First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

The g-dly king Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign

(640 B.C.E.) and forty years old when he was killed (609 B.C.E.).

Around Josiah's 21st year of life, the young prophet Jeremiah

was called to preach. He was to have many years of preaching ministry,

during the following: first, the reign of the Josiah's 23 year-old son

Jehoahaz (609 B.C.E.) who ruled only three months in Judah and,

after being deposed and exiled by Pharaoh Necho, died in Egyptian

captivity (Jer. 22:11-12; also II Kings 23:30-34); then, the reign of

Jehoiakim (609 B.C.E.), who was installed as king over Judah at

the age of 25 and ruled 11 years; then, the reign of Jehoiachin (598

B.C.E.), who was installed at age 18 and ruled little more than 3

months before he was taken prisoner to Babylon by King

Nebuchadnezzar; the reign of Zedekiah (597 B.C.E.) who was 21

years old when he began to reign and was blinded by

Nebuchadnezzar shortly before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.

The evil reigns of these miserable sons of Josiah were prophecied

by Isaiah who said, "I will make boys their princes, and babes

shall rule over them" (Isa. 3:4). Jer. ch. 36 shows Jehoiakim

burning the Bible.

Jeremiah objected to G-d at his call that he was too young to

preach, but G-d silenced him (1:2). G-d appointed him to be a

preacher who would "pluck up and pull down, destroy and

overthrow, build and plant" (1:10; and 12:14-17). Jeremiah's

preaching would cause stumbling blocks (6:21), testing and

refining the people (6:27). Fire would come out of his mouth and

destroy kingdoms (see 5:14; and 23:29). Just as Elijah said there

would be neither rain nor dew except at Elijah's word (I Kings

17:1), so Judah would be uprooted and taken into Exile and then

(70 years later-- 25:11) Judah would be planted back in Israel

(31:28), but these cataclysmic events would happen only at

Jeremiah's word.

Immediately in Jeremiah's ministry G-d shows him the coming

crisis, represented by a "boiling pot, tilted away from the

north" (1:13). This pot was going to boil over and pour its hot

lava of destruction as foreign soldiers came down on Jerusalem

from the north. This threat from the north (1:14; and 4:6; and 6:1 and 6:22;

10:22; and 13:20; and 16:15; and 25:9 and 25:26; and 31:8) became concrete in the

persons of King Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian soldiers. G-d is

telling Jeremiah to preach that there is no escape from these

soldiers. The people have broken G-d's Law and now G-d is sending

His divine marshalls to put the people under arrest and take them

off to Babylon to serve a 70 year prison sentence in Exile. Go

peaceably, Jeremiah preaches, and you will live. If the nation

humbles itself and waits on the L-rd, the nation will return. But

whoever attempts to resist the divine arrest will be put to

death. They will be like bad figs (24:8), and because of their

disobedience G-d will not give them a heart to know Him (24:7).

This was Jeremiah's hard message, which cost him dearly, and

brought great persecution down on his head. But, ironically,

weak, isolated Jeremiah, the maggid with the dangerous and

wrath-provoking message, is in much safer hands than the

sonerous-voiced false prophets and power weilding political

leaders, who stir up violence against Jeremiah as a traitor. For

the L-rd promises to protect Jeremiah but to put to death these

enemies of his, both Jews and Gentiles, with judgment beginning

at the household of G-d (see 1:18-19; and 25:8-9 and 25:29) and climaxing in

the Day of the L-rd (25:33; and 46:10). "Flight shall fail the

shepherds" (25:35), a prophecy that proved true for fleeing King

Zedekiah, the last king of Judah (52:1-11). All the wicked must

drink the lethal cup of judgment that is coming (25:28), even

ultimately that anti-Moshiach the king of Babylon (Jer. 25:26).

The reason for the coming Babylonian Exile is given in 5:18-19,

the land of Israel was full of elilim (idols). See also 9:12-16;

and 10:5 and 10:18 and 10:21; and 16:11-13. The sin of Manasseh (15:4; see II Kings 21:6),

especially child sacrifice (Jer. 7:30-34) brought great national

disaster of Judah, just as the abortion holocaust will bring

great grief on America. Consequently, G-d's wrath burns against

her, and G-d is going to turn Jerusalem into an abortion and it

will be no place to marry or to bear children (16:3-4).

