The Book of Jeremiah combines history, biography, and prophecy. It portrays a nation in crisis and introduces the reader to an extraordinary leader upon whom the Lord placed the heavy burden of the prophetic office. Jeremiah was destined to the office of prophet before his birth. “I knew you; I loved you and chose you. I dedicated you; I set you apart to be a prophet.” Although Jeremiah is “too young” God will supply for his human defects. Jeremiah begins “I remember”. This is not an ordinary recollection. It focuses upon those signs and event which the people have shared from the beginning as a people. These are the covenant signs and the covenant making events which have formed the religious consciousness of the people, and which may therefore be held to inform the total context of their behavior and understanding even in their defection from the covenants. Jeremiah attempts to recover the context of meanings which the people have forgotten or perverted. What the people needed in the day of Jeremiah was some new and more spiritual concept of Yahweh. They were in spiritual crisis. Jeremiah projects his vision of the repentance of the people in a very moving poem of sorrow, the awakened conscience, and supplication.
The Book of Jeremiah combines history, biography, and prophecy. It portrays a nation in crisis and introduces the reader to an extraordinary leader upon whom the Lord placed the heavy burden of the prophetic office. Jeremiah was destined to the office of prophet before his birth. “I knew you; I loved you and chose you. I dedicated you; I set you apart to be a prophet.” Although Jeremiah is “too young” God will supply for his human defects. Jeremiah begins “I remember”. This is not an ordinary recollection. It focuses upon those signs and event which the people have shared from the beginning as a people. These are the covenant signs and the covenant making events which have formed the religious consciousness of the people, and which may therefore be held to inform the total context of their behavior and understanding even in their defection from the covenants. Jeremiah attempts to recover the context of meanings which the people have forgotten or perverted. What the people needed in the day of Jeremiah was some new and more spiritual concept of Yahweh. They were in spiritual crisis. Jeremiah projects his vision of the repentance of the people in a very moving poem of sorrow, the awakened conscience, and supplication.
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