Jeremiah - book review
Jeremiah is the longest book of the
whole Bible! I just wanted to add that line, because it really surprised me to
know that it was not Psalms…
The prophet Jeremiah was really good with us and left us a very clear
period of time as of when the events took place (Jeremiah 1:2 states that the
Lord first gave messages to Jeremiah on the 13th year of the reign
of King Josiah of Amon, the King of Judah), which also help us to know who he
wrote the book to (Original Reader: the people living during the years of
Jeremiah’s ministry, 626-580BC. Which is around the time when the Kingdom of
Judah fell! Rough times…) OR: “Listen to the word of the Lord, people of
Jacob—all you families of Israel!” (Jer. 2:4) Now, we have to remember that
these were the last days before the kingdom fell… and usually that means that
the people were at their lowest point. And if they repented, God would have
forgiven them, right? Well, they decided to do otherwise, they had false idols
and false repentance as well (Jer. 2:27)
Is there a timeless truth around here in Jeremiah? I believe it would be
that God gives everyone a chance (or many) to repent and look for Him. And the
outcome really depends on the individual. In the case of the people of Israel
and Judah (the divided Kingdom), God gave them countless chances! Yet, they
decided to pass on those, in Jeremiah, they even say that they don’t want to
take Jeremiah’s advise, and that they even said “…we will continue doing
whatever we want.” (Jeremiah 44:16-19)
Another thing I really liked about Jeremiah was the references to Jesus.
I am always looking for these little sections where something is mentioned
about the future Messiah. In this book I found two main places where this
promise is reminded to the people of Judah!
“For the time is coming,”
says the Lord,
“when I will raise up a righteous descendant
from King David’s line.
He will be a King who rules with wisdom.
He will do what is just and
right throughout the land.
And this will be his name:
‘The Lord Is Our
Righteousness.’
In that day Judah will be saved,
and Israel will live in
safety. (Jeremiah
23:5,6)
And 10 chapters later… (10 verses
later too…) this time is Jeremiah 33:15,16!
“In those days and at that time
I will raise up a righteous descendant[a] from King David’s line.
He will do what is just and right throughout the land.
In that day Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
And this will be its name:
‘The Lord Is Our
Righteousness.’”
God’s characteristics:
“And don’t be afraid of the people,
for I will be with you and will protect
you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Jer. 1:8)
God is also merciful (Jer.3:12-13; 7:3), our healer (Jer. 3:22), creator
(Jer. 5:22; 10:16), just (Jer.
6:19), faithful to His promises
(Jer. 29:10), good (Jer. 33:11), and also:
“O Sovereign Lord! You made
the heavens and earth by your strong
hand and powerful arm. Nothing is
too hard for you! You show unfailing
love to thousands, but you also bring
the consequences of one generation’s sin upon the next. You are the great and powerful God, the Lord of
Heaven’s Armies. You have all wisdom
and do great and mighty miracles.
You see the conduct of all people, and you
give them what they deserve. You performed miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt—things still
remembered to this day! And you have continued to do great miracles in Israel
and all around the world. You have made your name famous to this day.” (Jer.
