Continue to explore the New Covenant of Jeremiah in relation to Moses. The ”New Covenant” is only seen in Jeremiah 31:31. Consider what Hermann Spieckermann and Reinhard Feldmeier state in “God of the Living: A Biblical Theology". The New Covenant of Jeremiah is also known as the “eternal covenant” as seen in Jeremiah 32:40, 50:5, Ezekiel 16:60, and Isaiah 55:3, 61:8. Consider also Jeremiah 50:5, “They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.’” In Isaiah 61:8 we read, “For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” Explore the eschatological hope in the New Covenant of Jeremiah. We find a new act of salvation, Zion, and the Davidic king.  Explore post-exilic Judaism and the New Covenant of Jeremiah in the Essenes of Qumran with the Manual of Discipline   (1QS) and Damascus Document  (CD).  Consider that in post-exilic Judaism, life was as usual with the Sinai covenant central and Law supreme. Consider the New Testament Church and 1 Peter 2:1-10 in which the New Israel includes Gentiles. Explore the Covenant in Israel and the Old Testament. Consider Noah (i.e., all creation) and Genesis 9:8-13. View a picture of Tiglath-Pilaser III of Assyria, (c.VIII BC) with a bow pointed toward king who is in charge and one bowing and paying homage. A ceremony of homage was a treaty. Explore the covenant with Abraham which was repeated to Isaac and Jacob and is found in Genesis 17:1-4. Consider Phinehas and the Aaronic line of priests in Numbers 25:11-13. David and the royal line is found in 2 Samuel 7:8b-9, 11b, 16 and Psalm 89:3-4. The Covenant is unconditional or unbreakable, and in perpetuity or never ending.

DM869 Lesson 38

Explore Jeremiah and the doctrine of the Word of God. Consider four questions. In what ways is the 'word of God' seen to be the protagonist in the book of Jeremiah and has the tradition seen this? Explore what Jerome states in his Commentary on Jeremiah. In Jeremiah, do you see the prophet's role as the embodied word of God (narrative and literary figure) as taking on and prefiguring the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ and warranting the book of Jeremiah's inclusion as Christian Scripture? In the people's hardening and refusal of the words of God, did the word of God actually succeed? How might fulfillment interact with a Jeremianic 'Doctrine of the Word of God?' What is a Doctrine of the Word of God? John Frame states, "I therefore define the word of God as (1) God himself, understood as communicator, and (2) the sum total of his free communications with his creatures." Consider the point of contact between the Doctrine of the Word of God and the notion of fulfillment in Jeremiah as "the filling of words”. The Hebrew word used, מָלָא (Qal), means “to fill” and is transitive or “to be full” as intransitive. Explore fixed theological expressions as "to fulfill the days" or time as in Numbers 6:5 and a vow. Also in 2 Chronicles 5:13ff we find "filled with the glory of the Lord" or God's presence. We read in Jeremiah 23:24, “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.” Another expression is "full behind the Lord" or to follow with one's whole heart as Caleb did in Joshua 14:8. “But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God.” The expression is used to "fulfill the words" [Pi'el] or the occurrence of an utterance in prophecy, vow, or witness. Martin Noth notes that nothing new occurs in this expression - rather the word is "implement[ed] fully".

DM869 Lesson 35

B.S. Childs (1958) stated, "Word and fulfillment are part of the selfsame reality, however they do not have the same wholeness...The word sets an event into motion which is then filled up. A filled word is one which has reached wholeness and, therefore, is fulfilled." Consider that in LXX, πληρόω is used about 70 times for מְלֹא. In Jeremiah 23:24 we read, "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" In the New Testament, πληρόω means "to fulfill” or “complete" the word of God. G. Delling states, "In biblical thinking it is quite incompatible with the concept of God that the event should lag behind God's Word, that the full measure should not be reached. God fulfills his Word by fully actualising [sic.] it." Compare Matthew 2:17 and Jeremiah 31:15. In Matthew 2:16-17 we read, “Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.’” Jeremiah 31:15 states, “Thus says the Lord: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.’” Compare Matthew 27:9 with Zechariah 11:12-13. We read in Matthew 27:7-10, “So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.’” Can Matthew 27:9 and Zechariah 11:12-13 be compared to Jeremiah 32? 18? 19? View a chart of Matthew’s theology of fulfillment with the life of Jesus within the will of God and both within God’s Word. G. Delling states, "Fulfillment [of Old Testament prophecy] means that in the to-day of the NT God's saving will achieves its full measure in Christ. The NT concept of fulfillment is summed up in the person of Jesus."

