[CatherineTorpey]

Jacqui is preaching on Jeremiah 33:14-16, and her sermon is called “Between the ‘Now’ and the ‘Not Yet.”

Jeremiah was a prophet in the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures). He is often called the “weeping prophet,” because he found his task as a prophet so heart-rending. It is unusual for a temple priest, who is obviously a member of the establishment, to also be called as a prophet, but that was his lot.

He began his ministry in the year 626 BCE. This was a time of great tension in Judah (the Southern Kingdom) because the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been invaded by the Assyrians a hundred years earlier (in 722 BCE). Prophets warned that a similar fate would befall Judah if they did not walk with Yahweh, their god.

No one liked what Jeremiah was saying and they threw him in jail for a time. He was predicting that doom would befall them from Babylon.

This is when we get to chapter 33 and our reading for today.

Jeremiah predicts doom, but also says that Yahweh’s commitment to his people is eternal, and that there will be a “new covenant” and they shall be restored.

After the section we read, a couple of chapters later, Jewish leaders decided that the threat coming from Bablyon was great, and their best bet was a mass escape to Egypt. Jeremiah received a prophecy that they should remain in Judah. However, no one wanted to hear that, so they threw Jeremiah in a cistern for him to die, but a Cushite rescues him. When the Jews flee to Egypt, Jeremiah is forced to go with him, where apparently he dies, and, as we know, Judah (the Southern Kingdom) indeed falls to the Babylonians in 587 BCE.

[Author]

Posts