Week 29, July 12–18: 2 Corinthians 7–13; Jeremiah 1–14; Psalm 90

• Sun      Jul 12  2 Cor. 7–9      
• Mon     Jul 13  2 Cor. 10–13  
• Tue      Jul 14  Jer. 1–3          
• Wed     Jul 15  Jer. 4–6          
• Thu      Jul 16  Jer. 7–9          
• Fri        Jul 17  Jer. 10–12      
• Sat       Jul 18  Jer. 13–14       Ps. 90

After finishing 2 Corinthians, will return to the OT and pick up where we left off after reading Isaiah. Jeremiah is the next book of the Latter Prophets, the canonical section that includes Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve minor prophets. At this point, it might be helpful to go back and review some of the principles for reading prophetic books of the Bible, which we covered in the posts for week 25 and week 26.

Jeremiah is the longest book of the Bible. It does not have the most chapters, but by word count it surpasses Psalms, Isaiah, and every other book of the Bible. Like Isaiah, Jeremiah can be difficult to read. In fact, it has an even darker, more foreboding tone than Isaiah. In Jeremiah we read of Israel and Judah’s sinful rebellion against the Lord, and of the judgement Jeremiah warns is coming. While there are negative themes to be sure, a book like Jeremiah can help us see God’s grace more clearly too. Understanding the depth of sin and the righteousness of the Lord’s judgement enhances our appreciation of the Lord’s merciful and gracious character displayed in the gospel of Christ.

As you persevere through Jeremiah, lament with the prophet over the sin in the world, even among Jeremiah’s own people and ours. It is right for us to grieve like Jeremiah, and reading these parts of the OT prophets can and should sharpen our distaste for sin, our reverence and fear for the God against whom all sin is a great offense, and our desperation for his grace to destroy sin and overcome its consequences in our lives and in our world. And remember, Jeremiah is the book in the OT that most clearly anticipates the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31–34). Even in the midst of the darkness of Jeremiah’s message, there is the light of the gospel shining through—the good news that the Lord promises: “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (31:34)

Jeremiah was a priest (Jer. 1:1) who was called by God to oppose the corrupt priesthood in Jerusalem (1:18; 2:26; 5:31). He was a prophet who opposed the false prophets of Israel (5:31; 6:13; 27:16). He was called by the Lord to speak out against the people of Judah and Israel, who had gone astray from following the ways of God and from keeping his covenant. In the personal moments throughout Jeremiah, we see that the prophet’s message was not always comfortable, and his methods were sometimes far from conventional (see 13:11). It is for good reason Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. He suffered and grieved greatly despite being faithful to God’s call (really, because he was faithful to God’s call).

Jeremiah has many connections to other places in the Bible. Scholars have noticed that much of the language and themes of Jeremiah are rooted in the theology of the Pentateuch, especially Deuteronomy. As you read along for the next couple weeks, notice the way passages in Deuteronomy like Deut. 29:10–28 and 30:1–10 are reflected in Jeremiah, especially in the New Covenant language of Jeremiah 31.

Another example of connections between Jeremiah and other books of the OT can be seen in chapter 17. There it speaks of the one who trusts in the Lord and is like a tree planted by water that “does not cease to bear fruit” (17:8) This sounds very similar to Psalm 1, which says the person who meditates on the Torah of the Lord is “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season” (Ps. 1:2–3). The implication is that there is some meaningful correlation between trusting the Lord and reading and meditating on his word. Many other such connections occur throughout Jeremiah.

Jeremiah’s message, like the prophetic literature more generally, has a logical development to it, and it appears quite pessimistic at first. Generally speaking, the logic can be expressed like this.

• Jeremiah rebukes God’s people for their sin. They have rejected him and broken covenant with him.
• Their sin and rejection of God was inevitable. They have always rebelled, and rebellion is embedded in their hearts. They cannot change.
• Jeremiah reminds them that God is just and has promised his righteous punishment if his people sin against him.
• The people’s sin results in judgment. They have experienced God’s punishment or will soon, just as God said they would. Exile is the climactic punishment that was promised and eventually comes about.
• Jeremiah pleads for the people’s fortunes to be restored and their enemies defeated.
• But this will not and cannot happen without a change in the circumstances that caused the punishment, the sin of God’s people.
• So there must be some other solution, something God does that his people could not do.

This sequence does not develop sequentially in a nice, neat way throughout Jeremiah, but the different parts of Jeremiah’s message build on each other with a logical coherence that moves the hearers, and the readers, to a place of desperate longing for God’s gracious work. There is no hope for the people of God, or for humanity, outside of God’s own mighty acts of compassion to bring about a new reality in their hearts and in the world he created.