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The Story of Jeremiah – The Weeping Prophet and the Lament of Israel · truthunedited

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  Speaker 1: In times of great turmoil for God's people, when nations
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  Speaker 1: rose against one another and the hearts of men drifted
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  Speaker 1: away from their creator, a prophet emerged with a unique mission.
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  Speaker 1: This is the story of Jeremiah, the man God called
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  Speaker 1: to deliver his message in dark days. An ordinary man
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  Speaker 1: with fears and doubts like any of us, yet chosen
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  Speaker 1: for an extraordinary purpose. His journey shows how God works
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  Speaker 1: through simple people to accomplish his grand plans. Follow this
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  Speaker 1: story of courage, faith and perseverance as Jeremiah faces powerful kings,
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  Speaker 1: corrupt priests, and a stubborn people, always carrying the word
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord even when no one wanted to hear it.
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  Speaker 1: In a small town just a few kilometers from Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: a boy was born who would one day change the
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  Speaker 1: course of Israel's history. This town was Anathoth, located in
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  Speaker 1: the territory of Benjamin, a city reserved for priests since
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  Speaker 1: the time of Joshua. In the Book of Joshua, chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty one, verses thirteen to eighteen, we read to the
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  Speaker 1: descendants of Aaron, they gave Hebron and Anathoth, with its
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  Speaker 1: surrounding pasture lands. It was in this place around six
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty b c. That Jeremiah was born, son
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  Speaker 1: of the priest Hilkia. Young Jeremiah grew up in difficult times.
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  Speaker 1: The kingdom had been divided for many years. Israel, the
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  Speaker 1: northern Kingdom, had already been destroyed by the Assyrians. Only Judah,
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  Speaker 1: the Southern Kingdom, remained as an independent nation, but it
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  Speaker 1: was drifting further and further from the ways of God.
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  Speaker 1: In Jerusalem, just five kilometers from Anathoth, the king's openly
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  Speaker 1: practiced idolatry, Jeremiah's father, Hilkiah, was a faithful priest in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of wide spread apostasy. At the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the Book of Jeremiah, Chapter one, verse one, we read
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  Speaker 1: the words of Jeremiah's son of Hilkiah, one of the
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  Speaker 1: priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. The family
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  Speaker 1: upheld Israel's religious traditions, teaching the Law of Moses and
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  Speaker 1: the stories of the Patriarchs, while many others turned to
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  Speaker 1: foreign gods. Despite its physical closeness to Jerusalem, there was
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  Speaker 1: a significant cultural gap. While the capital was immersed in
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  Speaker 1: politics and foreign influences, Anathoth preserved a simpler way of
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  Speaker 1: life more closely tied to Israel's ancient traditions. There, Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: learned about the God of his ancestors, about the exodus
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  Speaker 1: from Egypt, and about the mighty works the Lord had
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  Speaker 1: done throughout the history of his people. Growing up in
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  Speaker 1: a priestly family, young Jeremiah absorbed the scriptures and temple rituals.
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  Speaker 1: He learned about sacrifices and sacred festivals, about the covenant
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  Speaker 1: God had made with his people. This foundation would be
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  Speaker 1: essential to his future prophetic mission, providing him with a
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  Speaker 1: solid grounding in God's truth and justice. As time passed,
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  Speaker 1: Jeremiah grew up under the guidance of his devout family.
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  Speaker 1: He was about twenty years old when something extraordinary happened.
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  Speaker 1: It was the thirteenth year of King Josiah's reign in Judah,
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  Speaker 1: around six hundred and twenty six b c. That was
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  Speaker 1: when the Word of the Lord came to him for
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  Speaker 1: the first time. In Chapter one, verses four and five,
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  Speaker 1: we read the Word of the Lord came to me, saying,
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  Speaker 1: before I formed you in the womb, I knew you
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  Speaker 1: before you were born. I set you apart, I appointed
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  Speaker 1: you as a prophet to the nations. Imagine Jeremiah's surprise
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  Speaker 1: upon hearing these words. God wasn't just calling him to
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  Speaker 1: be a prophet. He was revealing that this calling had
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  Speaker 1: been in place since before his birth. But Jeremiah, like
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  Speaker 1: many of us, when facing overwhelming challenges, felt unworthy of
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  Speaker 1: the task. In verse six, he responded honestly, alas sovereign Lord,
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  Speaker 1: I said, I do not know how to speak. I
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  Speaker 1: am too young. It was a heartfelt answer. How could
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  Speaker 1: he so young and inexperienced, speak on God's behalf to
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  Speaker 1: kings and nations. But God didn't accept Jeremiah's excuse With
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  Speaker 1: words that were both firm and gentle. The Lord answered,
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  Speaker 1: as recorded in verses seven and eight, do not say
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  Speaker 1: I am too young. You must go to every one
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  Speaker 1: I send you to and say whatever I command you.
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  Speaker 1: Do not be afraid of them, for I am with
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  Speaker 1: you and will rescue you. Declares the Lord. God was
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  Speaker 1: promising his constant presence and protection. Then something even more
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  Speaker 1: striking happened. In verses nine and ten of the same chapter,
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  Speaker 1: it says, then the Lord reached out his hand and
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  Speaker 1: touched my mouth and said to me, I have put
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  Speaker 1: my words in your mouth. See to day, I appoint
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  Speaker 1: you over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and tear down,
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  Speaker 1: to destroy and overthrow, to build, and to plant. With
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  Speaker 1: this symbolic gesture, God empowered Jeremiah for his mission. The
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  Speaker 1: words that would come from his mouth wouldn't be his own,
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  Speaker 1: they would be the very words of the Lord. As
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  Speaker 1: part of this divine calling, God also commanded Jeremiah not
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  Speaker 1: to marry. In Chapter sixteen, verse two, we read you
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  Speaker 1: must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.
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  Speaker 1: This unusual command was meant to be assigned to the people.
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  Speaker 1: God explained the reason in the following verses three and four.
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  Speaker 1: For this is what the Lord says about the children
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  Speaker 1: born in this land, and about the mothers who bear
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  Speaker 1: them and the fathers who father them. In this land,
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  Speaker 1: they will die of deadly diseases. They will not be
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  Speaker 1: mourned or buried, but will be like dung lying on
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  Speaker 1: the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and
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  Speaker 1: their dead bodies will become food for the birds and
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  Speaker 1: the wild animals. Jeremiah's celibacy would serve as a living
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  Speaker 1: symbol of the terrible fate awaiting the rebellious nation after
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  Speaker 1: his divine calling. Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry during the
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  Speaker 1: reign of Josiah, a time of relative hope for Judah.
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  Speaker 1: The young king. Josiah, who was only eight years old
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  Speaker 1: when he ascended the throne, grew up to become a
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  Speaker 1: religious reformer. At the age of twenty six, Josiah launched
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  Speaker 1: a major campaign to eliminate idolatry and restore true worship.
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  Speaker 1: During this time, Jeremiah began delivering his first divine messages
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  Speaker 1: to the people. The prophet's early messages warned of Israel's unfaithfulness.
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  Speaker 1: In chapter two, verses two and three of his book,
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  Speaker 1: he proclaimed, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: this is what the Lord says. I remember the devotion
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  Speaker 1: of your youth. How as a bride you loved me
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  Speaker 1: and followed me through the wilderness through a lafe, and
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  Speaker 1: not sown. Israel was wholly to the Lord the first
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  Speaker 1: fruits of his harvest. Through Jeremiah, God was reminding the
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  Speaker 1: people of the early days of the nation when they
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  Speaker 1: had faithfully followed him. But soon came the accusation. In
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  Speaker 1: verse five of the same chapter, Jeremiah asks, what fault
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  Speaker 1: did your ancestors find in me that they strayed so
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  Speaker 1: far from me. They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.
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  Speaker 1: And he continues in verses eleven to thirteen. Has a
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  Speaker 1: nation ever changed its gods? Yet they are not gods
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  Speaker 1: at all, But my people have exchanged their glorious God
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  Speaker 1: for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you, heavens, and
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  Speaker 1: shudder with great horror, declares the Lord. My people have
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  Speaker 1: committed two sins. They have forsaken me the spring of
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  Speaker 1: living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns
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  Speaker 1: that cannot hold water. With these strong words, Jeremiah denounced
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  Speaker 1: the nation's idolatry. He also spoke out against the social
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  Speaker 1: injustices that prevailed in Judah. In Chapter seven, verses five
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  Speaker 1: to seven, Jeremiah conveys God's message. If you really change
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  Speaker 1: your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,
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  Speaker 1: if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, or
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  Speaker 1: the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place,
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  Speaker 1: and if you do not follow other gods to your
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  Speaker 1: own harm, then I will let you live in this
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  Speaker 1: place in the land I gave your ancestors forever and ever.
