Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-29

to him he cut it up with a penknife
and burned the fragments in the
fire. But jeremiah, by Gods direc-
ton, wrote them again and added
others to them, particularly the ones
pronounucing the curse on the king
for his impiety, and these have been
preserved for us until now in our
Bibles, with a few others delivered
Later. They are in four groups
the first 80 chapters contain those
delivered before the fall of Judah;
chapters 1912, to-the remnant in the
J land; chapters 4344 to those who es-
capped to Egypt and took him with
them; and chapters 1851 prophecies
against the heather nations. Chap
ter SO is historical summary.
From these sermons we can get a
good idea of the times and also of
the man.
Josiah's revival was but flash in
I the pan, for the people had gone so
far away from God that nothing
less than a purging judgment, such
as Isaiah had prophesied over sixty
years before would ever bring about
| the salvation that they needed. They
had to go through some such expe-
rience to bring them to a sense of
F.: Their need of God. 1t is scarcely
, conceivable that q people should
| have shrunk so low as the sins he
denounces indicates. They were in
| sincere in their religious life, dis
honest, unjust, oppressors of the
poor, corrupt in their personal and
| official lives, and cruel. These
things were especially true of the
priests and prophets. They had
reached the point where they could
do anything and not blush about
it. (ch. 8-12). Read chs. and 8
particularly for closeup view of
them.
To such a people jeremiah was
sent--a tender, sympathetic, loving
lsoul-with a message of Judgment
harsh and unbending. Do you Won
der that he shrank from it? Do/you
wonder that he felt that he could not
speak, and yet the message was like
fire in his soul that he could not
! quench? Do you wonder that he
wished that he had never been born
rather than to have to speak such
messages against his people?
jeremiah loved his people. He
wept over them, until elegaic eX-
| preston of sadness are called "jere-
|
prayed for his people until God for.
| babe him to pray for them any more.
| In fact, he suffered so for his peo-
pie and was punished for their sins
so that more than any other Old
Testament saint he is the type of
| the Suffering Servant of Jehovah,
who came unto His own, but His
own received Him not, but rejected
fo1e
| cused Him and crucified Him.
Jeremiah's ministry resulted in
| similar personal experience. His
own brethren thought him crazy; he
was not allowed to marry as a sign
to Judah; craving love, he was denied
it and lived a lonely life, misunder-
stood by everyone. His strong and
| plain words first brought down on
/ him the enmity of the priests. but
the elders and princes prevailed for
him. Then he was placed in prison
by the king. but afterward allowed
to go into the court of the prison.
During the siege of Jerusalem by
his constant warnings, urging them
to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar in
stead of trust in Egypt, he was plac-
ed by the efforts of the princes and
generals into a miry dungeon, from
which he was delivered by the
Ethiopian Ebedmelech; but was
kept in the court of the guard until
found there by the victorious Baby
lonians. His friendship for them was
rewarded by Nebuchadnezzar Civ
ing him his choice to go to Babylon
or to stay in Judah. He decided to
! remain with the remnant in the land;
but after the villainous assassina-
of Obadiah, the governor, he was
carried by the assassins with them
in their flight to Egypt.
Tradition varied here Some say
that he died in Egypt. Others say
| that he, with Baruch and the daush-
ters of the king Zedekiah, went to
! Ireland. In Loeb Erne. in the west
ern part of ireland, there are 365
| islands, on one of which jeremiah
is said to have been buried. Other
tradition places his grave in Egypt.
\ His Message
| jeremiah was at times very sen
sational. At least he would be con-
| Sidered so today. If he could not
get the attention of the people in
one way he would get it in another
Once he put a wooden yoke about his
neck and went about the streets to
make the people know what Nebu-
Chadnezzar would Go to them. Hand.
ni2h, false prophet, broke the yoke
and said that that was what God
would do for them. Whereupon.
jeremiah. by Gods order, put an
iron one in it's place to prove the
fa'sity of the false prophets words.
And in short time Hananiah died.
During the siege, when Nebuchad-
neZZer's army occupied a field in his
home town of Anathoth, he bought
the field in Jerusalem and had the
deeds signed, as an evidence to the
fact that God would restore them to
their own land after 70 years of
captivity. For Jeremiah's message
was not all denunciation. He fore
told the captivity in Babylon; he
even told them how long it would
last; and with it he told them of the
return and of the golden egg to be.
Like all of the prophets he spoke of
the literal restoration of the land to
the people whom God had chosen;
but more than any of the others he
pointed to the spiritual blessings
that were to be the greatest bless
ings in the restoration. The branch
of Jehovah was to be Jehovah our
Righteousness and the king who is
to sit on the throne of David is to
reign in righteousness. jeremiah
gave up the old temple to destruc-
ton because it had become a hiding
place for sin, he gave up circum-
cision because it had lost it's spirit
of separation to God, he gave UP the
sacrifices because the heart was not
in them, he gave up the law because
it was not written in their hearts,
he gave UP even the ark of the COW
enant because it was to be replaced
by the glorious presence of the Lord
Himself. In other words, jeremiah
emphasized more than any other be-
fore him two very essential things
the nerSnnal reSnnnSihilitv of the in