Jerusalem will be like a rejected prostitute (3:2-3; and 4:29-31)

because she has stubbornly rejected the L-rd, her true husband,

and has given herself in spiritual adultery to false g-ds, the

Baals and all the worthless foreign idols that have taken over

her land. Nothing short of the Babylonian exile would cure her

of this sin of changing her g-ds (2:11). What is amazing is that

the kingdom of Judah does not learn her lesson by seeing the

idolatrous northern kingdom of Israel go off (722 B.C.E.) into

captivity because of this very sin (3:6-10); Judah has to undergo

a similar punishment herself to get cured of idolatry. But, to

put it simply, the main fault that brought all this punishment on

G-d's people was refusal to listen to the prophetic Word of the

Scriptures (25:4-7; and 32:33-35; and 35:15-17).

Jeremiah did not have a popular message to preach (look at it--

13:19; also 15:10), and many people opposed him. Who wanted to

hear someone prophesy massacre and national desolation (see, for

example 9:22)? But all Jeremiah was preaching was Deuteronomy 28:15f

and its covenant curses (see Jer. 11:2-4; and 34:18). Nevertheless,

some men from Jeremiah's home town (Anathoth near Jerusalem) were

so embarrassed and infuriated by his preaching that they started

a conspiracy to kill him (11:8-23). The political leaders were

stupid, because they did not inquire of the L-rd (10:21); also

the wise, because they had rejected the Word of G-d (8:9). And

the rest of the people either scoffed at all preaching (5:12-13)

or championed the false prophets who contradicted Jeremiah's

message predicting war and judgment. Jer. l4:16 says that people

who listen to false prophets will be destroyed with them (so take

heed, you in the cults, or you who love your rabbi or your

priest). The false prophets were incompetent to warn against

coming disaster because G-d had not sent them (14:14) and they

had no knowledge (14:18). These spiritually stupid false

shepherds assured the people of peace even while the flames of

war were ready to ignite (6:14; and 8:11; and 23:30-40; and 27:9-22;

and 29:8-19). The human heart is devious above all else and perverse

beyond understanding (17:9). Other lying false prophets in

Jeremiah are Pashhur the false kohen (20:1), Chananyah the false

prophet (28:1-17), Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of

Maaseiah (see 29:21-23 which says that a sexually immoral

preacher is by definition a false prophet). And look what

happened to Shemaiah of Nehelam who wrote a scathing letter from

the Exile against Jeremiah (29:24-32). False teachers (scribes,

rabbis) nullified the Word of the L-rd by their lying pen with

which they handed down their own traditions (see Jer. 8:8). A

true scribe (like Baruch) does not seek great things for himself

in a

tribulation world that is on the brink of destruction (45:5).

Because of these false political and religious shepherds (23:1-2

and 23:11-22), the situation in the land was beyond remedy. The people

refused to know G-d (9:6). The time of repentance and revival in

Israel had past (8:20); doom and judgment were inevitable on

king, kohen, prophet, and inhabitant of Jerusalem (13:13). But

Jeremiah saw beyond the Exile and the Return and he had in view

the Brit Chadasha (31:31-34; and 11:10; and 22:9) and the coming of the

Moshiach (23:5-6; and 33:14-18) and the shepherds that G-d would

raise up at that time: "I will give you shepherds after my own

heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding (3:15;

see also 23:3-4)."

With the ominous look of a weeping undertaker (9:1) called to

preside over the funeral and burial (in Exile) of the whole

nation, Jeremiah comes on the scene and makes his doleful

appearance (see 15:17. Jerusalem and its neighboring towns are

under a death sentence (33:5; and 34:2 and 34:22). Read 16:1-9. Commanded

to celibacy (since what is going to happen to Judah now will make

it no place to raise children), Jeremiah is also instructed by

G-d that his devastatingly sad message will close down wedding

chapels (7:34). He is to shake the dust or the mourner off his

feet (16:5), since deaths en masse will now be divine punishment.

