The weeping prophet, Jeremiah, has many significant lessons. A few listed here.

1. “You are always righteous, LORD, when I
bring a case before you. Yet I would speak
with you about your justice…” Jer 12:1
Lessons from
the life and dangers
of Jeremiah
40 years of trouble, tears, and
perseverance with some
complaining

2. A book written by a
person renowned for his
laments
Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah; and all the
singing men and singing women have spoken of
Josiah in their laments to this day. They made these a
rule in Israel; behold, they are written in the Laments.
2 Chronicles 35:25

3. The style of the book
• Written in a style of refugee or holocaust literature (according
to Paul House)
• The beginning is Jeremiah’s call as a teen or young man
• The in between chapters not chronological
• The end is the end of the book, although not the end of
Jeremiah which is left to tradition ( Jerusalem has fallen in 52 )
• Most of the book is like an anthology of object lessons drawn from
Jeremiah’s 40 years or so of preaching
• Jeremiah was not even told to write down his prophesies the first 20
years or so of ministry

4. ‘Before you were born I knew you’
• Before Jeremiah was born, Manasseh was already ruling a long time
already as perhaps the worse king in Israel
• Jeremiah was called before Jeremiah did anything good or bad
• A sovereign call of God
• Isaiah’s mouth was ‘touched by coals by an angel, but Jeremiah by the
hand of God Himself
• When Jeremiah was a teen or so, Josiah, a godly king rose to power.
At this time a bible was discovered, showing how far the nation
lapsed. Jeremiah, Hosea and Amos do not mention the reforms of
Josiah and they appear short lived and followed by times of judgement
suggesting the reforms did not capture the hearts of the people

5. Why significant?
• 5.2% of the Bible is Jeremiah (add Lamentations and
Jeremiah wrote 5.6% of the Bible)
• It is the longest book in the Old Testament by the number
of words: Jeremiah has 33,002 words. Additionally
Lamentations also written by Jeremiah has 2,324 words
• Jeremiah is the 9th most (directly) quoted Old Testament
in the New Testament
• Additionally there are 119 allusions, indirect quotes of it
as well in the New Testament

6. He preached repentance
but was largely ignored
• about 45 times will call Israel to ‘return to God’
• only a few people listened
• Jeremiah would not see (most) of the fruit of his
preaching in his lifetime
• Jeremiah probably dies in Egypt, away from the
land of Israel

8. Lesson: do not judge a prophet
by his youth or inexperience
Jeremiah’s prophecies will:
• tear down and build up
• uproot and plant
• throw down and build up
the nations
These words will often repeat in various places in the book
Jeremiah’s name some say is form ‘to throw’ and may related
to throwing down destroying and throwing down a foundation
“Then the Lord put out His hand and touched my
mouth. And the Lord said to me “see I have set you
this day over nations and kingdoms.” Jer 1:9, 10

9. The times of Jeremiah
• Jeremiah was born during the time of Manasseh, perhaps the worst king of
Judah
• Manassas’s son Josiah was the next king and a great reformer. Popular with
the people and much got done, but the changes weren’t internalized with the
people and were short lived. The one good king on the list.
• Jehoiakim was the next (long reigning) king and a puppet king of Egypt.
Jeremiah spoke of God sending the king of Babylon to discipline Judah and
Jeremiah experienced the worse persecution from this time on.
• Last was Zedekiah, some (like Derek Kidner) call a weather vane, listening
to false prophets, opposing the King of Babylon. Not a good king either.
Jeremiah prophesied during the administrations of five of Judah’s kings:
1 Josiah (639-608 B.C.)—31 years
2 Jehoahaz (608 B.C.)—3 months <— notice the repetition of 3m 11y
3 Jehoiakim (608-597 B.C.)—11 years
4 Johoiachin (597 B.C.)—3 months <— notice the repetition of 3m 11y
5 Zedekiah (597-586 B.C.)—11 years