32:17-20)
God’s redemptive plan:
To explain the redemptive plan we
need a little bit of history: King Jehoiachin had been captured by the King of
Babylon, Nebudchadnezzar and taken to jail in Babylon. And now you are
wondering, what does that have to do with anything… well, remember that the
Messiah will come from the line of the Kings of Judah? Well, King Jehoiachin is
the last king from the Kingdom of Judah! He could have been killed and the
promise could have been lost forever! But God took care of him… At the very end
of the book of Jeremiah, we can read a very random couple of verses about
Jehoiachin:
“In the thirty-seventh year of the
exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil-merodach ascended to the Babylonian
throne. He was kind to Jehoiachin and released him from prison on March 31 of
that year. He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all
the other exiled kings in Babylon.” (Jer. 52:31,32)
Lamentations
Does God want to punish His
children? How come God is letting (or even worse, causing) bad things to happen
to the people of Israel? Well, we had this discussion in class and the best way
for me to understand this is as a parent-son/daughter relationship: the parent
explained what is right and what is wrong to the kid, and then He continued to
explain the consequences of not doing the right thing. The kid hears the whole
explanation and then decides to do the wrong thing! So the parent corrects and
realigns the kid back into the right path, but time and time again the kid
fails to stick to the good decision, so the parent sends prophets to let the
kid know that punishment is coming, unless the kid repents and looks for the
parent and follows His ways and decrees… but still the kid fails to obey and
follow… so the punishment comes. In Spanish we say “En Guerra avisada no muere
soldado” (something like “in announced war there’s no dead soldiers”), because
if you know that it is coming, you will take precautions, right? Jerusalem has
sinned and she knows it (Lamentations 1:18)
Jeremiah had been ministering and
warning his nation of the big destruction that was coming, and people decided
not to believe what he was saying! And now the city of Jerusalem weeps
(Lamentations 1:9). And throughout the book I read that sin was the reason for
the punishment (1:5), then God demonstrated His fierce anger (1:12) and the
Lord turned the city over to her enemies (1:14), finally, He has shown no mercy
even to His temple (2:1)!!!
I can imagine Jeremiah crying
because he saw it coming, he told people about it, he called them to repent and
he was not able to change their hearts! So I can see why Jeremiah is mourning
over the city of Jerusalem! He loves this city and its people! And he cannot
understand why they did not listen to God’s many warnings! But the city was
beyond the point of salvation, after its destruction, mothers were eating their
own babies! (2:20)
God is:
Right (1:18),
faithful, loving and merciful (3:22-23), compassionate (3:32), a lawyer and our redeemer (3:58), our judge
(3:59)
Redemptive plan!
On chapter 4, verse 22, the narrator expresses his desire for redemption
for his beloved city: “O beautiful
Jerusalem, your punishment will end; you will soon return from exile.”
And the book ends with a plea and a couple of questions for us to
ponder:
“Restore us, O Lord, and bring us
back to you again!
Give us back the joys we once had!
Or have you utterly rejected us?
Are you angry with us still?” (Lamentations 5:21-22)
Just think about it, will God forgive Jerusalem? And if so, when?
Obadiah
This is one of my favorite books so
far… because it was one page on my Bible!!! So, it took no time to read it! J
This book was written by the prophet Obadiah, which name means “servant of the
Lord” (SourceView Bible p.1174). He wrote it to the people of Edom, who are the
descendants of Esau [Jacob’s half brother] as a judgment for what they did
after Judah was conquered by the Babylonians: they cheered Jerusalem’s
destruction, they looted Judah after Babylonia did the same, and they even
captured those who tried to escape and turned them over to the Babylonians!
(SourceView Bible p.1174) And we know that God is just to judge those who
attack His people:
“Because of the violence you did
to your close relatives in Israel,
you will be filled with shame
and destroyed forever.” (Obadiah 1:10)
Character of the Lord:
God is sovereign (Obadiah 1:1)
God is the judge of all the nations, even the godless ones! (Obadiah 1:15)
He is King (Obadiah 1:21)
Redemptive plan:
This book is so little, yet it has
some restitution in it! And that is plan B for God, because His plan A is
always to have a good relationship with people so they don’t have to go through
the judgment, punishment, and redemption extra steps! So, in this book, after
there’s all the talking about the judgment of Edom, and the destruction of
Jerusalem, there is a verse that talks about how Jerusalem will become a place
of refuge and how the people of Israel will come back! (Obadiah 1:17)
Habakkuk
I have always wondered if God will
have a Q&A private session with each person at heaven… so I asked someone
that very question [I don’t remember who] and that person answered a dry “no”,
followed by, what seemed to be a very elaborated reasoning, “because as soon as
you get to heaven you will know it all!” And that only got me thinking about
the fact that if I know it all, then I’ll be like God and then we can go on a
little history lesson of what happened when one angel thought he was the same
as God and that he could be God! So, I don’t believe that upon arrival to
heaven we will have all the answers to all the questions of the universe! But
that’s just me, I would prefer to have a session or two with God and ask Him
about the “hard questions”, and hear His knowledge directly from Him. I believe
Habakkuk was on the same train with me, so he asks God 13 questions in his book
but he is surprised by God, who asks him questions of His own! “Though
perplexed, Habakkuk acknowledges that the just in any generation shall live by
faith (Habakkuk 2:4), not by sight, and he concludes by praising God’s wisdom
even though he doesn’t fully understand God’s ways. (Nelson’s Maps and Charts
p.259)
The book was written to the people
of Judah in exile to show them that there was hope for them and that Babylon
was going to be punished for what they did!
