Monday 27th July
Read Jeremiah 1:1-3
“The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. 2 The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, 3 and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.” (NIVUK)
Jeremiah opens, as many prophetic books open, with the time and place of his calling. Jeremiah was a preacher’s son from just outside Jerusalem, within sight of the walls. He spoke during the reigns of the last kings of Judah – from Josiah the reformer, to Jehoiakim the rebel and finally Zedekiah the puppet. For those who wish to understand the nature of these last kings, their story can be found in 2 Kings 22-25.
Even the tone of the opening however tells you something about the trajectory of Jeremiah’s ministry. It begins amidst the high point of Josiah’s reign and ends with the walls of Jerusalem torn down and the people exiled. Jeremiah himself died in exile in Egypt. These will be challenging words to read and wrestle with. Challenging for Jeremiah’s listeners, challenging for Jeremiah and challenging for us.
They are words to a society that has drifted away from God, drifted away from truth and has sought security in politics, people, power and possessions. If we listen closely, those words will be painful. They were painful for Jeremiah after all – he saw the people’s end plainly and his depression was real. But beyond those words he also saw God’s promised peace. Let us read them carefully and find that peace too.
