Old Testament Survey
Jeremiah-Lamentations
Rick Walker
1. Introduction to Jeremiah.
A. Outline
Chapters
1. Oracles Against Judah 1-25
2. Biographical Material 26-29
3. Book of Consolation 30-31
4. Biographical Material 32-45
5. Oracles Against the Nations 46
6. Fall of Jerusalem 52
B. Writing of Jeremiah.
1. Jeremiah is one of the few books that tells how it
came to be written.
a. After twenty years of
prophesying, God told Jeremiah to write his prophesies down (Jer. 36:1-3).
b. Employed a scribe named
Baruch to write while Jeremiah dictated (Jer. 36:4).
2. King Jehoiakim learns of the prophesy which tells
of the destruction of the Southern Kingdom (36:20ff.).
a. Jehoiakim takes a penknife
and cuts out the words that offend him (36:23).
b. Burns the entire scroll in
the fire in his room.
3. Lord commands Jeremiah to write another scroll
like the first.
a. Jeremiah gives the king
the second scroll.
b. As the king is reading it,
he learns that it is identical to the first, except with this addition: it now contains a
curse
on Jehoiakim and his family and says that his line will be cut off from the throne.
2. Historical and Theological Perspective.
A. When Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry, Josiah was reforming
Judah and Babylon was coming to power.
In three consecutive years, there
were three significant events.
628 Josiah begins his reforms.
627 Jeremiah begins his prophetic
ministry.
a. When he receives his call to be a prophet, he has a vision of judgment in which he sees
a boiling pot,
tilting away from the north (Jer. 1:13).
b. The Lord says that it means he will summon a nation from the north to bring disaster
upon Judah
(1:14-19).
626 Babylonians revolt against the
Assyrians.
B. Before Jeremiah's prophetic career was over, Judah would experience
covenant failure and the Babylonians
would destroy Jerusalem and carry it into
captivity.
606/05 First deportation: Jehoiakim king
from 609-598. Daniel was taken captive in the third year
of
his reign, 606 B.C. (Dan. 1:1).
601 Second Incursion of the Babylonians;
fought Egyptians 597 Third Incursion of the Babylonians; second
deportation
of Jews, including Ezekiel. Babylonians attacked Jerusalem, took Jehoiachin captive,
and
placed Zedekiah on the throne.
586 Fall of Jerusalem
C. How could it be that Jeremiah receives his call during Josiah's
reforms, and yet has a vision of judgment upon
Judah? How could Josiah's reforms in 628
be followed by covenant failure in 586?
1. Josiah's reforms were extensive.
Called the greatest king since David (2 Kings 23:25).
a. Did away with
idolatry (2 Kings 23:16-20). Destroyed the high places in Jerusalem, Asherah poles, carved
idols,
cast images and tore down the altars of Baal (2 Chron. 34:3-7).
b. Found the Book
of the Law in the Temple (2 Kings 22:8-18).
c. Kept the
Passover (2 Kings 23:21).
2. But Jeremiah watched as Josiah's
reforms were undone by his heirs to the throne.
a. Jeremiah
prophesied during this time and warned of the impending doom by the new rising empire,
Babylonians.
1.
Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, undid all the reforms of his father.
2.
Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, also did evil.
b. In spite of
Josiah's reforms, Judah slipped back into her old ways under her new kings, finally
bringing
covenant
failure and judgment. Jeremiah brings several charges against Judah.
1.
(Jer. 2:5-3:5) Judah has forsake the Lord and worships idols.
a.
Idols were located in the temple (32:34).
b.
In the vicinity of Jerusalem, children were sacrificed to Baal and Moloch (7:31; 19:5;
32:35).
2.
(Jer. 5:20-31) Judah is charged with injustice as people mistreat one another. They set
traps for men like
they
set traps for birds.
3.
(Jer. 7:9-15) They misuse the temple when they keep its rituals and think that will cover
up their immoral
lives.
D. Judah Failed to Listen to the Warning of Jeremiah.
1. Jeremiah was persecuted for his
warnings to Judah. Probably the most persecuted prophet of O.T.
a. In Jeremiah 19
the prophet proclaims the doom of Judah because of idolatry (19:5 they burn their sons in
the
fire to Baal). In Jer. 20:1, 2 Jeremiah is beaten and put in the stocks by the priest.
b. (Jer. 27:2;
28:12) Jeremiah is wearing a yoke as a sign to Judah. Hananiah broke the yoke off the neck
of
Jeremiah.
c. Jer. 26:8 the
priests want to put Jeremiah to death. However, he is rescued by those who say that Micah
prophesied
the same things concerning Judah, but he was not put to death (26:18).