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  Speaker 1: His sermons took place in the Temple itself rite in Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: where people came to worship, and also in the city's
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  Speaker 1: public squares. However, not everyone welcomed his message. In Chapter eleven,
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  Speaker 1: verses twenty one to twenty three, we see that even
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  Speaker 1: in Anathoth, his hometown, Jeremiah faced rejection. Therefore, this is
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  Speaker 1: what the Lord says about the people of Annas, who
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  Speaker 1: are threatening to kill you, saying, do not prophesy in
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  Speaker 1: the name of the Lord, or you will die by
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  Speaker 1: our hands. Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty says.
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  Speaker 1: I will punish them. Their young men will die by
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  Speaker 1: the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. Not even
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  Speaker 1: a remnant will be left to them, because I will
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  Speaker 1: bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year
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  Speaker 1: of their punishment. Jeremiah's message was harsh but necessary. While
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  Speaker 1: King Josiah tried to reform the nation's religion, many people
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  Speaker 1: clung to their idols and unjust practices. The prophet made
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  Speaker 1: it clear that it wasn't enough to reform outward rituals.
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  Speaker 1: What was needed was a true change of heart. During
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  Speaker 1: his ministry, Jeremiah didn't only face resistance from the people
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  Speaker 1: and political leaders. He also had to confront the false
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  Speaker 1: prophets who deceived the nation with message of peace when
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  Speaker 1: there was no peace. In Chapter fourteen, verses thirteen to sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: Jeremiah mentions these false prophets to God. But I said, Alas,
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  Speaker 1: Sovereign Lord, the prophets keep telling them, you will not
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  Speaker 1: see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give
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  Speaker 1: you lasting peace in this place. Then the Lord said
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  Speaker 1: to me, the prophets are prophesying lies in my name.
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  Speaker 1: I have not sent them, or appointed them, or spoken
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  Speaker 1: to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries,
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  Speaker 1: and the delusions of their own minds. Therefore, this is
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  Speaker 1: what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying
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  Speaker 1: in my name. I did not send them. Yet they
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  Speaker 1: are saying no sword or famine will touch this land.
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  Speaker 1: Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine, and
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  Speaker 1: the people they are prophesying two will be thrown out
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  Speaker 1: into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword.
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  Speaker 1: There will be no one to bury them, their wives,
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  Speaker 1: their sons, and their daughters, I will pour out on
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  Speaker 1: them the calamity they deserve. In chapter twenty three, Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: continues his denunciation of the false prophets. In verses sixteen
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  Speaker 1: and seventeen, he warns, this is what the Lord Almighty says.
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  Speaker 1: Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you.
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  Speaker 1: They fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from
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  Speaker 1: their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: They keep saying to those who despise me, the Lord says,
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  Speaker 1: you will have peace. And to all who follow the
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  Speaker 1: stubbornness of their hearts, they say, no harm will come
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  Speaker 1: to you. These false prophets spoke in their own name,
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  Speaker 1: not in gods. They brought messages that please the people,
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  Speaker 1: rather than the divine truth that could lead them to repentance.
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  Speaker 1: In chapter twenty three, verse fourteen, Jeremiah dates, and among
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  Speaker 1: the prophets of Jerusalem, I have seen something horrible. They
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  Speaker 1: commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands
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  Speaker 1: of evil doers so that no one turns from their wickedness.
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  Speaker 1: The expression they strengthen the hands of evildoers shows how
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  Speaker 1: these false messengers gave support to those doing wrong, preventing
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  Speaker 1: them from repenting. Instead of confronting sin, they tolerated and
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  Speaker 1: even encouraged it with their smooth words. For Jeremiah, this
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  Speaker 1: was a heavy burden to bear. He was practically alone
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  Speaker 1: in proclaiming the coming divine judgment, while many popular prophets
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  Speaker 1: preached prosperity and safety. In Chapter twenty, verse eight, he vents,
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  Speaker 1: whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction.
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  Speaker 1: So the word of the Lord has brought me insult
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  Speaker 1: and reproach all day long. The prophet knew these false
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  Speaker 1: messages were leading the people to disaster. In Chapter twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: verses twenty one and twenty two, he relays God's words
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  Speaker 1: about these false prophets. I did not send these prophets,
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  Speaker 1: yet they have run with their message. I did not
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  Speaker 1: speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they
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  Speaker 1: had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my
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  Speaker 1: words to my people, and would have turned them from
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  Speaker 1: their evil ways and from their evil deeds. Jeremiah's battle
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  Speaker 1: against the false prophets was a crucial part of his mission.
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  Speaker 1: Deceptive messages had to be exposed so that the people
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  Speaker 1: could hear the truth and have a chance to repent
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  Speaker 1: before it was too late. After King Josiah's death in
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  Speaker 1: six o nine BC, Judah's political landscape changed drastically. Judsiah
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  Speaker 1: was killed in battle against Pharaoh Niko of Egypt at Megido.
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  Speaker 1: The people of Judah placed Josiah's son, jehoah Has on
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  Speaker 1: the throne, but he reigned only three months before being
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  Speaker 1: deposed by the pharaoh, who installed another of Josiah's sons, Eliakim,
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  Speaker 1: changing his name to Jehoiakim. This new king was very
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  Speaker 1: different from his father. While Josiah had been a religious reformer,
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  Speaker 1: Jehoiakim was greedy and oppressive. It was during his reign
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  Speaker 1: that Jeremiah faced some of his greatest challenges. One of
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  Speaker 1: the most notable events from this period was the famous
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  Speaker 1: Temple sermon, which nearly cost Jeremiah his life. In Chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty six, verses one to two, we read, early in
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  Speaker 1: the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, King of Judah,
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  Speaker 1: this word came from the Lord. Stand in the courtyard
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord's house and speak to all the people
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  Speaker 1: of the towns of Judah who come to worship in
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  Speaker 1: the house of the Lord. Tell them everything I command,
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  Speaker 1: you do not omit a word. Jeremiah obeyed and went
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  Speaker 1: to the temp to deliver the harsh message. In verses
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  Speaker 1: four to six, he declared, thus says the Lord. If
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  Speaker 1: you do not listen to me and follow my law
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  Speaker 1: which I have set before you, and if you do
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  Speaker 1: not hear the words of my servants, the prophets, whom
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  Speaker 1: I have sent to you again and again, though you
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  Speaker 1: have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh,
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  Speaker 1: and I will make this city a curse to all
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  Speaker 1: the nations of the earth. This was a bold and
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  Speaker 1: controversial statement. Jeremiah was saying that the temple in Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: the center of worship and national pride, would be destroyed,
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  Speaker 1: just like the former sanctuary at Shiloh. The reaction was
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  Speaker 1: immediate and violent, as we see in verses seven and eight.
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  Speaker 1: The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: speaking these words in the house of the Lord. As
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  Speaker 1: soon as Jeremiah finished saying everything the Lord had commanded
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  Speaker 1: him to say to all the people, the priests, the prophets,
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  Speaker 1: and all the people seized him and said, you shall
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  Speaker 1: surely die. Jeremiah narrowly escaped death that day, some of
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  Speaker 1: the elders of the land remembered that a century earlier,
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  Speaker 1: the prophet Micah had made a similar prophecy during the
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  Speaker 1: reign of Hezekiah and had not been condemned to death. Furthermore,
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  Speaker 1: a man named Ahikam, son of Schaffen, stood by Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: and did not allow him to be killed during the
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  Speaker 1: reign of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah also denounced social injustices and the
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  Speaker 1: oppression carried out by the king himself. In Chapter twenty two,
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  Speaker 1: verses thirteen to seventeen, the prophet condemned the monarch's behavior.
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  Speaker 1: Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his
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  Speaker 1: upper rooms by injustice, making his neighbor work for nothing,
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  Speaker 1: not paying them for their labor. He says, I will
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  Speaker 1: build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms. So
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  Speaker 1: he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar,
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  Speaker 1: and paints it with vermilion. Does it make you a
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  Speaker 1: king to have more and more cedar? Did not your
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  Speaker 1: father eat and a drink and do what was just
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  Speaker 1: and right? Then it went well with him. He defended
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  Speaker 1: the cause of the poor and needy, and so all
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  Speaker 1: went well is that not what it means to know me,
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  Speaker 1: declares the Lord. But your eyes and your heart are
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  Speaker 1: set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, and
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  Speaker 1: on oppression and extortion. It was also during this period
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  Speaker 1: that Jeremiah first recorded his prophecies in writing. In Chapter
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  Speaker 1: thirty six, verses one and two, we read, in the
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  Speaker 1: fourth year of Jehoyakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah,
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  Speaker 1: this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Take a
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  Speaker 1: scroll and write on it all the words I have
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  Speaker 1: spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations,
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  Speaker 1: from the time I began speaking to you in the
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  Speaker 1: day of Josiah until now. Since Jeremiah was banned from
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  Speaker 1: entering the temple, he asked his scribe Barruh for help.
