Scripture Reading: Jer. 1:1-3
In our life-study of the Word, we now come to the book of Jeremiah. Although many of us may not be familiar with Jeremiah, I hope that the Lord will stir up our interest in this book and show us its intrinsic purpose.
The book of Jeremiah has as its particular nature and standing God's tenderheartedness plus God's righteousness. Our God is a tenderhearted God, and He is absolutely righteous. He is full of compassion, sympathy, and tender care, yet He is righteous. As the righteous God, He cannot spare those who have sinned against Him; He has to judge them. He is such a God.
This book is also an autobiography in which Jeremiah tells us of his situation, his person, and his feeling, revealing his tender heart. Jehovah is the tenderhearted God, and in being tenderhearted Jeremiah is absolutely one with God. Because Jeremiah often wept, even wailed, he is called the weeping prophet. In his weeping Jeremiah represented God. Thus, God could use a prophet like Jeremiah to express Him, speak for Him, and represent Him on earth.
This book also deals with Israel. Israel is stubborn, evil, wicked, and stiff-necked, knowing nothing of repentance or of returning to God. Israel is altogether not one with God.
Jeremiah also speaks much concerning the nations. According to this book, in the sight of God, all the nations, all the Gentiles, are animals, acting as if they do not have a human spirit. They do not bear any kind of image or likeness of God nor understand anything of God.
In the book of Jeremiah four parties are revealed. The first party is God, who is tender, loving, compassionate, and righteous. The second party is Jeremiah, a timid young man raised up by God to be His mouthpiece to speak for Him and express Him. As God's mouthpiece, Jeremiah is one with God in being tenderhearted, loving, and righteous. In contrast, Israel, the third party, is evil and stubborn, and the fourth party, consisting of the nations, is even worse.
Let us now go on to consider, in an introductory way, certain important aspects of the book of Jeremiah.
The name Jeremiah in Hebrew means "Jehovah exalts." This name also means "Jehovah tears down." The real contents of the book of Jeremiah are that God exalts some and tears down others.
Jeremiah was a priest, born of Hilkiah, a priest, in the small city of Anathoth in the land of Benjamin (Jer. 1:1). By birth Jeremiah had the position of a priest.
Whereas Jeremiah was born a priest, he was called to be a prophet over the nations (vv. 2-3). Hence, he was a priest- prophet not only over Israel but also over the nations. For this reason, he speaks very much concerning the nations. No other prophetic book speaks as much about the nations as the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah's ministry began from the thirteenth year (629 B.C.) of Josiah's reign and continued until the eleventh year (588 B.C.) of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, until the captivity. Jeremiah ministered for forty-one years, and every one of them was a terrible year. Within these forty-one years, there were at least three exiles. Eventually, nearly all of the children of Israel were exiled, ending, in the sight of God, their history as God's elect. Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was burned, and the people were carried away. This means that, in a sense, God gave up Israel.
Jeremiah ministered in Judah and, at the end, for a short time in Egypt. He did not want to go to Egypt, but certain rebellious ones captured him and took him with them to Egypt. History tells us that he was murdered in Egypt.
Jeremiah was a contemporary of the prophets Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Daniel, and Ezekiel. Some of them were captured and taken to Babylon, but Jeremiah was not. He remained in the fathers' land in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah was an overcomer speaking for God in the process of the captivity of God's degraded elect.
Jeremiah's book is a collection of history, of his autobiography, and of his prophesying. He spoke much concerning the history of Israel, he presented a full story of his life, and he uttered many prophecies. Some of Jeremiah's prophecies were negative, and others were positive. Negatively, Jeremiah predicted that Israel would be captured and that the temple would be destroyed. Jeremiah told Zedekiah to welcome the Babylonian army and thereby save the entire city of Jerusalem and the temple; otherwise, the city would be destroyed. However, Zedekiah was stubborn and refused to take Jeremiah's word. When Zedekiah tried to escape, he was captured and brought to Nebuchadnezzar. The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and then he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him in fetters of bronze to bring him to Babylon (39:4-7). Jeremiah witnessed these things.
The positive side of Jeremiah's prophecy was wonderful. For example, he prophesied that Israel would be restored by God (23:3-8). He also prophesied that God would raise up to David a righteous Shoot who would reign as a King and act prudently and whose name would be called "Jehovah our righteousness" (vv. 5-6). This is a great prophecy concerning Christ, a prophecy not found in any other book. Furthermore, Jeremiah prophesied concerning the new covenant which God would make with Israel (31:33-34). Paul quoted this prophecy and applied it to the covenant in the New Testament (Heb. 8:10-12; 10:16-17). Although this covenant is good for the New Testament believers, the Jews presently have no part in it because of their unbelief and rebellion.
The subject of the book of Jeremiah is Christ being made the righteousness of Jehovah to God's elect as their center and circumference in God's dealings with Israel and the nations. No matter how stubborn, wicked, and corrupt Israel, God's elect, may be, God will eventually make Christ the righteousness of Jehovah to them. Today Israel does not have any righteousness, but when Christ becomes the righteousness of Jehovah to them, no one, including Satan, will be able to accuse them.