DM869 Lesson 36

Explore God’s Covenant with Israel at Sinai. The core is the Decalogue found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. It was conditional as seen in Deuteronomy 28 and the blessings and curses. The foundation included election, deliverance as seen in the exodus, and salvation or liberation with a change of masters in the Old Testament, New Testament and also Galatians 5:1. Explore the Covenant renewal under Josiah found in 2 Kings 22-23. Jeremiah helped as we see in Jeremiah 11:1-13 and considered the Sinai Covenant broken (2:20; 5:5; 7:8-11; 11:10; 22:9; 31:32). We see in Jeremiah 33:17-26 that God’s Covenant with Israel at Sinai supports the covenants with Noah, Abraham, David and the Levitical priesthood. In considering Jeremiah’s New Covenant, is there one covenant of grace with two administrations? Are there two successive eras in redemptive history? John H. Stek uses the term “biblical covenants” in his article from Calvin Theological Journal and makes 7 points. Consider that the goal of the ‘old’ covenants was to write the law on their hearts as seen in Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:18-20; 30:14; 42:46 and Psalms 37:31; 40:8; 119:11 and Isaiah 51:7. In Psalm 40:8 we read, “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” The goal of the ‘old’ covenants failed as Jeremiah 17:1 reports that their sin is written on their hearts. The remedy is that God himself will write it and do as seen in Ezekiel 11:19-20 and 36:26-27. In summary, there are not two mutually exclusive eras. There are two mutually exclusive states before God as seen in the Old with a broken covenant and unfaithfulness and in the New a renewed or ‘New’ covenant with faithfulness. We see the new coveNT language of Christ as a “climax of the covenant”. J Moon states that, “’New covenant’ is simply the way things ought to have been: the covenant (’I will be your God, you will be my people’) engaged with fidelity from the people...[T]he oracle of the new covenant unites the people of God around its center, the climax of the covenant in Jesus Christ.”

DM869 Lesson 39

The Book of Jeremiah can be seen as a "Book of Comfort". Explore the poetry core of 30:4 – 31:22 which includes the poetry of lament and judgment and the covenant formula of 30:22 and 31:1. We read in Jeremiah 30:22, “And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” Jeremiah 31:1 states, “At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.” Consider the expansion to prose oracles of hope in 31:23-40 and the eschatological seen in the phrase, “Look days are coming…” in 31:27, 31, 38 and cf. 30:3. In the future there is both continuity as seen in the word “again” in 31:23, 39 and discontinuity as seen in the words “not...again” in 31:29, 34a, and 40. Jeremiah 31:23 states, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes: “The Lord bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O holy hill!”’” Consider Jeremiah 31:39-40, “And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.” We also read in Jeremiah 31:29-30, “In those days they shall no longer say: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.’ But everyone shall die for his own iniquity.” Consider Jeremiah 31:34, "And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Explore Jeremiah 31:31-34. The discontinuity is highlighted in verse 32a “not like the covenant”. Consider that the conditions for covenant obedience vastly and the improvement is that the law is written on heart. God will forgive their sins and forget their sins. In Jeremiah 31:35-37 there is an affirmation of the relationship with people. Explore 31:38-40 and the rebuilt city which includes an inclusio with 30:3. Jeremiah 31:38 states, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.” We also read in Jeremiah 30:3, “For behold, days are coming, declares the Lord…”

DM869 Lesson 37

Explore Jeremiah 28:5-9 and Jeremiah's response to Hananiah.  Consider what we find in Amos 4:6-12. Also consider Deuteronomy 18:18-22, Jeremiah 14:13-16, and a "wait and see" criterion as found in Jeremiah 6:14 and 8:11. In Jeremiah 28:10-14 we find Hananiah's enacted prophecy. Consider Jeremiah 27:5-6, “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar…” Continue with Jeremiah’s response to Hananiah in Jeremiah 28:15-17. “And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, ‘Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.”’ In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.” Explore Jerome’s comments on this text in his Commentary on Jeremiah. "Here also the LXX does not say that Hananiah is a prophet, even though Holy Scripture -according to the Hebrew-calls him a prophet. Yet, when Jeremiah actually condemns him, saying, ‘Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you,’ he makes no mention of Hananiah being a prophet.”

