Jeremiah 27 - Chapter 27 is the first of three chapters that apparently existed separately at one time; and each is about the “false prophets.”  The date of this first is supposedly 594 BC when an embassy of states—Edom, Moab, Sidon [south to north on the eastern side of the Jordan River]--conferred about what to do about Nebuchadnezzar. It is at the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign (c.598/597 BC). Jeremiah is called by God to make a yoke and to wear it as a sign to these leaders. There…

Jeremiah 26  - The narrative here goes back to around 608 BC just after Jehoiachim becomes king of Judah as a vassal of the Neo-Babylonians. Jeremiah tells us he must speak, for the people of Judah still have a choice at this point. They might listen and be saved. Everything rests on the word IF. IF the people change then the Lord “may repent of the evil I have planned to inflict upon them for their evil deeds” (26:3). It is interesting that the writer…

Jeremiah 25 - The year is about 605 BC, the year of Nebuchadnezzar’s victory over Egypt at Carchemish.  Babylon became the dominant power in the region, and Jeremiah saw them as the “enemy to come out of the North” that his prophecies had foretold.  It is 23 years since Jeremiah was called to preach his message. Jeremiah’s message has been, “Turn back. . .from your evil behavior and your evil actions and you will stay on the soil Yahweh long ago gave to you. . .” (JB 25:5-6), but you…

Jeremiah 23 - Jeremiah’s harangue against the people’s shepherds very similar to the words of Ezekiel. “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord” (23:1).

Early Friends took passages such as these for prophesies that God would never trust his people to human shepherds under the new covenant, but that Christ Himself would be their shepherd.  “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have…

Jeremiah 22 - In 588 BC, Jeremiah goes to the King of Judah and says, “Practice honesty and integrity – rescue the man who’s been wronged from oppressor.”  If you do, the monarchy will prosper; but if not, the palace shall become a ruin. Again, as in Jeremiah 7, God’s promise is seen as conditional. Nothing God establishes can continue in power unless the inward spirit continues.  There are no eternally sacred outward things (!!!)  “You were like a Gilead to me, like a peak…

Introduction and Context: The next chapters of Jeremiah can be confusing because they make continual references to historical events and people that the earlier chapters seem to ignore. I may have already said something about the historical context, but here it is again:

Josiah, the reformer-king, died on the battlefield of Megiddo in 609, trying to stop the northward march of Pharaoh Neco, who was at that time allied with the Assyrians.  After Josiah’s death, his son…

Jeremiah 20 – Jeremiah enters the court of the Temple to prophesy his message of disaster, and he is taken into custody, scourged and chained near the northernmost gate, the Benjamin Gate.  On his release the next morning, he prophesies against the chief officer responsible for his sufferings. Jeremiah is anxious about the hate closing in on him—as perhaps Jesus was too. “Whenever I speak, I have to cry out and shout, ‘Violence! Destruction!’ Lord, I am ridicules and scorned all…