JEREMIAH

1
JEREMIAHS TRIALS

• Chapters 26 28 36 - 38

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Learning From History

• Part of the reason that the people resisted
  Jeremiahs message was due to a misunderstanding
  of their history.
• Back when the Assyrians were threatening
  Jerusalem and the end seemed to be near, the
  prophet Isaiah instructed King Hezekiah to trust
  God for deliverance.
• God honored Hezekiahs faith and obedience and
  delivered Jerusalem.

3
Jeremiahthe Traitor?

• This story was passed down to the leaders and
  peoples of Jeremiahs day. So when they were
  threatened by the Babylonians they assumed that
  God would save them because they were Davids
  descendants.
• So when Jeremiah advised the people of Judah to
  give up to the Babylonians, he was perceived as a
  political and spiritual traitor who was
  abandoning the faith of Isaiah.

4
Missing the Point

• The people of Judah wrongly believed that Gods
  covenant meant that they could do whatever they
  wanted without consequences.
• They ignored the fact that God honored and saved
  their ancestors because Hezekiahs heart was
  turned to God and he intended to obey the
  covenant requirements.
• The people (and future kings except for Josiah)
  did not follow the lead of Hezekiah. They
  shrugged off reforms and returned to the
  spiritual and social evils.

5
Adding Insult to Injury

• Jeremiahs political statements were not all that
  disturbed the people.
• He also announced that the Babylonian threat and
  the horrible spiritual condition of the people
  were related.
• But Judahs leaders did not want him to speak to
  the people about repentance or about surrender to
  the Babylonians, so they tried to silence
  Jeremiah

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Jeremiahs TrialsYOUR ASSIGNMENT

• Your row will be assigned a chapter from
  Jeremiah. Read it together and create a summary
  of the chapter answering the following questions
• Who was involved?
• What happened?
• Why did it happen?
• How was God at work in the story?
• You will be presenting your summary to the class

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Jeremiahs TrialsChapter 26 Summary

• During the reign of King Jehoiakim, God
  instructed Jeremiah to go prophesy in the temple
  and tell the folks that certain destruction of
  Jerusalem was coming. The same fate that came
  upon Israel will befall Jerusalem unless they
  repent.
• The priests and the people had a better idea.
  Instead of repenting they planned to kill
  Jeremiah. Rather than just commit murder, they
  decided to put Jeremiah on trial for treason.

8
Jeremiahs Trials God kept his promise to take
care of Jeremiah

• While Jeremiah is on trial for saying such
  things, one of the elders remembers that the
  prophet Micah had made the same prophecy during
  the days of Hezekiah and he had not been
  executed.
• But on the other hand, there was another man
  named Urijah who had delivered the same message
  and the people did try to execute him. The
  question becomes Do we let Jeremiah go on like
  Micah, or put him to death like Urijah?
• Finally, an influential man named Ahikam
  supported Jeremiah and was able to deliver
  Jeremiah from a guilty verdict and spare
  Jeremiah's death.

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Jeremiahs TrialsChapter 26

• Jeremiah 271 2, 12 15, Chapter 28
• Jeremiah 36
• Jeremiah 37
• Jeremiah 381 13
• Jeremiah 3814 28

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Jeremiahs Trials Chapter 27 1-2, 12-15, 28

• God tells Jeremiah to use a visual aid - a yoke
  to wear. Why?
• Later he sends yokes to the king and the leaders
  of these surrounding nations (they were having a
  secret rebellion meeting) to illustrate that
  there is no point in resisting Nebuchadnezzar he
  is in control and will remain there until God is
  finished with him.

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Gods word cannot be altered to please the
listeners. (Chapters 27 28)

• Jeremiah's message is that there is no point in
  resisting the inevitable to fight Nebuchadnezzar
  is useless and suicidal.
• But false prophets (like Hananiah) in Judah were
  telling Zedekiah and the leaders of Judah (and
  the surrounding nations) that the Babylonian
  captivity was soon to be over, but Jeremiah was
  telling them that a return to the land would not
  happen in their generation.

