Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast. Powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. Let's be honest, a lot of us are still treating digital ministry like it's a backup plan from 2020. But discipleship isn't just happening on Sundays anymore. People need gospel centered connection every day of the week. And if you're stuck juggling five different platforms, one for giving, another for sermons, something else for events, it's no wonder engagement feels off. That's not ministry. That's a mess. Subsplash changes that one platform. Everything you need. Media, giving, events, messaging, your app, your website built specifically for churches. No hacks, no workarounds, just clarity and simplicity. Because every day you wait, families scroll past your sermons, new guests click away from clunky sites, and real people miss real moments with Jesus. Don't waste another summer stuck in digital survival mode. Use it to get ahead, simplify, upgrade, get back to what matters. Head to subsplash.combible-dept and schedule a free no pressure demo. And let this be the summer your church gets focused and fully equipped family. Welcome to day two 13. We are in Jeremiah, chapters one, two, three, and four. Got a brand new book of the Bible. Jeremiah is a pretty lengthy book of the Bible. Some people would actually argue it's the same length as the book of Isaiah, although it's not as many chapters. Okay, so there are nerds out there, like serious Bible nerds who count words. All right, so a lot of people would say that Jeremiah's got a similar word count to Isaiah, but Isaiah's just broken up into more chapters. So we've got a book in similar length, Isaiah, which means we're gonna be camped out in Jeremiah for a while. So like always, I'm gonna give context clues, gonna give some nerdy nuggets. I'll always leave us with the timeless truth. When it's the first day of a new book, I feel like the context clues are always a little longer than normal. So today may be heavier on the context clues than the nerdy nuggets, but I think it'll all help us to read the book of Jeremiah better. If you've done the reading, everything I'm about to say is gonna make total sense. If you haven't done the reading, you're gonna be a Little bit in the dark. So let's start off with some context. Let's just go to Jeremiah, chapter one, verse one, and I'll say right out of the gate, we know more about Jeremiah as a character than we know about tons of biblical characters. I mean, Jeremiah actually did a great job of giving us tons of context. So we are not gonna be clueless about context as it pertains to Jeremiah in the book of Jeremiah. But I'll explain even more of what I mean by that in a bit. Let's jump into Jeremiah 1:1 says this. The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, very important. Next bit is also important. One of the priests, Huge detail right there. One of the priests from Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin right there. We've got tons of information about Jeremiah, but if you don't know how to decipher that information, then that information may not mean anything to you. So let's dive into what that information actually means. First of all, Jeremiah is a Levite, but not only is he a Levite, he's a priest. Right? So now we've got someone who's a priest and a prophet. Pretty cool. Second of all, he comes from a very, very interesting town. This town was the home of Abiathar, the high priest, during the end of David's reign, which means that Jeremiah was from that side of the family. Okay. A descendant of Abiathar. Now, if you remember this, this is going all the way back to man. Second Samuel, or. Yeah, First Samuel and second Samuel. So if. If you remember Abiathar, Abiathar is going to side with Abby, Adonijah instead of David. Okay. And the consequence of siding with Adonijah as opposed to David means that Abiathar, the high priest, gets removed from being the high priest. And who gets installed? Zadok gets installed. All right, that may seem like, who cares? But. But it's actually a fulfillment of a prophetic word against Eli that Eli's house would no longer serve as high priest. Now, obviously, that prophetic word spoken against Eli takes time to actually come to fruition. And it comes to fruition with one of Eli's descendants, that descendant being Abiathar. Okay? Abiathar gets removed as high priest and another family gets installed. Now, you may be thinking, but I thought there's only one family that could be the high priest. No, if you back up, okay, Aaron is the high priest, and Aaron has multiple sons. So instead of the high priest coming from one line or one son, it literally Just shifts over and starts to come from another son. So same descendant being Aaron, but a different line of the family. So Jeremiah actually comes from the disgraced side of the family, the side of the family that had been cut off, the side of the family that couldn't be a high priest. Which means that Jeremiah's side of the family could be priests, but could not be high priests. Here's the other little bit of context that Jeremiah chapter one gives us. So already we have a lot of context about Jeremiah. Verse 2. The word of the Lord came to him in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah, son of Ammon, King of Judah, and through the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the 