COMING UP THIS SONDAY
Read Jeremiah 1:1-3
While not so prevalent nowadays as in days gone by, sons would naturally move into the employment of their fathers, especially if father owned and ran a local business. Such was the case in terms of the priesthood in Israel. God had chosen the Levites to be priests and sons would follow in their father’s shoes.
The book of Jeremiah opens with a brief description of his lineage as a priest – Jeremiah was son to Hilkiah, a priest at Anathoth, 5km north of Jerusalem along the mountain range. In a sense, such a priesthood in the country regions outside of the city limits was an easy job. One might compare it to a modern TV sit-com country parish with not much to do – a role and job more about formalities and motions than ministering the gospel of grace to people.
Jeremiah’s reign is said to have been from the 13th year of Josiah to the 5th month of the 11th year of Zedekiah’s reign in which the people of Judah were exiled to Babylonia. For about 40 years the Prophet Jeremiah continued to serve the Lord, to do the work he was called to and to faithfully administer all the duties of his calling.
But this calling of Jeremiah would be no ordinary role. Indeed he wasn’t called to be a priest, walking in the sandals of his father. Rather, Jeremiah was called to be a prophet and even worse, a prophet calling for repentance and return. As in our day, any call for repentance and return to the Lord is never met with hearty approval but with disdain and anger. Jeremiah faced great odds but by God’s grace, mercy and power he would overcome and continue to faithfully proclaim the truth from God.
Even though Josiah was a godly king the nation of Israel had split into two (north and south) and both had been in spiritual decline for ages. After King Solomon fell into evil habits and practices, the Kingdom was torn into two - Israel to the north and Judah to the south - as a sign of the Lord’s judgement. God had warned Solomon not to marry foreign women, which he did, and not to worship their gods, which he also did.
Israel, the northern part, accelerated downhill and was exiled by the Assyrians in 722BC. The south was in moral and spiritual decline. She refused to learn from her sister up north and did not take to heart the warnings given to her from the exile of the northern kingdom. Many evil kings, evil prophets and evil priests had continued to lead the people astray.
As you read through the history of the kings of both Israel and Judah - see 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles you hear the familiar and heartbreaking refrain, ‘and {king’s name} did evil in the eyes of the Lord’. In fact, we read some 32 times that dreaded phrase, ‘... evil in the eyes of the Lord’. But unfortunately this is no new development or trend. The Scriptures tell us that almost from the moment God delivered the people out of bondage and slavery in Egypt the people began to rebel and to test the Lord.
Jeremiah, after 40 years of faithful ministry, saw them reach the bottom of the slippery slope of sin - exile from the Promised Land.
Prayer Points:
Using today’s Bible passage and reading notes spend time in adoration, confession, thanks and supplication.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
· Pray for the Committee of Management as they superintend and use the funds of your congregation for the Kingdom’s sake and glory. Pray that they would be men and women close to God, filled with love and the Spirit and willing to follow God in everything.
· Pray that God would grant everyone in your congregation/family a growing desire to be holy and righteous.
1. See if you can find a list of kings in Judah and Israel (South and North) and jot down who they were and whether they were godly kings or not. Describe the pattern you discover.
2. How do you explain the exile biblically?
3. Jeremiah is sometimes called the ‘Whinging Prophet”. Do you think this is a fair title? why or why not?
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