After the short brutal storytelling in Judges, I found Jeremiah to be long winded and repetitive. Unlike some of the other Old Testament prophets, Jeremiah doesn't do anything especially bizarre (apart from burying his underwear for a few months, and wearing a yoke around his neck.) Even his visions are a bit dull - none of Isaiah's fiery chariots or beings appear for Jeremiah. Neither does he speak with the poetry we find in Isaiah. If I were to describe the character that comes across, I would suggest that Jeremiah seems weary and anxious. He also doesn't seem to like the people he's proclaiming God's word to very much, and they don't seem to like him either. He often asks God to be harsh to the people because they've given him a hard time. Perhaps this is unsurprising considering the events surrounding Jeremiah; Israel is being invaded and dismantled by the Babylonians and (according to Jeremiah) this is entirely the fault of God's people. As there is a great deal of repetition, the story can become rather confusing, and it seems like Babylon is poised on the brink of invasion for years and years (we find out at the end that there was a two year siege of Jerusalem.) Had I known that there was a very thorough overview of everything that happened in chapter 52, I would have read this before I started the book, as I think it would have been helpful for keeping the order of events and main characters straight in my mind!
2. Jeremiah accuses the people of forgetting to be faithful to the true God who loves them, and lusting after every kind of easy spirituality that comes along
3. Despite the unfaithfulness and rebelliousness of the people, God loves them and wants them back
4. Doom approaches Judah and Jerusalem because the people have not heeded God
5. God has tested the peoples, both wealthy and poor, and found only faithlessness and dishonesty
6. The people have forgotten God, judgement will fall upon them in the form of an enemy invasion that will sweep across the land, obliterating everyone
7. By the door of the temple Jeremiah announces God's judgement on the people for their sham acts of faith
8. Because the people have shown no signs of turning back to God, their doom is about to fall upon them
9. God laments the fate of the faithless people
10. Why do people worship carved pieces of wood rather than the one true God who made everything?
11. Jeremiah rails against the people who have forgotten God's covenant with them and deny his prophecies
12. It seems that the wicked are doing well, but Jeremiah can see the coming destruction for those that deny God
13. Because the people have cast God aside so completely, there is no going back, none can be saved from the coming destruction
14. When drought hits the people cry out to God, but they abandoned God for idols and now God doesn't acknowledge them
15. God will not be moved, the people will not be saved, only the prophet will endure and even he will suffer
16. The people have cut themselves off from God and will be taken from the land, until the time when God sends out seekers to find them again
17. Without God the people have nothing to sustain them in time of trial; the things they have trusted - idols, money and human influence - will all fade away when times get hard
18. The people have turned from God knowing full well what they were doing, why should God listen when they cry out?
19. In the crowded temple courtyard Jeremiah prophesies doom and doesn't hold back in telling the people that it's their own fault
20. Unsurprisingly, Jeremiah gets into trouble for his unpopular prophesies, and so he has a big whinge at God about how everyone hates him now
21. The leaders of Judah ask Jeremiah to intercede on their behalf, but he tells them it's too late and that they'd be better off surrendering to the Babylonians
22. Kings who are unjust and show no mercy do not belong to God, and God will not save them
23. Jeremiah predicts that the exile will prove to be more significant to Israel than the exodus from Egypt was, and rails against prophets who give false hope
24. From a vision Jeremiah believes that the people exiled to Babylon are closer to God than those who remained in Judah after the invasion
25. After 23 years of prophecy Jeremiah despairs of anyone listening; he declares that God's anger will fall not just on Israel, but ultimately on all nations that do not seek God
26. The people are divided over Jeremiah's prophecies, some point out the other prophets who made similar pronouncements, but many still want him executed
27. Again Jeremiah urges the people to submit to the Babylonians, that they may survive and one day return to worship in the temple again
28. Jeremiah has a spat with another prophet
29. Messages of comfort are sent to God's people in Babylonian exile, and warnings against false prophets are given to the remainers
"SCROLL OF COMFORT"
30. God comforts the lost people of Israel and Judah that their ancestors will return to the promised land
31. A wonderful vision of God's people restored and redeemed is pronounced, where there is justice and equality for all
32. Right at the moment when the Babylonians are poised to invade, Jeremiah buys a field as a sign that the land will one day be returned to the stewardship of God's chosen people
33. God promises that the covenant will not be forgotten, that the land and the people will be restored
34. However, the covenant is a two-way deal and those who agree to it and then go back on their word effectively put themselves being God's reach
35. The Rechab tribe are honoured for adhering to their ancestral calling to abstinence, and Jeremiah extols them as an example of everything that Israel is not
36. Jeremiah has prophecies about the doom of Israel written on a scroll and read aloud in the temple; the king destroys it, but Jeremiah just makes a new scroll
37. Jeremiah's unpopular prophecies land him in prison
38. The city is surrounded; some want to keep fighting and Jeremiah's prophetic call to surrender makes him unpopular; the king is afraid and doesn't know who to listen to, so Jeremiah gets imprisoned in a well by one group and rescued by another
39. The long anticipated fall of Jerusalem finally happens, but Jeremiah and a few others are spared from slaughter and imprisoned
40. Jeremiah is released by a military commander and allowed to remain in the land along with the remnant of Judah, under Babylonian control
41. There is a violent uprising by Judeans against those left in command by the Babylonians
42. The people of Judah ask for Jeremiah's intercession and guidance; he encourages them to stay and the land, but they are afraid and want to escape to Egypt
43. The Judeans flee to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them, who continues to prophecy that this is a bad idea
44. Jeremiah pronounces the complete breakdown of the relationship between the Judean people and God, which began in Judah and has been completed in Egypt
45. But Jeremiah and Baruch will survive
46. God's victory against other nations is prophesied, beginning with Egypt and Babylon
47. Next it's the Philistines
48. And then proud Moab, who scoffed at the fall of Israel, will suffer the same fate
49. All of the nations that once thought themselves great, whether through riches or military might, will suffer the fate of Israel
50. Even Babylon, believing that God is weak because it was able to defeat Israel, do not know the truth of it and will be destroyed by a stronger force from the north
51. Jeremiah's final words give hope to God's exiled people, detailing the vengeance that God will wreak on Babylon, and allowing a return to Jerusalem
52. A recap of everything that happened to Israel during the period of Jeremiah's prophecies, including names, dates and locations
The best bit in my view is chapter 31, the wonderful vision of Israel restored and redeemed. I particularly loved verse 8, which declared that the disabled are part of God's promise for the future. I also enjoyed the reference to the people as "Rachel's children" in verse 15 - so nice to have one of the great mothers of Israel's history remembered for a change.
In amongst the dull tedium of Jeremiah's rambling proclamations there is a hard edge. This is abundantly clear in chapter 34, where we see covenant breaking in action. The people who have broken the law and been forgiven and restored, have now been commanded to free their slaves as per the jubilee instructions in Torah. Many do this, but some then go back on their word, the outcome of this second betrayal is that they become wasteland. It seems that there is a choice to be made; God's mercy becomes inaccessible to those who knowingly break the covenant a second time - even if it is only over a single matter. There's an interesting insight into tribes other than Israel in chapter 35 when we meet the Rechab tribe, tent dwellers who abstain from alcohol. They seem to have a good relationship with Israel as they take refuge in Jerusalem when the Babylonians sweep across the land. Jeremiah is impressed by the way they stick to their ancestral calling to abstain from alcohol, even when he deliberately tempts them with a table full of wine. He expresses God's pleasure in seeing people who live faithfully and suggests that because of this they are able to stand before God - a big claim for an Israelite prophet to make for a non Israelite people?!