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  Speaker 1: In verses four and five, it says so Jeremiah called Baruk,
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  Speaker 1: son of Neariah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words
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  Speaker 1: the Lord had spoken to him, Baruk wrote them on
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  Speaker 1: the scroll. Then Jeremiah told Baruk, I am restricted. I
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  Speaker 1: am not allowed to go to the house of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Baruk read Jeremiah's words in the temple, and soon the
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  Speaker 1: message reached the ears of the officials and eventually the
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  Speaker 1: king himself. The king's reaction demonstrated his utter contempt for
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  Speaker 1: God's word. In verse twenty three, we read, whenever Jehudi
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  Speaker 1: had read three or four columns of the scroll, the
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  Speaker 1: king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw
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  Speaker 1: them into the fire in the brazier until the entire
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  Speaker 1: scroll was burned. After this defiant act, the king ordered
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  Speaker 1: the arrest of Jeremiah and Baruk, but they managed to hide.
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  Speaker 1: Verse twenty six says and the king commanded Jeremil's son
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  Speaker 1: of the King, Seriah son of Azriel, and Shalemiah son
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  Speaker 1: of Abdil, to arrest Baruk the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet,
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  Speaker 1: but the Lord had hidden them. God then instructed Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: to rewrite everything. In Verses twenty seven and twenty eight
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  Speaker 1: we read, after the king burned the scroll containing the
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  Speaker 1: words that Baruk had written at Jeremiah's dictation, the word
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord came to Jeremiah, take another scroll and
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  Speaker 1: write on it all the words that were on the
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  Speaker 1: first scroll, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned up Jeremiah's
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  Speaker 1: ministry during the reign of Jehoiakim was a time of
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  Speaker 1: great persecution, but also one of unwavering faithfulness to the
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  Speaker 1: message God had entrusted to him. Even in the face
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  Speaker 1: of the king's wrath and the threat of death, the
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  Speaker 1: prophet remained faithful in proclaim the words of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: One of the most striking features of Jeremiah's ministry was
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  Speaker 1: his use of symbolic actions to communicate God's message. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't just speak, he used dramatizations and visual symbols to
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  Speaker 1: powerfully convey divine truths. One such symbolic act was the
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  Speaker 1: visit to the Potter's house. In Chapter eighteen, verses one
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  Speaker 1: to six, we read, this is the word that came
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  Speaker 1: to Jeremiah from the Lord. Go down to the potter's house,
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  Speaker 1: and there I will give you my message. So I
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  Speaker 1: went down to the potter's house, and I saw him
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  Speaker 1: working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping
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  Speaker 1: from the clay was marred in his hands. So the
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  Speaker 1: potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed
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  Speaker 1: best to him. Then the word of the Lord came
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  Speaker 1: to me. Can I not do with you house of Israel,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: as this potter does? Declares the Lord like clay in
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the hand of the potter, so are you in my
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: hand House of Israel. In this episode, God used the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: image of the potter and the clay to illustrate his
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: sovereign power over nations. Just as the potter could shape
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: and reshape the clay as he pleased, so could God
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: do with Israel or any nation. Another symbolic act was
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the episode of the ruined belt. In Chapter thirteen, verses
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: one to eleven, God instructs Jeremiah, this is what the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Lord said to me, Go and buy a linen belt
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: and put it around your waist, but do not let
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: it touch water. So I bought a belt as the
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Lord directed, and put it around my waist. Later God
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: commanded Jeremiah to hide the belt in a crevice in
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: the rocks near the Euphrates River. After many days, God
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: told him to retrieve it. In verse seven, we read
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: after many days, the Lord said to me, go now
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: to the Euphrates and get the belt I told you
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: to hide there. So I went to the Euphrates and
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: dug up the belt and took it from the place
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: where I had hidden it. But now it was ruined
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: and completely useless. So God explained the meaning of this
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: action in verses nine to eleven, this is what the
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Lord says, in the same way, I will ruin the
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. These
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: wicked people who refuse to listen to my words, who
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: completely useless. For as a belt is bound around the waist,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: so I bound all the people of Israel and all
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the people of Judah to me, declares the Lord to
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: be my people for my renown and praise and honor.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: But they have not listened. The ruined belt symbolized how Judah,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: which was meant to be closely tied to God as
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: a belt is to a man's waist, had become corrupted
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and useless because of its disobedience. A third symbolic act
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: took place when Jeremiah shattered a clay jar in front
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: of the elders in Chapter nineteen, verses one and two.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: God commands, this is what the Lord says, Go and
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: of the elders of the people and of the priests,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: and go out to the valley of ben Hinham, near
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I tell you. After proclaiming God's message in that place,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah made a dramatic gesture in verses ten and eleven,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: we read, then break the jar while those who go
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: with you are watching, and say to them, this is
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: what the Lord Almighty says. I will smash this nation
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: and this city, just as this potter's jar is smashed
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and cannot be repaired. These symbolic actions had a powerful
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: impact on those who witnessed them. They communicated a message
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: that went beyond words, making the warning more vivid and
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: unforgettable for a people who often refuse to hear the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: prophet's words. These dramatizations served as visual warnings of the
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: judgment to come. As Jeremiah continued his ministry, the international
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: political landscape was shifting rapidly. Assyria, long the dominant power
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: in the region, was weakening. In its place, the Babylonian
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Empire was rising under the leadership of Nebecud Nezza. God
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: revealed to Jeremiah that Babylon would be the instrument used
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: to punish Judah for its rebellion. In Chapter twenty five,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: verses eight to eleven, Jeremiah proclaims, Therefore, the Lord Almighty
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: says this, because you have not listened to my words,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: I will summon all the peoples of the north, and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: my servant, nebecud Nezzar, king of Babylon, declares the Lord,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: them and make them an object of horror and scorn
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: the sound of millstones, and the light of the lamp.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: nations will serve the King of Babylon seventy years. This
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: was a striking prophecy. Jeremiah not only announced that Judah
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: would be conquered by Babylon, but he also specified the
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: exact length of the exile seventy years. Moreover, he referred
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: to Nebucadnezzar as my servant, showing that the Babylonian king
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: even unknowingly was acting as God's instrument to carry out
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: his judgment. As the Babylonian threat loomed, Jeremiah began advising
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: something that seemed unthinkable, surrender. In Chapter twenty seven, verses
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: twelve and thirteen, he says to King Zedekiah, I gave
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the same message to Zedekiah, king of Judah, I said,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: bow your neck under the yoke of the King of Babylon.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Serve him and his people, and you will live. Why
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: will you and your people die by the sword, famine,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: and plague with which the Lord has threatened any nation
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: that will not serve the King of Babylon. This council
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: was extremely unpopular and controversial to many. It sounded like treason.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: In chapter thirty eight, verses four and five, we see
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: how the princes reacted to this message. Then the officials
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: said to the King, this man should be put to
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: a death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: in this city, as well as all the people by
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the things he is saying to them. This man is
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: not seeking the good of these people, but their ruin.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: He is in your hands. King Zedekiah answered, the King
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: can do nothing to oppose you. These accusations of treason
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: were painful for Jeremiah, who deeply loved his nation. In
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, verses sixteen and seventeen, he had expressed, I
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: have not run away from being your shepherd. You know
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I have not desired the day of despair. What passes
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: my lips is open before you. Do not be a
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: terror to me. You are my refuge in the day
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: of disaster. Jeremiah's message wasn't driven by betrayal, but by
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: love for his people. He knew that resistance would be
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: futile and would only lead to greater suffering. Surrender, though painful,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: would spare more lives. In Chapter twenty one, verses eight
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: to ten, he delivers God's word to the people. Furthermore,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: tell the people, this is what the Lord says. See.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I am setting before you the way of life and
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the way of death. Whoever stays in this city will
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: die by the zored famine or plague. But whoever goes
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: will live. They will escape with their lives. I have
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: determined to do this city harm and not good, declares
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the Lord. It will be given into the hands of
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: the King of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Despite all of Jeremiah's warnings, Judah's leaders continued to trust
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: in political alliances with Egypt and other nations. Instead of
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: turning to God, they kept rejecting the Lord's word through
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: his prophet, walking straight into the disaster Jeremiah had foretold.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Throughout his ministry, Jeremiah experienced moments of deep anguish and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: inner conflict. In several passages known as Jeremiah's Confessions, the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: prophet pours out his heart to God, expressing his most
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: intimate thoughts, doubts, and questions. In Chapter twelve, verse one,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: he begins one such lament, You are always righteous, Lord
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: when I bring a case before you, Yet I would
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: speak with you about your justice. Why does the way
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: at ease? This was a difficult question. Like many of us,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah struggled to understand why the wicked seemed to prosper
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: while the faithful suffered. He saw the injustice around him
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: and questioned God's ways. In another of his confessions, in
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: chapter fifteen, verses fifteen to eighteen, Jeremiah expresses his sense
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: of suffering because of God's word. You understand, O Lord,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Remember me and take care of me. Avenge me on
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: my persecutors. Do not take me away because of your patience.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Know that for your sake I bear reproach. When your