God is:
“…my God,
my Holy One, you who are eternal…” (Habakkuk 1:12)
“…pure and cannot stand the
sight of evil.” (Habakkuk 1:13)
“…the
Holy One coming from Mount Paran.
His brilliant splendor fills
the heavens, and the earth is filled
with his praise.” (Habakkuk 3:3)
“When he stops, the earth shakes.
When he looks, the nations tremble.
He shatters the everlasting
mountains
and levels the eternal hills.
He is the Eternal One!” (Habakkuk 3:6)
“The
Sovereign Lord is my strength!”
(Habakkuk 3:19)
God’s redemptive plan:
This seems to be like a romance
story that never ends… God calls His people to be good and to repent, and they
don’t, so He punishes them and then brings them back home! But the cycle
re-starts! How come they don’t learn the lesson? Well, they are humans like us…
This book is not the exception!
Habakkuk is talking to God [that sounds so epic, but I typed it like as if it
was a normal thing that we all do everyday…] and he says “You went out to rescue your chosen people, to save the anointed ones.”
(Habakkuk 3:13) Because God always comes to the rescue… and we are always
falling short. But hopefully that will end some day… “This vision is for a future time. It describes the end , and it will be
fulfilled.” (Habakkuk 2:3)
Zephaniah
The prophet Zephaniah wrote the book
which bears his name! He was writing to the people of Judah, around 640-609BC.
(SourceView Bible p. 1202) He was trying to warn them to change their ways or
else they would face judgment and punishment. And the destruction of the city
was imminent if the people did not change their ways! However, “…they get up early to continue their evil
deeds.” (Zephaniah 3:7)
Zephaniah is like a broken record
that the Israelites have heard so many times. Every single prophet came and
told them the same exact thing:
“Seek
the Lord, all who are humble,
and follow his commands.
Seek to do what is right
and to live humbly.
Perhaps even yet the Lord will
protect you—
protect you from his anger on
that day of destruction.” (Zephaniah 2:3)
And in the last line of this reference you can read that the destruction will
happen, no matter what they did anymore, Jerusalem was doomed! However, they
could be spared if they turned their backs on sin.
But Zephaniah is not bringing a
message of destruction to Judah alone, he is also addressing the capital city
of Assyria, Nineveh. (Zephaniah 2:13)
Character of God:
All powerful
(1:2)
Jealous
(1:4)
Just judge
(1:12)
Lord of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel (2:9)
King (3:15)
Redemptive plan:
Zephaniah lets the people know that
even when the horizon looks very dark, there is hope!
“On that day the announcement to
Jerusalem will be,
“Cheer up, Zion! Don’t be afraid!
For the Lord your God is living
among you.
He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with
gladness.
With his love, he will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over you with
joyful songs.”
(3:16-17)
And then God himself adds:
“I will gather you who mourn for
the appointed festivals;
you will be disgraced no more.
And I will deal severely with all
who have oppressed you.
I will save the weak and helpless ones;
I will bring together
those who were chased away.
I will give glory and fame to my
former exiles,
wherever they have been mocked and shamed.
On that day I will gather you
together
and bring you home again.
I will give you a good name, a name
of distinction,
among all the nations of the earth,
as I restore your fortunes before
their very eyes.
I, the Lord, have spoken!” (3:18-20)
Ezekiel
Ezekiel [not me, but the prophet] a
priest taken captive from Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon. It was there -
exiled among pagans - that he had his visions of God. Ezekiel wrote to his
fellow Jews living in exile between 593 and 571BC. They needed to know that the
God of Israel was still God - even in the hostile environment of idolatrous
Babylon. (SourceView Bible p.1054) He saw the craziest things in his visions.