10. For the wound of the daughter of my people is
my heart wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my
people not been restored?
Jer 8:21-22
Jeremiah, the
weeping prophets

11. My people have made for
themselves broken cisterns
• and forsaken Me the fountain of living water
• that’s evil

12. The life of Jeremiah
• Not allowed to marry
• Not allowed to celebrate happy things with people
as a sign judgement was coming
• His message that God was going to send Babylon
to punish Judah and they should surrender was
largely rejected and viewed as treasonous
• He was beaten, imprisoned and very few people
listened to his message believing and repenting

13. Hosea is Prequel to Jeremiah
The unlikely marriage between a prophet and a prostitute
Hosea and Gomer, where God shows his stunning love
and mercy buying back an unfaithful wife portraying grace, grace toward Israel
and grace toward the church the church

14. Hosea precedes and
influences the book
• The analogy of marriage and faithfulness is carried
over from Hosea to Jeremiah
• A case is made that Israel was unfaithful
• The book looks forward to a redemption
• Jeremiah will see the redemption mostly distantly

15. Jeremiah looks for a just man among
the people, the priests, the rulers
• And doesn’t find one (a bit like Diogenes)
“… search her squares to see if you can find a man who does
justice and seeks truth that I may pardon her… “ Jer 5:1

16. Lesson: Ask the right
questions
• God says ‘the priests did not even ask “where is
the Lord”?’
• A good question left unasked

17. Lesson: Place your awe on
the right things
for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the
fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water Jer 2:13
Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know
and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God;
the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts. Jer
2:19

18. Lesson: relentless warnings of God are
often followed by a promise of mercy
• The first 22 chapters describe a lack of godliness
in the people, the rulers, the priests
• But then God holds out hope
• A branch is promised ( a messiah figure)

19. Jeremiah 5:21 English Standard Version (ESV)
21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not
This will show up in Mark 8:18

20. Lesson: do not have a false
sense of assurance
• Trust in God for the right and not wrong reasons
• The people in Jeremiah’s day in Jerusalem felt an
entitlement to peace because of the temple despite
their sin ( and judgement would not come to them)
• They were saying “this is the temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord”

21. Lesson: Do not get a false sense of
assurance by apparent successes
• Jeremiah lived through the reforms of Josiah, the
greatest reforms in the history of the nation (so it
would appear)
• Although popular with the people and sweeping
they were short lived and didn’t take traction with
lasting fruit or change
• Change of hearts should be lasting and reach
across generations

22. After 23 chapters of
not finding a righteous man
the priest being godless
the rulers being godless..
A God centered righteousness
the man who is the branch will
be characterized by the name
“The Lord our Righteousness”

23. Lesson: What to boast in
• Not in wisdom, riches or strength
• …but in knowing God and knowing God executes
kindness mercy and justice on earth (although it
doesn’t always feel so to Jeremiah)
• Nations are listed following this (and spoiler alert,
toward the end of the book the same nations will be
judged who probably follow the ‘gods’ of wisdom,
riches and strength )

24. Jeremiah 9:23 English Standard Version (ESV)
23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his
wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the
rich man boast in his riches,
This will show up in 1 Co 1:31, 2 Co 10:17

25. Lesson: even a prophet gets it wrong
sometimes as is corrected by God
• Jeremiah laments that he should have been like a
tree planted by waters and bearing fruit in it’s time
• God tells him he has it superficially wrong and
should speak more wisely

26. Lesson: obedience and
honoring God
• Jeremiah offers wine to an unusual group who refuses it
• The Rechabites live in tents (as their forefather Jonadab
instructed them.)
• The Rechabites do not grown vines and do not drink wine
(as their forefather Jonadab instructed them.)
• The Rechabites refuse wine offered by the prophet
Jeremiah and God blessed them for it
• After all they honored their father, and the nation should
honor God

27. Lesson: how not to listen to
God’s word
• The king of Jerusalem listened to Jeremiah’s words
from the scroll, cutting it in pieces, burning the
pieces as he went
• Jeremiah rewrote it with God adding more, mostly
curses for the king

