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One of the functions of the book of Jeremiah is to fill in the gaps, providing depth to the high-level story recorded in the books of Kings.  For example, very little is recorded in 2 Kings about the first eighteen years of Josiah’s reign, except that he was placed on the throne at the age of eight, and that his grandfather Manasseh and father Amon had led Judah into profound wickedness. 

In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign the king will commission a restoration of Solomon’s Temple, during which the book of the law is rediscovered, and reforms are instituted.  Jeremiah’s ministry begins five years before this, and the picture he presents in the opening chapters is desolate. 

Remember how knowledge is distributed when reading Jeremiah.  In the opening paragraph of the book you’re told that Jeremiah ministered through five kings, until the captivity of Jerusalem.  This means that the author – and you – knows about the sweeps Babylon made in 603 and 598, and the final destruction of Jerusalem in 586.  Jeremiah, forty years before this, was told by the LORD that out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. 

Keeping this straight is critical to reading the prophets.  You know the end of the story; the characters don’t.  The prophet stands between, often knowing where history is headed but not knowing how it will unfold.  The king and advisers in 626 don’t know that in 40 years it will all be over; neither do the people of the land, many of whom will lose everything within a generation.  They’re allowed to live, to hope, to respond to the LORD or to reject Him within these pages.  Patience will allow the story to unfold as the author masterfully intends.   

Jeremiah’s mission is to accurately proclaim the word of the LORD; his mission also entails calling the nation to repentance even when he is virtually certain this will go unheeded, even while he knows judgment is marshalling its forces.  Chapter 4 opens with a hopeful if/then proposition: “If you return,” and “if you remove your detestable things from My presence…” and if you swear ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory. 

And what does returning look like? While Judah may have maintained the covenant outwardly, the LORD demands that they circumcise their hearts… lest my wrath go forth like fire…  Wicked men are found among my people; they know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless… and they do not defend the rights of the needy.  Shall I not punish them for these things? 

Our verse for this week is Lamentations 3:22-23: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Jeremiah 4 through 6.  Now let’s read it!

The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.  Jeremiah 1:1-2

You might recall from 2 Kings that Josiah reigned near the end of Judah’s term.  Jeremiah’s parents would have remembered the treacherous days of Manasseh, when the LORD had promised by His servants the prophets, “Because Manasseh…has done more evil than all the Amorites did… Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle… And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies.”   

Jeremiah would see this promise fulfilled, as evidenced by the first paragraph of this book.  In fact, it appears that Jeremiah’s calling coincides with the start of a countdown, around 40 years before the ultimate fall of Jerusalem.  In Jeremiah’s first vision Jeremiah is let in on this secret: “Out of the north disaster shall be let loose on all the inhabitants of the land.  For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north… and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem… and I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me.” 

The remainder of this oracle is encouragement for Jeremiah.  In fact, listen as the LORD promises to build defenses, but not for Judah!  “To all to whom I send you,” declares the LORD, …whatever I command you, you shall speak.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you.”  Pay attention throughout this book to Jeremiah’s emotions and the LORD’s encouragement – and consider the times in which Jeremiah lived.

In the final two-thirds of today’s reading Jeremiah presents the LORD’s case against His people.  The LORD laments over Israel’s covenantal failure: “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.  Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of His harvest.”  One metaphor of note is that of infidelity – especially marital infidelity.  This surfaced sparingly in Isaiah, but becomes a strong image in these opening chapters of Jeremiah.  This is how seriously the LORD takes His covenant with them, and He wants them to know why they are being judged. 

Our verse for this week is Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Jeremiah 1 through 3.  Now let’s read it!

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?  I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams… bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me.  New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations – my soul hates; they have become a burden to me… Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”   Isaiah 1:10-17

A crescendo has been building; perhaps you’ve felt it.  Like a great sermon this book of Isaiah achieves a climax that is both earth-shattering and utterly predictable.  It will feel like a surprise that you knew was coming.  Chapter 64 concludes the prayer that began yesterday, and in chapter 65 the LORD proves – simply by giving a response – His total distinction from the idols He’s been dismissing. 

