PURITAN REFORMED THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OVERVIEW OF JEREMIAH A PAPER SUBMITTED TO DR. MURRAY FOR OLD TESTAMENT INTRODUCTION BY MICHAEL DEWALT GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN APRIL 2008
Overview of Jeremiah I. Introduction Name The Hebrew word Yirmeyahu or Yirmeyah literally means Yahweh Throws, in the sense of laying the foundation. This could also mean other terms such as establishes heart breaking, appoints, or sends. The title of this book is after the author of it, and the book itself gives a prophecy and a message to the Lord s people. 1 Theme The theme of the book of Jeremiah is God s gracious promise of hope and restoration for his covenant-keeping people. Purpose The purpose of the book of Jeremiah is to proclaim that God s wrath awaits his people if they do not repent. Key verses Jeremiah 7:23-24 But this command I gave them: 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.' 24 But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. Jeremiah 8:11-12 They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. 12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD. Key Chapter Jeremiah 31 Key Phrase 1 MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Bible Handbook. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003), p. 193; Wilkinson, Bruce, Kenneth Boa. Talk Thur the Bible. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983), p. 198.
Judah s Last hour Key truths God demands true repentance God itemizes their sins God explains true contentment with His Word God will judge the disobedient 2 II. Author Jeremiah is most clearly stated to be the author of the book in the very beginning (Jer. 1:1). Jeremiah was the son of a priest and lived in a city called Anathoth, which was located nearly two miles north of the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah had been nearly killed in his earlier days, having been forced to flee to king Jehoiakim. Jeremiah was made fun of and placed into a cistern because of his shocking message that God had revealed to him, a message of judgment but also of grace. His authorship of the book was not only confirmed by other prophets such as Daniel, (Dan. 9:2) but also in Ecclesiastes, the Works of Josephus, and the Talmud. 3 III. Date The date of the book of Jeremiah s ministry and writings is around 627 to about 580 B.C. During this time, Babylon had taken over much of the Near East and overthrown Nineveh, the old capital of Assyria in 622 B.C. It is said that the time frame of Jeremiah s writing can be easily broken down into three areas. 1. 627 605 B.C. Jeremiah prophecy while Judah was being attacked Assyria and Egypt. 2. 605 586 B.C. Jeremiah proclaiming God s judgment while Judah was being attacked Babylon. 3. 586 5580 B.C. Jeremiah ministry in Jerusalem and Egypt after the fall of Judah. 2 Balchin, John. Opening God's Word: The Compact Survey of the Bible. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1985. 3 MacArthur, p.193; Wilkinson, p. 198.
IV. Historical Analysis Political Situations At the time of the book of Jeremiah (627) the Assyrian Empire had been in control of most of the ancient Near East for over 200 years. With the death of King Ashurbanipal, however, the empire slowly collapsed within 30 years. Israel and Syria began competing for new control of their own lands, and the Babylonians began to expand their own empire, destroying everything in their path. Josiah became king of Judah was 8 years old in 640, close to the end of the Assyrian empire. In time Josiah wanted to complete Judah s independence, but died in battle before fully accomplishing this, leaving the kingship to Jehoiakim. Within a few years, both Judah and Israel were taken captive by the Babylonians under the leadership of king Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah was an eyewitness to all of this, seeing not only the constant disobedience of the Lord s people, but also suffering the events of the destruction of an entire nation. 4 Critical Approaches One issue that many readers may have with the book of Jeremiah is the amount of material in it that completely lacks organization. The oracles in different periods, undated material, and material that is not in chronological order throughout the book make it extremely hard to read. Oftentimes scholars even have a hard time placing the book with a single writer, due to the large amounts of it that may have been edited and revised. Some scholars, on the other hand, see that there is a close relationship between the book of Jeremiah and his own life. These scholars believe that the undated material most likely is dictated sermons that Jeremiah preached, something like Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. 5 Key People Jeremiah- priest and prophet of southern Judah. King Jehoahaz- 16 th king of southern Judah, Jer. 1:1-3; 22:11; 18 King Jehoiakim- evil son of Josiah, 18 th king, Jer. 22:18-23; 25:1-38; 26:1:24; 27:1-11; 35:1-19, 36:1-32. King Jehoiachin- son of Jehoiakim, 18 th king, Jer. 13:18-27; 22:24-30 Baruch- served Jeremiah s scribe, Jer. 32:12-16; 36:4-32; 43:3-45:4 4 Dillard, Raymond, Tremper Longman III. An Introduction to the Old Testament. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), p. 289. 5 Dillard, p. 290-1.
Ebed- Melech- Ethiopian police officer who helped Jeremiah, Jer. 38:7-39:16 King Nebuchadnezzar- king of Babylon, Jer. 21-52 The Rechabites- the obedient descendents of Jonadab, Jer. 35:1-19 6 Outline V. Literary Analysis Balchin MacArthur Wilkinson 1:1-19 Introduction 1:1-19 Preparation of 1:1-10 Jeremiah s call Jeremiah 1:11 16 Jeremiah s Sings 1:17-19 Jeremiah s Assurance 2:1-6:30 Prologue to Judgment 7:1-10:25 Speech for the Prosecution 11:1-13:27 Sentence Anticipated 14:1-20:18 Shadow of Doom 21:1-24:10 Life and Death 25:1-38 Conclusion 26:1-29:32 The 1 st Book of Biography 30:1-33:26 The Book of Comfort 34:1-44:30 The Second Book of Biography 45:1-51:64 The Second Book of Judgment 2:1-45:5Proclamations to Judah 46:1-51:64 Proclamations of 2:1-25:38 The Condemnation of Judah 26:1-29:32 The Conflicts of Jeremiah 30:1-33:26 The Future Restoration of Jerusalem 34:1-45:5 The Present Fall of Jerusalem 46:1-28 Prophecies against 6 MacArthur, p. 195.