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: words came, I hate them. They were my joy and
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: my heart's delight. For I bear your name, O, Lord,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: God of hosts. I never sat in the company of revelers,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: never made merry with them. I sat alone because your
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: hand was on me, and you had filled me with indignation.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Why is my pain unending and my wound incurable, refusing
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: to be healed? Will you be to me like a
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: deceptive brook, like a spring that fails. In this touching passage,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: we see Jeremiah's inner struggle. On one hand, he loved
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: God's word, which was a source of joy and delight
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: to his heart. On the other hand, his calling isolated him,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: making him sit alone. He even questioned whether God was
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: like a deceptive brook, a stream that dries up just
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: when you need it most. God responds to this confession
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: with a call for Jeremiah to repent of his lack
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: of trust. In chapter fifteen, verses nineteen and twenty we
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: read Therefore, this is what the Lord says. If you repent,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I will restore you that you may serve me. If
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: you utter word worthy not worthless words, you will be
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: must not turn to them. I will make you a
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze. They
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: will fight against you, but will not overcome you, for
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I am with you to rescue and save you, declares
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: the Lord. Perhaps Jeremiah's most anguished confession is found in
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: chapter twenty, after he had been placed in the stocks
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: by the priest Pasher. In verses seven to nine, he
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: pours out his soul. You deceived me, Lord, and I
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: was deceived. You overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: all day long. Every one mocks me. Whenever I speak,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: I cry out, proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: day long. But if I say, I will not mention
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: him or speak any more in his name. His word
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in. Indeed,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I cannot. This is one of the most intimate and
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: human moments in Jeremiah's life. He even says he was
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: deceived or enticed by God, that the divine message only
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: brought him mockery and pain. For a moment, he considers
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: giving up, I will not mention him or speak any
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: more in his name, But then he acknowledges that he
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: cannot abandon his calling. God's word was like a fire
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: in his bones, impossible to contain. Jeremiah's anguish reaches its
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: peak in verses fourteen to eighteen of the same chapter.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Cursed be the day I was born. May the day
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: my mother bore me not be blest. Cursed be the
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: man who brought my father the news, who made him
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: very glad, saying a child is born to you a son.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: battle cry at noon? Why did I ever come out
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: end my days in shame? These words reveal the depth
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: of Jeremiah's suffering. He cursed the day of his birth,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: wishing he had never come into the world to face
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: such hardship. Yet even in the midst of these crises,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah never abandoned his mission. Despite all his inner turmoil,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: he remained faithful to his calling. In Chapter twenty, verse eleven,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: amid his outpouring of grief, he reaffirms his trust in God.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: So my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: fail and be thoroughly disgraced. Their dishonor will never be forgotten.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah's confessions reveal a real man with fears and doubts,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: just like us. But they also show someone who, despite
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: all his questioning, maintained his faith in God and can
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: continued his mission even when that meant facing rejection, persecution,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: and suffering. The downfall of Judah didn't happen all at once.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: It was like a storm that came in three waves,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: each stronger than the last. It all began when Babylon
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: rose as the dominant power in the region under King
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: nebicud Nezar. The first wave struck Judah in six O
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: five b C. That year, nebicud Neza defeated Egypt in
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the major battle of Carchemish. In the Book of Daniel,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Chapter one, verses one and two, we read what happened next.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, King
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: of Judah, nebucud Neza, King of Babylon, came to Jerusalem
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: and besieged it, and the Lord delivered Jehoiakim, King of
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: from the Temple of God. These he carried off to
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the temple of His God in Babylonia and put in
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: the treasure house of his God. This was the first deportation.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Among the young men taken in this first wave was Daniel,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: who would later become a great prophet in the Babylonian court.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: In Daniel one three, we read that the king ordered
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Ashpana's chief of his officials to bring into the King's
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: service some of the Israelites from the royal family and
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: the nobility. These young men were selected to serve in
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: the king's palace after receiving a Babylonian education. King Jehoiakim
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: of Judah, who had been subdued, eventually rebelled against Babylon.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: In Second Kings twenty four to one, we read during
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Jehoiakim's reign. Nebukud Nezar, king of Babylon, invaded the land
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, but then
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: he turned and rebelled against him. This rebellion would have
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: serious consequences for Judah. The second wave of deportation came
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: in five ninety seven b c. Nebucadnza returned to punish
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Jehoiakim's rebellion, but when the Babylonians arrived, they found a
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: new king on the throne, Jehoiakin, son of Jehoiakim. In
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Zegas King's twenty four ten twelve we read at that
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: time the officers of Nebukanza, king of Babylon, advanced on
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem and laid siege to it, and Nebukanesa himself came
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: up to the city while his officers were besieging it. Jehoiakin,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: King of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles, and
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: his officials all surrendered to him. In the eighth year
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: of the reign of the King of Babylon, he took
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Jehoyakin prisoner. This second deportation was much larger than the first.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: The Biblical text gives us details about who was taken
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: in verses fourteen to sixteen of the same chapter. He
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: carried all Jerusalem into exile, all the officers and five
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: fighting men, and all the skilled workers and artisans, a
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: total of ten thousand. Only the poorest people of the
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: land were left. He took Jehoyakin captive to Babylon, along
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: with the kings mother, his wives, his officials, and the
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: prominent people of the land. The King of Babylon also
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: deported to Babylon the entire force of seven thousand fighting men,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: a thousand skilled workers and artisans, all strong and fit
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: for war. Among those deported in this second wave was
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: a young priest named Ezekiel, who would later become a
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: major prophet during the exile. In Ezekiel one one, he
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: describes his situation in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: by the Kibar River, the heavens were opened and I
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: saw visions of God. After the second deportation, Nebuchadnezza installed
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: a new vassal king on the throne of Judah Zedekiah,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: the uncle of King Jehoiakin. In second Kings twenty four seventeen,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: we read the king of Babylon made Matteranaiah Jehoiakin's uncle
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: During this period, Jeremiah intensified his warnings about the complete
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: destruction that would come if the people did not repent.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: In Chapter twenty four of the Book of Jeremiah, using
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: the image of two baskets of figs, one with good
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: figs and the other with bad, he explained that those
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: who had already been taken to Babylon, represented by the
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: good figs, would be preserved, while those who remained in
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem with King Zedekiah the bad figs, would face a
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: terrible fate. In verses eight to ten of that chapter,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah delivers the word of the Lord. But like the
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: says the e Lord. So will I deal with zi Eddekiah,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: King of Judah, his officials, and the survivors from Jerusalem,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a by word,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: a curse and an object of ridicule. Wherever I banish them,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: I will send the sword, famine and plague against them
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: until they are destroyed from the land I gave to
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: them and their ancestors. Despite these stern warnings and the
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: two deportations that had already taken place, the people who
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: remained in Judah under Zedekiah's rule continued practicing idolatry and
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: social injustice. In Jeremiah chapter thirty four, we see a
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: clear example. During the Babylonian siege, the leaders of Judah
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: made a covenant to free their Hebrew slaves in obedience
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: to the law of Moses, but as soon as the
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: danger seemed to pass, they went back on their word
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and re enslaved those they had freed. In verses fifteen
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: to seventeen of this chapter, Jeremiah condemns this hypocrisy. Recently
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: you repented and did what is right in my sight.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: even made a covenant before me in the house that
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: bears my name. But now you have turned around and
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: profaned my name. Each of you has taken back the
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: male and female slaves you had set free to go
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: where they wished. You have forced them to become your
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: slaves again. Therefore, this is what the Lord says. You
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: have not obeyed me. You have not proclaimed freedom to
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: your own people. So I now proclaim freedom for you,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: declares the Lord freedom to fall by the sword plague
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: kingdoms of the earth. This persistence in idolatry and injustice,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: even after the first two deportations, led to the third
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: and most devastating wave of the Babylonian Storm, the complete
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the final deportation
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: of most of the survivors. In five eighty six b c.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: Zedekiah was in a difficult position as a vassal king.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: He had sworn loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, but around him,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: advisers and princes pushed for independence, suggesting alliances with Egypt
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: and other nations to free themselves from Babylonian rule. In
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: Ezekiel seventeen twelve fifteen, God explains through the prophet, who
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: was already in exile, what was happening in Jerusalem. Say
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: to this rebellious people, do you not know what these
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: things mean? Say to them. The King of Babylon went
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: to Jerusalem, carried off her king and nobles, bringing them
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: back with him to Babylon. Then he took a member
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: of the royal family and made a treaty with him,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: putting him under oath. He so carried away the leading
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: men of the land, so that the kingdom would be
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: brought low, unable to rise again, surviving only by keeping
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: his treaty. But the king rebelled against him by sending
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: his envoys to Egypt to get horses and a large army.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape?
