Reading the Bible Together for June – Jeremiah

Key Truths:
• The people of Judah and Jerusalem deserved their exile to Babylon because of continuing sin.
• The temple in Jerusalem could not protect the Judahites from God’s judgment against them for their hypocrisy.
• False prophets proclaiming peace and safety must be rejected in favour of the message of the true prophets.
• The judgment of exile would be followed by a grand restoration under a new covenant.

Purpose and Distinctives:
Jeremiah’s message moves through phases that do not correspond exactly to the structure of the book.
(1) He called Judah to repent in order to avoid the judgment that would otherwise come (e.g., Jer 7:1-15).
(2) He announced that the time for repentance was past and that judgment was now determined against the people (see notes on Jer 19:10-11). Judgment is the dominant note in the book and is understood as the invocation of the final curse of the covenant; namely, loss of the promised land (Lev 26:31-33; Deut 28:49-68).
(3) The Lord would save his people, or a remnant of them, through the exile (see notes on Jer 24:4-7). Although the Babylonians would prevail over Judah at the Lord’s command, this would be for a limited time only. Babylon would fall in its turn (Jer 25:9,11-12), which occured in 539 B.C. to an alliance of Persians and Medes under Cyrus, paving the way for the exiles to return (Jer 50:3; 51:1, 27-28; 2 Chron 36:20-23). This was Jeremiah’s answer to the false prophets who had continually challenged his message of judgment (Jer 28:2-4).

The RBT community group question sheet and also a full copy of David’s outline for Jeremiah can be found on the downloads page.