For example he saw “…a great storm coming
from the north, driving before it a huge cloud that flashed with lightning and
shone with brilliant light. There was fire inside the cloud, and in the middle
of the fire glowed something like gleaming amber. From the center of the cloud
came four living beings that looked human, except that each had four faces and
four wings. Their legs were straight, and their feet had hooves like those of a
calf and shone like burnished bronze. Under each of their four wings I could
see human hands. So each of the four beings had four faces and four wings. The
wings of each living being touched the wings of the beings beside it. Each one
moved straight forward in any direction without turning around.” (Ezekiel
1:4-14)
And when you thought that it was
enough crazy for a book, he makes a little weirder:
“As
I looked at these beings, I saw four wheels touching the ground beside them,
one wheel belonging to each. The wheels sparkled as if made of beryl. All four
wheels looked alike and were made the same; each wheel had a second wheel
turning crosswise within it. The beings could move in any of the four
directions they faced, without turning as they moved. The rims of the four
wheels were tall and frightening, and they were covered with eyes all around.”
(Ezekiel 1:15-18)
I sometimes say weird stuff but
nothing like this (I hope…)! However I have to say that the one thing that
surprised me the most was not the images described in this book, but the
amazing respect and reverence that is demonstrated by Ezekiel, every single
time that he encounters the presence of God. Every time, he would fall to his
face (Ezekiel 3:23 / 11:13 / 44:4)
I was also shocked by how this
prophet did not even think about what he was supposed to do, he just heard God
and did whatever He asked him to do! Instant obedience! (Ezekiel 3:23) My
respect to Ezekiel… I wish a little bit more like the prophet: quick to act on
the directions of God!
God’s character:
Sovereign (Ezekiel
7:1), just for He is bringing the
punishment people deserve (7:27 / 9:10 / 14:23), trustworthy (12:25), good
because He does not want to see the wicked die, but to repent (18:23), merciful (20:44).
God’s redemptive plan:
There’s several places where
restoration or redemption is mentioned in this book. There is even restoration
for the other nations, like the Egyptians (Ezekiel 29:13,14). But I want to concentrate
in the redemption of the people of Israel and Judah, because there is a lot of
judging and punishing for them in this book. But right in chapter 34, I can see
hope for them:
“So
I will rescue my flock, and they will no longer be abused. I will judge between
one animal of the flock and another. And I will set over them one shepherd, my
servant David. He will feed them and be a shepherd to them. And I, the Lord,
will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among my people. I,
the Lord, have spoken!” (Ezekiel 34:22-24)
Reference to Jesus: “… and they will have only one shepherd.”
(Ezekiel 37:24)
Daniel
I really thought that the book of
Ezekiel was going to be the craziest, but after reading Daniel I came to the
conclusion that he also had a pretty interesting life… visions, dreams and
their interpretations seem to be Daniel’s daily bread! And every time he is
asked to give an interpretation he gives the glory to God. That is really clear
in his speech every time.
The Original Reader are the
Israelite people of around 537∼536BC. They are the captives that Cyrus sends back home! Because the
King wanted people to love him and not to fear him. But because a couple of
generations were born in Babylon, not all the people went back to Judah. And
the real question asked to the people of the time [and it applies to us even
today] is: can godly people change the pagan world? The main character in this story
is Daniel but along with him, there are other three young men, maybe you
remember them from Sunday school: Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah [ironically, better
known and remembered by their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego]
Then because of their faith, and for not bowing down to Nebuchadnezzar’s
statue, these three men get thrown into a “fiery furnace”, tied up and with no
option of surviving. I want to rewind a little bit here… I kind of skipped a
very important part of the book! Daniel, was able to, not only interpret King
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream but also to tell him what his actual dream was!
Therefore, Daniel got to be a very important person in the kingdom, and his
friends were too, all of them, rulers over the province affairs of Babylon. So,
it was a big deal that even being in Nebuchadnezzar’s high esteem these young
men did not “honor” the King by bowing down to his 90 feet tall gold statue.