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Will he break the treaty and yet escape? Jeremiah himself
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: warned Zedekiah of the danger of rebelling against Babylon in
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven, verses twelve to fifteen. He says to
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: the king, I gave the same message to Zedekiah, king
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: of Judah. I said, bow your neck under the yoke
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: of the King of Babylon. Serve him and his people,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: and you will live. Why will you and your people
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: die by the sword, famine, and plague, as the Lord
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: has decreed for any nation that will not serve the
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: King of Babylon, do not listen to the words of
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the prophets who say unto you, you will not serve
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the King of Babylon, For they are prophesying lies to you.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: I have not sent them, declares the Lord. They are
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: prophesying lies in my name. Therefore I will banish you,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: and you will perish both you and the prophets who
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: prophesy to you. But Zedekiah did not listen. He chose
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: to trust in Egypt's promises and rebelled against Nebucadnza, a
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: decision that sealed Jerusalem's fate. In Second Kings twenty four
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: twenty we read it was because of the Lord's anger
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the end he thrust them from his presence. Now Zedekiah
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: rebelled against the King of Babylon. Nebucadnesar's response was swift
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: and severe. In Sex Kings twenty five one perd two,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: it says so in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebucadnezar, king
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: of Babylon, marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: encamped outside the city and built siege works around it.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: of King Zedekiah. This siege began in January of five
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: eighty eight BC and would last for eighteen long months.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: During this time, the suffering of the population was extreme. Jeremiah,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: who lived in the besieged city, witnessed this suffering and
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: recorded it. In chapter thirty seven, verse twenty one, we
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: read that even bread began to run out, so King
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: each day from the street of the bakers, until all
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: the bread inn the city was gone. The situation worsened
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: as the siege dragged on. Later in the Book of Lamentations,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah would describe the terrible famine that descended upon Jerusalem.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: In Chapter four, verses nine to ten, he wrote, those
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: killed by the sword are better off than those who
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: die of hunger. Racked with hunger, they waste away for
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: lack of food from the field with their own hands.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: When my people were destroyed during the siege, Jeremiah's position
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: was extremely unpopular. He kept insisting that the city would
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: fall and urged surrender. In Chapter twenty one, verses eight
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: to ten, he delivered this message from the Lord to
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: the people. Furthermore, tell the people, this is what the
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Lord says. See. I am setting before you the way
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: of life and the way of death. Whoever stays in
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: this city will die by the sword, famine or plague.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: are besieging you will live. They will escape with their lives.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: I have determined to do this city harm and not good,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: declares the Lord. It will be given into the hands
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: of the King of Babylon, and he will destroy it
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: with fire. This message caused many to view Jeremiah as
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: a traitor. In chapter thirty eight, verses one to four,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: we read the reaction of the officials. Shepatia son of Matan,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: Gadalia son of Pasha, Jehucal son of Sleemiah, and Pasha
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: son of Malkija heard what Jeremiah was telling all the
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: people when he said, Di, this is what the Lord says.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Famine or plague. But whoever goes over to the Babylonians
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: will live. They will escape with their lives. They will live.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: And this is what the Lord says. This city will
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: certainly be given into the hands of the army of
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: the King of Babylon, who will capture it. Then the
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: officials said to the King, this man should be put
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: in this city, as well as all the people by
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: the things he is saying to them. This man is
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: not seeking the good of these people, but their ruin.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: King Zedekiah, weak and indecisive, handed Jeremiah over to these
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: hostile officials. In verse five. He says, he is in
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: your hands. King Zedekiah answered, the King can do nothing
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: to oppose you. So the officials took Jeremiah and threw
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: him into the cistern of Malkja, as we read in
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: verse six. So they took Jeremiah and put him into
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: the cistern of Malchija, the King's son, which was in
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: the courtyard of the God. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: into the cistern. It had no water in it, only mud,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: and Jeremiah sank down into the mud. At this desperate moment,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: as the prophet sank into the mud and was likely
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: to die there, God provided help through a foreigner. In
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Verses seven to thirteen, we read about a bed Melik,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: an Ethiopian eunuch in the king house, who pleaded for
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah's life. But ebed Melik, a Kushite, an official in
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin gate.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Ebed Melik went out of the palace and said to him,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: my lord, the King, these men have acted wickedly in
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: all they have done to Jeremiah the Prophet. They have
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: death when there is no longer any bread in the city.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Then the king commanded ebed Melik, the Kushite, take thirty
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the Prophet
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: out of the cistern before he dies. So Ibid Melik
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: took the men with him and went to a room
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: under the treasury in the palace. He took some old
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: rags and worn out clothes from there and let them
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. Ibid Melik,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: the Kushite said to Jeremiah, put these old rags and
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: worn out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah did so, and they pulled him up with the
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: remained in the courtyard of the guard. So even during
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the terrible siege of the city, God continued to protect
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: his profit, preparing him to witness and record the events
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: yet to come, the final fall of Jerusalem. After eighteen
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: months of siege, the situation inside Jerusalem had become desperate.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: The famine had grown so severe that people were dying
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: in the streets. The city's defenders were weak and sick. Finally,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: in July of five eighty six BC, Jerusalem's defenses collapsed.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: In Second Kings twenty five, Verses three and four, we
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: rid by the ninth day of the fourth month, the
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: famine in the city had become so severe that there
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: was no food for the people to eat. Then the
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: at night through the gate between the two walls near
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the king Garden. Though the Babylonians were surrounding the city.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: They fled toward the Araba. Zedekiah and his soldiers tried
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: to escape at night through the Kidron Valley toward the
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: plains of the Jordan, but the Babylonians caught up with them,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: as recorded in verses five and six. But the Babylonian
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: and he was captured. He was taken to the King
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: of Babylon at Ribla, where sentence was pronounced on him.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: Nebuchadnezzar's punishment of Zedekiah was horrific. In Ribla, in northern Syria,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: where the King of Babylon had set up his military
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: headquarters for the campaign, Zedekiah faced judgment. In verse seven,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: we read they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: and took him to Babylon. This brutal scene fulfilled two
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: seemingly contradictory prophecies. Jeremiah had prophesied in Chapter thirty four,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: verse three that Zedekiah would see the eyes of the
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: King of Babylon. You will not escape from his grasp,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: but will surely be captured and given into his hands.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: You will see the King of Babylon with your own eyes,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: and he will speak with you face to face, and
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: you will go to Babylon. Meanwhile, Ezekiel, in chapter twelve,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: verse thirteen, had said, I will spread my net for him,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: and he will be caught in my snare. I will
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, but
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: he will not see it, and there he will die.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: How could both prophecies be correct? The answer lay in
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: the sequence of events. Zedekiah saw the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: in Ribler, and then had his own eyes gouged out.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Thus he was taken to Babylon, where he died without
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: ever seeing the city. After the king's capture, the Babylonians
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: turned their attention to Jerusalem. A month later, Nebuzaradan, the
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: commander of nebukat Nez's royal guard, arrived to complete the
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: city's destruction. In Zegs King's chapter twenty five, verses eight
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: to ten, we read on the seventh day of the
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: fifth month. This was the nineteenth year of Nebiconeza, King
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: of Babylon. Nebuzaradan, commander of the Imperial God and official
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: of the King of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: fire to the Temple of the Lord, the Royal Palace,
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building. He
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: burned down. The whole Babylonian army under the commander of
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: the God, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. This was
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: a moment of immense historical and theological significance for the
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: Jewish people. Solomon's Temple, the center of worship to God,
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: which had stood in Jerusalem for about three hundred and
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: seventy years, was destroyed. The exact date was the ninth
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: day of the month of Ave in the Jewish calender,
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: a day that would become a symbol of national tragedy
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: and would be commemorated with fasting and mourning by all
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: future generations. The Book of Second Chronicles, Chapter thirty six,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: verses seventeen to nineteen provides further details on the destruction
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: he brought up against them. The king of the Babylonians,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: and did not spare young men or young women, the
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into his hand.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: He carried to Babylon all the articles from the Temple
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: of God, both large and small, and the treasures of
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: the Lord's temple and of the king and his officials.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: They set fire to God's Temple and broke down the
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: wall of Jerusalem. They burned all the palaces and destroyed
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: everything of value. There After the temple and palaces were destroyed,
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: Nebuzaradan took the majority of the remaining survivors into exile.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: In Seca Kings twenty five eleven twelve, we read Nebuzaradan,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: commander of the guard, carried into exile the people who
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: remained in the city, along with the deserters who had
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: gone over to the King of Babylon and the rest
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: of the population. But the commander left behind some of
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: and fields. The Babylonians also took whatever sacred treasures remained
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: in the temple. Verses thirteen to seventeen list these items
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: in detail. The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars the
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: movable stands and the bronze sea that were in the
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Temple of the Lord, and they carried the bronze to Babylon.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes,
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: and all the bronze articles used in the temple. Ceervis,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: the commander of the guard, took away the censers and
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: sprinkling bowls, everything made of gold or silver, the two pillars,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: the sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: the Temple of the Lord. The bronze of all these