2. There were several reasons that Judah
would not listen to his message.
a. (Jer. 3:6-8)
They did not learn a lesson from the fall of Israel.
b. Two centuries
of warning by the prophets had dulled hearers to the point that they did not believe
judgment
would
come (2 Kings 24:3; 21:12; Jer. 6:13f.; 7:1-4).
c. (Jer.
14:11-16; 23:9-40; 28:1-17) Because of false prophets saying that God would not let the
Babylonians
destroy
Jerusalem. After the deportation of Jehoiachin, false prophets were saying the people in
exile that
God
would restore them within two years (28:11).
d. Because of God's
miraculous intervention during Sennacherib's invasion in 701 B.C. (2 Kings 19:32-36).
It
made it difficult to believe that God would not miraculously intervene again.
e. Because the
Babylonians had already come in 606 and 597 B.C. and had done only relatively minor
damage.
E. Book of Consolation (Jeremiah 30-33). Though Jeremiah gives stern
warrnings about the coming judgment, he
also holds out a message of hope: there will be
restoration after judgment.
1. Jer. 29:10, 11 prepares for this message of hope.
When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come
to you and fulfill my
gracious promise to bring you back to this place.
2. The Book of Consolation holds out three promises
for the future.
a. Jeremiah showed great
faith in the restoration of Jerursalem. During the final stages of the seige, he bought
land
from his cousin (32:1-15).
b. Looked forward to the
fulfillment of three promises:
1.
(30:18) the city will be rebuilt
2.
(31:31-34) God will make a new covenant
3.
(33:15-26) a new Davidic king will sit on the throne. Fulfilled in the coming of Christ.
F. Fall of Judah. Jeremiah 52 describes the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
(Also cf. 2 Kings 24, 25; Josephus,
Ant. x, vii).
1. Nebuchadnezzar was the king who seiged the city
while Zedekiah was king (52:4, 5).
2. No food in the city (52:6). Josephus says that two
calamities came at the same time: famine and pesitlential
distemper (Ant. x, vii, iv).
3. Sons of Zedekiah were slain in front of him, his
eyes were put out, and he was taken captive to Babylon
(52:10; Ant. x, viii, ii)
4. Temple was destroyed (52:13) and its treasures
carried to Babylon (52:17).
5. In Jer. 51:24 it is prophesied that God would
bring judgment on Babylon for this action against Judah.
6. Jeremiah 46-51 contains Jeremiah's oracles against
other nations that would also suffer judgment under
Babylon.
a. Egypt (46).
b. Philistines (47).
c. Moab (48)
d. Edom / Ammon (49).
e. Babylon itself will also
suffer judgment (50).
3. Lamentations.
A. Jeremiah was an eyewitness of the destruction of Jerusalem.
Afterwards, he wrote Lamentations.
1. Title comes from the Vulgate.
2. Lamentations is read annually on 9 of
Ab - the day of mourning over the loss of the temple by the Babylonians
in 586 B.C. and
the Romans in A.D. 70.
B. Lamentations consists of five poems lamenting the fall of Jerusalem.
1. Whereas 2 Kings 24, 25 gives the
historical details of the fall, Lamentations captures the ethos.
2. Moses had warned that covenant failure
would bring curse and "vomiting out of the land"
(Lev.
18:24-30).
3. Poem 1 describes Jerusalem as a once
proud woman raped and abandoned by treacherous friends.
Poem 2 describes
God's anger against Jerusalem.
Poem 3 describes
Jeremiah's grief and hope.
Poem 4 describes
the aftermath of judgment.
a.
4:10 With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became
their
food
when my people were destroyed. (cp. Deut. 28:53).
b.
4:11 The Lord has given full vent to his wrath; he has poured out his fierce anger.
Poem 5 a petition
for restoration.
4. All except the fifth poem are
acrostics.
Poem 1 22 lines,
one for each letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Pattern: a, x, x b, x, x, c, x, x, . . .
Poem 2 22 lines,
one for each letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Pattern: a, x, x b, x, x, c, x, x, . . .
Poem 3 66 lines;
each letter of Hebrew alphabet three times Pattern: a, a, a, b, b, b, c, c, c, . . .
Poem 4 22 lines,
one for each letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Pattern: a, x, b, x, c, x, d, x, . . .
Poem 5 22 lines,
one for each letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Pattern: this poem is not an acrostic.