DM869 Lesson 30

Continue to explore Jeremiah's laments or "confessions".  Reventlow (1963) related that Jeremiah's "I" represented the "personification of the community". Subsequently the focus shifted to the "paradigmatic force of Jeremiah's suffering", became a model for exiles and repatriates and there was a re-calibration of suffering. Consider Welten (1977) and that suffering is no longer "shameful, resulting directly from wrongdoing . . . but rather as a typical part of life." (Stulman) A. R. Diamond and K. M. O'Connor took into account the contextual and literary setting. Consider meaning of Sitz im Buch. Explore that the laments used by the interpretive community were to demonstrate the guilt of the people, the necessity of exile, and theodicy. Stulman states in Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries: Jeremiah, " ...they portray Judah's hardship and misfortune as a consequence of its mistreatment and rejection of Jeremiah, God's spokesperson.” Explore the elements of Jeremiah's Confessions including the invocation or mention of God, the speech of enemies, the declaration of innocence, request for vengeance, and in three of the five laments, the divine answer which is implicit in 17:14-18, 18:18-23, and 20:7-13.

DM869 Lesson 32

Jeremiah 11-17 is bookended with the prose sermons of Jeremiah 11:1-17 of covenant and Jeremiah 17:19-27 of Sabbath observance. Three out of the five confessions are in this block. Consider the three purposes of the bookends. The first is to establish an ominous tone. In Jeremiah 11:8 we read, “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.” We also read in Jeremiah 11:12, 14, 17, “Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape . . . I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble . . . The Lord of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you . . .” The second purpose of the bookmarks is a literary and theological symmetry.  Jeremiah 17:24-25 states, “But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David . . .” Jeremiah 17:27 states, “But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.” The third purpose of the bookends is to organize in three cycles.

DM869 Lesson 33

Explore the genre of Jeremiah’s laments. C. Westermann states in Basic Forms of Prophetic Speech, ". . . another way of formulating an announcement of judgment which powerfully depicts the moment of the irrevocable when judgment is proclaimed over Israel." Consider the mode of prophetic expression in which the humanity of the prophet is exhibited. Classic prophetic laments are found in Amos 5:1-3 and Jeremiah 9:16-21. In Amos 5:1-3 we read, “Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel: ‘Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.’ For thus says the Lord God: ‘The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.’” Explore Jeremiah's development of this genre over Israel as found in Jeremiah 2:31f, 8:4-7, 18-23, 9:9, 10:19f, 13:18f, and 13:23. Jeremiah develops this genre in the Lord over his land as found in Jeremiah 1:31f, 12:7-13, 15:5-9, 18:13-17. It is also found in Isaiah 1:2-3, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: ‘Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’” Consider Jeremiah's personal laments in chapters 11-20 passim. Jeremiah's Laments are also considered "confessions" and are akin to Augustine's Confessions. They contain vacillating moods, trying circumstances, and a dialogue with God. Jeremiah's laments also become inscripturation or part of the divine message. Skinner (1922) relates in his personal journal that there was “danger that Jeremiah would have been advocating something at a national level he had experienced at a personal level.” Consider the value of Jeremiah's psychology and 	personality and the danger of it creating a barrier. von Rad (1983) considered Jeremiah’s laments as stylized, conformed to the genre, and not personal but related to ministry. Berridge (1970) considered his laments public, therefore part of his proclamation and were "general validity transcending his experience."

DM869 Lesson 31

Explore Jeremiah 11-12:6. Consider Jeremiah 11:1-17 and the prose sermon which includes a retributive principal as also seen in Deuteronomy 6, 8 and 2 Kings 17. We read in Jeremiah 11:2-3, “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant...” Jeremiah 11:6-7 states, “...Hear the words of this covenant and do them . . . Obey my voice.” Explore Jeremiah 11:9-12:6. The Lord and Jeremiah have a dialogue reflected in Jeremiah 11:18-23 and Jeremiah 12:1-6. Consider 2 Chronicles 36:20-21, “He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.” Consider Jeremiah 12:5-6, “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; do not believe them, though they speak friendly words to you.”