Judgment on the Nations Egypt 52:-34 A Historical Appendix Materials 52:1-34 The Fall of Jerusalem 47:1-7 Prophecies against Philistia 48:1-47 Prophecies against Moab 49:1-6 Prophecies against Ammom 49:7-22 Prophecies against Edom 49:23-27 Prophecies against Damacus 49:28-33 Prophecies against Kedar and Hazor 49:34-39 Prophecies against Elam 50:1 51:64 Prophecies against Babylon 52:1-11 The capture of Jerusalem 52:12-23 The deconstruction of Jerusalem 52:24-30 The exile to Babylon 52:31-34 The Liberation of Jehoiachin Again, a serious problem that exists in the book of Jeremiah is that the material has no structure or sequence to it. A good number of the smaller assortments placed in the book are given their own titles. This makes it hard for the reader to follow along and harder still to see importance of what the author is trying to get across in the larger sections. On the other hand, some sections are not even titled or identified in the book at all. 7 7 Dillard, p. 294; MacArthur, p. 197.
Poetic Throughout the book of Jeremiah, there are large sections of poetry that deal with the judgment of God, namely chapters 25 referring back to chapter 1. 8 Symbolic Like the preachers of their time and even today, Jeremiah used stories in order make his message more understandable. This is something that Jeremiah practices all throughout his book, for example, chapters 13, 16, 20, 27, 28, 43, 51. This way of using symbolic stories was an important part of an Old Testament prophet s preaching, important in that it was how they related the Lord s Word to their hearer. 9 Jeremiah s God VI. Thematic Analysis The prophet Jeremiah had a constant mindset that God was always in control. For Jeremiah, the sovereignty of God was of most importance when trying to understand the events around him. He knew that God was the creator of the earth and knew that as that creator, nothing happened that he did not allow to happen, Jer. 4:23-26, 18:1-11. Jeremiah emphasized the sovereignty of God by emphasizing the sins of Israel and relating it to the holiness of God; this made the message of repentance focused upon the character of God, rather than being man-centered. God s Covenant Jeremiah the writer understood that the people of God were to be in covenant with the holy and sovereign God. Jeremiah tried time and time again to call the nation of Israel back to God, knowing that the nation had become a whore by their sins. Jeremiah learning from Moses Jeremiah knew that his message came directly from the mouth of God for the people to turn back to God. Like Moses message preached to the Lord s people in Deut. 1:9 and 18:18, Jeremiah called the people to return back to God and repent of their sins. Although in full authority from God, the people would not repent and come back to God in covenant. God s Hope for His People s Future 8 Bush, Frederic, William LaSor and David Hubbard. Old Testament: The Message, Form, and Background. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982. 9 Dillard, p. 296.
Although his message was of wrath and judgment, Jeremiah still gave his hearers the hope of their God in Jer. 29:11. Jeremiah wanted the Lord s people to see the mercy and grace of a God who always promised his people and that they still could repent. Later on, Jeremiah gives the hope of the Messiah in 23:5-6, 33:15-16, following the example of his predecessor, Isaiah, Isa. 4:2, 11:1, 10. Key Doctrines Sin- Israel s sin and life in disobedience to God. Jer. 2:1-13, 23-37; 5:1-6; 7:16-34; 11:1-17; 17:1-4; 18:1-17; 23:9-40. Judgment- 4:3-18; 9:3-26; 12:14-17; 15:1-9; 16:5-13; 19:1-15; 24:8-10; 25:1-38; 39:1-10; 44:1-30; 46:1-51:14. Restoration- for Israel if they turn from their sin. Jer. 23:3-8; chapters 30-33. 10 VII. New Testament Analysis Jeremiah in the New Testament The book of Jeremiah made a major impression on the New Testament writers, as they cite it forty times. Jeremiah was known in the New Testament as the weeping prophet. Many scholars often look at Luke gospel and wonder about the image of Jeremiah that may have been in Luke s mind when he wrote that Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem; there is a certain resemblance between Christ and Jeremiah in that both Jesus and Jeremiah made their stance against the temple and that they were both grieving for the sins of God s people. Another correlation between Christ and Jeremiah is that both of them had a conspiracy against them for their deaths. 11 Stephen preaching Jeremiah Another area of the New Testament that includes a reference to Jeremiah is in Acts 8:32, when Stephen was preaching his last sermon. Stephen preached the same message as Jeremiah, of Israel s being uncircumcised in heart and ear. Paul preaching Jeremiah 10 MacArthur, p. 196. 11 MacArthur, p. 195.
Lastly, Paul as well saw the importance of God s sovereignty over all things, following the message of Jeremiah in his writings in Rom. 9:20-24. Original message VIII. The Messages Jeremiah s main message was for Israel to repent of their sins and turn back to their covenantkeeping God. Present message Today, the book of Jeremiah tells us to remain in covenant with God and, as we pursue the act of holiness, to follow God s word, until our last day here on earth.
Bibliography Balchin, John. Opening God's Word: The Compact Survey of the Bible. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1985. Bush, Frederic, William LaSor and David Hubbard. Old Testament: The Message, Form, and Background. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982. Calvin, John. Calvin's Commentaries. Translated by Rev. William Pringle. Vols. 9, 10, 11. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005. Dillard, Raymond, Tremper Longman III. An Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994. House, Paul R. Old Testament Survey. Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 1992. MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Bible Handbook. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003. Wilkinson, Bruce, Kenneth Boa. Talk Thur the Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983.