figs. B. Similar to Amos 8, the basket of summer fruit. C. The good figs: Jehoiachin and the exiles. D. The bad figs: Zedekiah and those who remain in Israel. Page 1

2 III. IV. E. Application. 1. Judgment and restoration. Jeremiah 25: The Oracles against the nations. A. Vv. 1-14: Oracle against Jehoiakim and Judah, because of their idolatry and disobedience. 1. The inevitability of destruction. 2. The consequences of sin, especially idolatry. B. Vv : The wine of the cup of God's wrath. 1. The meaning of oracles against the nations. 2. All the nations of the earth are forced to drink the cup of God's wrath. 3. What is the meaning? They are to drink to the full God's judgment, to internalize it, so that they might "fall and rise no more," in their drunkenness and vomit. 4. Revelation and God's cup of wrath: Rev. 14:10 and 16:19. C. Application. 1. God's sovereignty over the nations. 2. Judgment for sin: wrath and grace. Jeremiah 26: The second temple sermon. A. The first temple sermon is Jer. 7. Perhaps this is the same one, or else a second one with the same message. 1. The main difference is the response of the people after the sermon. 2. Vv. 1-7: The theology of the temple sermon: a. Listen to the words of the prophets, which I send to you." b. Or else I will destroy this temple and the city of Jerusalem. c. Chapter 7 is much more expansive in theology. B. The response of the people. 1. The religious leaders threatened death, for blasphemy (vv. 8-9) 2. The priests accuse Jeremiah before the princes, who have convened a court (vv ). 3. The princes hear that Jeremiah has spoken in the name of the Lord, and wish to free him (12-16). 4. The elders and the case of Micah of Moresheth (16-19). 5. The prophet Uriah and his death (20-24). C. Application. 1. The integrity of the prophetic word. 2. True and false prophecy. Page 2

3 V. VI. 3. The prophet against the culture. Jeremiah 27: Jeremiah and the international conference. A. The call of Jeremiah to confront the emissaries of the nations (1-11) 1. The symbol of the yoke: servitude for the kings of Edom, Ammon, Moab, Tyre, Sidon and Judah. 2. The message: submit, and do not believe lying prophets. B. The word to the king of Judah (vv ): do not believe lying prophets. C. The word to the priests (16-22): do not listen to lying prophets; the articles of the temple will not return anytime soon. D. Application. 1. God is equally the God of all the nations as he is of Israel. Jeremiah 28: Jeremiah and Hananiah. A. Vv. 1 11: Direct confrontation of prophet to prophet: what to do when prophetic words directly contradict? 1. This is the first instance of a false prophet being named, all previous allusions being anonymous. 2. Jeremiah singles out Hananiah as a great example of direct and personal controversy over true and false prophecy. 3. Hananiah gives the health and welfare version: everything will be well, Jehoiachin will return, and the temple furnishings will return. a. The yoke, which Jeremiah had (sent? worn?) in chapter 27, symbolizing the total subjugation of the people, is the symbol taken up by Hananiah as inappropriate. b. God was not going to afflict them any longer with the yoke, making Jeremiah a false prophet. 4. Jeremiah responds to Hananiah s direct contradiction of his words with the ironic Amen! a. Deuteronomy 18 is the obvious test of prophecy: when a prophecy does not come true, the prophet is false. b. This cannot be the sole criterion for true and false prophecy, or Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Jonah are false prophets. c. The function of prophecy is not primarily to foretell the future, but to speak the words of God. B. Jeremiah gives another set of tests of true prophecy: 1. Is the prophet a prophet of doom and disaster (counter-cultural)? 2. Does the word of the prophet of good times come true? (Deut. 18:15ff) Page 3

4 VII. 3. True prophets form a kind of tradition all prophets from antiquity acted this way. A true prophet acts in accordance with prophetic tradition! 4. In chapter 23, we earlier saw that another criterion is that the true prophet, who stands in the council of the Lord, turns people from their evil way and speaks the words of the Lord faithfully. 5. In chapter 28 is the criterion that best describes the true prophet: the Lord sent him. C. Vv : Hananiah breaks Jeremiah's yoke and Jeremiah prophesies his death. 1. The end of chapter 28 is the account of Jeremiah s prediction of the death of Hananiah, because he had broken the yoke from Jeremiah and had directly contradicted the prophetic word. 2. The word of the Lord came back to Hananiah and the royal court: there would still be a yoke, this time of iron, which none could break, and that Hananiah would die due to his presumption and falsehood. D. Application. 1. How does one distinguish true from false prophesy? 2. The word of God and the word of culture. Jeremiah 29: the letter to the exiles. A. Jeremiah is dominated by the presence of, and controversies with, false prophets. 1. The real issue in this chapter is that false prophets have arisen in Babylon, who are saying much the same thing as Hananiah did in the previous chapter: that within a short time the crisis will be over 2. Jeremiah writes to them a letter for two reasons: first, to tell them not to listen the prophetic knuckleheads who are prophesying a swift return, and second to settle down for a long stay. B. Vv. 1 23: The first letter to the exiles 1. This is a letter in two parts: vv. 1-14, a general letter to the exiles to exhort them to settle down in exile for the long haul, 2. and 15-23, concerning the lying prophets who were prophesying falsely in Babylon. 3. The polemic against false prophets continues the themes and terminology found in previous chapters a. The prophets speak visions of of their own heads, God did not send them, yet they prophesied. Page 4

5 C. D. b. They are not reliable guides, for they do not stand in the council of the Lord (chapter 23) and they speak deceit. c. Dreams are not reliable, but deceitful guides. 4. The seventy years mentioned here cannot be understood as a literal figure, but it is approximate. 5. Vv are remarkably like 1 Kings 8 and 9, which promises exile for idolatry, but God s willingness to restore Israel if she would seek him. 6. Vv describe prophets which arose among the exiles in Babylon, declaring an imminent end to the exile there. a. The prophetic oracle assures them that their is no hope for the people who remain, that the exiles should not pin false hopes on those who remained in Judah. b. V. 17 once again makes allusion to the vision of the figs in chapter 24: the exiles there for a long stay are like the good figs, while those in Judah are destined for destruction, they are the corrupt figs. c. The two prophets who prophesied falsehood in Babylon are named: Ahab and Zedekiah, and their names will be used as by-words and curses. Jer 29:24 28: Letter Number One, Against Shemaiah. 1. This is a letter in two parts. This is a letter which more or less quotes Shemaiah the prophet s concern over the letter Jeremiah had sent to the exiles in Babylon, where Shemaiah was a prophet. 2. Jeremiah s letter appears to be concerned with Shemaiah s sending a letter under his own authority from exile (v. 24), and that Shemaiah was scandalized by Jeremiah s letter telling the exiles to settle down and enjoy a long exile. Jer 29:29 32: Letter Number Two Against Shemaiah. 1. Zephanaiah read Shemaiah s letter to the priests in Jerusalem to Jeremiah. 2. Jeremiah sent another letter to Shemaiah, condemning him for speaking lies in the name of the Lord. Page 5