Lessons from Jeremiah

Memory Text: 'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'that I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth' (Jeremiah 23:5, NKJV).

We're now at the end of our study of Jeremiah. It's been an adventure; a lot of drama, emotion, and energy has been expended in the saga of our prophet.

Like all the prophets, Jeremiah didn't write in a vacuum: his was a message from the Lord and for people at a specific time and place, and under specific circumstances.

And yet, however radically different his circumstances were from ours or from those of the many other generations who have read Jeremiah, crucial principles expressed there are the same for God's people in every generation.

Such as faithfulness to God and obedience to His commandments. Such as true religion, a religion of the heart, as opposed to empty and dead rituals that can leave people in a false state of complacency. Such as the people's willingness to listen to correction, even when it cuts across what they want to hear. Such as true revival and reformation. Such as trusting in the Lord and His promises instead of the arm of flesh. Such as . . .

The list goes on. This week, let's take a look at some of the many lessons we can learn from this revelation of God's love for His people even amid many thunderous warnings to them about where their actions will lead.

Jeremiah's Lord

Seventh-day Adventists understand that at the center of the great controversy exists a crucial issue: What is the character of God? What is God really like? Is He the arbitrary tyrant that Satan makes Him out to be, or is He a loving and caring Father who wants only the best for us? These questions really are the most important questions in the entire cosmos. After all, what would our situation be if God were not kind and loving and self-sacrificial, but mean and arbitrary and sadistic? We'd be better off if no God existed than to have one like that.

So, the questions are of huge importance. Fortunately, we have the answers, and they are best seen at the Cross.

Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of God, the Majesty of heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to adore-humbled Himself to uplift fallen man; that He bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke His heart, and crushed out His life on Calvary's cross. That the Maker of all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside His glory and humiliate Himself from love to man will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe.-Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 651.

How is the nature and character of God revealed in the following texts in Jeremiah? That is, what do these texts tell us about Him?

These are just a few of the many images and expressions used in the book that reveal to us something of the nature and character of our God. He is the Source of life, the powerful Creator, a God of judgment, a God who loves us and calls us, over and over, to repent of our sins and to turn away from the paths that will lead to our destruction.

What evidence of God's loving character have you experienced during your lifetime?

Rituals and Sin

There is a document that records God's endless, dispiriting struggle with organized religion, known as the Bible.-Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, (Yale University Press, 2010), Kindle Edition, p.8.

Not quite true, and that's because the religion of the Bible, the religion that God has given humanity, has always been an organized religion.

On the other hand, there is no question that in the book of Jeremiah, the Lord was seeking to get people away from the cold, dead, but very organized rituals that came to dominate their faith, rituals that they believed covered their sin.

As said earlier, yet it is worth repeating, the vast majority of Jeremiah's struggles were with leaders and priests and people who believed that because they were the chosen ones of God, the children of Abraham, the covenant people, they were just fine with the Lord. What a sad deception, one that we, also of Abraham's seed (Gal. 3:29), need to watch out for.

What is the message of the following texts in Jeremiah? Most important, how can we apply the principles there in our own walk with the Lord? (Jer. 6:20, 7:1-10).

Read Jeremiah 7:9-10. If one ever wanted to find a situation that fits what has been called cheap grace, the term certainly applies here. The people do all these sinful things and then come back to the temple and worship the true God and claim forgiveness for their sins? God is not mocked. Unless these people change their ways, especially how they treat the weak among them, they are going to face harsh judgment.

What a deception they are under, the belief that they can claim God's forgiveness and go on doing what they want, without regard to the conditions of the covenant so that they can continue on in those sins.

What is the difference between what Jeremiah is warning about here and what Jesus said in Matthew 9:12? Why is it important to know that difference?

Religion of the Heart

So much of the book of Jeremiah is directed toward the nation as a whole. Time and again he talked about Israel and Judah corporately, as God's choice vine (Jer. 2:21, NIV), or the beloved of the Lord (Jer. 11:15, 12:7), God's own heritage (Jer. 12:7-9), His vineyard (Jer. 12:10) and His flock (Jer. 13:17). Without doubt, in the book we get a sense of the corporate nature of the Lord's calling to this nation.

Of course, it's the same in the New Testament, where time and again the church is understood in a corporate sense (see Eph. 1:22, 3:10, 5:27).

Yet salvation is personal, not a corporate issue. We are not saved as package deals. As with the New Testament church, the nation of Judah was composed of individuals, and it's here, at the level of the individual, that the real crucial issues arise. The famous text in Deuteronomy 6:5, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength (NKJV), though spoken to the nation as a whole, is written in the singular second person. That is, the you in each case is the singular; God is talking to each one individually. In the end, each one of us, personally, will have to give an account of ourselves to God.

What do the following texts say about the importance of a personal, individual walk with the Lord?

Though both Testaments of the Bible talk about the corporate nature of God's church, true faith is a matter of each person, himself or herself, making a daily surrender to the Lord, a personal choice to walk in faith and obedience.

Though there's no question that we are each individually responsible for our own souls, how can we make sure that we are doing everything we can to uplift and encourage others? Whom do you know, right now, that you can say some kind and uplifting words to?

Twilight of the Idols

What was one of the great sins that the people committed that Jeremiah had to deal with constantly? (Jer. 10:1-15).

What's interesting in these texts is not just the way in which the prophet shows how vain and useless and silly these idols are, but how he contrasts them to the living God. These things are powerless, useless, empty, and false; what a contrast to the Lord who made the heavens and earth! He will endure forever, while these idols will vanish forever. So, whom should we be worshiping and dedicating our lives to: that which is weak, false, vain, and powerless, or to the Lord whose power and might is so great that He created and sustains the universe? The answer, of course, is obvious.