12
Jeremiahs TrialsChapter 36

• God instructed Jeremiah to write down his
  prophecies concerning Judah and send them to the
  leaders of Judah/Jerusalem.
• Baruch, Jeremiah's secretary, wrote out the
  prophecy and then took it to Jerusalem where he
  read it to several leaders of the government.
  Those leaders believed that King Jehoiakim needed
  to hear these prophecies.

13
Jeremiahs Trials (Chapter 36)No human agent can
destroy the word of God.

• Finally, the scroll was read to the king by
  Jehudi. However, Jehudi personally took the pages
  and burned them - cut them out with a penknife -
  after he read them to the king.
• After the disposal of this prophecy, Baruch and
  Jeremiah were going to be arrested but God hid
  them. Subsequently, Jeremiah wrote down the words
  of the first prophecy (again) along with some
  additional (really bad) words directed
  specifically at Jehoiakim.

14
Jeremiahs TrialsChapter 37

• Zedekiah sends for Jeremiah to pray for Judah.
  Jeremiah gets a prophecy directly from God and
  delivers it, but it was another of the
  doom-and-gloom prophecies. The Egyptians cannot
  help you, Babylon will conquer Judah.
• The Babylonian army temporarily left Jerusalem
  for fear of a confrontation with the Egyptian
  army. During that time, Jeremiah left Jerusalem,
  but was arrested because he was framed as working
  with the Babylonians. The officials worked him
  over before throwing him into prison where he
  stayed "many days."

15
Jeremiahs Trials (Chapter 37)Gods Truth Is
Always Revealed.

• Later, Zedekiah had Jeremiah delivered before him
  from prison where he privately asked him about
  the future, but it was still a story of doom and
  gloom, especially for King Zedekiah, who was told
  that he would be captured.
• Jeremiah then points out to King Zedekiah that
  the (false) prophets who promised good news were
  nowhere to be found now. Jeremiah requested that
  he not be sent back to prison instead, he was
  placed under the guards in the court of the
  guards. There he was not free, but not isolated
  in prison either.

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Jeremiahs TrialsChapter 381 - 13

• Zedekiahs leadership team was angry about
  Jeremiah's surrender-while-you-still-can
  prophecies. They wanted him dead. They felt his
  message was interfering with morale and thus
  jeopardizing their defense of the city,
  Jerusalem.
• The soldiers went to the king and sought
  permission to kill Jeremiah. Zedekiah looked the
  other way and didnt interfere with their plans.
  Rather than just kill him, they lowered him down
  into a pit - a cistern without water, but it was
  full of mud. Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

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Jeremiahs TrialsGod did not abandon Jeremiah
(Chapter 38 1 - 13)

• When one of the king's servants, an Ethiopian,
  asked permission to rescue Jeremiah, the king
  consented and provided the resources to do so.
  Jeremiah was rescued and placed back under
  arrest.
• Notice the reference to the lack of food in
  Jerusalem in verse 9. After many months of being
  surrounded by the Babylonian army, food supplies
  had become scarce. Capturing a walled city like
  Jerusalem was not difficult...given enough time -
  just starve them out!

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Jeremiahs TrialsChapter 3814 - 28

• Zedekiah, the last King of Judah figures a mud
  bath should have served to change Jeremiah's
  message. He arranges a meeting with Jeremiah to
  get a second opinion. However, the prophecy
  didn't change from previously.
• He tells Zedekiah that if he goes ahead and
  surrenders to Nebuchadnezzar, he and his house
  will be spared, but if he resists, it'll be big
  trouble for Zedekiah.

19
Jeremiahs TrialsGod shows Zedekiah that
Jeremiah was a true prophet.

• The meeting concludes, but some people had seen
  Jeremiah talking with the king. Inquiring minds
  wanted to know what they talked about.
• Zedekiah commands Jeremiah to lie about the
  content of their conversation...and Jeremiah does
  just as he is commanded.