Jeremiah and Lamentations.
The Author. (1) His name means "Exalted of Jehovah," and he is ranked
second among the great Old Testament writers. (2) He lived the last of
the sixth and the first of the fifth centuries before Christ. His
ministry began in 626 B. C., the thirteenth year of Josiah (1:2), and
lasted about forty years. He probably died in Babylon during the early
years of the captivity. (3) He was of a sensitive nature, mild, timid,
and inclined to melancholy. He was devoutly religious and naturally
shrank from giving pain to others. (4) He was uncommonly bold and
courageous in declaring the message of God, it was unpopular and
subjected him to hatred and even to suffering wrong. He was unsparing
in the denunciations and rebukes administered to his nation, not even
sparing the prince. (5) He is called the weeping prophet. He was
distressed both by the disobedience and apostasy of Israel and by the
evil which he foresaw. Being very devoutly religious, he was pained by
the impiety of his time.
Condition of the Nations. (1) Israel, the northern kingdom, had been
carried into captivity and Judah stood alone against her enemies. (2)
Judah had fallen into a bad state, but Josiah, who reigned when
Jeremiah began his ministry, attempted to bring about reforms and
restore the old order. After his death, however, wickedness grew more
and more until, in the later part of the life of Jeremiah, Jerusalem
and the temple were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and Judah was led away
in captivity. (3) The world powers of the time of Jeremiah's birth
were Assyria and Egypt. They were contending for supremacy. But
Jeremiah lived to see both of them subdued and Babylon mistress of the
world. He foresaw also how Babylon would fall and how a kingdom
greater than all would rise wherein there would be righteousness and
peace.
Jeremiah.
The book of Jeremiah is composed principally of sketches of biography,
history and prophecy, but the events and chapters are not in
chronological order. It closes the period of the monarchy and marks
the destruction of the holy city and of the sanctuary and tells of the
death agony of the nation of Israel, God's chosen people. But he saw
far beyond the judgments of the near future to a brighter day when the
eternal purpose of divine grace would be realized. The book,
therefore, emphasizes the future glory of the kingdom of God which
must endure though Israel does perish. He made two special
contributions to the truth as understood in his time. (1) The
spirituality of religion. He saw the coming overthrow of their
national and formal religion and realized that, to survive that
crisis, religion must not be national, but individual and spiritual.
(2) Personal responsibility (31:29-30). If religion was to be a
spiritual condition of the individual, the doctrine of personal
responsibility was a logical necessity. These two teachings constitute
a great step forward.
Analysis.
I. The Prophet's Call and Assurance, Ch. 1.
II. Judah Called to Repentance, Chs. 2-22.
1. Her sins set forth, Chs. 2-6
2. The call to repentance, Chs. 7-10.
3. The appeal to the covenant, Chs. 11-13.
4. Rejection and captivity foretold, Chs. 14-22.
III. The Book of Consolation, Chs. 23-33.
1. The restoration of the remnant, Chs. 22-29.
2. The complete restoration, Chs. 30-33.
IV. The Doom of Jerusalem Due to the People's Wickedness, Chs. 34-36.
V. The History of Jeremiah and His Times, Chs. 37-45.
VI. Prophecies Against Foreign Nations, Chs, 46-51.
VII. Historical Appendix, Ch. 52.
Lamentations.
The name means elegies or mournful or plaintive poems. It was formerly
a part of Jeremiah and represents the sorrows of Jeremiah when the
calamities which he had predicted befell his people, who had often
despised and rejected him for his messages. He chose to live with them
in their suffering and out of his weeping pointed them to a star of
hope. There are five independent poems in as many chapters. Chapters
1, 2, 4 and 5 have each 22 verses or just the number of the Hebrew
alphabet. Chapter 3 has 66 verses or just three times the number of
the alphabet. The first four chapters are acrostic, that is each verse
begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In chapter three, each
letter is used in order and is three times repeated as the initial
letter of three successive lines.
Analysis.
I. The Misery of Jerusalem, Ch. 1.
II. The Cause of the People's Suffering, Ch. 2.
III. The Basis of Hope, Ch. 3.
IV. The Past and Present of Israel, Ch. 4.
V. The Final Appeal for Restoration, Ch. 5.
For Study and Discussion. (1) Make a list of the evils predicted
against the people because of their sins. (Example 19:7-9). (2) Make a
list of the different sins and vices of which Jeremiah accuses Israel.
(Example 2:12; 3:20, etc.) (3) Point out all the prophesies of Divine
judgment against other nations and analyze the punishment foretold.
(Example 5:18-25). (4) Study the case of fidelity to parents given in
Ch. 35. (5) Collect all passages in both books which tell of the
Messiah and of Messianic times and make a study of each (as 23:5-6).
(6) Select a few of the striking passages of Lamentations and show how
they apply to the facts of history. (6) The sign and type of the
destruction of the land. Chs. 13-14. (8) The potter an illustration of
God's power over nations, Chs. 18-19. (9) The illustration of the
return, seen in the figs, Ch. 24. (10) Jeremiah's letter to the
captive, Ch. 29. (11) Jeremiah's love for Judah-it saw their faults,
rebuked them for their sins, but did not desert them when they were in
suffering, because they despised his advice.
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