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11_18_2018_IntroductionToJeremiah_DonRuhl

 

 

Jeremiah the Weeping Prophet

An introduction to the Book of Jeremiah

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • November 18, In the year of our Lord Christ, 2018

  1. Bernard C. Clausen in Pen-Portraits of the Prophets called Jeremiah: The Preacher Who Buried His Clothes.
    1. Four other Old Testament Books reference Jeremiah.
    2. The New Testament quotes him often,
      1. although only Matthew names him.
      2. For example, the Book of Hebrews
        1. quotes Jeremiah 31.31–34 or a part of it twice, but
        2. the writer does not name Jeremiah.
    3. He preached for about 40 years, during the reigns of 5 kings of Judah:
      1. Josiah
      2. Jehoahaz
      3. Jehoiakim, son of Josiah
        1. Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim 
      4. Zedekiah, son of Josiah
    4. We will note the dramatic illustrations that he used:
      1. 1.13–16 | A boiling pot being poured out from the north
      2. 13.1–11 | Buries a linen sash
      3. 18.1–10 | The potter and the clay
      4. Chap 24 | Good figs and bad figs
      5. Chap 28 | Yokes of wood vs yokes of iron
      6. Chap 35 | The Rechabites
  2. Jeremiah lived through some of Israel and Judah’s worse times.
    1. It was his generation that pushed the Lord to send the Babylonians.
    2. Jeremiah was not the only prophet in those days:
      1. Jeremiah and Habakkuk stayed in Jerusalem.
      2. Daniel and Ezekiel went to Babylon.
  3. What does Matthew 16.14 tell you about Jeremiah?
    1. Of all the prophets they could have named,
    2. the people compared Jesus to:
      1. John the Baptist, a contemporary whom everyone knew
      2. Elijah, the first of a line of prophets
      3. Jeremiah, one of the great writing prophets
    3. Johnny Ramsey once told me that he could tell whether a preacher has read the prophets or not.
      1. Remember what we have seen in Isaiah.
      2. Remember what you have read of the prophets so far and continue to read them.
      3. Ponder the preaching of Jeremiah as we survey his writings.
        1. Then you might see why Johnny Ramsey made that statement to me.
        2. Can you already tell from your reading of the prophets whether a preacher has read the prophets or not?