11th year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, was when the people of Jerusalem went into exile. Okay, now there's a lot there. I'm going to summarize that and tell you Jeremiah lives through the last five kings of Israel. Now let me just give you those five kings in a list because that's probably easier than anything else. Okay, so Josiah is the first king that he lives through. Now here's the really, really cool thing, is that it says the word of the Lord came to him in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah. Now Josiah at this point in time is probably somewhere around 21 years old and Jeremiah is around 18 years old. Okay, so you got a 21 year old king and an 18 year old priest and prophet. And so these young men are literally entrusted to lead a nation. And if you've been tracking with us through other books, Josiah is leading tons of reform. All right, now the first king that Jeremiah lives through is Josiah, then Jehoahaz, then Jehoiakim, then Jehoiachin, then, and then Zedekiah. Jeremiah has a ministry that spans 42 years. And he has a ministry that goes right up until the day of exile, the day that the Babylonians take the people of Israel off into captivity. Now that doesn't mean that Jeremiah dies that the day that the people get taken off into captivity. What it does mean is that there's a group of rebels living in Jerusalem and they take Jeremiah against his will to, to Egypt. And because they, they thought they were going to be safe in Egypt. That's a whole nother story for a whole nother day. However, Jeremiah lives through the exile. He's got a long, long, long ministry. And so not only is he prophesying, he starts prophesying during the time of Josiah and he's going to prophesy all the way until the very last king, which is Zedekiah. So Jeremiah is technically a pre exilic prophet, but I mean, his prophetic ministry is going to take us right up until the moment of exile, the event, okay? The defining event of exile. All right. If there's any context that I'm missing, then we're just going to pick it up tomorrow. Okay? All right. Oh, oh, oh, last thing. The 13th year of the reign of King Josiah is 627 B.C. okay? And Jerusalem is going to fall to the Babylonians in around 586 B.C. which gives Jeremiah a ministry of around 42 years with a few extra years in Egypt after the exile. All right, let's dive into some nerdy nuggets. We'll. I'll try to count them off as I rattle them off. That's all the context for the book of Isaiah, really. But especially for these chapters that we have on the reading plan for today. Let's dive into some nerdy nuggets. Number one, Jeremiah, chapter one contains the call of Jeremiah and we get a rather famous verse. All right, here's the verse, verse 5. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Now, oh, boy, people aren't going to like me. We love to take this verse that's about Jeremiah and we love to apply it to everyone, everywhere, all the time. Okay? So we love to quote, you know, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you Manny, or I knew you Andrew, or I knew you, Elijah. Before you were born, I set you apart. But we don't then include, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Can I just say this? This word is for Jeremiah. Now, that doesn't mean that God doesn't form people in the womb. That doesn't mean that God doesn't foreknow people or know people before they're born. It just means, like, this is for Jeremiah. And I could totally understand why this is an important word for Jeremiah. Because he is from the disgraced line of Eli in Abiathar. He's from the disgraced side of the family. And so Yahweh is making it very, very clear. Hey, Before I formed you in your mother's womb, before I formed you, I knew what side of the family you were on. Okay? Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Okay? And here we go. A last sovereign Lord. I said I do not know how to speak. I am too young. Well, Jeremiah is probably somewhere around 17, 18 years old, so he's not a child. But I want you to see a couple of similarities between Moses call. Moses says the same thing. Moses is a prophet, and he says, I don't know how to talk. Okay, Isaiah, I have unclean lips. I'm from a people of unclean lips. So Jeremiah, same thing. I don't know how to speak. I'm too young. But the Lord said to me, do not say I am too young. You must go to everyone I send you and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy, overthrow, to build and to plant. The word of the Lord came to me. And then there's a couple of tests to figure out. Can Jeremiah see what it is that the Lord is showing him? So I know that we really, really love. We love to take the verse, you know, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. And trust me, I'm as pro life as it gets. Okay, but we can't build entire theological arguments around this verse. There are other verses where we can build arguments for the personhood of a fetus, where we can build arguments for the foreknowledge of God. But this word right here, Jeremiah, chapter 1, verse 5, is for Jeremiah. That's who this is for. