The Book of Jeremiah is the second book in this major section of the Old Testament called “The Prophets.” Jeremiah was divinely called by God in his youth from Anathoth, a city about two miles north of Jerusalem where many priests resided. In fact, his father was himself a priest. Jeremiah was heart-broken over the sins of God’s people, and as a result, he brought a “heartbreaking” message. He labored for over 40 years bringing the message of destruction and doom to a rebellious and “stiff-necked” people. He was despised, and even persecuted, by his countrymen, and even though he shed tears over the people, they were tears of compassion.

Jeremiah’s persecution by his own people was intense. He was threatened in his hometown, tried for his life by the priests and prophets of Jerusalem, put in stocks, forced to flee from King Jehoiakim, publicly humiliated by the false prophet Hananiah, and thrown into a cistern. Over 500 years later, the first Christian martyr, Stephen, reminded the religious leaders of his own day of the Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah,

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, with ears that are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing what your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” (Acts 7:51-52).

As you can imagine, this did not go over very well with those who ended up killing Stephen by stoning him.

The Book of Jeremiah contains the message of one of Judah’s greatest prophets during its darkest days. He was called during the reign of Josiah, Judah’s last “good” king. But even Josiah’s reforms could not stem the tide of apostasy. Their downhill slide continued uninterrupted during the reigns of the next four “godless” kings who perverted the worship of God and gave themselves over to spiritual and moral decay. Much to the dislike of the people, Jeremiah proclaimed that judgment was coming upon the nation because of their sins, proclaiming that Babylon would be the nation that would bring God’s judgment upon them, destroying Jerusalem and the temple, killing tens of thousands of her residents, and taking thousands into captivity in Babylon. He grieved over the rebelliousness and imminent destruction of his people and is sometimes called the “weeping Prophet” because both he and his message were rejected by his own people.

Let’s check in with Jeremiah’s prophetic words to the nation,

“For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).

In other words, they had forsaken God, the true source of life-giving water, and created their own sources for water. So, let me ask you, would you rather drink water from a rushing, flowing stream or from water in a stagnant cistern? That’s what the people had forsaken, the living God who could provide living water for them. Their own sources of “water” leaked and could never satisfy. Jeremiah goes on,

“This people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and departed. They no longer say, ‘Let us now fear the LORD our God…’” (Jer. 5:24).

“I, the LORD search the heart. I test the mind to give to each man according to his ways” (Jer. 17:10).

Even with their descent into apostasy, Jeremiah continued to invite the people to repentance,

“Return O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness…” (Jer. 3:22)

“Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved” (Jer. 4:14).

“Stand by the way and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it and you shall find rest for your souls…” (Jer. 6:16).

Although Jeremiah pleaded with the nation to return to God or face judgment (in this case, destruction of the city, the temple, and deportation to Babylon), Jeremiah provided an incredibly important and insightful prophecy about what was to come after the Messiah appeared and inaugurated the New Covenant. Remember Jesus’ words at the last Supper,

“This is the blood of the New Covenant shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” (Lk.22:20).

Jeremiah is the only Old Testament prophet who predicted the arrival of the New Covenant. His prophecy was so important that the writer of the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament quotes Jeremiah’s prophecy. Here is what the LORD spoke through Jeremiah,

“Behold, the days are coming…when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them….But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,…I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people….for I will forgive their iniquity and their sins I will remember no more” (Jer. 31:31-34).

 And it is this New Covenant in which we are now living. It’s not like the Old Covenant based upon obedience to the Law of Moses, but a New Covenant based upon mercy and grace through Christ’s shed blood on the cross, with a new commandment that we “love one another” just as He has loved us (Jn. 13:34). The Old Covenant was just a “shadow,” of better things to come (Heb. 10:1). The true substance of the New Covenant is found in Christ.

So friends, Jeremiah’s prophecy of the coming of the New Covenant has already been fulfilled, and it’s been fulfilled in the Church. Even in the Old Testament, the Church was the intention of God where Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free would come together in unity and brotherly love. And that’s the way His church is supposed to function. If you are a follower of Jesus and a part of a local church, make sure that you are doing all you can to foster love and promote unity in your fellowship. This is what Jeremiah saw from a distance, and we are the recipients of his prophecy.

Blessings to all of you.