Mourning is futile when death is judgment and is coming like an

epidemic on the entire population. However there will be a

she'erit Yisroel (remnant of Israel), because G-d will not make a

full end of His people (see 4:27; and 5:18; and 6:9). A wonderful

restoration is prophesied (32:37-41; and 33:6-33; and 46:27-28). A great

end-time Exodus from the north is predicted in Jer. 16:14-l5;

31:8, which is a prophecy that is not exhausted by the Return

from Babylon but must surely also include Soviet (now Russian) Jews returning

from the former Soviet Union (due north of Israel) in the greatest

Exodus ever, one that will shortly double the population of

Israel in our own time. The prodigal nation will come home

(31:13--"I will turn their mourning into joy") and will be

ultimately reconciled to G-d and to His Moshiach (33:14-18; cf.

Zech. 6:12; and Ezra 3:8 his name is Yehoshua/Yeshua), through individual

moral accountability (31:10-11 and 31:18-20; and 31:29-30) and "one way"

(32:39), the way of the new birth circumcision of the Brit

Chadasha (31:31-34; and 4:4; and 9:25-26; and 32:40; and Deut. 30:6).

Because of the pressure that was on him, Jeremiah was tempted to

wallow in self-pity and to speak bitterly. But G-d promises that

if he will "utter worthy words" G-d will protect him and make him

a "fortified wall of bronze" (15:19-20). But the true prophet

must speak G-d's word faithfully (23:28).

We see Jeremiah as a type of the Moshiach (compare Jer. 11:19 to

Isa. 53:7). Like that other Messianic type Boaz in Ruth 2:20,

Jeremiah is a kinsman-redeemer (32:7), showing that G-d will

ultimately redeem his exiled land, showing hope in the midst of

bitter tragedy (32:24-25). He prophesied Et-Tzarah (the "time of

Jacob's trouble"--30:7) and the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash

(7:14; and 22:5; and 26:4-6) and the Exile and the coming of the Moshiach

who will be "raised up" out of this tribulation (30:9), just as

Yehoshua prophesied the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and the

Roman Exile and the Second Coming (see Mark 13:1-27). We see

Jeremiah buried in mud but then raised to the right hand of power

(given favor with both King Zedekiah and King Nebuchadnezzar) in

Jer. ch.38. See also 39:11.

Jer. 42:18 shows the folly of relying on the deceptive "help" of

Egypt. Here we see that we must not look at events or people but

listen to the word of the L-rd and rely on Him. When it comes to

Egypt, even after the Exile, some people never learn (44:7-10).

See 44:17-19,25; 7:18 on "the queen of heaven" a Canaanitish

g-ddess of fertility, Ashtoreth (Judges 2:13), a heathenish title

shamefully imposed on Miryam bat Eli Ben Dovid by the R.C. religion.

39:8 shows Nehemiah's job now awaits him. See also 52:14.

One disciple of Jeremiah's came over 600 years later. Read Jer.

23:18 and Romans 11:34-35.

Today Jewish people have been restored to their land (30:18) and

are honored in every field of endeavor (30:19).

Saddam Hussein of "Babylon" (modern Iraq) should have believed

30:16: "all who prey on you I will make a prey." Also see 50:24;

51:14,41,44,49,58.

On Jeremiah's preaching against the nations, see the following

chapters: Babylon (chs. 50-51); Philistia (ch. 47); Moab

(ch. 48); Egypt (ch. 46); Edom (49:7-22); Tyre and Sidon (47:4);

Ammon (49:1-6); Kedar end Hazor (49:28-33); Elam (49:34-39).

Historical facts and dates: 640 B.C.E. King Josiah, an

eight-year-old child, begins his reign. He will only live to be

40 years old and will be killed in battle by the Egyptians, but

during his reign there will be a breath of both revival and

reform.

627 B.C.E. Jeremiah is called of G-d to be a prophet. Ashurbanipal, last

of the great Assyrian rulers, dies. Judah is under tribute to

Assyria whom power was beginning to wane.

626 B.C.E. Nabopolassar begins neo-Babylonian Empire, revolting against

Assyria and beginning his 21-year reign. His son Nebuchadrezzar

would destroy the Jerusalem Beis Hamikdash in 586 B.C.E. 621 B.C.E.

Discovery of the book of the Law in the Beis Hamikdash (Jer.

15:16)

612 B.C.E. Ninevah, the capital of Assyria, is sacked by the Babylonians

and Medes as Nahum predicted.