Furthermore, when Christ becomes righteousness to God's elect, He also becomes their center and circumference in God's dealing with them and with the nations. Jeremiah is a book concerning God's dealing first with Israel and then with the nations. The center and circumference of God's dealing is Christ. As God deals with Israel and the nations today, Christ is the center and circumference. For example, the recent changes in Europe and Russia are God's doing for Christ to be the centrality and universality. The book of Jeremiah is not concerned merely with God's tenderheartedness and righteousness and with His chastisement of stubborn, stiff-necked Israel. The intrinsic reality of this book is God's dealing with Israel and with the nations for Christ to be the center and circumference in everything.
The content of Jeremiah is God's carrying out of His economy through the chastisement of Israel, His elect, in love with His tender care, compassion, and sympathy, and His judgment upon the nations in righteousness to match His love, that Israel may manifest Christ, who is their divine righteousness (23:6; 33:16) as their centrality and universality, by their being made a new creation with the inner law of the divine life and the capacity of this life to know God (31:33-34).
According to the book of Jeremiah, God's love is a composition of His tender care, compassion, and sympathy. Even while He chastises His elect people Israel, He is compassionate toward them. Regarding this, God can be compared to a father who weeps as he disciplines his child because he loves the child. In this book Jeremiah wept on God's behalf; his weeping expressed God's feeling. We may say that God wept within Jeremiah's weeping, for in his weeping Jeremiah was one with God.
God carries out His economy not only by chastising Israel in love but also by judging the nations in righteousness. His righteousness matches His love. Actually, God's judgment upon the nations comes out of His love for them and results in His salvation of them in His love.
God chastises Israel in love and judges the nations in righteousness so that Israel may manifest Christ. Today the nation of Israel does not manifest Christ but remains in unbelief. But the day will come when every one of Israel, great and small, will manifest Christ, having Christ as their centrality (their being) and their universality (their expression). When Antichrist is about to destroy the entire people of Israel, Christ will come down from the heavens to deliver them from Antichrist. The Spirit of grace and supplications will be poured out upon them, they will look upon the One whom they have pierced, and they will wail over Him (Zech. 12:10-14). From that time onward the people of Israel will manifest Christ.
God will not only deliver Israel from Antichrist but will make them a new creation with the inner law of the divine life and the capacity of this life to know God (Jer. 31:33-34). This means that God will put Himself into them as the divine life. Within this life there are the inner law and the capacity to know God. As believers in Christ, we all have such a capacity. Before we were saved, there was no way for us to know God. But when we were saved, the divine life entered into our being with its capacity to know God. One day the people of Israel will also have this capacity. God will make a new covenant with them and come into them as the divine life with its law and capacity. In this way they will become a new creation and will manifest Christ as their centrality and universality.
Jeremiah 23:6 and 33:16 both reveal that Christ, the Shoot, the descendant of David, will be made the righteousness of Jehovah to Israel. Then Israel will have Christ as the center and also as the expression. God will fulfill in them the promise of the new covenant to enter into them to be their life. By the capacity of this life, they will know God, serve God, and worship God. Today we, the believers in Christ, are partaking of this new covenant. At the time of Christ's second coming, Israel also will begin to partake of the new covenant.
The central thought of the book of Jeremiah is that the God of love, in His everlasting love, earnestly yearns that Israel, His beloved yet distracted elect, would turn to Him from the other gods, all of their idols (2:28; 11:13), that they may gain His incarnated Christ as the righteousness of Jehovah to them as their central being and universal expression. Thus, in spite of the fact that His degraded elect, according to their nature by birth, are wicked (12:1; 30:23), have a heart which is deceitful above all things (17:9), and cannot possibly be changed in any way, as the Cushite cannot change his skin or the leopard his spots (13:23), they may be redeemed from their fall by the redemption of Christ and be saved from their sinful nature, not only from their sin and wickedness, by the divine life of Christ with its divine capacity of the inner life, not with the outward law of dead letters, to be renewed (as indicated by the new covenant they have received of God) that God could be their God and that they could be God's people (31:31-33) to participate in the enjoyment of the riches of the Triune God. This participation of theirs in the riches of God will be in the millennium in the coming age of restoration and will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
Perhaps you are wondering how we know that Jeremiah speaks of the incarnated Christ. This is indicated by the word in 23:5 and 33:15 concerning Christ as the righteous Shoot that will be raised up to David by God. Christ will be the descendant of David, and this means that He will become a man in the flesh. This is the incarnated Christ. This incarnated Christ, the righteous Shoot, will become the righteousness of Jehovah to Israel to be their central being and universal expression.
In order to demonstrate that what we have said regarding the central thought of Jeremiah is accurate, I would like now to consider three portions from Jeremiah and one from Lamentations. If we put these portions together, we will see that our understanding of the central thought of Jeremiah is according to the intrinsic content of this book and is not merely a human interpretation.
Regarding Israel, the elect of Jehovah, Jeremiah 2:13 says, "My people have committed two evils: / They have forsaken Me, / The fountain of living waters, / To hew out for themselves cisterns, / Broken cisterns, / Which hold no water." Jeremiah might have been weeping as he spoke this word. This word concerning the fountain of living waters is actually a New Testament thought. Jeremiah's word here is very similar to that of the Lord Jesus in John 4:14, where He said to the Samaritan woman, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water gushing up into eternal life."
