JEREMIAH - THE BOOK OF RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT

Bible Study Notes by:  Carolyn Sissom

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

As I approach the Book of Jeremiah, I do so bent over before the Lord.  I know He has called this Study.  I know there is a Word for the nation and nations for this hour.  Like Israel in the time of Jeremiah, except for the Remnant, the United States is a backslidden nation.  The Mouth of our media (the mouth of the beast in the earth of unredeemed people)  has not only forsaken God, but scorn and mock those who know Him personally as Savior, His Abiding Presence, Creator, Healer, Deliverer, Friend,  Prophet, King, Priest,  Ancient of Days, etc.  

Jeremiah is the book of righteous judgment, and has been called the book to the backslider.  The Prophecies cover Judah’s political, spiritual and immediate future.

The theme of the book is found in the name “Jeremiah” and means, “The Lord will rise.”  The Hebrew word is “Yirmeyah” (#3414) “Whom Jehovah sets up. Whom Jah establishes or launches forth, Jehovah will enthrone, and Jah will set up high.

The Lord has risen in His incarnation, death, and resurrection. 

Personally this book is very dear to my heart.  I received the Jeremiah call when I was 33 years of age.  It was a dramatic and audible calling.  However, I was not commissioned into full time public ministry until seventeen years later.  I have done many studies on Jeremiah for my own personal understanding.  I discovered there was 17 years from the time of His call until his second commission. 

I am amused these days at the discussion by fellow ministers as to whether I am a Prophet or an Apostle. In 1973, I received the Jeremiah call.  In the year 2000, the Lord spoke to me that I was an Apostle of Faith.   I don’t know what that makes me.  The Lord uses me in this season as a Pastor of an Apostolic and Prophetic church.  Call me what you will, it does not offend me.  Some have called me Teacher.  To those I would say, “You certainly cannot be a Pastor unless you are a teacher.”  I am greatly honored to be called a "Teacher" because this was one of Jesus' titles.   Whichever hat I wear, I am very happy to be a Servant of the Lord in whatever capacity He chooses.

What is the Jeremiah call?  1:5: “Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations.  Then said I, “Ah Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child, But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you , you shall speak.  Be not afraid of their faces; for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.  Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth, And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth, See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant.”

  Jeremiah came on the scene about 100 years after Isaiah.  There was sin in the nation.   The internal situation was that the Northern Kingdom Israel had fallen, and much of the Southern Kingdom Judah.  They had suffered reverse after reverse until Jerusalem alone was left.  Still they ignored the continued warnings of the prophets and grew harder and harder in their idolatry and wickedness.  Jerusalem was about to fall, the temple was soon to be destroyed, and religion was buried in formalism. 

The Word of the Lord which came to him calls backsliders to forsake their iniquity and turn to the Lord.   Their sins were many.  These are just a few:

1        Wickedness

2        Forsaking God

3        Burning incense to other gods

4        Worshipping the works of their own hands

5        Great Pride

6        Refusing to hear God’s works

7        Walking in the imagination of their hearts

8        Walking after other gods to serve and worship them.

9        Refusing to be interested in becoming the people of God any longer

10    Drunkenness

11    Natural and perpetual evil

12    Trusting in falsehoods (idols)

13    Covetousness of opposite sex

14    Adulteries

15    Lewdness of whoredoms

16    Idolatrous abominations upon the hills and fields.

The United States is awash in storms:  political, financial, natural, fires, floods, wars, rumors of wars,  etc. etc.  I believe it is wisdom for us to seek the Lord in His Word that we may repent and turn back to the Lord in order to save our nation.  Sin breaks the heart of God.  Turning away from God will bring our nation into captivity.  We are at war with Islam, yet our State Department continues to allow our nation to be flooded with people from the Islamic nations.  We continue to transfer wealth to these nations. 

The purpose of the Book of Jeremiah  is in at least five dimensions:

1. Historically – to give the history of the last five kings of the House of Judah, the destruction of the temple, the desolation of the city, and the captivity of the nation.
2. Spiritually – to show God’s grace and mercy in calling a backslidden nation to the Lord.
3. To reveal the righteous judgments of the Lord.
4. To show the essence of the principle of restoration.

4.  
   1. The restoration of Judah after the captivity in Babylon
   2. The restoration of the Church after the Dark Ages
   3. The restoration of the Creation

5. Prophetically to reveal the destiny of the nations.

“Prophetic Scripture reveals History, Biography, Prophecy, Ethics, Devotion, Messianic Revelation and Spiritual guidance.  It is the eye of Scripture, with supernatural vision—back sight, insight, and foresight, or power to see into the past, present and future.  It is the miracle of utterance, as other miracles are wonders of power, and evinces omniscience.  Prophecy is His Omnipotence, thus reflecting the image of the Glory of God.”  -Arthur T. Pierson, D.D.