28. Lesson: how the mighty have
fallen
• A fellow named Ishmael son of Baalis makes a plot ( someone in
the royal line with a father named after Baal should be a red flag in
itself )
• Ishmael opposes the godly Gedaliah (and kills him… and kills
most of a group of people coming to worship God, but not the
handful of people with enough assets to bribe there way out)
• The royal line stood in opposition of the godly Gedaliah (who
ironically or providentially was set up as governor by the king of
Babylon )
• Ironically… or providentially…. the King of Babylon recognized
Jeremiah and the godly Gedaliah which most people of Jerusalem
did not

30. Time for an answer
• Answer: Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe
• A thumbprint was found on one on a clay artifact
bearing his name
see http://ancientroadpublications.com/Studies/
BiblicalStudies/SealofBaruch.html
(OK, this is not without
controversy as a few Bulls
are considered by
some to be forgeries by some)

32. Lesson: sometimes God blesses
those who look worse off
• Jeremiah sees two baskets of figs
• one good, one bad
• the good ones eyed at the time re the people
carried off to Babylon
• the bad ones are the people who stayed at the time
in Jerusalem, who would later be judged and
under siege by Babylon
Daniel and his friends would be part of the ‘good figs’
carried off to Babylon

33. Lesson: God disciplines and also
judges and they are not the same
• The bad figs were judged, they were left in
Jerusalem and may have even been proud and
overconfident in their sin
• The good figs were disciplined, by sending them
to Babylon (in the end for their good) “I know the
plans I have for you, plans of welfare and not of
calamity to give you a future and a hope” Jer 29:11

34. Lesson: trust God for the future - A future
New (and final) Covenant promised
• The people carried to Babylon are told to work and
pray for the welfare of that place
• For in Babylon’s welfare will be theirs
• and a promise “I know the plans I have for you,
plans to give you a future and a hope: in Jer 29:11
• and an even better promise “I will make a new
covenant and I will never turn from doing you good,
and I will put My Spirit in you and you will never
turn from following Me” Jer 32:40
chapters 29 to 33 point to a ‘New Covenant’

35. Even in the block of chapters on the New Covenant
Rachel, the mother of Israel, so to speak weeps
over a related tragedy
Jeremiah 31:15 English Standard Version (ESV)
15 Thus says the Lord:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.”
This is repeated in Matt 2:18

36. Lesson: sometimes God asked
prophets to do strange things
• Jeremiah buys a new belt (more like a fancy girdle)
• God tells him to bury it somewhere in Babylon (long
trip and he does)
• God tells him later to make the trip again and dig it
up now spoiled
• The lesson was God’s people were to be like a
girdle, clinging to God for God’s glory but did not

37. The longest quote from the Old Testament
in the New is regarding the New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:31-34English Standard Version (ESV)
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the
covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the
hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke,
though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I
will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be
their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one
teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they
shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.
For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
see Heb 8:8-12

38. Lesson: God can remake
and restore
• Jeremiah sees a potter with a damaged piece of
pottery
• The potter shapes it back in a ball
• The potter remakes the pot, now into a proper pot

39. Lesson: when the New Testament longest
quote of the Old is from Jeremiah, pay
attentions
• A new covenant is coming: hearts of stone will
become hearts of flesh with God’s laws written on
them

40. Lesson: trust God for the far
future as will
• “I will make a new covenant and I will NEVER turn
from doing you good, and I will put my Spirit in you
and you will NEVER turn from following Me” Jer
32:40

41. Lesson: there is a time not
to celebrate
• Jeremiah was not allowed to celebrate with people
of his community
• Jeremiah was not even allowed to marry
• Judgement was coming

42. Lesson: a time to celebrate
• The time will come with farms and herds will be
restored
• There will be thankfulness to God
• There will be weddings and celebrations
• Redemption is coming

