Jer 1-10
Behold, I am bringing against you
a nation from afar, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.
It is an enduring nation;
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.
This nation is...
Babylon
This item, worn by Jeremiah and later hidden by the Euphrates, was found ruined and symbolized how God would spoil the pride of Judah and Jerusalem because they refused to listen to Him.
What is the loincloth (or ruined loincloth)?
Who did God call "my servant" who was used to judge Judah and the surrounding nations?
Who is Nebuchadnezzar?
Jeremiah 31:31-34 prophesies a "new covenant" with Israel and Judah, which unlike the old covenant, promises the law will be written in this place.
What is the heart?
What did the people of Judah continue to do in Egypt that provoked God’s anger and led to His judgment against them?
They continued to worship other gods, especially the queen of heaven, and refused to listen to Jeremiah’s warnings from the Lord (Jeremiah 44:15–19, 23).
What sins were Israel guilty of?
idolatry, covenant unfaithfulness, social injustice, acceptance of false teachings, and pride
11 Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them. 12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble. 13 For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to [blank].
Baal
In Jeremiah 21, what does God do in response to Judah's King Zedekiah’s plea for help?
Fight against Judah.
5 I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. 6 And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence.
In Jeremiah 31, this group of people will be led back "with pleas for mercy" and "will walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble," as the Lord promises to turn their mourning into joy.
Who are the remnant of Israel?
Chapter 50 31“Behold, I am against you, O proud one,
declares the Lord God of hosts,
for your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
32 The proud one shall stumble and fall,
with none to raise him up,
and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
and it will devour all that is around him.
What nation is this prophecy about?
Babylon
What was Jeremiah’s initial objection to his prophetic calling?
“only a youth” or “not knowing how to speak”?
In Jeremiah 7 and14, God tells Jeremiah not to [blank] for the people. Why?
Pray
In Jeremiah’s vision of two baskets of figs, what did the good figs and bad figs symbolize?
What are the exiles to Babylon (good figs) and King Zedekiah, his officials, and the remnant in Jerusalem and Egypt (bad figs)?
Jeremiah warned the remnant of Judah not to flee to this land, declaring that if they went there, they would die by sword, famine, and pestilence, becoming a curse among the nations.
What is Egypt?
In Jeremiah 2 and 3, Israel is compared to this.
Unfaithful wife or bride/restless young camel or wild donkey/wild vine that has become degenerate
According to Jeremiah 19, this horrific sin—explicitly condemned by God as something He "did not command or decree, nor did it come into [His] mind"—was committed in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, leading to its renaming as the Valley of Slaughter.
What is child sacrifice (burning their sons as offerings to Baal)?
According to Jeremiah 29, this is what God promised He would do for His people after seventy years of exile in Babylon were completed.
He would visit His people and fulfill His promise by bringing them back to their homeland. God will restore their fortunes and bring them back to the promised land.
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[k] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, Jeremiah purchased this in Anathoth, symbolizing what?
A field that represented the future restoration and return of the people to their land?
What caused Egypt’s soldiers to flee in terror at Carchemish?
God caused panic and defeat; their strength could not stand against His judgment.
5 "Why have I seen it?
They are dismayed and have turned backward.
Their warriors are beaten down and have fled in haste;
they look not back—terror on every side!" declares the Lord.
6 "The swift cannot flee away, nor the warrior escape;
in the north by the river Euphrates they have stumbled and fallen."
"Why are your mighty ones face down?
They do not stand because the Lord thrust them down."
Their [Blank] are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”
What are idols
As punishment for child sacrifice and idolatry in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, Jeremiah 19 foretells this gruesome fate for the people of Judah. How was this symbolized?
What is the destruction of Jerusalem, including siege-induced cannibalism, slaughter by enemies, and the defilement of Topheth as a mass grave?
Jeremiah was instructed to wear these agricultural objects as a prophetic sign of Judah's coming submission to Babylon.
What are yoke-bars?
Who rescued Jeremiah from the cistern where he was left to die, and how was he rewarded?
This Ethiopian eunuch Ebed-melech
How did Ishmael deceive the eighty men who arrived from Shechem and Shiloh and Samaria to Mizpah?
Ishmael pretended to be friendly and trustworthy by weeping as he greeted them and invited them to come in to Gedaliah and then killed them and threw them into the cistern.