Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah, Lamentations

Steven Smith

• Publisher: Holman Reference
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780805496567
• eBook ISBN: 9781535928281
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah, Lamentations is part of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series. Edited by David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, and Tony Merida, this new commentary series, projected to be 48 volumes, takes a Christ-centered approach to expositing each book of the Bible. Rather than a verse-by-verse approach, the authors have crafted chapters that explain and apply key passages in their assigned Bible books.

Readers will learn to see Christ in all aspects of Scripture, and they will be encouraged by the devotional nature of each exposition presented as sermons and divided into chapters that conclude with a “Reflect & Discuss” section, making this series ideal for small group study, personal devotion, and even sermon preparation. It’s not academic but rather presents an easy reading, practical and friendly commentary.

The author of Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah, Lamentations is Steven Smith.

Jeremiah

Introduction The Hope of Judgment

The car edges to the shoulder of the highway; I hear gravel and debris pinging the inside of my wheel well. The siren and lights behind me are like irritating beacons of justice illuminating my guilt. I’ve been caught speeding. All those who witness this scene are reminded that justice is real, and I have the gnawing feeling that justice will be served.

The reason I was pulled over is because I was guilty. I was speeding. The officer did not trap me, trick me, or treat me differently than others. I knew the law, I knew the risks of breaking the law, I took those risks, and I will pay. Yet, while I know this intellectually, some small part of me wants to blame the officer. Now, I don’t yell and scream. No, I simply blame him covertly in the act of trying to be excused. When we beg for mercy, it is a subtle way of saying, “If you were not so good at your job, I would not be in this position. Frankly, this whole thing is partly your fault.” Yet, in reality, he is not the one giving me justice. The state in which I live is bringing justice on me. He is not the law; he is the agent of the law. He is in the unenviable position of telling me that judgment is coming from a power higher than both of us. He did not create the situation. He simply enforced it.

This analogy, weak as it is, helps us understand the role of the prophet. Jeremiah might identify with being the enforcer. He was just a man, yet this man had the unenviable position of being called to deliver the message of pending justice, and because he was the agent of the law, some people treated him terribly.

Understandably, he was reluctant to embrace his call. God had to command him to obey the call and not be afraid of people’s scowling faces (Jer 1:6-10). And not unlike the resentment we all feel toward the messenger of the bad news, he faced the wrath of many who wanted to kill the messenger for bringing bad news (Jer 38). It never has been easy to enforce the law, and it made for a tough life for Jeremiah. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start at the beginning—the very beginning.

Context

God created Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. He activated the faith of Noah, destroyed the rest of the world by a flood, and started over with a new race. This new race also rebelled against its Creator, and God decided to start over yet again, activating the faith of Abraham. This time the human race would not be new physically, but he would create another kingdom within the human race. They were a race of people set apart by nationality, yes, but more specifically by a promise that he would make to them, a promise that contained three things: land, offspring, and blessing.

Abraham was prosperous, but a famine would take this family into Egypt, where they would eventually become slaves. God led them out of Egypt, activating the faith of Moses. All of this was the outworking of God keeping his promise to Abraham. They were a blessed people; they had a large population; however, they had no land. After letting them wander for years, God eventually gave them the land, activating the faith of Joshua.

Their first form of government was a theocracy ruled by judges, but eventually they had the king they always wanted, King Saul. Saul was followed by David, and David was followed by his son Solomon, but Solomon’s heart was divided, and at the end of his rule so was the kingdom. The ten northern tribes formed the nation of Israel, and Judah remained as the southern kingdom.

Divided, the kingdoms were vulnerable, and the northern kingdom fell to Assyria in 722 BC. However, Assyria slowly lost power and was overrun by the Babylonians in 612 BC. Judah leveraged this transition to grow in power, and in 641 BC God blessed Judah with the godly king Josiah. He turned the hearts of the people back to God, and by the end of his reign in 609 BC, he established a greater national power. Yet Josiah was never able to completely reform the nation. When he died the hearts of the people turned back to all the practices that evoked God’s judgment. In a downward spiral of leadership, Josiah’s godly rule was followed by his heavy-handed son Jehoiakim and then the ugly reign of Zedekiah. While Jeremiah was probably Josiah’s age, he prophesied during the reign of all three kings.

The Babylonians eventually captured Jerusalem, and God’s people became exiles in Babylon. Jeremiah was exiled to Egypt where he died.

Remember, it was the good king Josiah who discovered the books of the law in the temple, leading to a national renewal of the covenant (2 Chr 34:6-7). Derek Kidner notes that the national renewal Josiah implemented had three effects on Jeremiah (Message of Jeremiah, 15–18).

First, he was sent on a preaching tour proclaiming the implications of the newly rediscovered covenant. This led Jeremiah to be beyond unpopular and eventually persecuted and hated by many. Second, this led to a personal struggle with God (chs. 11–20). Jeremiah’s message was being rejected, he was persecuted, and at many times he would wonder why he was even called. Jeremiah lamented,

Why has my pain become unending,

my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?

You truly have become like a mirage to me—

water that is not reliable. (15:18)

Finally, Jeremiah realized that any reformation was short-lived. Reminding one of Israel leaving Egypt and breaking God’s law as it was being given to them, Jeremiah’s audience was returning to the same sins Josiah worked so hard to eradicate. This reality makes the promise of a new covenant, a covenant written on the heart (31:33), critically relevant. All of the attempts to keep the old covenant made explicitly clear that no external rule can motivate obedience. The presence of a law does not generate love for the lawgiver. Those under the law must be motivated by their own hearts.

Perhaps the three effects of reform—preaching, personal suffering, and lament over lack of reform—correspond to the three major genres of literature in the book: Jeremiah’s sermons, Jeremiah’s journal, and Jeremiah’s songs.

The Book

Themes

Judgment: Jeremiah is about the judgment of God on a specific nation. The book is like one long divorce suit (Dever, Promises Made, 594). God is leveling charge after charge against his people.

So, why is God so angry with his own people? There are lots of reasons. They were putting their confidence in the wrong people (2:36-37; 17:5-8). They were putting their confidence in things instead of God (...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Series Introduction
• Jeremiah
• Lamentations
• Works Cited
• Scripture Index