43. good figs
carried off to babylon
a future and a hope
and a glimpse of
a new covenant
“I will make a new covenant
and I will NEVER turn from
doing you good, and I will put
my Spirit in you and you will
NEVER turn from following Me”
Jer 32:40

45. Time for another answer
• Answer: Ebed Melech the Ethiopian, meaning
servant of the king

46. Lesson: God never calls His
people to a fair fight
• Jeremiah is called to meet with the King three times
• Each time mistreated and once even left in a well,
sinking in mud, with a potential of starving.
• But Obed Melech showed sympathy

47. Lesson: Show sympathy to the
prisoners as the book of Hebrew says
• Ebed Melech got some old clothes and some rope
• Lowered the rope and told Jeremiah to put the
ropes under his arms, softening them with the old
clothes
• And he rescued Jeremiah
• Ebed Melech also spoke up for Jeremiah even in
the presence of the King

48. Lesson: personal experience
can be misleading
• A group lamented problems that came upon them
after they stopped making cakes to ‘the queen of
heaven’
• Didn’t we have less problems then?

49. Memo to the nations….

50. Jeremiah contacts leaders of
surrounding nations
telling them God has given them over
to the King of Babylon in judgement for
sin and they should serve him

51. Jeremiah puts on a yoke to
illustrate a willingness
to serve the King of Babylon

52. After 70 years Israel will return to the land

53. This is seen as treason and sedition

54. Jeremiah illustrated the state of Jerusalem
publicly smashing a pot against the city wall

55. Jeremiah is seen by some as
a little crazy

56. Lesson: freedom and
justice
• Zedekiah frees the slaves
• Zedekiah un-frees the slaves
• God frees the sword, pestilence and famine

57. Lesson: God sometimes
offers unpopular choices
• Jeremiah told the people to go over to serve the
Babylon King and live
• An unpopular and uncomfortable choice

58. Lesson: If you promise to do whatever
God tells you…and He tells you…
then do it!
• Men came to Jeremiah with ideas they apparently
already decided and asked his wisdom from God.
Should they return to Egypt?
• Jeremiah waited 10 days… similar to the testing of
the youth with Daniel eating vegetables… 10 days.
Then gave the answer
• God told the Jews never to return to Egypt… should
be one clue … and Jeremiah likewise warned them
• The men (described as proud men ) did as they
already decided and ignored Jeremiah’s advice (after
promising to keep it. They even call Jeremiah a liar.)
Whatever
you
say
we
will
do!
Don’t
ever
return
to
Egypt!
Liar!

59. Lesson: judgement is coming
for other nations as well
• The nations mentioned previously which likely
worshiped wisdom, riches and strength (apart
from God’s) will be judged and a long stretch of
chapters concerned the judgement of those
nations

61. Lesson: sometimes a prophesy shows up,
making a splash, in more than one place
• Jeremiah is told to judge Babylon
• Words tied to a rock, thrown in the Euphrates
• A similar judgement of spiritual Babylon appears in
Revelation with an angel throwing a boulder in the
Euphrates

62. Jerusalem would fall

63. Lesson: judgement is
coming as well to Babylon
• The longest section of judgement and the end of
the book concerns the judgement of Babylon

64. Lesson: judgement will come
but there is also redemption
• Jerusalem fell
• Jeremiah spoke of being exiled seventy years then
returning
• There is even a ‘mini exile of 7 years’ where the
King of Babylon ‘loses his mind and driven from his
kingdom 7 years’ in the time of Daniel and
restored, perhaps as illustration to the captives that
God will restore them in time

65. Lesson learned: A personal and
closing message to Jeremiah’s
scribe Baruch
• Do not seek (the wrong) great things
• Jeremiah isn’t the only one struggling with depression at times
• Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe, is encouraged not to seek great
things, but his life will be spared and be satisfied with that
• and of course this is ‘a camera shot’ - i.e. a therapeutic term for a
message said to someone meant for someone else i.e us to listen
to.