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: articles was beyond weight. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: The bronze capital on top of one pillar was three
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: cubits high and was decorated with the network and pomegranates
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: was similar. And so in five hundred eighty six BCE,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Judah came to an end after nearly
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty years of existence since the division
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: of the monarchy following Solomon's death. The city of David
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: lay in ruins, the temple was destroyed, and most of
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: the people had been taken into exile in Babylon. It
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: was the fulfillment of the prophecies that Jeremiah had proclaimed
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: for so long often met with mockery and persecution. Now
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: the prophet remained among the ruins, witnessing and mourning the
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: devastation of the beloved city. While most of Jerusalem's survivors
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: were led away in chains to Babylon. Jeremiah met a
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: different fate. The Babylonians, knowing he had consistently advised surrender,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: treated him with respect. In Jeremiah thirty nine eleven fourteen,
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: we read now Nebucad Nezar, king of Babylon, had given
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, commander of the God.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: Take him and look after him. Don't harm him, but
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: do for him whatever he asks. So Nebuzaradan, the commander
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: of the God, and Nebushazban, the chief officer, Nurgal Shariza,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: a high official, and all the other officers of the
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: King of Babylon, sent and had Jeremiah taken out of
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: the courtyard of the God. They turned him over to Gadaliah,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: son of Ahikam, the son of shaffar Ah, to take
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: him back to his home. So he remained among his
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: own people. This release is described in more detail in
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: chapter forty, where Nebuzaradan explains to Jeremiah why Jerusalem had
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: been destroyed. In verses two to four, the Babylonian commander says,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: when the commander of the God found Jeremiah, he said
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: to him, the Lord, your God decreed this disaster for
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: this place, and now the Lord has brought it about.
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: He has done just as he said he would. All
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: did not obey him. But to day I am freeing
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: you from the chains on your wrists. If you come
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: with me to Babylon, I will look after you. But
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: if you do not want to, then don't come. Look
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: the whole country is before you go wherever you please.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah had the option to go to Babylon or remain
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: in the land. He chose to stay in Judah under
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: the protection of Gadalia, who had been appointed governor by
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: the Babylonians. In verses five and six, we read before
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah turned to go, Neibuzurud and added, go back to Gedaliah,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: son of Ahikam, the son of Shaffen, whom the king
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: of Babylon has appointed over the towns of Judah, and
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: live with him among the people, or go anywhere else
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: you please. Then the commander gave him provisions and a present,
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: and let him go. So Jeremiah went to Gedalia, son
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: of Ahikam, and mispah Han stayed with him among the
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: people who were left behind in the land. And so
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah remained in the devastated land of Judah. The prophet,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: who had spent decades warning of the destruction to come,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: now walked among the ruins, witnessing with his own eyes
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: the fulfillment of his prophecies. It must have been a
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: profoundly painful experience. The Book of Lamentations gives us a
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: glimpse into how Jeremiah felt as he looked upon the
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: ruined city. In Chapter one, verses one and two, he writes,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: how lonely sits the city that was once full of people.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: She who was great among the nations, has become like
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: a widow. She who was a princess among the provinces,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: has become a slave. She weeps bitterly in the night,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers,
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: she has no one to comfort her. All her friends
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: have betrayed her. They have become her enemies. The scene
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah witnessed was one of complete desolation. Where once stood
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: a magnificent temple, now only fire scorched stones remained. Where
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: there had been palaces and homes, there were now piles
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: of rubble. The streets, once bustling with life, were now deserted,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: save for a few poor people left behind by the Babylonians.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: In Chapter two, in verses five to eight, Jeremiah describes
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: the extent of the destruction. The Lord has become like
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: multiplied mourning and lamentation in the Soux, daughter of Judah.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: He has violently torn down his dwelling like a garden booth.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: He has destroyed his place of meeting. The Lord has
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: made Zion forget her appointed festivals and sabbaths. In the
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: heat of his anger, he has spurned both king and priest.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: He has given the walls of her palaces into the
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: hand of the enemy. They have raised a shout in
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: the house of the Lord. As on a day of festival,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: the Lord was determined to destroy the wall of the
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: did not withhold his hand from destroying. He made rampart
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: and wall lament. Together they waste away. It was in
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: the midst of this ruin that Jeremiah began composing his lament.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: He who had long warned the people, now wept for
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: the destruction of the beloved city. His words would later
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: be compiled into the Book of Lamentations, a poetic testimony
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: of the anguish of seeing Jerusalem in ruins. Even then, however,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah recognized that all of this was the result of
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: the people's sin. In Chapter five, verses sixteen and seventeen,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: he admits, the crown has fallen from our head. Woe
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: to us, for we have sinned. Because of this, our
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: hearts are faint. Because of these things, our eyes grow dim.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: Amid Jerusalem's ruins, perhaps sitting on a fire blackened stone,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: or in the shadow of a half demolished wall, Jeremiah
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: composed five poems expressing his deep sorrow over the city's destruction.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: These poems were gathered into what we now know as
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: the Book of Lamentations. Each of the five poems has
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: a unique structure. The first four are acrostics, meaning each
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: line or group of lines begins with successive letters of
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: the Hebrew alphabet, which contains twenty two letters. This poetic
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: form was used to express the totality of grief, from
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: the first to the last letter. From beginning to end,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: there was nothing but sorrow. In the first poem, Chapter one,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah personifies Jerusalem as a desolate widow. In verse one,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: we read how lonely sits the city that was once
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: full of people. She who was great among the nations
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: has become like a widow. She who was a princess
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: among the provinces, has become a slave. This first poem
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: shifts between a third person description of Jerusalem and the
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: city's own lament in the first person. In verses twelve
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: to sixteen, Jerusalem speaks, is it nothing to you all,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: you who pass by? Look and see? Is there any
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me, which
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: From on high he sent fire. It went down into
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: my bones. He spread a net for my feet and
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: turned me back. He has made me desolate faint all
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: day long. My transgressions were bound into a yoke by
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: his hand. They were fastened together, they were set upon
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: my neck. He caused my strength to fail. The Lord
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: gave me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: He summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: The Lord has trodden, as in a wine press, the
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: virgin daughter of Judah. For these things I weep. My eyes.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: My eyes flow with tears, for a comforter is far
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: from me, one to revive my spirit. My children are desolate,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: for the enemy has prevailed. The second poem, chapter two,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: describes God's judgment on Jerusalem in verse one, Wheremiah writes
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: how the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with
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  Speaker 1: the cloud of his anger. He has cast down from
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: heaven to earth the splendor of Israel. He has not
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. This
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: poem is particularly vivid in its depiction of destruction and suffering.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: In verses eleven and twelve, Jeremiah shares his own pain
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: as he observes the state of the city's people. My
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: eyes are spent with weeping, My stomach churns, my heart
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: is poured out in grief because of the destruction of
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: the daughter of my people. Because infants and nursing babies
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: faint in the streets of the city. They cry out
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: to their mothers, where is bread and wine? As they
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: faint like the wounded, in the streets of the city,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: as their lives eb away in their mother's arms. The
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: third poem, Chapter three, is the most elaborate. In it,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: each letter of the Hebrew alphabet appears three times in succession,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: totaling sixty six verses. This poem is more personal, with
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah speaking in the first person about his own suffering,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: which mirrors the nation's suffering. It begins, I am the
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: He has driven me and brought me into darkness without
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: any light. But within this same poem lies the book's
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: most hopeful message. In verses twenty one to twenty six,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah writes, Yet this I call to mind, and therefore
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love, we
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: are not consumed, for his compassions never fail they are
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I say to myself,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: The Lord is my portion. Therefore I will wait for him.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: to the one who seeks him. It is good to
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. The fourth poem,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: chapter four, contrast jerusse Sulm's former glory with its current humiliation.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: In verses one and two, we read how the gold
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed, The
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: sacred stones are scattered at the head of every street,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: How they are now regarded as earthen pots, the work
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: of a potter's hands. In this poem, Jeremiah also reflects
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: on the causes behind Jerusalem's destruction. In verses thirteen and fourteen,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: he writes, this happened because of the sins of her
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed within
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  Speaker 1: her the blood of the righteous. They wander blindly in
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: the streets, defiled with blood, so that no one dares
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: to touch their garments. The fifth poem, chapter five, although
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: not an acrostic like the others, still maintains the structure
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: of twenty two verses, matching the number of letters in
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: the Hebrew alphabet. His final poem is a communal prayer
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: of lament It begins, remember, O Lord, what has come
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: upon us? Look and behold our disgrace. It describes the
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: terrible conditions following Jerusalem's fall. Verses eight to ten tell
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  Speaker 1: us servants rule over us. There is no one to
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  Speaker 1: deliver us from their hand. We get our bread at
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: the risk of our lives because of the sword in
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: the wilderness. Our skin is hot as an oven, with
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: the burning heat of famine. The book ends with a
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: plea to God in verses nineteen twenty two. But you,
