A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

FORTY-SIX
JEREMIAH:
The Collapsing Kings
(2 Kings 23:31-25:30; 2 Chronicles 36; Jeremiah; Lamentations)
As Judah and Jerusalem faced their final hours, God raised up a number of prophets to
warn His people and call them back to Himself. Among these men of God was one who towered
over all others. Jeremiah, not only was a prophet, but the prophet among prophets. He was a
writing prophet, and most of what is known about him is learned in the autobiographical
notations in his prophecy. But the Book of Jeremiah was not intended to be an autobiography. It
is largely a collection of sermons proclaimed by him in which he happened to use a great deal of
personal illustrations. As a result, it is not always easy to arrange the affairs of his life and
ministry in chronological sequence.
Jeremiah was born in the city of Anathoth located about two and a half miles north of
Jerusalem. He was apparently a descendant of Aaron and, therefore, part of the priestly line. At a
very early age, he sensed the call of God on his life to the prophetic ministry. He was so
tenderhearted and sensitive that he was reluctant to surrender to that call. Because he was so
young, he felt he lacked the necessary qualifications of one involved in such a confrontational
ministry. God had called him “to root out and pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build
and to plant” (Jer. 1:10). Jeremiah must have realized people would not appreciate his ministry,
especially when he was so young. God had to break the pride in some when He called them, but
He had to build up Jeremiah.
God called Jeremiah to serve Him just as Judah was moving into its last great revival
before the Captivity. In 627 B.C., the godly king Josiah sat on the throne of David and was
engaged in his initial purging of the land. Five years earlier, King Josiah had made his own
commitment to God. A year prior to Jeremiah’s call, the king had launched a major program of
reform designed to purge Judah of the idolatry. Five years later, Jeremiah’s own father would
discover the lost Book of the Law in the temple and help lead the nation into revival.
Jeremiah realized his nation was in danger. God revealed to him that Jerusalem would be
attacked by a power from the north. It was clear that Judah indeed deserved such judgment from
God. “An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: the prophets prophesy
falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will
you do in the end?” (5:30-31)
As Jeremiah began preaching his message of judgment in the hopes of calling Judah and
Jerusalem to repentance, he became a master in the use of the object lesson. He broke a clay pot
to illustrate that God would break Judah in the coming judgment (19:1-12). He wore an oxen
yoke around the city as he preached that the people would be yoked in judgment.
The ministry of Jeremiah seemed to become even more intense after the death of the
revival king Josiah. Jehoahaz was selected by the people to assume the throne on the death of his
father Josiah. He was twenty-three years old when he assumed the throne and only reigned three
months before he was deposed by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt. Still, in those three months he earned
a reputation for being an evil king. Necho took this young king with him as his prisoner and
placed another son of Josiah on the throne in his place.