Once again enjoy the video. Fascinating stuff that I never knew or even considered before. one of the things I will need to remember while reading it is that this is an anthology written by a scribe. So there may be points where the topic changes abruptly, I’ll need to make note where one story ends another begins, or if it’s poetry or sermon.
Chapter 1 – This book doesn’t mess around. After just a few verses about God knowing and planning all this before Jeremiah was born, we jump straight into destruction. I love that God let Jeremiah know before he even asks, that he will protect him from his own people. My guess is if you start yelling about the wrongdoing of your neighbors and saying they’re all going to die or be captured, that’s a No-No in society and he might be imprisoned. Interesting things to note in verse 6-9 about speaking. my first inclination was Jeremiah was touch to speak in tongues. However it seems more likely that his voice was touched to speak what God commands. That Jeremiah is simply a vessel for God to fill with His own words for the Nations and Israel. Which again is still interesting because when Moses said he could not speak, God sent Aaron to help him. Yet here God just empowered Jeremiah. Is that because there is no available ‘Aaron’ for Jeremiah? Like with Noah and Lot maybe God could not find two righteous men.
Chapter 2 – so Begins the condemnation of Israel. Having read the old testament this year I can’t help but wonder how can they be so stupid; how can I be so thoughtless and empty-headed to do this. Yet on a small scale I do it everyday. I sit in my house that God provided, drive my car that He ordained for me before I was born, and worship my idols. Maybe I’m not literally ‘whoring after Baal’. But my focus is on my job, my newest non-fiction audiobook, the games on my phone, trying to be a better dad and husband. Which none of these are necessarily wrong, and some of them are actually good. But they should be secondary to my focused on Christ. Or like being a good father and husband those will grow because I Focus on Christ. They will not grow because I focus on buying my kids the best toys or showering my wife with flowers, AKA doing things on my own strength. And on a bigger picture (which I know it’s overused to say) how is America like Israel here. We are once a Christ lead nation where God held a special place in society. And now it’s politically incorrect to talk of God, especially in a government place. I’m just thankful I was not called like Jeremiah to preach condemnation on my own Nation in such a public manner as he did.