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  Speaker 1: o Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all generations.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: Why do you forget us forever? Why do you forsake
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: us for so long? Restore us to yourself, O Lord,
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: that we may be restored, renew our days as of old,
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  Speaker 1: unless you have utterly rejected us and remain exceedingly angry
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: with us. Through these five poems, Jeremiah exp presses not
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: just his own anguish, but the collective sorrow of an
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  Speaker 1: entire nation. The Book of Lamentations would go on to
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: become a vital part of Jewish liturgy, read annually on
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  Speaker 1: the ninth of Ave to commemorate the destruction of the Temple.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: A central theme in Jeremiah's lamentations is the acknowledgment that
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem's destruction was a direct result of the people's sin.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: It was not merely a political or military event. It
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: was divine judgment. In Chapter one, verse eight Jeremiah openly
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: confesses Jerusalem has sinned grievously. Therefore she has become unstable.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: All who honored her now despise her, for they have
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: seen her nakedness. She herself groans and turns away. This
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: is a direct confession Jerusalem has sinned grievously. There's no
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: attempt to deny guilt or shift the blame. In Chapter one,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: verse eighteen, the city itself personified admits the Lord is righteous,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: for I have rebelled against his word. Here all you peoples,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: and see my suffering. My young women and my young
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: men have gone into captivity. This confession continues in Chapter three,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: verses thirty nine to forty two. Why should a living
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: man complain a man about the punishment of his sins?
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Let us examine and test our ways and return to
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and hands
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: to God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled, and
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: you have not forgiven. Jeremiah acknowledges God's direct role in
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem's punishment. Rather than blaming only the Babylonians, he sees
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: God's hand behind the events. In Chapter two, verse five,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: he writes, the Lord has become like an enemy. He
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: He has destroyed her strongholds, and has multiplied mourning and
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: lamentation in the Daughter of Judah. Again in chapter two,
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: verse seventeen, the Lord has done what he purposed. He
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: has carried out his word, which he commanded long ago.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: He has thrown down without pity. He has made the
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: But amid this confession of sin and acknowledgment of God's
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: just judgment, there is also deep hope in divine mercy.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: The most well known and comforting passage in Lamentations is
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: chapter three, verses twenty two to twenty four. Because of
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: the Lord's great love, we are not consumed for his
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: mercies never end, they are new every morning. Great is
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: Therefore I will hope in Him. Even after Jerusalem's terrible destruction,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah finds reasons for hope. God's faithfulness has not ended
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: his mercies and you each day, and if God is merciful,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: then there is hope for the future. In Chapter three,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: verses thirty one to thirty three, Jeremiah expresses his confidence
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: that God's punishment will not last forever. The Lord will
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: not cast off forever. But though he causes grief, he
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: of men. This belief that God does not reject forever
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: and that his discipline has a purpose and an end,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: is the foundation of Jeremiah's hope. In Chapter five, verse
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: twenty one, he makes an appeal based on this very hope.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: Restore us to yourself, o Lord, that we may be restored,
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: renew our days as of old. The call to repentance
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: is clear. Restoration can only come through returning to God.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: The people must turn back to Him and trust that
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: in his faithfulness, he will store their days as of old.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: This recognition of sin and hope in God's mercy formed
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: a theological foundation for the Jewish people during exile. It
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: helped them make sense of what had happened and to
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: keep believing in a better future when God would bring
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: them back to their land. After Jerusalem's destruction, the King
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: of Babylon appointed Gadalia as governor over the few Jews
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: who remained in the land. In Jeremiah forty to seven,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: we read when all the commanders of the forces in
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: the open country and their men heard that the King
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: of Babylon had appointed Gadalia, son of Ahikam, as governor
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: in the land, and had committed to him men, women, children,
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: and some of the poorest of the land who had
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: not been taken into exile to Babylon. Gadalia established his
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: headquarters in Mispah, not far from Jerusalem, and began to
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: reorganize life in the devastated land, welcome back many Jews
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: who had fled to neighboring countries and were now returning,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: assuring them that if they submitted to Babylonian rule, all
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: would be well. In verse nine, he says do not
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Stay in the land
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: well with you. Jeremiah joined Gadalia in Mispah, and for
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: a brief moment it seemed that some stability could return.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Farmers began harvesting wine and summer fruits in great abundance,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: as mentioned in verse twelve. But this peace would not last.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: A man named Ishmael of royal lineage was plotting against Gadalia.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: In verse fourteen, a man named Johannan warned the governor,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: don't you know that Balis, king of the Ammonites, has
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: sent Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, to take your life? But Gadalia,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: son of Ahikam, did not believe him. Naively, Gadalia dismissed
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: the warning and even accused Johannan of speaking falsely against Ishmael.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: That decision would cost him his life. In chapter forty one,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: verses one and two, we read what happened in the
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: seventh month. Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: who was of royal blood, came with ten of the
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: king's officials to Gadaliah son of Ehikum, at Mizpah. While
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: they were eating together there, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: the ten men who were with him got up and
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: struck down Gadalia, son of Ahikam, the son of Sha'fan
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: with the sword, killing the one the King of Babylon
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: had appointed as governor over the land. Ishmael didn't stop there.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: He also killed all the Jews who were with Gadalia
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: at Mispah, as well as the Chaldean soldiers who were there,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: as stated in verse three. Later, he deceived and captured
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: a group of pilgrims coming from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: to mourn at the Temple Ruins, killing most of them
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: and taking the rest as captives. Johannan and other leaders
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: quickly mobilized forces to pursue Ishmael. In verse eleven, it
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: says when Johannan's son of Korea, and all the army
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: officers who were with him heard about all the crimes
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: Ishmael son of Nethaniah had committed, they took all their
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: men and went to fight Ishmael. They caught up with
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: him near the Great Pool in Gibeon. Ishmael escaped with
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: only eight men to the Ammonites, but the damage had
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: been done. Gadalia was dead, and the fragile political arrangement
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: for the remaining Jews in Judah had collapsed. Fearing Babylonian
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: retaliation for the murder of their appointed governor, Johannan and
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: the other leaders decided to flee to Egypt, but before leaving,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: they sought God's guidance through Jeremiah. In Chapter forty two,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: verses one three, we read, Then all the army officers,
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: including Johannan, son of Kareah, and Jesseniah, son of Hoshiah,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: and all the people from the least to the greatest,
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: approached Jeremiah the Prophet and said to him, please hear
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: our petition and pray to the Lord your God for
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: were once many, now only a few are left. Pray
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: that the Lord your God will tell us where we
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: should go and what we should do. Jeremiah agreed to
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: seek God's direction for them, promising, whatever the Lord says,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: I will tell you, I will keep nothing back from you.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: Verse four. After ten days the divine message came, and
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: it wasn't what the people hoped to hear. In Chapter
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: forty two, verses ninety eleven, Jeremiah delivers God's message. This
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: is what the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: you sent me to present your petition, says. If you
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: stay in this land, I will build you up and
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: not tear you down. I will plant you and not
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: uproot you. For I have relented concerning the disaster I
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: have inflicted on you. Do not be afraid of the
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: King of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: you and will save you and deliver you from his hands.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: God's instruction was clear, stay in the land and do
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: not fear the Babylonians. If they obeyed, he would protect
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: and restore them, but if they insisted on going to Egypt,
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: they would face even worse calamities. In verses fifteen to seventeen,
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: God warns, now, therefore, hear the word of the Lord,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty,
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: the God of Israel, says. If you are determined to
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: go to Egypt and settle there, then the sword you
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die. Indeed,
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: there will die by the sword, famine, and plague. Not
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: one of them will survive or escape the disaster I
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: will bring on them. Despite the clear warning, the people
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: rejected God's word. In Chapter forty three, verses one to three,
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: we see their response when Jeremiah finished telling the people
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: all the words of the Lord their God, everything the
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: Lord had sent him to tell them, as Ariah son
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: of Hoshia, and Johannan's son of Korea and all the
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: arrogant men said to Jeremiah, you are lying. The Lord
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: our God has not sent you to say you must
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: not go to Egypt to settle there. But Baruk son
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: of Nariah, is inciting you against us, to hand us
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: over to the Babylonians so they may kill us or
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: carry us into exile in Babylon. Rejecting Jeremiah's council, they
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: decided to go to Egypt anyway, taking the prophet with
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: them by force. In verse five, it says, but Johannan's
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: son of Korea and all the army officers led away
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: all the remnant of Judah, who had returned to live
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: in the Land of Judah from all the nations where
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: they had been scattered, and in verse six its clear
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah went against his will. They also led away the men,
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: women and children, and the king's daughters. Every one Nebuzaradan,
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: commander of the God, had left with Gadalia, son of Ahikam,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: the son of Shafen, and Jeremiah the Prophet, and Bahruk,
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: son of Neariah. Thus, Jeremiah, who had survived the destruction
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: of Jerusalem and remained faithful to God's message, now found
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: himself dragged to Egypt, the very nation that had caused
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: Israel so much harm in the past, and where God
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: had explicitly forbidden his people to seek refuge. Even in Egypt. However,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah continued his prophetic ministry. In Chat he delivers his
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: final major recorded prophecy, warning the Jews in Egypt about
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: the idolatry many had resumed worshiping the Queen of Heaven.
