The book of Jeremiah tells us about a prophet who had a message to share with the tribe of Judah. How does this message differ from the message brought by Isaiah? What makes someone a prophet? How does this fit into our Bibles as a whole? We will answer these questions and more as we journey through this book together.

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

Bible Journaling Tip:

Some books of the Bible are hard to get through. They can be long, and really complicated. What works well is to use a resource to see the structure of the book as a whole. You can do a quick Google search to find a summary of the structure in an image format like this. If you want, you can write these headings into your Bible to mark the sections clearly. This will help you understand the book as a whole, and later when you revisit a verse in the book you will be able to see how it fits into the bigger picture of the book.

LOOK UP (information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

Jeremiah is the author of this book. We can actually read about how this book was put together in chapter 36. Go read what it says and then try to find signs of its unique composition throughout the book. You can mark them with a # symbol, which shows how it is put together like patchwork. 

Audience:

A unique feature of the book of Jeremiah is that it was written for a specific tribe. You will remember that we have learned about the twelve tribes of the Israelites before. This prophet was specifically sent to speak to the tribe of Judah. Write down everything else that we know about the tribe of Judah in a short bulleted list. Why did their purity and obedience to God’s ways matter? What made them unique? 

History:

Similar to Isaiah, Jeremiah is warning the Israelites before destruction strikes. Remember that the books in our Bible are not categorized according to when they were written. This book was written before the Babylonian exile, an event that we read about in the book of 2 Kings. Mark the places where you see this story point back to that in 2 Kings.

Genre:

This book also forms part of the group of major prophets, with Isaiah. It a prophetic work sharing judgment on wrongs, and hope for a better future. 

A big portion of what we read about in this book is how Jeremiah carried the weight of his calling. Do you ever feel like you are too small to do what God has called you to do, or like you are not making any progress? Then you are in good company with the prophet Jeremiah.

LOOK IN (revelation): contemplate / reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Inspiration:

This is one of the most famous Bible verses in the world today. But, go read what happens before and after these verses. Do you see how dangerous it is when we isolate some sentences in a book of the Bible from the story as a whole? As we’ve been journaling through the whole Bible together, how has your understanding of context changed?

LOOK OUT (transformation): respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

Fold a page in two. On the one side write: disaster; and on the other side write: hope. Under each heading draw or paint pictures to symbolize what we read about in the book of Jeremiah about each category. What does this say about the promises of God? Think about the books of Job and Ecclesiastes: what do they say about God’s character? What does Jeremiah tell us about who God is?

Bible Journey with JournalOwl:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the JournalOwl community. 

• Why had many Jews gathered in Jerusalem at the time Baruch read the scroll in the temple in verses eight through ten? (Jeremiah 36:8-10)
• Who reported the gist of the prophecy to the officials gathered in the secretary’s room in these verses? (Jeremiah 36:11-13)

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

Writing prompt:

As we have seen: prophecy is not denying injustice or frustrations, but it is looking those difficult things square in the face and juxtaposing them with hope for the future.  Find an example in the book of Jeremiah of a shape that you can copy where both these elements are present. Using this same style, write your own prophetic paragraph. 

You can talk to God about something that is hard for you, and point to His character and / or His promises for the hope section.

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for the book of Jeremiah. Would you fill me with a deeper burning passion to understand more of your Word? I need you to teach me how to read the Bible in a way that it can speak to my everyday life. Let my response to this text be worship unto you!