2 PART I
PART I
Jeremiah 1:1: The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. The word "words" literally means "prophecies." They were Jeremiah’s prophecies, his words. It was his vocabulary, but since he spoke God’s Word they were the prophecies of Jeremiah. The name "Jeremiah" means "one raised up by Jehovah." He was not raised by Elohim, but by Jehovah. One raised up by Jehovah and sent forth. You might use the words "commissioned, ordained." That’s the meaning of the word "Jeremiah," the son of Hilkiah. Time and time again, the Bible will give you a rundown of their family. Now here you have "the son of Hilkiah, of the priests"; it puts information in there for you. So many times for people they’ve just been names that they pass over quickly, and they wonder why in the world they’re ever in the Bible. It seems you can hardly pronounce half of them, and why all that trouble? I have no scripture to prove all of this except my knowledge of the Word and the whole general pattern of the Word. The Bible says that not all that are Abraham’s children are Abraham’s children, and yet it says that we are children of Abraham. Abraham had a child by Hagar, remember? His name was Ishmael. Ishmael was Abraham’s child, but he was not a believer. He was an unbeliever. The other child he had by Sarah. That’s the believer. So not everybody that was of Abraham bloodline-wise was Abraham’s child believing-wise.
Now it says that we who believe are the children of Abraham. In genetics, biochemistry and other related fields, they’ve done a lot of work. But the one thing nobody has ever traced, that I know of, anyplace in our times, is what is there in a bloodline that somehow or other makes it so you are a believer? What’s in your background? Where did you come from? What genetically is back there that makes it so that when you heard the Word, you believed it? Someone else, coming out of the same family with the same mother, the same father, doesn’t believe. What is it? You see, the Bible says that God knew us before we were even conceived. So God, being God Almighty, He knew the beginning and the ending before the beginning ever started. There is, in the genetic field, something about spiritual awareness and perception and believing, in the genes, that nobody has ever traced. It’s there. Now I don’t know if they’ll ever be able to trace it. I don’t know if it’s physical or spiritual. One’s genetic makeup is an important factor in whether or not a person believes. This is why this man Hilkiah is named here. Now, there are two Hilkiah’s to be concerned about here. This Hilkiah of the priests was not of the high priest line through Aaron and Eleazar. Let me show some of this to you.
I Chronicles 6:3: And the children of Amram; Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam. The sons also of Aaron; Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. The high priest line came from Aaron through Eleazar. This high priest line is recorded in the following verses.
Eleazar begat Phinehas, Phinehas begat Abishua, And Abishua begat Bukki, and Bukki begat Uzzi, And Uzzi begat Zerahiah, and Zerahiah begat Meraioth, Meraioth begat Amariah, and Amariah begat Ahitub, And Ahitub begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Ahimaaz, And Ahimaaz begat Azariah, and Azariah begat Johanan, And Johanan begat Azariah, (he it is that executed the priest’s office in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem:) And Azariah begat Amariah, and Amariah begat Ahitub, And Ahitub begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Shallum, And Shallum begat Hilkiah, and Hilkiah begat Azariah.
Verse 13 gives the Hilkiah of the line which came from Aaron through Eleazar. This was the line God originally set up to be the high priest line. But the Hilkiah of Jeremiah was of a different line. He was descended from Aaron through the line of Ithamar.
Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron; Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children: therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest’s office. And David distributed them, both Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, according to their offices in their service. And there were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar; and thus were they divided. Among the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen chief men of the house of their fathers, and eight among the sons of Ithamar according to the house of their fathers.
Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another; for the governors of the sanctuary, and governors of the house of God, were of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar. And Shemaiah the son of Nethaneel the scribe, one of the Levites, wrote them before the king, and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and before the chief of the fathers of the priests and Levites: one principal household being taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar. This Hilkiah, father of Jeremiah, came out of the Ithamar line by way of Ahimelech and Abiathar. This family of priests settled in Anathoth (I Kings 2:26). Jeremiah’s father was not the high priest line from Eleazar. All the priests came out of the tribe of Levites. Some of them, including Jeremiah’s family, lived in Anathoth, a Levitical city approximately three miles northeast of Jerusalem. This is where Jeremiah lived. In chapter 11 of Jeremiah:
Therefore thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand.
Later on you will find out that Jeremiah moves out of that town and he goes to Jerusalem and a few other places. Anathoth was in the land of Benjamin, and as you know Benjamin was one of the two tribes of the southern kingdom of Judah. Judah and Benjamin made up what is referred to as Judah. The other ten northern tribes made up what is referred to as Israel, and its capital was Samaria. The capital for the two tribes of the south was in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 1:2: To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. The words of Jeremiah, the prophecies of Jeremiah, were the Word of the Lord. The word "Lord" is Jehovah. Jehovah gave these words to Jeremiah in the days of Josiah who was the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign (Jeremiah 1:2). Look at the documentation. By the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign he had brought about a great reformation. Let’s put this together with Chronicles.
