This page is not a
commentary, nor an outline. It is something to bear in mind in this kind
of reading. These materials I learnt from two books by Gordon Fee and
Douglas Stuart (How To Read The Bible For All Its
Worth; How To Read The Bible Book By Book). You could consult
these books if you are interested.
(Pastor Raymond)
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Jeremiah
From where do Christians get
the expression ：new covenant；? Sure, it is found in the
New Testament books of Luke, 1 and 2 Corinthians and Hebrews. But, is it found
in the Old Testament or not? The answer is ：yes,；
and in the exact form in Jeremiah 31: 31. Like all prophecies, Jeremiah
announced doom and gloom. But at the same time, there would be hope.
Jeremiah・s
52 chapters contains a large quantity of ：divine announcements by God；
(the religious term is ：oracle；) compiled together with a similarly
sizeable amount of narratives that are not presented in a chronological
order. Roughly speaking, the first 25 chapters are oracles against Jerusalem and chapters
46-51 are oracles against the nations. In between are primarily narratives
dealing with the future hope (chapters 26-36) and the Fall of Jerusalem
(37-45). The last chapter (52) is the epilog.
Anyone reading through the
first forty something chapters of Jeremiah will repeatedly come across a
relationship between three parties: Jerusalem
(representing Judah, the people of God), Egypt
and Babylon
(or Chaldeans). This is the key to organizing and
appreciating the messages of Jeremiah. Egypt
was the super power to the south of Judah
and Babylon
was the super power to the north. Jeremiah・s message to the kings of Judah in face of Babylonian expansion was an
incredibly stupid one from the human perspective: surrender to Babylon so as to live in exile; rely on Egypt
to die. As soon as we understand that this was Jeremiah・s
message to the Kings of Judah sandwiched between these two powers, we can
immediately explain the miserable fate of the prophet. As history would show,
the people of God refused to listen to the prophet of God, leading to the
eventual siege of Jerusalem.
It is instructive to
understand why the people of God refused to accept the prophet・s
message to leave Jerusalem
to go on exile. The people of God had the belief that in spite of their
inequities, they had one thing that guaranteed the safety of Jerusalem:
the Temple!
That is why we read in 7: 4 the three-fold repetition of ：the
Temple of the
Lord；. They failed to understand that their inequities
and harlotry had already turned the Temple
into a ：den of thieves； (7:11). When we read this
passage, we will recall the words of Jesus and connect to the historical
destruction of the grand temple built by Herod about 600 years later.
Reading Jeremiah reinforces
our understanding of the significance of ：faithfulness；
in the relationship between Yahweh and His people. Like Hosea, Jeremiah used
the imagery of a prostitute to prosecute Judah・s
unfaithfulness. Yahweh should be the only God they had, not one of the many
they could turn to. This teaching of Jeremiah was in line with that which set
down by the great prophet Moses. Just as Moses in Deuteronomy warned that the
people could not worship Yahweh and Baal, so did Jeremiah against the worship
of gods of the nations, in addition to Yahweh. Even Moses・
language of the circumcision of the heart (Deut 10:16; 30:6) reappears in
Jeremiah (4:4; 9:25). And finally, contrasting the covenant mediated by
Moses, Jeremiah announced (31:31-34) the ：new covenant；
where the Law would be ：written on the hearts,； an obvious
reference to the ：inscription on the stone tablets；
of the ：old covenant.； We may notice that this
contrast was picked up in both 2 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 8 in application
to Christians.
Theologically, with the
promise of the ：new covenant； Jeremiah commits Yahweh to
renewing the hearts of the genuine people of God in the new covenant.
Historically, Jeremiah was the source of the specific prophecy of a return
from Babylon
after 70 years (29:10), which was acknowledged in Ezra 1. As a prophet,
Jeremiah could not have promised a future blessing without predicting the
judgments against the enemies who had mistreated God・s
people. These words of judgment are found in a block of oracles from chapter
46 onwards. This view of history carried all the way to the days of John who borrowed
the final judgment against ：Babylon；
from Jeremiah to use in the Book of Revelation. When God takes action again
to nurse His people, He will also strikes the enemies because He is the only
one who can justly dole out judgment (see Deut 32:35 and Romans 12:19).