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't have any, you know, applicability for us today. I'm just saying it's for Jeremiah. And it's okay that it's for Jeremiah. All right, let's keep moving. Let me give you some more. Some more nerdy nuggets. All right, let's jump into our second nerdy nugget. Jeremiah, chapter two is a lawsuit. It's a court case. Oracle. Now, we've talked about these back in the book of Isaiah, the that one of the things that the prophets, or one of the roles of the prophets were to be the legal representative for Yahweh. And so remember the prophets, one of the big things that the prophets are doing is they are clearing Yahweh's name because Yahweh is going to punish the people by sending them off into exile. And the people are adamant. We have done nothing wrong. We do not deserve punishment. You know, this is not fair. And the prophets are literally keeping an account. No, this is exactly what you did wrong. So one of the things that the prophets are going to do is just line up the evidence. Here's exactly what you've done wrong. Here's all the times where you were idolatrous. Here's all the times where you were unjust. Okay? So one of the things that the prophets are doing, they're clearing God's name, okay? So we're going to get one what we would call courtroom scenarios, okay? And this was a big thing in the book of Isaiah. And here it is again. Okay? So I'm actually gonna give you a breakdown of Jeremiah chapter 2. So from verse 4 to 6, Yahweh interrogates and accuses the guilty. In verse 7, he mentions the benefits that they received by. By being in covenant with him. In verse 8, 11, Yahweh warns them of the consequences of breaking covenant, and covenants are legally binding. So he warns them of the consequences of disloyalty to the Covenant. In verse 12, he appeals to witnesses. And in verse 31 to 37, Yahweh declares a verdict. He declares that the people are guilty. And so we are gonna get courtroom scenes, and we've got one here in chapter two. So that's nerdy nugget number two. Nerdy nugget number three is a repeated idea that we've had through a couple of the prophets, and that is in verse five. They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. If you've been on this journey with us over the last 200 and some odd days, you've heard that before. They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. That idea is in First Samuel. That idea is in Deuteronomy. That idea is in 2 Kings. That they followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. I'm pretty sure that verse by itself has been a timeless truth maybe once or twice already on this journey. One of the things that Jeremiah is famous for is linking idolatry with adultery. Okay? That concept for modern Christians is probably an automatic one, but Jeremiah is one of the first prophets that's going to link idolatry with adultery, okay? And use adulterous language to talk about Israel's idolatry. You can start to see this in chapter two, verse 20. Long ago, you broke off your yoke, tore off your bonds, and said, I will not serve you. Indeed. On every high hill and every spreading tree, that's Asherah poles and BAAL worship, high hills and spreading trees. You lay down as a prostitute. So God is flat out like, oh, no, you've prostituted yourself. Okay, so idolatry is now seen as adultery or prostitution. This idea very true to Jeremiah's artistic style of writing. Let's see, go down to the bottom of verse 23. You are a swift she camel running here and there. A wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving, in her heat. Who can resist her? Okay? You're an animal in heat. You are an animal who wants to be mated with so bad. You just, you just have animal like impulses that can't even be controlled. Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves. So these idols don't even have to work hard. They don't even have to pursue you or chase you, okay? At mating time, they will find her. You're easy to find. Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, it's no use. I love foreign gods and I must go after them. You're like an addict. You love idolatry. You love worshiping other gods that are not Yahweh. So this is a courtroom scene and Jeremiah is speaking on behalf of Yahweh, saying, you've definitely been unfaithful. There's not even a question about it. Verse 33, how skilled you are at pursuing love. Now that is the niv. I'm going to read that one for you out of the NRSV because it's way stronger language in the NRSV. Verse 33, how well you direct your course to seek lovers. That's way stronger than how skilled you are pursuing love. The idea here is not love, it's sexual lovers. It's promiscuity. Okay? So that even to wicked women, you have taught your ways like you can give a prostitute a lesson. Okay, this is harsh language. You've been idolatrous, and therefore you have been like a prostitute. You have been adulterous. Let's see, nerdy nugget number four. I think I've given you three so far. If you go to chapter three, it's gonna start out with, if a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another, should he return to her? Should he return to her again? So this is actually. You cannot, okay? If you divorce a woman in and she becomes another man's wife, you can't then have sex with her again, okay? Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers. Would you now return to me, declares the Lord. So chapter Three starts with, you can't even return to me because that would be wrong. But then chapter four starts and says, if you Israel will return, then return to me. So let's kind of break down what's going on here. First of all, throughout this section, God is going to say essentially that the northern kingdom of Israel has been divorced, but there's hope for Judah, okay, that the hope for Judah is that there's a remnant. But there's also a twist here that does God want the nation of Israel, Judah and Israel, the whole people, to return? Yes, he does, but he's going to first remake them. And by remaking them, he remakes them into the true Israel, which includes us, the Gentiles, which is the church. So is God saying, hey, you can't come back? Yes, but he's saying, you can't come back as is, I'm going to remake you into a new people. And so this is where the idea really, this another metaphor to think about, the same idea that we got in the book of Isaiah, which is, I'm going to cut down this tree. And what's going to happen after I cut down this tree, the root which was always Jesus, is going to spring forth as a new branch and it's going to produce something that's different. So this tree now is different, and this wife now is different. So I am sending you away. You are going off into exile. I am judging you. And I'm gonna take the new remnant and I'm gonna remake a new Israel, a true Israel. And it's gonna include the Gentiles, it's gonna include the church. And since this is still Israel but new, then now you can return to me. It's almost like saying, if I'm on a boat and I replace each plank of the ship one by one, do I have a new boat? And some would say, no, you don't have a new boat. It's the same boat, but at a cellular level. Yes, it actually is a different boat because it is different pieces of wood, different planks of wood. So God is saying, I'm actually going to form a new Israel, a brand new people. So, family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I saw signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy if you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective. If you understand that the beauty of Scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your perspective, personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. This gets into our timeless truth. This is great because Paul's gonna pick up language from chapter 4, verse 4 says this. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord. Circumcise your hearts, you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire because of the evil you have done. Burn with no one to quench it. Circumcise your hearts. Now, this idea of circumcision, there's actually a timeless truth. And Jeremiah literally says, hey, I know everyone's familiar with the idea of circumcision. And what did circumcision really say? Signify. It signified that you're to take a member of your body that can produce two things. It can produce death and life. Okay? And so this is how the ancient person thought about this. It can produce urine, but it can also produce semen. So it can produce death, and it can produce life. So now I want to mark this part of your body so that it produces life. The same idea is actually, like, understood, with the female reproductive organs. God says, your righteousness is like filthy rags. Well, that's a woman who's on her menstrual cycle, who's bleeding. And without the seed of God's spirit, His word, then that female genitalia can only produce death. It doesn't have the power to produce life. So the reproductive organs of the man and the woman can produce death. They can produce life. But when circumcised or when impregnated, they don't just produce death, they can produce life. I hope you're following the visual now, Jeremiah, and then Paul is going to say, the human heart. Oh, the human heart. It can produce death. It can produce life. So what does God want to do? God wants to circumcise it so that it produces life. So that's a timeless truth. That's true here for Jeremiah's audience, that's true for Paul's audience, and that is definitely true for our audience. Can I ask you a hard question? What does your heart produce? Does it produce envy? Does it produce pride? Does it produce arrogance? Does it produce insecurity? Does it produce doubt, fear? Well, man, God wants to circumcise your heart. He doesn't want your heart to be callous. He wants it to be sensitive to. To the working of the Holy Spirit. So that your heart, the wellspring of your life, can produce aw. It can produce faith, it can produce joy, it can produce peace. Your heart needs to produce life. In the same way that a male reproductive organ can produce death or life, a female reproductive organ can produce death or life. But if it gets the seed, it starts to produce life. And if it's marked, it starts to produce life. God says, I wanna do the same thing with your heart. I want your heart to produce life. I don't want it to produce death. Deceit comes out of the heart. But man, faith also comes out of the heart. So God wants to circumcise the heart. And that's true in every generation. And that's our timeless truth for the day. All right, the next day on the plan is day two. 14 will be in Jeremiah, chapters five through eight. If you're on a streak. I'm so proud of you. I love you so much. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we continue our trek through the book of Jeremiah. Love y'. All. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and wanna dive deeper and into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.