Jeremiah

Last year our church finished studying through the book of Jeremiah. Here are some insights I learned from reading and studying this book as well as some favorite verses.

• Jeremiah 1:4-8 God's calling of Jeremiah, though he was young, God enabled him to serve Him faithfully, God also called and set apart Jeremiah for a specific service to God before God formed him and he was born. God has called each one of us for a specific task to advance His kingdom. He enables us to complete those tasks by His strength. 
• Jeremiah was known as the "weeping prophet". He called Israel back to God before the exile to Babylon. He prophesied of the coming destruction of Jerusalem. He preached about repentance and God's judgment that was coming and His mercy that was available if they would repent.
• Jeremiah cared deeply for his people (chapter 9). He desired that they would return to their God.
• Though Israel would go into captivity to Babylon because of their sin, God promised that they would return to their own land (chapter 30). 
• Jeremiah 31 is one of the most well known chapters in the book. God calls His own people, proclaims His love toward His people. The New Covenant that was instituted at Christ's death (remembered by the church as the Lord's Supper) was proclaimed by Jeremiah. About this covenant, God says, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." (Jer 31:33) I think it is wonderful that we are now a part of God's New Covenant as the "Israel of God" (Gal 6:16) and that He has written His law on our hearts that we may obey His law. 
• The book of Jeremiah ends with the fall of Jerusalem and the people and the king being exiled to Babylon.