Yet however obvious the answer, the fact is, we are in danger of falling into idolatry as well. Though today we might not worship the same kind of idols that those in Jeremiah's time did, our modern life is full of false gods. These modern idols can be anything that we love more than God; whatever we worship (and worship doesn't always mean singing and praying) becomes our god, and we are guilty of idolatry.

What are some of the things that we can be in danger of making into idols? What about things like digital devices, money, fame, even other people? Make a list of what these potential idols are, and then ask yourself: In the end, what real salvation do they offer?

Of course, we know intellectually that none of these things are worthy of worship. We know that in the end, nothing that this world offers us, nothing that we make into idols, can ultimately satisfy our souls and certainly not redeem them. We know all these things, and yet, unless we are careful, unless we keep before us Jesus and what He did for us and why He did it, we can so easily be swept up in a modern form of the idolatry similar to that which Jeremiah so passionately railed against.

The Remnant

In the closing years of Judah's apostasy the exhortations of the prophets were seemingly of but little avail; and as the armies of the Chaldeans came for the third and last time to besiege Jerusalem, hope fled from every heart. Jeremiah predicted utter ruin; and it was because of his insistence on surrender that he had finally been thrown into prison. But God left not to hopeless despair the faithful remnant who were still in the city. Even while Jeremiah was kept under close surveillance by those who scorned his messages, there came to him fresh revelations concerning Heaven's willingness to forgive and to save, which have been an unfailing source of comfort to the church of God from that day to this.-Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 466.

Even amid that prevailing apostasy and doom, God always had a faithful people, however small in number. Though as with many of the prophets, much of the emphasis in Jeremiah was on apostasy and unfaithfulness-because these were what the Lord wanted to save the people from-all through sacred history, the Lord had a faithful remnant. This, of course, will continue down until the end of time (see Rev. 12:17).

How is the concept of the remnant expressed in Jeremiah 23:1-8? How does this apply to New Testament times? (See also Jer. 33:14-18.)

In Jeremiah 33:5-7 scholars have long seen a Messianic prophecy, a prophecy of redemption for God's faithful people. Though it's true that, after the Babylonian exile, a remnant returned, it was not a glorious return. However, God's purposes would be fulfilled through the lineage of David, through a righteous Branch, the King who would one day reign.

This prophecy had a partial fulfillment in the first coming of Jesus (see Matt. 1:1, 21:7-9, John 12:13). It will have its ultimate fulfillment in the Second Coming (see Dan. 7:13-14), when all of God's faithful people, His true remnant, will dwell forever in peace and safety. The redemption, first symbolized by the Exodus from Egypt, will be final, complete, and eternal.

In what are you putting your hopes? How can you learn to trust more and more in the promises of God and their ultimate fulfillment in your own life? What else besides them do you have?

For example, he looked at John the Baptist, who lived a lonely life in the wilderness. Though eventually John had a small following, it never amounted to much, and certainly it was not what Jesus, who came later, had. And of course, John lived out his last days in a dank prison where, at times, he was harassed with doubt, finally only to get his head chopped off (Matthew 14:1-12). After recounting all this, Elder Frazee asked: Was John a winner or a loser?

What about Jeremiah the prophet? How successful was his life? He suffered a great deal, and he wasn't afraid to whine and moan about it either. With few exceptions, it seems that the priests, prophets, kings, and common people not only didn't like what he had to say, but also thoroughly resented it. He was even seen as treasonous against his own people. In the end, the destruction and doom that he spent his life warning about came, because time and again the people rejected his words. They threw him in a muddy pit, hoping he'd die there. He lived to see his nation go into a terrible exile while Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. Thus, from a human perspective, not much went well for Jeremiah. From one perspective, you could argue that he had a fairly miserable life.

Discussion Questions:

Inside Story~

Now Is The Time

Debrah, a Seventh-day Adventist, missed her church fellowship after she married and unbeliever and moved with her husband to an area where there was no church.

After some years, a group of Adventist laymen calling themselves the Now Is The Time team decided to hold meetings in this area. The first night of the meetings, Debrah's husband happened by and came in. Although he was very drunk, he realized that these meetings were being conducted by members of his wife's church.

Where have you been? he demanded loudly. My wife is a Seventh-day Adventist and she has been waiting years for you to come! One of the workers persuaded him to come outside where his drunken behavior would not interrupt the meeting. Finally, he asked for a Bible to take to his wife and set off for home, some distance away.

Meanwhile, Debrah had awakened from a vivid dream in which she had seen her husband entering the house with a Bible as a gift for her. She lay in the darkness, wondering what the dream meant. She knew it was unlikely that her husband would spend his money to buy her a Bible.

About 2:00 am her husband came home and presented her with the Bible, just as she had dreamed. Thrilled over this sign of God's care, she couldn't go to sleep and finally decided to get up and find the place where the meetings were being held.

Arriving very early in the morning, Debrah found the preachers and studied earnestly with them. She decided that nothing would ever keep her from serving the God who had spoken to her in a dream.

Debrah’s husband was tolerant, but his parents were angry. They burned all her clothes. When the evangelistic team gave her more clothes, they burned them too. When her husband’s parents realized that she would not forsake her religion, they threw Debrah out of the home and bought another wife for their son. But eventually, because of his unhappiness, they relented and reinstated Debrah as their son's wife.

Although her husband was glad to have her back, he showed no interest in religion himself. But as Debrah worked hard to please him and make him comfortable, while also spending as much time as she could helping others, her beautiful Christian life made an impression on him and he decided to become a Seventh-day Adventist. Today, he and Debrah work together to share God's love.

___ Debrah and her husband live in an unspecified country of Africa.

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