Wednesday 21 July 2010

Background

Jeremiah was born into a priestly family at Anatoth, a few milesnorth of Jerusalem. He was called to be God's prophet in 627 BC.Though reluctant at first because of his age, Jeremiah accepted hisrole. For 40 years and throughout the reigns of Judah's last fivekings he appealed to the people to turn back to God. The historicalbackground to his prophecies can be found elsewhere in the OldTestament (2 Kings chapters 22-25, 2Chronicles chapters 34-36).

But Jeremiah's message went unheeded and disaster came. In 587 BCJudah was defeated by the Babylonian empire. Jerusalem wasdestroyed, the Temple was desecrated and the people were takencaptive into exile. Jeremiah was offered a position of some comfortand prestige at the Babylonian court, but chose instead to remainin Judah in solidarity with his people. When the governor appointedby the king of Babylon was murdered, the people fled to Egypt andtook Jeremiah with them. As far as we know, he died there.

Several significant figures from the Old Testament were Jeremiah'scontemporaries: Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Daniel and Ezekiel. But inmany respects Jeremiah stands out. In fact, he cuts a somewhatsolitary figure. His message made him unpopular amongst his peersand he was labelled a traitor for arguing that the people shouldsubmit to Babylon. He was persecuted, imprisoned and often indanger of his life. He also suffered from inner turmoil, includingextreme fatigue and agonising doubt. Yet he persevered and hismessage also contained words of hope: after the judgement of theexile, God will return the people to their homeland and they willbe joyful and prosperous.

To Ponder

Have you ever felt called to do something youbelieved you couldn't do? What happened?

How might you discern whether someone is speakingGod's message to you?