Lamentations 3:22-25 says, "It is Jehovah's lovingkindness that we are not consumed, / For His compassions do not fail; / They are new every morning.... / Jehovah is my portion... / Therefore I hope in Him. / Jehovah is good to those who wait on Him." Here Jeremiah speaks not of God's love but of His lovingkindness and of His compassions. Compassion is different from mercy. Compassion is a tender, inward feeling, and mercy is the outward expression of this feeling. Jehovah's compassions, like the dew, are new every morning. Immediately after speaking of God's lovingkindness and compassions, Jeremiah utters a personal word: "Jehovah is my portion...I hope in Him." Here Jeremiah seemed to be saying, "Although the children of Israel have been exiled, I still have hope in Jehovah. I hope in the One whose lovingkindness and compassions toward us do not fail. He is my portion, and He is good, not only to me, but to all who wait on Him."
Jeremiah 23:5 and 6 say, "Behold, days are coming, / Declares Jehovah, / When I will raise up to David a righteous Shoot; / And He will reign as King and act prudently / And will execute judgment and righteousness in the land. / In His days Judah will be saved, / And Israel will dwell securely; / And this is His name by which He will be called, / Jehovah our righteousness." This "righteous Shoot" is Christ incarnated to be a descendant of David in the flesh. At the time this word was written, David's descendants had become evil, and it seemed that no more kings would come out of David's tribe. But Jeremiah prophesied that one day God would raise up a new sprout, a new branch, a righteous Shoot, to reign as King and act prudently. This word regarding Christ's reigning as a King will be fulfilled in the millennium. As Isaiah 53 indicates, the word regarding Christ's acting prudently refers to His acting wisely in His resurrection. Furthermore, the fact that His name will be called "Jehovah our righteousness" means that He has something to do with us. Here His name is not called the righteousness of Jehovah, but Jehovah our righteousness, indicating that He becomes one with us to be our righteousness. This also is a New Testament thought.
The fourth portion I would like to consider is Jeremiah 31:33 and 34. "This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law within them and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And they will no longer teach, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for all of them will know Me, from the little one among them even to the great one among them, declares Jehovah, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." The law spoken of here is related to the divine life. God is saying that He will put His life into them and that with this life there is a law. Actually, this life is the law. We may use an apple tree as an illustration. An apple tree has its own law. The law of an apple tree is the life of the apple tree. Because of this law, an apple tree spontaneously produces apples. There is no need to say, "Apple tree, I command you not to produce bananas but to produce apples. Also, your apples should be round and not square." The life of the apple tree will regulate it in such a way that it will produce apples. The principle is the same with our human life. Our human life has a law which regulates our living as human beings. The divine life is the highest life, and this life within us is an inner law that regulates us.
According to Jeremiah 31:33, this divine law is not only put into our spirit but is also written, inscribed, on our hearts. This corresponds to the New Testament teaching about the divine life spreading from our spirit into our heart and mind.
Jeremiah 31:34 tells us that all the house of Israel will know Jehovah, from the little one to the great one among them. This also applies to us, the New Testament believers, today. What makes us different from others is that we have the inner law of the divine life with its capacity and ability to know God and to know that God is our God and that we are His people. Today, as the new creation, we should conduct ourselves according to the inner instruction of the law of life. Eventually, Israel will be the same as we are now; they also will become a new creation in the divine life and know God according to the capacity of the divine life.
We may compare our reading of the book of Jeremiah to picking fruit from trees in an orchard. In picking fruit we do not care about old branches or dry leaves; we care for the ripe fruit. Likewise, in our study of Jeremiah, we should not gather "branches" and "leaves" but "fruit." Those who pay attention to the branches and leaves and those who appreciate the fruit are both right, but only those who collect the fruit are spiritually benefited. In these messages in the life-study of Jeremiah, my burden is to present not branches and leaves but fruit. I believe that even in this introductory word there are a number of "apples," "peaches," and "pears" for you to enjoy. The portions concerning the fountain of living waters, the righteous Shoot who will reign as a King, the Lord's lovingkindness and compassions and His being our portion, and the new covenant with the law of the divine life surely are marvelous fruit for our enjoyment and enlightenment. Whereas many readers of Jeremiah concentrate on the branches and leaves, I would urge you to concentrate on the fruit.
Finally, in this introductory word we need to see that the book of Jeremiah has four sections. The first section is Jeremiah's call and commission (ch. 1). The second section covers Israel's sin against Jehovah and Jehovah's punishment upon Israel (chs. 2—45). The third section concerns Jehovah's Punishment and Judgment Upon the Nations Involved with God's Elect, Israel (chs. 46—51). The last section is a supplement to the history of captivity (ch. 52).
As we have indicated, in these four sections there are four parties: God, Jeremiah, Israel, and the nations. The first two parties are good, and the second two are evil. In a very real sense, the book of Jeremiah is a drama in which an important part is played by each of these four parties.