609 B.C.E. King Josiah is killed at Megiddo by Necho of Egypt who was on

his way to fight to rescue Assyria from Babylon. This is believed

to be the famous site known as Armageddon, where Revelation 16:16 says

the final battle will take place.

609 B.C.E. Jehoahaz (Shallum) ruled Judah for three months before being

deposed by Necho and taken to Egypt in chains as collateral to

assure high indemnity payments.

609-598 B.C.E. Jehoiakim reigns over Judah as Egyptian vassal enthroned

by Pharaoh Necho. He was an evil king (see Jer. 22:21). 605 B.C.E.

is the year of the Battle of the Assyrian city of Carchemish

(the ruins of which are on the Euphrates in what is today Syria

and Turkey) which fell when the Assyrian Empire finally succumbed

in defeat. Nabopolassar sent his son Nebuchadnezzar to defeat the

Assyrian ally Pharoah Necho and the Egyptians there (the

Egyptians had occupied the city but lost the war--see Jer. 46)

and then Babylonian soldiers entered Israel, taking Daniel etc

hostage (II Kg. 24:1). Jehoiakim abandoned Egyptian suzerainty

and became a vassal of Babylon. Because the people of Judah had

seen a few temporary victories of the Egyptians, they refused to

believe Jeremiah's prophesies about Babylon destroying Judah and

this brought persecution on Jeremiah. But Jeremiah trusted in no

foreign alliances, especially with Egypt (44:26,27). Later the

Pharoah Hophra did prove useless in protecting Jerusalem from the

angry hand of Nebuchadnezzar when he began his siege in January

of 588 B.C.E.

604 B.C.E. King Jehoiakim burns the Word of G-d (36:22-32) but Jeremiah is

inspired to write it again, this time with a judgment upon

Jehoiakim (36:24-32).

601 B.C.E. Because of a temporary victory of Egypt against Babylonia, the

pro-Egyptian party in Jerusalem persuades Jehoiakim that Judah

should side with Egypt again in spite of Jeremiah's warning

(Jeremiah 22:13-19). This act of rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar

spelled Jehoiakim's downfall, and he received the burial not of

an honored king but of a donkey (22:19), for Judah's enemies were

armed by Nebuchadnezzar to attack her (II Kings 24:2).

597 B.C.E. Jehoiakim dies. Eighteen-year-old Jehoiachin (Coniah), who

only reigned three months, is captured. Nebuchadnezzar captures

Jerusalem and deports King Jehoiachin to Babylon with many

others, including Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar replaces Jehoiachin

with Zedekiah (II Kings 24:17). Zedekiah, a third son of Josiah

to come to the throne, soon after permits nationalistic minded

nobles to imprison Jeremiah.

589 B.C.E. Zedekiah's revolt begins.

586 B.C.E. Nebuchadnezzar again occupies Jerusalem because Zedekiah had

entered into negotiations with Egypt (II Kings 25:1-7).

586 B.C.E. Destruction of Jerusalem. Zedekiah tries to flee but is

captured and taken to Nebuchadnezzar's throne in Riblah (in

modern Syria) and Zedekiah's family is slain and he is blinded

and taken in chains to Babylon where he died (39:6-7). Jeremiah

is released from prison by the Babylonians and given to the care

of Gedaliah.

586 B.C.E. Gedaliah appointed governor of Judah and assassinated.

Jeremiah is taken to Egypt where he predicts the conquest of

Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar (43:8-13), fulfilled 568-567 B.C.E.. 585 B.C.E.

Jeremiah in Egypt.

Jeremiah was "a man of strife and dissension for all the land"

(15:10), a prophet nailed by the driving, firey hammer of G-d's

Word, a lonely, weeping prophet of vision who stood out against

the shallow optimism and political expediency that would lull his

nation into the inevitable divine judgment of war and national

disaster. But like Moshiach Yehoshua/Yeshua, Jeremiah was without honor

in his own hometown (11:21), which was three miles northeast of

Jerusalem, a village called Anathoth. He belonged to the tribe of

Benjamin.