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign [so by the thirteenth year of his reign, he may be twenty years old. Still can’t be too smart, but he’s smartened up a little since he was eight.], and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years [31 years]. So it was in the thirteenth year of his reign that Jeremiah started prophesying. Now you subtract thirteen from thirty-one and you get the balance of years Josiah was king in Jerusalem. This puts some of the facts together. verses 2-33: And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest [now this is a different high priest, remember?], they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem. And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the Lord, to repair and amend the house:
Even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of musick.
Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters. And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. [They’re cleaning up the place.] And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book [the scroll of the law] of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they do it. And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen.
Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book [scroll]. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king’s, saying,
Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book. And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect. And she answered them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me,
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place [word of knowledge, word of wisdom], and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah:
Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other [what?] gods, that they might, provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again. Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book [scroll] of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their [what?] fathers.
See the man responsible for ruling? If he didn’t walk for God and didn’t demand it of the people, it became like laws today in our lands. When the laws are not properly written or if there are not judges and people to carry out the law of the land, sin just runs rampant. That’s what happened to the children of Israel. Well, back to Jeremiah where it is the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign.
It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah [There are two guys you have to watch. The one is "kim"; the other is "chin." Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin. Two entirely different fellows so don’t get them mixed up when you read about them.], unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. Then [in the thirteenth year] the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came unto me [Jeremiah], saying,
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee [set thee apart], and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. [Even before he was conceived God knew.]
Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. [He said he didn’t want to talk. He wasn’t fluent in speech. It’s like when Moses said the same thing and God told him Aaron would be his mouthpiece.] But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces [in other words, when men stand up to you and yell at you, don’t pay any attention to them]: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord [Jehovah].
Then the Lord put forth his hand [condescensio; figure of speech], and touched my [what?] mouth. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
It was God’s Word he spoke, but it was spoken in Jeremiah’s vocabulary. verse 10:
See [and here is the first prophecy], I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
Second prophecy, verse 11. verse 11:
Moreover the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. The "rod of an almond tree." The almond tree is the first to flower or to bloom in the spring. What God was saying to Jeremiah he understood beautifully. A rod of an almond tree meant vigilance. A vigilant watchman would carry such a rod for striking people. Jeremiah was to be the first one that would really stand vigilant, striking as a watchman. That’s what God was showing him. verse 12:
Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
It’s simply telling him that He’s going to do it very quickly. verse 13: And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying ["the second time" is the third prophecy, meaning "again"], What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething [boiling] pot; and the face thereof is toward the north. The oldest text has the word "was." King James has "is" in italics. A seething pot. A boiling pot. The truth is much deeper than that. In order for a pot to boil you have to have a fire under it. It just doesn’t boil on its own. The face of this boiling pot was toward the north, and what he was seeing was the fire being blown underneath from the north. That just made that old pot boil up like crazy. Understand? He saw the face. The face was that underneath side of the pot which was tilted toward the north. The fire was right under it. What God was showing him is the north wind blowing that fire until it was just a raging fire underneath that boiling pot. It just kept boiling it up. That’s that verse of scripture. verse 14:
Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Most have never understood the Bible, because they never understood word of knowledge, word of wisdom. They never see these things. They can read it a lifetime. It’s just words to them. To us it’s the Word of God. Word of knowledge and word of wisdom are in here so beautifully. An evil shall break forth. The word "evil" again is not strong enough. "Catastrophe" would be good, but I think that if I were to translate it literally, I’d say "destruction." That would communicate to my mind. Maybe to you the word "catastrophe." It’s not just an evil, you know: chewing tobacco and spitting up in the wind kind of thing. It’s not just an evil, but it’s an evil that is like a great catastrophe, a holocaust. It’s destruction. That communicates to my mind. As we shall see, the whole temple will be destroyed. That’s what God is showing him. Destruction shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. verse 15:
For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
"The entering of the gates of Jerusalem" is where the king of Judah would sit to judge. The revelation is that God will bring the families of the kingdoms of the north, that are going to be hotter than crazy like a great fire. They are going to sit on the throne where the king of Judah was supposed to sit, because he’s copped out. God is telling him these other countries are coming and those men, those kings, are going to sit on your throne and do the judging; "...and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah." They are going to sit outside of the gate of the city of Jerusalem where the king of Judah is supposed to sit. Then they are going to sit at all the gates of all the cities of Judah. This prophecy is fulfilled in Jeremiah 39.
