Jeremiah's Prophesy

We often hear from him as one of the Major Prophets. Who was Jeremiah? Jeremiah was called by to give prophesy of Jerusalem's destruction that would occur by invaders from Babylon. This was because Israel had been unfaithful to the laws of the covenant and had forsaken God by worshiping the Baals. The people of Israel had even gone as far as building high altars to Baal in order to burn their children in fire as offerings. This nation had deviated so far from God that they had broken the covenant, causing God to withdraw his blessings. Jeremiah was guided by God to proclaim that the nation of Israel would be faced with famine, be plundered and taken captive by foreigners who would exile them to a foreign land. About a year after King Josiah of Judah had turned the nation toward repentance from the widespread idolatrous practices of his father and grandfather, Jeremiah's sole purpose was to reveal the sins of the people and explain the reason for the impending disaster. Again, the destruction would be at the hands of the Babylonian army and then into captivity. Jeremiah delivered a message of judgment upon the people of Israel who had taken to worshiping false gods. They were so caught up in their way of life centering around this worship that they thought everything was going just fine and that God, if he really cared, must be quite satisfied with them. Nothing could have been much further from the truth. So it was that Jeremiah brought a scathing word of judgment. It was meant to be so harsh that it might just shock the people into really taking a look at what they were doing. But it didn't seem to work that way for most of the people. Rather than frightening the people, it brought them to great anger and they had Jeremiah locked up in the stocks where they could ridicule him all the day long. Sometimes we use anger as a means of pushing the truth further away from us. It seemed so inappropriate for the Israelites of Jeremiah?s day to stir up all this trouble when life was moving along merrily and people were having so much fun. Could the same be said to be true today? Just as Jeremiah spoke the word of the Lord to the unfaithful ones in his day, we need to hear it today one more time. It comes from the heart of God's love for us. it is similar to the one Jeremiah tried to proclaim in his day. Do you think that more people are willing to receive it and let it change their lives today than did in the time of Jeremiah?