Can any thing good come from Jeremiah?

I have made a few posts about my recent trip through the prophet Jeremiah. This is the last one.

Jeremiah lived and prophesied around 600 BC. He lived in Jerusalem. He lived under the Law. He prophesied of judgment - doom and gloom, maybe he could even be called a ‘hellfire and damnation’ preacher! – and he is known as “The weeping prophet.” So why, when so much of the church today is concerned with being fun, positive, cool, and culturally relevant, would anyone want to read the words of someone known as the Weeping Prophet (“Not fun”), who spoke so much about judgment (not positive – "We like to talk about the love of God”), who lived 2600 years ago (completely irrelevant to our culture)??

Can anything good come from reading Jeremiah?? To quote the apostle Paul, much in every way.

First, Jeremiah is part of the Word of God. And we know what the Apostle said about that. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And all this profit can be gleaned from Jeremiah.

Second, We learn a little more of the history of Israel. Why is this important or how is this helpful?
1 Corinthians 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Third, we see God. What do we see about God in Jeremiah? He is Holy. Righteous. Faithful. Love. Judge. Savior. I know, there is a heavy emphasis on judgment and wrath and that these are attributes we would like to forget. But these same attributes are spoken of in the New Testament. We just ignore them there, too!
I realize there are folks who like to represent God, as He is found in Jeremiah (and the whole Old Testament), as an angry, petulant God, so different than the God of the Gospel. But this is such a distortion of the truth. Why was God angry with Judah? Did He just wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Was He unreasonably irritable? No. First Israel, then Judah, had sinned for generations. Idolatry – in your face idolatry, in the temple idolatry – was everywhere, immorality abounded, injustice was the law of the land. The princes, the priests, the people, were wholly given over to sin. To make matters worse, they maintained a facade of keeping the covenant:

Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

And, God has sent them prophets warning them, calling them, exhorting them to return to Him so He could bless them. And they refused. Judgment was all that was left. I admit, it was severe: the land was emptied, the city was burned, the temple was desecrated. But God had mercy even in wrath. When they were in Babylon He raised up Ezekiel to speak to them (still rebellious) and then Daniel. And after 70 years they were restored to the land. We don’t like this story, but do we think we can sin and rebel with impunity and God will not judge us? We need Jeremiah!

Fourth, we learn what God wants from us, His people. I have already written about this . We can learn from Jeremiah how to maintain a strong walk with God.

Fifth, Messiah is spoken of. 
Jeremiah 23:5-6  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Jeremiah 31:31-34   Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah…

Amen! This is the New Covenant. Our Covenant! Jesus speaks of this. Hebrews spends a lot of time on this.

Six, not only is it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, but I believe a couple of times Jeremiah sees down to our day. Obviously in the promise of the New Covenant, but I also believe in chapter 33 Jeremiah sees beyond the restoration from Babylon to Messiah, and the times of Messiah, and that’s us.

Seventh, preachers can learn a lot from Jeremiah. There is the obvious prophetic ministry: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Jeremiah was full of the Word of God. But he was also full of the love of God. He wept for the people because these were the people of God, the beloved of God, and through their sin they brought such destruction on themselves. And it broke his heart because if broke God’s heart. There was no delight in his message. He wanted salvation, deliverance, rescue, restoration; and when the Jews would not return to the Lord, he wept. It was the Spirit of God weeping in him. Preachers need the love of God poured out into their heart, they need the heart of God, so that they will weep over their flock, their city, even as they boldly warn of the coming judgment.


This is the good that comes out of Jeremiah. We need Jeremiah. We need to hear his message and feel his heart.