Book Background: Jeremiah

Written by Chris Howell | March 4, 2010 | Jeremiah 1 - 3

The Book of Jeremiah was written roughly between 600 and 550 B.C.E. It was written leading up to and during the Babylonian sacking of Jerusalem and subsequent exile of what remained of Judah. God cries out through Jeremiah for His people to repent, put to death their pagan gods, and return to Him. They don’t listen.

Jeremiah is a prophet and the Book of Jeremiah is a prophetic text. Prophets are divided into two categories in the Biblical narrative, former and latter. Former prophets are found in the Historical books such as Samuel and Kings and include such people as Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha. Latter prophets are often attributed their own book that contains, specifically, their own words and includes people such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and many others. The latter prophets are then divided into major and minor prophets based solely on the quantity of their writing. Major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. There are 12 minor prophets that make up the final 12 books of the Old Testament.

Jeremiah is a chronological mess. As you read through you may notice that the order of the text makes no sense. This is ok. Jeremiah consists of prophetic words that he received from the Lord as well as smaller portions of narrative detailing certain instances of his own life. View it more as a scrapbook of writings that are pieced together to tell the story of God’s plea to His people to repent and then their exile to Babylon.

Jeremiah writes during the reign of King Josiah, the last good King of Judah, as well as King Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. Jeremiah is an epic failure by any human standards. He lived a miserable existence and was given a difficult task. Actually difficult doesn’t even begin to capture what the Lord had asked Jeremiah to do. Jeremiah was charged with telling the people that their judgment was coming for their rebellion and sin. God would send them into exile in a foreign land. This is a HUGE deal. Israel and Judah’s identity was tied to their “promised land” that they lived in. To have that taken away was nothing short of devastating to the remnant of Israel and Judah.

Despite the dark and bleak tone this book takes it is not without hope. God promises they will return and he promises that a new covenant is coming (Jer. 31:31-34) A covenant that is written deep inside the people, one that is written on their hearts.