DM869 Lesson 34

Continue to explore Jeremiah and the prophets. Jeremiah 23:33-40 asks who is the real burden? The Hebrew term used is מַשָּׂא or "load, lifting, bearing, burden, or tribute". Consider the 1956 art of Marc Chagall’s Pleurs de Jérémie. Explore Jeremiah 27:9-11, “So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’ For it is a lie that they are prophesying to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land, and I will drive you out, and you will perish. But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, to work it and dwell there, declares the Lord.” Consider that the Hebrew word for Egypt is מִצְרָיִם which means "restriction". We read in Jeremiah 29:8-9, “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.” In Jeremiah 29:11-12 we read, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.” Explore Jeremiah 28 and the account of Jeremiah and Hananiah. In Jeremiah 28:1-4 we see Hananiah's prediction. Explore Deuteronomy 18:15-22, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

DM869 Lesson 29

Continue to explore Jeremiah and the prophets. Consider Jeremiah 23:9-40 and the word "concerning the prophets". In Jeremiah 23:9-12 the corrupt leaders are exposed.  Jeremiah 23:13-15 concerns leaders who reinforce the wicked.  Jeremiah 23:16-17 concerns the preachers of prosperity. We read, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” Jeremiah 23:18-22 is the example of no message, no mission, and no mandate and Jeremiah 23:23-32 concerns dreams, delusions and hammer and fire. Consider that in Jeremiah 3:14 we read, “Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” Explore that there is a forgetting of the Name and over time there is a new doctrine of who God is and how He operates with His people. Hosea 2:16 states, “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’”

DM869 Lesson 28

Consider the 1630 painting of Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem by Rembrandt. Explore the background of Jeremiah and the prophets. Consider Judah and the deportees in 597-587 and the message of prophets which included hope as found in Jeremiah 29:8-9, and 21-23. Consider that the message of the prophets included the return of deportees as we read in Jeremiah 29:21-23. The message of the prophets also included divine retribution as found in Jeremiah 28:3-4 and was easy on the ear. The prophet’s message also included greed as found in Micah 3:11 and Jeremiah 6:13. We read in Micah 3:11, “Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, ‘Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.’” Immorality as found in Jeremiah 23:14 was also included in the message of the prophets.

DM869 Lesson 27

View the art of Marc Chagall’s 1956 Pleurs de Jérémie. Explore the enacted prophecies of Jeremiah 16-19. These prophecies make use of common objects and ideas, convey a message without need for a long explanation, capture imagination and shock, and engage in activities uncharacteristic of social status or age. Consider what the text has to say concerning marriage and family in Jeremiah 16:2-4. The focus of Jeremiah 16:5-9 is on the rights and obligation of the Son as found in Ezekiel 24:15-18. We read in Jeremiah 16:5-6, “For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. Both great and small shall die in this land.” Consider Lamentations 1:17, “Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her; the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.” Lamentations 2:11 states, “My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people...” Explore the enacted prophecy of the potter’s vessel found in Jeremiah 18:1-4. Explore the Atrahasis creation story and the Egyptian tomb paintings of Queen Hatshepsut and Khnum. View a picture of Khnum forming Queen Hatshepsut. Consider Isaiah 29:16 and 64:8. There is a re-use of the same clay or a remnant. We read in Jeremiah 18:11-12, “Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’ But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

DM869 Lesson 26

Recall Jeremiah 26:24, “But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.”  View the art of Andrew Mabanii’s Jeremiah. Explore the historical context and the temple sermon’s affect. It was in the year 605 with was the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign (609-604). He was an Egyptian vassal of Necho II and was about to pledge loyalty to  Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The political vacillation would result in a Babylonian response as found in Jeremiah 36:29. Consider that in Jeremiah 36 the instructions are to be written down as also seen in Isaiah 8:16 and Habakkuk 2:2. Jeremiah 36:4 records, “Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord that he had spoken to him.” Consider the contents of Book 1. Explore 2 Kings 22:1-20 and the points of contact in 2 Kings 22-23. There is a rare use of the scroll to deliver the hidden divine message and a prophetic claim of authority in "thus says Adonai" which is an oracular introduction. There is also a concern for רעה or "evil" which is pronounced in both and a call for reform. Explore the divergences of 2 Kings 22-23. There is a "tearing", a "burning" ( ףדש) and a "hearing" as God "hears" Josiah. Explore a circle graph with the movement of the scroll from Jeremiah’s apartment to the Temple in 36:10, to the King’s official’s chambers in 36:12, and to the Royal audience chamber in 36:21-22. Explore Jeremiah 36:11-12 and 36:14-17.

