Knowledge and Understanding of the Confessions of Jeremiah

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Outline your knowledge and understanding of the Confessions of Jeremiah

Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, and a member of a priestly family.  He was a native of Judah and came from Anathoth, a small village in the north east of Jerusalem.  His prophetic ministry lasted from approximately 626 to 580BC, and is one of the longest of all the writing prophets.

The prophet Jeremiah began his long prophetic career in 626BC; “in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign” He was still a very young man at this time.  The narrative of his call is in a dialogue between Jeremiah and Yahweh.  From this we can see straight away that Jeremiah had a very intimate relationship with God from the outset.  Unlike other prophets, Jeremiah seems to have been chosen to be a prophet before he was even born. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.  Before you were born I consecrated you, I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  It seemed it was the destiny of Jeremiah to be a prophet.  According to Kidner, Jeremiah was “handmade for the task.”  Similarly to Moses and Amos, at first Jeremiah was reluctant to consent to his mission, saying “Ah Lord God behold I do not know how to speak for I am only a youth”, but his faith in Yahweh gave him faith in himself, and he accepted the role God asked of him.  Perhaps this teaches us the meaning of rising to face personal challenges.  Yahweh said to Jeremiah “Be not afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you.”  This is very much the faith of believers today, that in times of trouble, God is constant in our lives.

In Jeremiahs call, Yahweh outlines the purpose of his ministry.   He says “I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”  This summarizes the two main aspects of Jeremiahs mission.  It was to be a twofold mission, having both a positive and negative mission, and promising reconstruction after destruction.  Yahweh intended to punish the people for their sins and injustice, yet it would be this destruction that would create a new and holy people.  In this aspect, we can see a similarity between Hosea and Jeremiah, in that Hosea also believed in Redemptive Judgement.

Following the dialogue of Jeremiah’s call, there were two visions.  The first of these visions is the vision of the almond rod, and the second vision is one of the boiling pot facing away from the north.  These visions both contained a message of judgement.  The mouth of the put is facing towards the south, away from the north, which implies that the danger that Judah will face will come from the north, and that these forces will destroy Judah.  Yahweh says here “And I will utter my judgements against them, for all their wickedness in forsaking me; they have made their offerings to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.”  In his visions, God speaks very frankly of judgement, expressing that it is going to happen soon, and that the destruction is going to come from the North.  After this, Yahweh encourages Jeremiah again with the divine power of his task.  He is made aware that being young and experienced, he would be resisted and persecuted by many, but that he would be upheld and strengthened by God.

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Jeremiah understood “sin” in terms of the betrayal of love, and accused the people of being guilty of embracing pagan gods, and flirting with heathen empires.  They succumbed to the corrupting influences of the nature cults.  Jeremiah found their behaviour incredible, and failed to understand why after Yahweh had been so good to the people during the time of exodus, they would desert him.  He accused the people of forsaking Yahweh saying “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”  In other words, they had ...

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