What does G-d require of you? To feed on his Book until you get

'My words into your mouth'--then preach them. You are called to preach. We want the L-rd's

ministries to grow numerically and we want to do all we can to

see new people discipled, but we need to remember that Jeremiah's

message was so strident (judgment, defeat, impending death and

disaster) that only a small number of people were friendly with

him. Ahikam hid Jeremiah when he would otherwise probably have

been killed after his third Beis Hamikdash sermon (Jer. 26:24)

Nahum and Zephaniah and Habakkuk were contemporary preachers.

Hilkiah was the g-dly kohen who discovered the book of the Law

during the early part of Jeremiah's ministry, and Huldah was the

prophetess who helped to spark Josiah's reforms because she

prophesied disaster would overtake his nation (II Kings 22:16;

and II Chr 35:1-25). But most people seemed to shy away from Jeremiah.

After Josiah died, real persecution was in store for this lonely

prophet of G-d.

A key theme verse is 1:10. G-d has the nations in his hands like

a potter (18:5-10) molding clay pottery and when they displease

him, he can squeeze them into destruction like he did Nazi

Germany. In the same way G-d has uprooted and then replanted the

nation of Israel (31:27). Here is his promise: Stay in G-d's will

and under his discipline and he "will build you and not

overthrow, plant you and not uproot" (42:10). But here is his

warning: "I am going to overthrow what I have built, and uproot

what I have planted--this applies to the whole land. And do you

expect great things for yourself? Don't expect them. For I am

going to bring disaster upon all flesh--declares the L-rd--but I

will at least grant you your life in all the places where you may

go (45:4-5). See 1:13-16; and 2:19 where Jeremiah also preaches

disaster.

The maggid (preacher) is not ignorant of what G-d is doing in the

world, and as a co-worker with G-d, the maggid's (preacher's)

words are actually G-d's hammers and planting forks.

Jeremiah foresees G-d's nemesis, Babylon, coming (just as

Yochanan in Revelation saw eschatological Babylon coming). And Jeremiah

sees that since Babylon is G-d's marshall, the only thing for the

Jewish people to do is to put their hands up and submit to the arrest of

exile, the arrest of the Golus; otherwise, they will be fighting G-d and will be

destroyed. His message sounded like treason to unregenerate ears,

and most people would not listen to him though he preached for over 40

years. (See 25:3-14 for a sample of his main message.) How would

you like to preach 21:8-10? The seventy year Golus (Exile) was an awesome

punishment, a virtual life imprisonment away from one's homeland.

Note: "For I am summoning the sword against all the inhabitants of the

earth" (Jeremiah 25:29). Jeremiah preached to the g-dless that

you have rejected the Word of the L-rd, so your wisdom amounts to

nothing! (8:9)

(But can you say all this with tears? See 8:19-23.)

Unregenerate men are repulsed by a Jeremiah. Unregenerate men are

not interested in what G-d is doing, only what man is doing

(humanism). See 1:16. What does the unregenerate do? See 2:13. If

the unregenerate loves a G-d, he loves a strange one. He says,

"It's no use" and joins the vast millions involved in the cults.

The Jews in Egypt told Jeremiah, "I can't give up my cult because

I'm so blessed by it" (chapter 44). The unregenerate follows the

willfulness of his own evil heart. The unregenerate person is

described in 4:22. Even if he is wealthy and cultured, he is

still a low-life rebel (5:4-5). He is persistent in rebellion,

clings to deceit, and refuses to repent (8:5).

A heart circumcision is needed, opening the heart and cutting

away the thickness. Moshiach is the living Torah who cuts the

Brit Chadasha (Jeremiah 31:31-34) and only he can cut us with the

new creation circumcision. A hellish reprisal awaits all those

who refuse to submit to his circumcision and believe on Moshiach

Yehoshua/Yeshua and him talui al HaEtz (11:6-8). 34:18

shows us what the sacrifice of G-d (climaxing at Moshiach's Etz)

means: repent or this will happen to you!

Do you realize that you are being raised up as G-d's watchmen?

(6:17) You are to watch and pray until you have a word from the

L-rd. You are to stand in the council of the L-rd, and see and

hear his Word, and then you are to proclaim it and obey it

(23:18,22) and turn his people back from their wicked ways. A

true maggid (preacher) has a true burden from the L-rd; it is the

application of a text to the discerned needs of the people he is

addressing. A maggid (preacher) can pray and get a word from the

L-rd for the people (42:4).

