Jeremiah’s harsh words to Pashur and the nation (Jer. 20:4-6) weren’t his own; they were not uttered out of his anger at having been locked in the stocks for a day. They were the Lord’s words to him for the people. What comes after, though, comes directly from Jeremiah’s own heart, written down under the … Continue reading –>
The job of the prophets has always been to convey God’s message, not to count how many people accept or reject it. Generally, the number of those who accept what the prophets preach at the time they are preaching it is low. For example, though we don’t know how many were alive at the time … Continue reading –>
Removed as we are by more than two thousand years chronologically from Judah, and perhaps even further removed culturally and socially, it’s hard for us to understand all that was going on in the time of Jeremiah. When reading the Bible, especially the harsh warnings and threats that God uttered against the people, many people … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: Jeremiah 23:14-15; Jer. 20:1-18; Acts 2:37; Job 3:1-26; Jer. 18:1-10, Jer. 18-23. Memory Text: O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me (Jeremiah 20:7). One thing anyone who has followed the Lord … Continue reading –>
Key Thought : Sin pervades every aspect of human existence. Jeremiah experienced this when his life was threatened because of the message he preached.. Rebuke and Retribution, October 17-23, 2015 1. Have a volunteer read Jeremiah 17:1-5. a. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is. b. … Continue reading –>
Following God in this world involves suffering. Let’s accept the fact that suffering comes with the territory of being a believer in a world that is not our home. To be true to God will cost you. It cost Jeremiah a lot. Everyone wants to be loved and well thought of. None in their right … Continue reading –>
John grew up knowing that God was calling him to become a minister. When he tried to ignore or avoid the call, he found that he could not. In Zimbabwe, work for students is nearly impossible to find, so John had to rely on his mother to pay his school fees when he enrolled at … Continue reading –>
Jeremiah struggled with a question that we all do: how do we make sense of evil? But maybe that’s the problem, trying to make sense of what’s not sensible, what could even be deemed as nonsense. In this regard, Ellen G. White wrote: It is impossible to explain the origin of sin so as to … Continue reading –>
Read Jeremiah 14:1-10. What is happening here? Drought struck all of the land; every city, town, and village suffered. The poor and the rich suffered together. Not even the wildlife could bear the lack of water. The aristocrats waited for their servants at the city gates, hoping they had found water, but the springs had … Continue reading –>
In the earliest chapters of Jeremiah, the Lord had warned his servant that his work as a prophet was not going to be easy. At the time of his calling, Jeremiah was told that Judah’s princes, kings, priests, and people would fight against [him] (Jer. 1:19). Although he was told that the Lord would sustain … Continue reading –>
Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy. Proverbs 27:6 NLT Long ago, I was writing a blog post about humor. I compared the humor of my friends in different areas. Just a few minutes after publishing my post, I got a call from a friend here where I live. He told me I better … Continue reading –>
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:19). The sad story of Jeremiah is that the opposition he faced came from the very ones that, through him, the Lord was trying to save. The Lord wanted to … Continue reading –>