Jeremiah 39:3 and 4: And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even...with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon. And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night [and they were caught the next morning].... That is the fulfillment. Back to chapter one.
Jeremiah 1:16: And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
God did not forsake them. They forsook God. "And have burned incense unto other gods and worshipped the works of their own hands." You will find out as you work the Word of God that most of the things that people think God gets upset about, don’t bother God very much. But the very things they never give a thought make God madder than crazy. They burned incense unto other gods and worshipped the works of their own hands. That was a real insult. verses 17 and 18:
Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
"Gird up thy loins." God is telling Jeremiah what to do. That doesn’t mean wrap his mantle around his hips. It means to gird up the loins of the mind. It means to stay his mind because he’s going to be dealing with a bunch of tough cookies, a mass of unbelievers. If I were doing a literal translation I’d say, "Therefore, set your mind and arise and speak unto them all (not two-thirds, not ninety-nine and forty-four one hundredths; all) that I command thee; be not dismayed at their faces (He told him once and tells him again. You know why? Because men of God need that information in difficult situations like this and God has to take care of His man of God by briefing him; talking to him; informing him.) lest I confound thee before them. For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city."
There are pillars made out of iron that have stood outside for thousands of years, yet bear no signs of rust. I don’t understand them and have not asked the right people to get an answer. Now, what kind of iron is it, you metallurgists and brains in the universities? You figure it out and then we’ll both know. You can still see some of these iron pillars in India today. They have the Buddhist scriptures written in them. They have stood there ever since Buddha came on the scene, and they still haven’t rusted. I don’t know what they put into it. Iron we have in the United States rusts the first day. "And brasen walls." The oldest text that I am able to find says a wall of bronze. Bronze is not strong like iron, but bronze is beautiful, tender. I guess if you have a hammer you can take bronze and dent it very easily, but iron you can’t. Look at this man of God, what God says he’s going to do with him. He’ll make him a defenced city with an iron pillar and a wall of bronze. All true men of God are like that. They’re like an iron pillar. You know, Craig said the other night that people in the senses world look upon us as being narrow-minded. We’re not narrow-minded; we’re just God-minded. That’s "iron pillar." They say, well, you don’t have any love, you’re very "dogmatic." I guess that’s the word they use in religious circles. Sure we are. Very simple. Somebody says to me "You’re dogmatic." I say, "Wonderful. I am. Do you want to go to the bank? You’re dogmatic about your check." We know what we believe and why we believe it. But on the other hand, men of God are also like a wall of beautiful bronze: tender and gorgeous. "Against the whole land, against the kings of Judah." Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Wasn’t that who we read of a little while ago? "Against the priests." He’d also have to stand against the religious leaders as well as the people of the land who have been following those false religions, priests, princes and leaders. verse 19: And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.
"And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee." That does not mean they’re not going to throw him to the dogs. It simply means that the dogs are not going to eat him. Because you will see later on they threw him down in a well that they used to dump their dung in. The King James says "mire." They dug these out and put their dung in there; then in the spring of the year they dipped it out and put it on the land as fertilizer. While normally such wells were outside of the city limits, they had converted old wells within the city for this purpose because they were under siege. So they dumped old Jeremiah in there. He sank into it until the dung was right up to the bottom of his chin. They left him in there for a period of time to see how he liked it. So I want you to complain tomorrow about all the obstacles with which you are confronted. Tell us how much you believed God and had to sacrifice to know a little of the Word. Yeah. "They shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord" and I’m going to what? "Deliver thee." These are the prices men of God pay, but so what. It’s worth it. Now the fourth prophecy begins with chapter 2, verse 1.
Jeremiah 2:1 and 2:
Moreover the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem....
"Go and cry in the ears of" what? Jerusalem. You’ve just now changed. The first chapter was cry unto Judah. Now he gets directly to the city and it mentions Jerusalem. verse 7: And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.
"And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof." These words, "a plentiful country," are "a land of a Carmel" meaning a "garden land." Now one of the great mountains in the holy land is called the Mount of Carmel. Why? Because it was beautifully green like a garden at the top. That’s what the name Carmel means: a garden land, a land of beautiful gardens.
You see how we read the Word and we work this Word with all of our stayed mind and all of our ability to get as much out of it. It’s like I was telling Craig today, no matter how hard I work the Word it always still is elusive to the end I never know it all. I never quite get to the place that I’m convinced that there’s no more to learn. But I sure thank God for the little light we do have and the accuracy of it. That should help you a little bit on chapter one. Now all the rest of the chapters can be done just as minutely, even more so if we took more time and had more knowledge of God and His Word, or more ability. We will continue with Jeremiah in the next section.