The message of Jeremiah is one of eventual restoration.  All evil is certain to be judged b y captivity.  After calling them to repentance, God will forsake those who forsake Him.  A righteous God must judge righteously and then restore.

Where sin establishes itself, there must be a tearing down before a rebuilding can occur.(Jer. 1:10) The longsuffering of God is due to His tender compassion and love for His people.  His love is an everlasting love. (Jer. 31:3)  God’s discipline in judgment is an expression of His eternal love.  The message of Jeremiah is one of restoration.    Jesus Christ is the source of all true righteousness.

 Who was Jeremiah?  Tradition has it that he was stoned to death at Tahpanhes after fifty years of prophetic ministry.  The visible success of a faithful preacher is no test of his acceptableness before God.  Today in the Babylonian church system, success is measured by 1000 member church, money and prestige.  I don’t think Jeremiah measured his success by that measuring stick.  He was by birth a priest; by grace a prophet; by the trials of life a bulwark for God’s truth; by daily spiritual experience one of the greatest exponents of prophetic faith in his unique relation to God; by temperament gentle and timid, yet constantly contending against the forces of sin; and by natural desire a seeker after the love of a companion, his family, friends, and above all, his people---which were all denied him.

Jeremiah was quite unique (as most prophets are).  In his day, he was unquestionably the greatest spiritual personality in Judah.  Elijah was a mighty hammer that mercilessly fell upon the rocky heart of Ahab; he was a stern man, almost fierce, a force to be reckoned with.  Moses was meek but very firm.  Ezekiel was rugged and tough, but Jeremiah was timid, sensitive, and intensely sympathetic.  He has all the powerful utterance of Hosea, and at times can deal a blow as heavy as Isaiah, but at the same time his heart is overflowing with a human feeling for the misery of his people, and weeps hot tears.  Touch the book wherever you will, and it will weep. (9:1)

With a bleeding heart he enters upon a terrible struggle with himself, and though no better patriot ever lived, he bears the stigma of a traitor to his country for the sake of the Lord and Truth.  It is his child-like tenderness which adds force to the severity of his denunciations, and to the bitterness of his grief.  He speaks with the wrath of the Lamb! 

Jeremiah’s life ---private and public---is openly displayed in his book.  His brave actions, his tenderness toward his peers, his deep emotional and spiritual struggles before God---all these and more are clearly presented.   He was a leader in the brilliant constellation of prophets around the destruction of Jerusalem.  Ezekiel a fellow priest and somewhat younger was preaching in Babylon among the captives.  Daniel, a man of royal blood, holding the line in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.  Habakkuk and Zephaniah helping Jeremiah in Jerusalem.  Nahum at the same time was predicting the fall of Nineveh.  Obadiah was predicting the ruin of Edom.

Jeremiah’s prophecies were preceded by “The Word of the Lord Came unto Me.”  70 times.  The arrangement of the Book is topical and not chronological. 

Jesus Christ is seen in the Book of Jeremiah as the following.  If the Lord will give us the Grace, we will study each revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the weeks ahead.  What I do not finish by November 11^th, we will continue in January.