DM869 Lesson 24

Explore Jeremiah 36:20-26. Review the circle graph and movement of the scroll. Consider the timing of Jeremiah 36:1, 9, “In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord ... In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.” Consider some concluding thoughts concerning Micaiah in Jeremiah 36:11 and the reporting of all the words to the king in Jeremiah 36 12-18. Jeremiah 36:17 was to vet Baruch as a scribe and not the author and to assure Jeremiah's authorship. The lower official's response indicated a glimpse of hope. Consider the royal courts' silence upon reading and the rewrite with a death sentence in Jeremiah 36:29 and following. Explore Jeremiah 36:27-32. Consider another "setting" of the text of the Babylonian exiles and that the possibility of turning and repenting is present. In Jeremiah 36:7 we read, “It may be that their plea for mercy will come before the Lord, and that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” Consider the conflict and power with Jehoiakim. How did the people know who was a true prophet? Jeremiah 36:21 states, "But they would not listen".

DM869 Lesson 25

Explore Jeremiah 26:12-13, “Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.” In Jeremiah 26:12 it tells us these are God’s words, not Jeremiah’s. Consider Jeremiah 26:14-15. In Jeremiah 26:15 we find that his death incurs bloodguilt as found in Deuteronomy 19:10. In Jeremiah 26:14-15 we find that the city and nation’s fate are tethered to Jeremiah’s fate. Consider Genesis 4:10. In Jeremiah 26:13 we see that repentance would bring reversal. Explore Jeremiah 26:16-19. Continue to explore Jeremiah 26:20-23. Jeremiah 26:16-23 is an appeal to written prophecy with hope strategically placed. Edmund Burke stated, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” We read in Jeremiah 26:24, “But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.”

DM869 Lesson 23

Explore Jeremiah 26 as the introduction to Book 2, points forward and backwards, attacks the Temple and status quo, shows Jeremiah as true prophet, and has five distinct parts. Explore Jeremiah 26:1-6. Consider the person of “Jehoiakim”. In Jeremiah 26:2-3 there is a mention of worshippers and in 26:4-6 a “curse for all the nations of the earth” as warned about in Genesis 12:3. Jeremiah 26:4-6 states, “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.’” Explore Jeremiah 26:7-11 in which a death sentence for Jeremiah is called for.  Consider that the words “house” and “city” are used eight times in Jeremiah 26 and the status quo is confronted.

DM869 Lesson 22

Explore Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon. View The Prophet Jeremiah statue in the Colonna ell'Immacolata Piazza di spagna, Rome. Explore the assumptions concerning the Temple in 6th century Judah. The people believed that the Temple was the place where God is ever present, the house of God provided an unqualified refuge from danger, and the temple was fundamental to the social and cosmic order. In Psalm 46:1-3 we read, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah“ Consider the examples of Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah’s reforms in 622 BC. Do Jeremiah 7:1-8:3 and 26 constitute two sermons? Why insert 7:1-8:3 here? Consider Jeremiah 26 and 7:1-15 as there were intensified efforts to thwart word of God, that opposition set a catastrophic chain of events in motion, and a faithful few emerge to defend Jeremiah. The text was dated early in reign of Jehoiakim (609/608). Explore Jeremiah 7:1-15 which indicates abhorrent worship. Consider that prose explains poetry. Consider Jeremiah 7:2 and his location and Jeremiah 7:3 with the phrase “this place”. Jeremiah 7:4 points out the mantra used by the people, “The temple of the LORD”. In Jeremiah 7:5-7 we find that justice is required as found in Exodus 22:21-24 and Deuteronomy 24:17-22. In Jeremiah 7:5-7 we read, “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.” In Jeremiah 7:9-10 we read, “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?” We also see in Jeremiah 7:8-11 that rhetorical questions ratchet up intensity and in Jeremiah 7:12-15 we see Shiloh’s destruction is paradigmatic.

DM869 Lesson 18

How does a preacher faithfully exposit the Book of Jeremiah? Listen to the class discussion and ideas on how to exposit Jeremiah.

DM869 Lesson 20

Jeremiah: Exegesis and Theology

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