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: In verses twenty six to twenty eight, he delivers God's
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: final word. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: you people of Judah living in Egypt. I swear by
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: my great name, says the Lord, that never again will
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: my name be invoked by the mouths of any of
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: the people of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying,
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: as surely as the Lord God lives, I am watching
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: over them for harm and not for good. The people
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: of Judah in Egypt will perish by sword and famine
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: until they are completely destroyed. Only a few who escape
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: the sword will return from Egypt to Judah. Then the
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: remnant of Judah who came to settle in Egypt will
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: know whose word stands mine or theirs. This was Jeremiah's
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: last recorded message. Jewish tradition holds that he died in Egypt,
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: possibly stoned to death by fellow countrymen outraged by his
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: constant rebukes, But the divine Word he proclaimed never died.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: It endured guiding and comforting the Jewish people during the
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: Babylonian exile, and it continues to speak through the ages
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: even today. Despite Jeremiah's often somber tone, his legacy includes
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: some of the most beautiful promises of hope in the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: amid prophecies of destruction and judgment, God also revealed to
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  Speaker 1: him a future of restoration and redemption. One of Jeremiah's
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  Speaker 1: most significant prophecies concerned the New Covenant. In Chapter thirty one,
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  Speaker 1: Verses thirty one to thirty four, he writes, the days
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  Speaker 1: are coming, declares the Lord. When I will make a
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  Speaker 1: new covenant with the people of Israel and with the
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  Speaker 1: people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant
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  Speaker 1: I made with their ancestors when I took them by
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  Speaker 1: the hand to lead them out of Egypt. Because they
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  Speaker 1: broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,
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  Speaker 1: declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make
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  Speaker 1: with the people of Israel. After that time, declares the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: I will put my law in their minds and write
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  Speaker 1: it on their hearts. I will be their God, and
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  Speaker 1: they will be my people. No longer will they teach
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  Speaker 1: their neighbor or say to one another, know the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: because they will all know ME, from the least of
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  Speaker 1: them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will
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  Speaker 1: forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
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  Speaker 1: This promise of a new covenant with God's law written
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  Speaker 1: not on stone tablets but on human hearts, pointed to
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  Speaker 1: a more intimate and transformative relationship with God. It would
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  Speaker 1: be a covenant based on forgiveness of sins and personal
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of the divine Jeremiah also specifically foretold the duration
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  Speaker 1: of the babylon An exile. In Chapter twenty nine, verses
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  Speaker 1: ten and eleven, he conveys God's message to the exiles.
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  Speaker 1: This is what the Lord says, when seventy years are
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  Speaker 1: completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill
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  Speaker 1: my good promise to bring you back to this place.
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  Speaker 1: For I know the plans I have for you, declares
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
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  Speaker 1: Plans to give you a future and a hope. This
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  Speaker 1: promise of return after seventy years gave the exiled people
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  Speaker 1: a timeline for their hope. They understood that while the
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  Speaker 1: exile would be painful, it would not be permanent, and
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  Speaker 1: the assurance that God had plans to prosper them, to
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  Speaker 1: give them a future and a hope became a source
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  Speaker 1: of strength during their darkest days. Another important prophecy was
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  Speaker 1: about the Righteous branch from David's line. In Chapter twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: verses five and six, Jeremiah declares the days are coming,
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  Speaker 1: declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David
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  Speaker 1: a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and
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  Speaker 1: do what is just and right in the land. In
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  Speaker 1: his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live
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  Speaker 1: in safety. This is the name by which he will
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  Speaker 1: be called, the Lord our Righteousness. This messianic prophecy pointed
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  Speaker 1: to a future king in David's line who would bring
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  Speaker 1: justice and salvation. He would be called the Lord our Righteousness,
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  Speaker 1: indicating both his divine nature and his role in bringing
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  Speaker 1: justification to the people. Jeremiah's ministry had a profound impact
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  Speaker 1: on preserving faith during the exile. His prophecies of judgment
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  Speaker 1: and of restoration helped the people make sense of their
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  Speaker 1: suffering and gave them hope for a better future. His
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  Speaker 1: words were preserved and carried into exile, where they served
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  Speaker 1: as guidance and comfort to a displaced people. During the exile,
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people began gathering in synagogues to pray and
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  Speaker 1: study the scriptures, including Jeremiah's writings. His prophecies and laments
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  Speaker 1: helped shape the Jewish understanding of their history and identity
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  Speaker 1: and refocus their hope on the God, who had promised
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  Speaker 1: to restore them when the exile ended after seventy years,
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  Speaker 1: Just as Jeremiah had prophesied, his status as a true
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  Speaker 1: prophet of God was solidified. In the Book of Ezra
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  Speaker 1: chapter one, verses one and two, we read about the
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  Speaker 1: fulfillment of his prophecy. In the first year of Cyrus,
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  Speaker 1: King of Persia. In order to fulfill the word of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart
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  Speaker 1: of Cyrus, King of Persia, to make a proclamation throughout
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  Speaker 1: his realm, and also to put it in writing. This
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  Speaker 1: is what Syrah, as King of Persia, says. The Lord,
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  Speaker 1: the God of Heaven, has given me all the kingdoms
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  Speaker 1: of the earth, and has appointed me to build a
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  Speaker 1: temple for him at Jerusalem. In Judah. The prophet, who
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  Speaker 1: often felt alone and rejected in his own time, ended
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  Speaker 1: up having an impact that reached far beyond his lifetime.
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  Speaker 1: His words not only guided the people through exile, they
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  Speaker 1: continued to inspire and comfort the Jewish people through the centuries,
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  Speaker 1: and for Christians, his prophecy of the New Covenant takes
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  Speaker 1: on even greater meaning seen as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: Jeremiah the weeping prophet who lived to see his warnings
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  Speaker 1: of destruction fulfilled, also left behind a legacy of hope.
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  Speaker 1: His tears for ruined Jerusalem were real, but so was
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  Speaker 1: his vision of a restored future where God would bring
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  Speaker 1: his people back, rebuild the nation, and establish a new
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  Speaker 1: covenant rooted in forgiveness and inner transformation. What can we
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  Speaker 1: learn from Jeremiah to day. Maybe it's the courage to
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  Speaker 1: stay true to our values even when we feel alone.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe it's the importance of weeping over the things that
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  Speaker 1: truly matter. Or maybe it's the quiet confidence that even
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  Speaker 1: in our darkest moments, God's mercy is new every morning.
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  Speaker 1: If this story touched your heart, don't keep it to yourself.
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  Speaker 1: Plick the subscribe button now so you won't miss our
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  Speaker 1: upcoming Bible stories. And if you know someone who needs
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: to hear this message of hope, share this video with them. Also,
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  Speaker 1: let us know in the comments which part of Jeremiah's
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  Speaker 1: story spoke and to you the most. Your voice matters
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  Speaker 1: to us. See you in the next video as we
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: continue our journey through the life changing stories of the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: May God bless your weak