Ok, back to the furnace, just a few minutes before going into the furnace, the
King gave them a chance to worship his statue, and they said these very bold
couple of sentences:
“Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend
ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your
Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we
want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you
have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)
I want to make a little parenthesis
here to explain something that really impacted me… these men are captives,
prisoners of war in Babylon. They saw their mighty city, Jerusalem, fall down
and be burn down by this very King. They were then brought to a pagan city were
their temple is even bigger and taller than God’s temple back in Jerusalem. And
of course, the King and his people had made sure to tell them that their gods
are bigger, better and more powerful than their God! Yet they stand tall in the
name of God… even smaller parenthesis here… when they say “…even if He doesn’t…” (verse 18) is the most powerful line that you
can tell a narcissistic King when he is demanding that you bow down in front of
a fall image, an idol that is not your God! And they are saying, even if He
does not come to rescue them, they know for a fact that idols are one of the
things that God, the true God, detest the most! And they will NEVER serve gods
or any kind of idols. And that’s what I’m talking about!!!! Fearless faith! -
End of the little parenthesis -
Back in the furnace… our three young
friends are chilling inside, and they have an extra “person” in there… what is going
on? The Living Translation Bible says that Nebuchadnezzar’s statement was “…I see four men, unbound, walking around in
the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god*!” (Daniel 3:25)
*But in the original Aramaic it read
“like a son of the gods”
Huh, so, they are in there, not
burning, and with a fourth “person” who looks like a god or the son of a god…
interesting…
So he calls them out and the three
of them come out, fresh like nothing happened! And King Nebuchadnezzar starts
to give “…praise to the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel to rescue his servants who trusted in
him. They defied the king’s command and were willing to die rather than serve
or worship any god except their own God. Therefore, I make this decree: If any people,
whatever their race or nation or language, speak a word against the God of
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they will be torn limb from limb, and their
houses will be turned into heaps of rubble. There is no other god who can rescue like this!” (Daniel 3:
28-29)
That story and the story of Daniel
being thrown into the den of lions by the king of Persia, that was all that I
remembered from the book of Daniel from when I was a child! But there is
something else that I noticed this time around: the whole second half of the
book!!! The apocalyptic section of his book. Daniel’s vision of the four
beasts. “These four huge beasts represent
four kingdoms that will arise from the earth. But in the end, the holy people
of the Most High will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and
ever.” (Daniel 7:17-18)
And then, the vision of the Ram and
the Goat: kingdoms at war… that Daniel is struggling to understand when a voice
commands Gabriel to explain it to him… well, that’s a highlight, “someone”
tells Gabriel what to do, can we agree on who that is?
And Daniel’s response is prayer. He
prays for the end of the exile! And for the city of Jerusalem! He wants to go
back home, and he knows the prophecies, they are supposed to be away from the
promised land for 70 years and that times is coming to an end.
I will not talk about some very
confusing parts of the book, those that especially refer to numbers and dates
because even Daniel did not know what all of this meant!
“I heard what he said, but I did
not understand what he meant. So I asked, “How will all this finally end, my
lord?”
But he said, “Go now, Daniel, for what I have said is kept secret and sealed
until the time of the end. Many will be purified, cleansed, and refined by
these trials. But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of
them will understand. Only those who are wise will know what it means.” (Daniel 12:8-10)
Characteristics of God in this book:
He has all wisdom and power (2:19)
“How great are his signs,
how powerful his wonders!
His kingdom will last forever,
his rule through all generations.” (4:3)
All his acts are just and true. (4:37)
Most High God (5:21)
“…you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your
covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and
obey your commands.” (9:4)
“But the Lord our God is merciful
and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him.” (9:9)
Redemptive plan:
It’s a little hidden but I was able to find a reference to Jesus! It is
in chapter 9, verse 25:
“Now listen and understand! Seven
sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command
is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and
strong defenses,[c] despite the perilous times.”
And then finally, the sacred city will be rebuilt and the end times will
come! But the math at the beginning of this verse really confuses me! So, I try
not to think too much about, I rather think about the fact that no matter how
bad the situation is, God always finds the way to rescue us from our own traps!
No comments:
Post a Comment