Lessons From the Life of Jeremiah

In the course of 40 years in a major prophetic office, Jeremiah learned certain hard-won lessons that 21st century men and women desperately need to grasp and understand. What are they?

by John Ross Schroeder

The 20th century was always the age of anxiety. Yet after two world wars and two draining conflicts in East Asia, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 seemed to herald a new era and a fresh opportunity for world peace. Western leaders talked freely of a "New World Order."

Yet just 14 years later with Afghanistan and Iraq as recent hot spots—and now outbreaks in the Congo and Liberia—we seem further from real peace than ever. Following the road map to peace in Palestine is proving to be a rutty and difficult path indeed. The future seems very uncertain as the world experiences one crisis after another.

Yet one of the purposes of preaching and publishing the true gospel is to spread the certain truth that the message of the Bible offers real hope for the future in spite of our present chaotic, unstable world.

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Romans 15:4, NIV).

Jeremiah to the rescue

In the 6th and 7th centuries B.C., the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah lived in a moral and political climate not so different from our own. His own nation was under constant threat from two ancient powers of the time, Babylon and Egypt. By that time the Assyrian Empire (which had previously conquered and taken the 10-tribe northern house of Israel into captivity) had begun to disintegrate as an imperial power.

Jeremiah’s basic commission from God included "presiding over" the demise and captivity of the nation of Judah by a foreign power, King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
In the course of 40 years in a major prophetic office (626 to 587 B.C.) encompassing the reigns of five kings of Judah, Jeremiah learned certain hard-won lessons that 21st-century man desperately needs to grasp and understand.

Lesson 1: the limitations of humankind

Prominent among the lessons Jeremiah learned was his visceral understanding of the limitations of mankind—that we cannot live proper and fulfilling lives without the continual guidance of Almighty God.

One newspaper writer recently observed that "nation states are failing to settle the world’s differences, but a new kind of imperialism can do it." In other words, some sort of world government seems to promise an end to our many afflictions. Human hope springs eternal, but when based solely on mankind’s limited resources, we are surely destined for bitter disappointment.

"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps" (Jeremiah 10:23). This basic biblical principle from the mouth of Jeremiah applies across the board—globally, regionally, locally and, perhaps most of all, personally. It impacts our governments on every level. Purely human intelligence, wisdom and understanding are not sufficient to guide our destiny. In fact, we will fail to reach it unless we learn to rely on a great unseen power apart from ourselves.

Another passage in Jeremiah elucidates the same basic principle: "Thus says the LORD: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD’" (Jeremiah 17:5).

Lesson 2: The importance of knowing God

Jeremiah had a long-enduring, very close relationship with his Creator. Over time he learned to trust God with the positive outcome of his many sore trials.

This is what he once said to God: "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You" (Jeremiah 32:17). No matter what happens, God is in charge. He is sovereign. He is our Creator.

Jeremiah recorded the following words, reflecting the fact that God saw him through all of his hardships in a time of terrible national crisis. (We may just be entering one very shortly ourselves.) "Blessed is the man (or woman) who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought" (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

We have to learn to subject our limited human outlook on life and submit it to God’s divine perspective—His way of viewing things. "Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the LORD" (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

Lesson 3: The need for national reformation

Jeremiah’s day is reminiscent of our own modern age. We too live in a period of unusual tension and international anxiety. These conditions came about as a result of sin, the transgression of God’s law (1John 3:4). The time finally came when the Creator chose to judge the nation of Judah for its many sins.

Not everyone escaped with their lives during that nation’s severe national crisis. Only 4,600 were recorded as taken captive to start a new life in the land of Babylon (Jeremiah 52:29-30). Many of those who failed to follow God’s specific instructions through the prophet Jeremiah perished, whether they remained in Jerusalem or fled to Egypt.

Obedience to God is the master key to human survival. National calamity came upon Judah because of her many sins. People ignored the Ten Commandments. Adultery, stealing, lying, idolatry and Sabbath breaking typified their conduct. "For the land is full of adulterers" (Jeremiah 23:10). "Because they have done disgraceful things in Israel, have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives" (Jeremiah 29:23).

Is anyone willing to venture the thought that these two passages of Scripture do not aptly describe our Western world today? In truth we know that sexual immorality threatens to engulf and shatter the very fabric of our Western society.

A case in point is the breaking news in Britain that a prominent politician and member of Parliament "leads a double life as Britain’s leading organiser of upmarket sex parties" (The Sunday Times, June 22, 2003). He runs a London-based organization "that hosts five-star orgies for swingers." This politician also has a leading role as a coordinator for policy change in a major political party in Britain.

Yet this politician insists that "the two things don’t overlap and therefore do not pose a problem. Fortunately we’re living in the 21st century and even naturally censorious people tend to feel slightly self-conscious about wagging their fingers at what consenting adults do behind closed doors." Frankly, adults consenting to sin in private cuts no ice with God whatsoever. We are all made in His image and He will hold us responsible for our conduct, whether private or public.

The sin of Sabbath breaking was also a major problem in God’s eyes (see Jeremiah 17:19-27). Today it may be a largely unrealized transgression of God’s law, but our Creator is just as concerned about it now as He was anciently in the time of Judah’s national troubles. (If you do not yet understand the importance of observing the weekly Sabbath day, please request our free booklet Sunset to Sunset—God’s Sabbath Rest.)

But perhaps Judah’s worst sin was their national idolatry, which expressed itself in two primary ways. "For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13).

One of the worst expressions of modern idolatry today is our virtual worship of celebrities: movie stars, pop icons, sports personalities, even politicians—many of whom lead seriously flawed personal lives, unworthy of our respect and attention. Greed—our modern way of life, worshiping money and the things it can buy—is also called idolatry (Colossians 3:5).

Lesson 4: Gaining God’s favor

God didn’t enjoy punishing Judah for its national and personal sins. He sent His prophets to warn them first, but the nation didn’t heed. "In vain I have chastened your children; they received no correction" (Jeremiah 2:30). So, national captivity became a necessity. Is there a lesson for our Western world today?

Before Judah’s calamity Jeremiah preached national repentance to his contemporaries. "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place’" (Jeremiah 7:3). God called the nation of Judah to national and personal repentance (verses 4-7), but it didn’t happen.

The Creator is consistent; He doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17). He hopes that our nations will wake up; but do not mistake His merciful longsuffering and patience (2Peter 3:9) for indulgence and consent to bad behavior. "These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; but I will reprove you . . . To him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God" (Psalm 50:21,23).

Today God calls us to national and personal repentance (Acts 17:30). But even if our nations as a whole do not heed the divine warnings and really repent, you can develop a personal relationship with your Creator and turn your own life around.

You will benefit enormously from His continuous guidance no matter how bad national conditions are allowed to become. "O LORD, correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing" (Jeremiah 10:24). You can pray that same prayer today!

Relying on God

In spite of the fact that he was severely persecuted by his own people, Jeremiah knew that Almighty God was in complete control of events. Many of his countrymen did not and some of them continually contrived to undermine his messages, which were directly from the Creator. But God had said: "I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled" (Jeremiah 1:12, NIV).
Our Creator has a definite plan and purpose for the salvation of mankind. Few things in this world really make sense unless we grasp that fact.

To the remnant of Judah who obeyed Him in Jeremiah’s day, God promised to bless them during their Babylonian captivity.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you" (Jeremiah 29:11-12).

God is no different today; He has not changed. He will respond to genuine repentance and a willingness to be corrected with His abundant blessings. Indeed He will guide His true people into more and more truth. "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know" (Jeremiah 33:3). —WNP

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