66. Lesson: Pay attention to opening and
closing statements
• The last word to Israel at the end of Jeremiah 46
• God disciplines some (for their good), and also
judges
Do not be afraid, Jacob my servant,
for I am with you,” declares the Lord.
“Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I
scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you
but only in due measure; I will not let you go entirely
unpunished.” Jer 46: 28

67. God is sovereign
over history
over good
over evil
God used Babylon
to accomplish all His good
pleasure and then destroyed it
like a parent may break a rod
ofter using it to
spank their child

68. Some main themes
•Jeremiah looked but did not find any righteous people in Judah,
not in the priests, common people or rulers. He pointed forward
to a righteous ruler called ‘the branch’ who’s name would
somehow be characterized by ‘The Lord being our
righteousness’
•God disciplines those he loves and preserves but judges the
wicked. This can be individuals or nations.
•At times Jeremiah experiences Job-like times of complaints.
•In the book of consolation, Jeremiah 29-33, a new covenant is
looked forward to where God will write his laws on His people’s
hearts.
•Throughout the book man’s need of redemption is seen and it is
God who will redeem.
•God uses wicked nations to chastise his people and then might
judge the wicked nation, being sovereign over history.

69. Jeremiah like Jesus
•He lived among the people
•He was rejected
•He was arrested, tried, imprisoned
•He suffered, even shedding blood
•He offered life, but was largely rejected
•He was considered mad, a deceiver
and worthy of death
•He pointed forward to Jesus as the man
called branch
•He pointed forward to the New
Covenant where hearts are changed

70. And someday, the ark would not
be remembered or brought to
mind
• The ark of ordinary wood and bronze together
with previous gold and silver portended Jesus
who was fully man and fully Divine
•Jesus eclipses the ark as He is remembered
•and the church in Christ is Jesus visible in the
world and a type of the ark in a sense as well.
And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the
land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more
say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not
come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not
be made again.
Jer 3:16

71. Five Poems on Sorrow
The book of Lamentations
Sorrow surveyed
God my enemy
God my hope
Dim gold and despair
and Sorrows prayer

72. Jeremiah weeps the fall of Jerusalem
The title: in Hebrew is something like ‘Oh Dear!” in Greek is dirge
5 poems:
The first two poems are a national collective lament
1) ch1 22 verses Acrostic sorrow from A-Z - surveying the loss
2) ch2 22 verses Acrostic sorrow from A-Z - God is my enemy
The center:
3) ch3 66 verses Acrostic 1st person sorrow from A-Z
I am a man of constant sorrow
each group of 3 verses starts with the same letter in Hebrew
The middle one (chapter 3): is in the first person and is the personal lament
of Jeremiah. Jeremiah laments being laughed at, mocked and not
listened to and now look what happened. The is little hope expressed in
the book of Lamentations and most of the hope is expressed here in
ch 3.
The last two poems are a national collective lament
4) ch4 22 verses acrostic sorrow from A-Z On dim gold and despair
5) ch5 22 verses NOT acrostic sorrow from A-Z - overwhelmed. A prayer
written as a sorrowful address to God.
The 5th is not acrostic (like ch 1,2,3 and4) and the usual explanation is that the breakdown in the
acrostic pattern portrays an emotionally overwhelmed state of the writer over the tragedy. Jeremiah calls on the
people to return to God in the book of Jeremiah. Here Jeremiah ends by asking God to remember and restore the
people.
Some see the sorrowful prayer in chapter 5 as the response of the people to the lamentations of Jeremiah. Some see it
as Jeremiah breaking down in sorrow and the breakdown reflected in the 5th chapter being not in acrostic order

73. 19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love [*in hebrew love is plural -
steadfast loves] of the Lord never ceases; his mercies
never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3
Jeremiah weeps the fall of Jerusalem

74. A redemption rooted in a love
with no beginning or end
“the Lord appeared to him from
far away. I have loved you with
an everlasting love; therefore
I have continued my
faithfulness to you” Jer 31:3

75. Jeremiah is the 9th most often quoted
Old Testament book in the New Testament