The LORD answers, but also reveals that His plans are more profound and universal than Israel’s temporal concerns.  When He announces “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered…” He is answering and exceeding the prophet’s prayer that the LORD would rend the heavens.  Israel will not simply be restored, but the world itself will be reordered: people “shall build houses and inhabit them, they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.” No longer shall they “build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat.”  Furthermore, “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like an ox… they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.” 

And the upheaval is not complete.  In chapter 66 the LORD asks, “What is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of rest?” for “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool.”  The LORD compares the one who would slaughter an ox to one who would kill a man, the one “who sacrifices a lamb” to “one who breaks a dog’s neck.”  For when the LORD called, “no one answered; when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I did not delight.”  “But this is the one to whom I look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”  In the end, we find the beginning. 

Try to listen as an Israelite sitting in the shadow of Solomon’s abandoned temple; or as an exile standing on the banks of the Euphrates.  The LORD’s answer to his prayer is to rewrite the patterns of history and nature and worship itself.  Is this comfort? 

Our verse for this week is Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Isaiah 64 through 66.  Now let’s read it!

One of the greatest difficulties of reading prophecy is to stay within the text, by which I mean listening to the words as they were written, not as they came to be interpreted in the future.  For prophecy, this means dwelling in the time and place that they were first proclaimed, and considering, along with the original hearer, what they might mean.  This is no small discipline, but will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the riches of God’s word. 

Isaiah 61 is a prime illustration of this dilemma.  In chapter 61, the prophet proclaims that “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me… to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor…”  Put yourself into the imagination of the Jewish listener.  You are the poor one; you are the brokenhearted, the captive, the prisoner.   What does it mean for the prophet to declare the Year of the LORD’s favor?  What does it mean to be healed, released, unbound? 

This approaching moment – a Day or Year of the LORD – will be definitive and singular, yet its impact will vary according to ones’ relationship and obedience to the LORD.  Tables will be turned and overturned.  It will be a moment of both vengeance and freedom.  Foreigners will tend the flocks, and dress the vines, and plow the fields for Israel, but “you shall be called the priest of the LORD; they shall speak of you as ministers of your God… For I, the LORD, love justice…” 

The final oracle reads again like a Psalm of memory: “I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has granted us.”  It remembers when the LORD “became their savior,” how Israel “rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit; therefore He turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against them.” However, when Israel “remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people…” he also remembered to pray, “Look down from heaven and see… For you are our Father…our Redeemer of old is your name…”

Our verse for this week is Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Isaiah 61 through 63.  Now let’s read it!

We note often that noticing repeated words, phrases and ideas is a good way to sniff out a writer’s priorities.  It’s also helpful to notice when a new idea interjects itself into the conversation, making you ask, “Where did that come from?”  Let’s assume that the writer (or compiler) knows what he’s doing, and consider that the jolt is intentional. 

Yesterday’s attention was on the LORD’s promised servant, and his dissimilarity with the present leaders of Israel.  Today, the prophet shifts abruptly to the failure of idolatry.  There is a mixture of metaphor and literal practices that grant vivid images of both idolatrous activities and of God’s perspective on them.   Listen, especially in the first half of today’s reading, to the emotion the LORD conveys: anger, disappointment, even frustration: “Have I not held my peace, even for a long time,” He asks, “and you do not fear me?

However, as we saw earlier in Isaiah, the prophet cannot keep quiet about the future restoration for long.  “A Redeemer will come to Zion,” he proclaims in chapter 59, “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth…”  Later, the prophet decrees to Israel, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you… Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age.” 

And again you’ll note that the prophet’s eyes seem to be looking beyond, “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”           

Our verse for this week is Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Isaiah 57 through 60.  Now let’s read it!