| The Grand Story |

For one of my classes, I was required to answer twenty questions on the book of Jeremiah. This one was concerned with where the book of Jeremiah fit in historically. Emily convinced me to post it. Hope you enjoy it.

The book of Jeremiah often alludes back to creation, for God is the one who inspired the world to be. He created people and dwelled among them. These same people turned against Him, beginning the cycle that humans would continue in for centuries and centuries: transgression, fear, remorse, and soon repentance. God called these people out of Egypt back to Himself, and the covenant people were given laws so as to instruct these children as to right conduct and living. They were led, hand-in-hand, provided for by God as though by a nursing mother, to a land of plenty which would be theirs to claim. There they pushed for a king to lead them, like the other nations, and soon thereafter a king set out to build a house for God. After king David, the kingdom split into two factions, further separating themselves from God and from each other. The north and the south were ruled by different kings until eventually the north was conquered by the Assyrian arrmy.

To this, the sister nation of Judah should see the error of Israel and repent. However, this was not so. Judah, like her sister, became a harlot in God’s eyes. Judah was poised to be overcome and destroyed like her sister before her. But the story of God was never about destruction, for wanton destruction does not bring glory to God. Since neither of these nations was able to bring glory to God and both had shamed His name, something had to be done. The great vine of Israel and Judah, that God had planted and grown, was in need of pruning, perhaps even fire was needed to burn off the dead and rotten branches. Restoration, not destruction, was on God’s mind. He would bring a broken and weary people back to Him; He would draw near to those that had transgressed His law and sundered His covenant. And like the releasing of slaves after seven years of service, God would release His people from their exile in Babylon after seventy years. The edict of Cyrus would bring His people back to their land where they would await the Messiah. The spurned and jealous lover of our soul would come to earth, incarnate in the flesh, to dote His bride. The story comes full circle, as all stories do, with newly created bodies in a new creation reality: the wedding supper of the Lamb is the reality of complete and perfect reconciliation between God and His people. He will be our God and we will be His people, forevermore.

The story of Jeremiah fits historically within the siege of the southern nation of Judah and its prized city Jerusalem. The prophet Jeremiah endures the pain of a people who forsake him and want his life, and this brings him closer to the God he serves. Both suffer rejection, but rejection is only temporary. The story of Jeremiah encompasses and alludes to the grandeur of creation, the love of the eternal “I am” God, and the story of redemption and reconciliation of a nation that far precedes and anticipates the final redemption and reconciliation of all nations. What a book, one like I’ve never read before.