You are to tell people, "Don't trust your religion. Don't say,

"I'm Catholic! I'm Jewish!" (7:3) "I attended mass! I went to

High Holy Day Services! (7:8-10). And don't say a word about 'The

Queen of Heaven!' (7:18). In Jeremiah's third Beis Hamikdash

speech (Jer.26) he warned that G-d was going to make the Beis

Hamikdash like Shiloh. From the time of Joshua until the time of

Eli, Shiloh had been the place of Jewish worship. But remember

Eli and Eli's wicked sons (I Sam. 2:12) who ministered there?

Consequently, the L-rd allowed the Philistines to destroy Shiloh

and Jeremiah is pointing to another army coming to do the same

thing to Jerusalem if the people do not repent.

Jeremiah is an example of a prophet who is a virtual refugee from

the existing authorities, both religious and political. We learn

a lot about the ministry from him. 22:13-17 reflects by contrast the

sacrificial lifestyle of a man of G-d. He is faithful and

fearless for the sake of the flock. Hasn't G-d given you a little

flock? Do you let them stray and scatter? Get a partner and pray

about your little flock, pray about specific people and then go

together and minister to that person together. If you can be

trusted with one, G-d will add to your flock.

Who will shepherd the Israelis? (See 23:1-4)

Jeremiah did prophetic "street theatre" mimes, interpreted

dramatic actions, and he was not afraid of the "flesh" of his

hearers (20:10-11; and 1:18). Note the acted parable of the soiled

loincloth in chapter 13 and the interpreted mime with the yoke in

chapter 27. Also see 51:63-64. See Jer 26:2 where it says that G-d

commanded him to stand out-of-doors and preach in the open air.

He could do it because he knew he was sent (26:15). Has G-d sent

you to New York? To some other city?

Why can't we have a street dance company (with musicians)? See

31:4; 31:13.

Jeremiah 30:7 calls the tribulation the "time of Jacob's

trouble", but see 31:7-9. During Hitler's Holocaust the ships

started arriving in Israel. G-d was providing a haven of refuge

even during such tribulation.

The Israel of G-d is eternal (31:36); we have been grafted in and

so also will the remnant of all peoples and the last days

remnant of the Jewish people. The Brit Chadasha kehillah is a

miraculous fellowship of Jacobs and Ruths. However, the Jewish nation

is an esohatologically significant people group--see 46:28.

Notable verses: Jeremiah predicts who will defeat Babylon

51:11,28. The Moshiach will be called the L-rd (Jer. 23:5-6)

Notable themes: The reversal of the imprisoned prophet who is

obedient to G-d and freed while the disobedient people go off in

chains to exile is a key picture here. Thinking of Jeremiah in

the dungeon of King Zedekiah must have comforted Shliach Sha'ul

in the dungeon of Nero in Rome.

Zedekiah had to be physically blinded to realize he was

spiritually blind, as was also true of Saul.

We see what Nietzsche, Sartre, Lenin, etc., would like to do to

the Bible when King Jehoiakim cuts it up and burns it without

fear in chapter 36.

The Brit Chadasha kehillah needs kiruv outreach societies,

shlichut agencies, and other Brit Chadasha kehillah

organizations and sodalities. An example of such an organization is found in

chapter 35. It is a "second decision" organization, requiring

commitment to a certain "mandate" and membership involves one in

committed activity beyond normal congregational life. The prophet

Jeremiah and Baruch constitute a sodality as well. A sodality is

a grouping together based on common purpose or interest. Rav

Sha'ul's company in Acts 13:13 is another example.

The local Brit Chadasha kehillah sometimes does not see this

structure in the Bible and tries to control and destroy the

autonomy and legitimacy of these sodalities, which also sometimes

abuse their autonomy and fall into disrepute because they do not

realize that they are servants of the local Brit Chadasha

kehillah and not beyond its correction.

Sodality members who have leaders with no accountability vis-a-vis a larger

body are following a potential independent rebel who is

unaccountable to anyone. This is how cult leaders and all manner of

cults and scandalous failures begin and is not Scriptural.

Get a prayer partner and start doing visitation outreach together

with the people you pray for. Follow Jeremiah's model and prepare

to go on the street and do either a brief sermon or sketch or

song.