1. The appointed Prophet to Jerusalem, suffering with, for, and at the hands of his own nation.  He is the King, the Lord who is our Righteousness, and the Maker of the New Covenant. (Jer. 23: 31)
2. The Benjamite, the Son of the Right Hand.
3. The Prophet unto the Nations.
4. The One Set over Kingdoms. (1:10)
5. The Rod of the Almond.
6. The Iron Pillar.
7. The Fountain of Living Waters.
8. The Noble Vine and the Right Seed.
9. The nitre and the soap. (2:22)
10. The ornament of the Bride.
11. The showers and the Latter Rain.
12. The Guide of our Youth.
13. The Husband of Jerusalem.
14. Standard.
15. The Man that executes judgment.
16. The Perpetual decree. (5:22)
17. The sign of fire.
18. The Good way.
19. The balm in Gilead.
20. The power and the wisdom of God. (10:12)
21. The prophetic Lamb brought to the slaughter (11:19)
22. The Hope of Israel and the Savior. (14:8)
23. The Heavenly Moses and the Heavenly Samuel. (15:1)
24. The Strength, Fortress, and refuge of God’s People (16:19)
25. The Pen of Iron and the Point of a Diamond.
26. The Tree of Life.
27. The Hope in the Day of Evil.
28. The Potter.
29. The Snow of Lebanon
30. The burning fire.
31. The Righteous King.
32. The fire and the hammer.
33. The Voice of the Bridegroom.
34. The Voice, Shout, Roar, and Noise of the Lord.
35. The expected end.
36. The Book. (30:2)
37. The Everlasting Love. (31:3)
38. The Father of the Firstborn.
39. The Height of Zion.
40. The way mark and the Heap. (31:21)
41. The Law in our inward Parts.
42. The Sun for a Light by Day.
43. The measuring line.
44. The One who bought the field.
45. The evidence of the Redemption
46. The great and mighty God.
47. The health and cure.
48. The abundance of Peace and Truth.
49. The Bridegroom.
50. The Heavenly David.
51. The Heavenly Jonadab. (34:8)
52.  The first roll. (36:28)
53. The Heavenly  Godiliah
54. The Heavenly Johanan. (41:16)
55. The True and Faithful Witness.
56. The Sound of the Trumpet
57. The Sword.
58. The Heir of Israel.
59. The Way to Zion. (50:5)
60. The Perpetual Covenant.
61. The Habitation of Justice.
62. The Hope of our Fathers. (50:7)
63. The Sound of Battle.
64. The Armory of the Lord.
65. The Vengeance of the Lord.
66. The Strong Redeemer.
67. The Destroying Wind.
68. The Portion of Jacob.
69. The Former of All Things.
70. The Spoiler.
71. The One who delivered us from Prison. (51: 31-34)

Jeremiah One:

This chapter reveals the Sovereignty of God. (Eph. 1)

This is the prophet’s call.  Jeremiah was a descendant of Abiathar the priest who was banished by Solomon, about two miles N.E. of Jerusalem in the territory of Benjamin.  Jeremiah himself would be the almond plant and the boiling pot.  The almond Plant was the “hastener” and thus a firstfuits plant. 

Jeremiah was about 20 when he received this call.  He was to be a Kingdom man under the authority of the Lord; he had no rights or alternatives.  He was appointed and set apart in the Outer Court of God’s purposes.  He was formed in the Holy Place (the transformation of the soul).  He is known (intimately in the Most Holy Place.

Verse 5 reveals God’s perspective.  This passage of Jeremiah’s calling has many applications:

1. The development of the ministry (especially prophetic ministry).
2. The development of the Intercessor (Messianic Company)
3. The development of the Spirit who laments over the City.
4. The development of the Church, the prophetic redeemed community.

1 8-10:  “Be not afraid of their faces.”  There was no choice of audience for Jeremiah.  His life and his ministry were under the exclusive covenantal right of Jehovah.  There would be opposition and fierce antagonism.  But those that oppose are but men, while the Ruler of the whole universe is at the prophet’s side. (Rom. 8:31) Jeremiah’s excuse of timidity is ministered to here.  His other excuse of inexperience will be overcome by his own obedience as he goes forth.  The mouth of the Old man, the mouth of fear, must be smitten so that the mouth of faith can speak.  All authority centers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The authority of Eph. 4:11 is His own delegated authority.  His words are in our mouths.  These are the words of Him who sent us! (Matt. 28: 18-20)

This is confirmed by the emphatic pronoun “I” in verse 8.  It is the Lord who is in charge here.  He will deliver (save, rescue) His prophet, his nation, his planet and His universe.  “This Day” is the same as “To-Day” and the Day of the Lord, the Seventh Day, which has no end.  Jehovah thus speaks from His perspective and vantage point.  Jeremiah here points to the prophet Christ Jesus who has been set in the heavens. (Eph. 1:20-23)  “Throughout your lifetime Jeremiah, I put my words in your mouth!”  It is therefore useless to worry about inexperience or the resistance from your opponents.  To resist the word of Jeremiah is to resist the Word of Jehovah!  The commission of V. 10 is what God Himself did to man. (Jer. 18).  Jeremiah’s ministry was to be two-thirds destructive and one-third constructive.  Destruction, complete and thorough precedes construction.  Jeremiah spoke to the nations in Chapters 46-51.  Yet all of God’s dealings finally are for the good of the people.  The Babylonian exile was for the moment a time of chastisement; it became also a time of national repentance. (14: 5-7)

Read 11: 16

Taught by:  Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries, Inc.

www.eastgateminsitries.com

Scripture from King James Version and text study from Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible and Principles of Present Truth of Jeremiah by, Kelly Varner.

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