Notice the very important prophesy that the exile would last for

70 years (Jer. 25:11-12). Daniel refers to this prophecy in Dn.9

Jeremiah's real estate inheritance activities are his prophetic

verification that the word of G-d regarding the restoration of

Israel would come true (see 37:12; and 29:10).

Jer. 21:8 says that there are two ways, the Derech HaChayim, the

way of life, the way of covenant blessing, and the Derech

Hamavet, the way of death, the way of the covenant curse. The

fool chooses the way of death. He knows about the rental covenant

he signed with the Landlord, but he says, "I don't have to read

it, or study the fine print, I can forget about the rent due

notices, I can lay around in filth and create a fire hazard, I

can have noisy parties all night long and walk the dog without

going outside (I once had a neighbor who did that--but he was

very clean, he always insisted on hosing down the floor once a

day, no matter what the tenant below him screamed as his

apartment was flooded)." He never worried about the rent

covenant. No covenant curses will ever cross my threshold! he

said, as he hosed down his dogs and his living room floor. But

G-d's Word shows us something different. The wrath of the Lamb,

the covenant reprisals of the Lamb, those curses that crossed the

threshold to destroy the Egyptians, will not pass over you unless

you come out from among them and stand under the blood mark of

the Lamb. When we celebrate Pesach, we need to also celebrate Jeremiah's

Brit Chadasha and our redemption from the plagues of Egypt by the

Moshiach-Lamb who took our plagues.

Notice that G-d gave Jeremiah a very important and shocking, even

enraging, message and then did not tell him to share it with

Baruch and a few kindly souls in a quiet, sympathetic, Brit

Chadasha kehillah audience. No, G-d commanded Jeremiah to go

into the "lion's den" and preach in the Beis Hamikdash area

itself where a riot was inevitable (read very, very carefully

Jer. 26:2). This is our model of what preaching is, not a Brit

Chadasha kehillah ritual performed tamely between the offering

and the benediction for the benefit of a few religious folk, but

a dangerous, life-or-death confrontation ordered by G-d at a

particular place where G-d's enemies are given one final warning

before G-d's judgment disastrously falls upon them.

If we have any illusions that humanism is right when it says that

human nature is essentially good, Jer. 42:1-43:7 should convince

us otherwise. The heart of man is desperately wicked--who can

know it? (Jer. 17:9) If Man were good, surely these "good" people

would say, "Jeremiah, we know you are a true prophet. We've seen

all that you prophesied in the last nearly 40 years come true. As

you predicted, Judah is now in exile in Babylon. Therefore, we

will listen to G-d and respect and obey you as G-d's prophet."

Instead read Jer. 43:2 to find out what they did say. Here we

see that man needs a supernatural miracle in his heart to bring

him to the point where he can know G-d and stop rebelling against

G-d's word (Lam. 1:18).

JEREMIAH 23:5-6

5

Behold, the days come, saith the L-rd, that I will raise unto

Dovid a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper and

shall execute judgement and justice in the earth.

6

In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely:

and this is the name whereby he shall be called, The L-rd Our

Righteousness.

JEREMIAH 31:31-34

31

Behold (Look). the time is coming, saith the L-rd, that I will

make a Brit Chadasha with the house of Israel, and with the house

of Judah:

32

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in

the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the 2

land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a

husband unto them, saith the L-rd:

33

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of

Israel; After those days (after that time), saith the L-rd, I

will put my torah within them (in their volitional thoughts and emotional will)

and write it in their hearts; and will be their G-d, and they

shall be my people.

34

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every

man his brother, saying. Know the L-rd: for they shall all know

me. from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the

L-rd: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember

their sin no more.

[Notice this passage is talking about an intimate, inward

knowledge of G-d, of a sense of relationship, even fellowship

with G-d, as well as the assurance of forgiveness of sins; in

short, regeneration. Jeremiah foresaw Brit Chadasha Jews and he

understood that the Word of G-d would somehow effect the miracle

of the Brit Chadasha "in their hearts." Have you become a Brit

Chadasha Jew? You can. Yehoshua the Word of G-d (sharper than

any sword, able to circumcise and consecrate the most heathen

heart) says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any one

hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to him, and

dine in devekut with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20)]