2. The Prayer Life of Jeremiah Focusing on His Confessions
Throughout history and present times, God has called certain individuals for specific tasks. The decisions and reactions humankind makes are typically to follow obediently, follow pseudo-obediently (reluctance), or not follow at all (disobedience). The prayer life of Jeremiah focusing on his confessions displays a form of following, interspersed with various moments of criticism. Jeremiah’s specific confessions can be discovered mainly in Jeremiah’s Book of chapters 11, 12, 15, 17, 18, and 20. Like many callings in life humanity have endured, Jeremiah’s callings were quite challenging. So challenging were the callings Jeremiah had to embark, he spent a good portion being disgruntled
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Jer 18:19 states, “Listen attentively to me, O Yahweh, and listen to the voice of my opponents.” At this point, Jeremiah not only asks for God’s vengeance, but directs it. Jeremiah goes as far as to being alright with the children starving. Instead of asking for God to execute, he mandates it. Whether or not this is philosophically justifiable is open to debate, but it displays the sheer honesty of Jeremiah. Towards the maximum brink of frustration, humanity’s sinful core displays brighter and brighter. Even an obedient prophet like Jeremiah can be a sinner. According to Huey, “They [confessions] reveal that Jeremiah was a real human being, subject to the same emotional highs and lows as ordinary people. They remind us that even the most dedicated person may at times find it difficult to do God's will. They also show that God uses imperfect people to do his work. He does not wait until we become perfected saints to use us. Finally, they remind us that we should not be reluctant to admit our weaknesses, fears, and doubts.” In addition, like chapter 17, God does not directly answer Jeremiah’s requests (chapter 19 also shows how Jeremiah is to essentially preach another sermon with consistently similar …show more content…
Jer 20:7 states, “You have persuaded me, O Yahweh, and I was persuaded. You have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long. Everyone is mocking me.” Throughout the chapters mentioned above, Jeremiah has consistently displayed on-the-edge instances of giving up, but that consistency is also flipped around to show how he never gives up on God and if God destroys, it is justified. Jeremiah’s consistency is inconsistency. Jer 20:13-14 states, “Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers. Cursed be the day on which I was born.” Huey states, “No other chapter in Jeremiah contains a comparable series of fluctuating moods as are encountered here.” Like humankind, frailty also exists for prophets. Once again, God’s response here is to keep marching and preaching (as seen in the following chapter). On a side note, Jeremiah’s desire for destruction does not happen until 19 chapters later in chapter 39. Between chapters 20-39, Jeremiah experienced persecution or attempts of it in which most Christians would not volunteer for. Throughout these chapters there are also clear instances of the battle between spirit and flesh. Jeremiah is representing God, but these are his people too. Andrew Dearman states, “Jeremiah’s life story is a reflection
Plans are revealed to, “hold a separate service on Sundays for [the slaves’] benefit,” in which pointed sermons were to be delivered to the slaves (Jacobs 57-58). One such sermon is inherently accusatory and meant to instill fear in its slave audience. Statements such as “God is angry with you,” “You tell lies”. God hears you,” and “God sees you and will punish you” serve to foster a sense of guilt and fear within the slaves, casting disobedience in any form as an affront against God, one that merits divine punishment (Jacobs 58). The sermon creates an emotional tie to profitable slave behavior – obedience stemming from fear – which it goes on to enforce as the will of God: “If you disobey your earthly Master,” the preacher claims, “you offend your heavenly Master” (Jacobs 58).
Before I start to explain anything that Jeremiah had to say and his messages, I must first explain a little bit about the kind of man that Jeremiah was. As with most of the prophets, personality plays a major role in what they wrote. It is almost impossible to find a passage in the bible that has not influenced in some way by peoples beliefs and feelings. The writings that Jeremiah had done are the same way. His personality influenced them immensely (Smith, 3). ."..The fact is that no prophet started so deeply from himself as Jeremiah did." (Smith, 5). There can be no way of knowing exactly how he lived or how long that he lived. The only information that can be gathered on him is from what people have written about him in the bible. Some more information of Jeremiah was that he was hated by almost everyone for him message that he was sending. People did not want to hear that they were doing wrong and that Yahweh was angry with them. Because of this, Jeremiah himself didn't want to be a prophet. He despised spreading such an unpopular message, but he saw it as something he had to do. He took it as more of an obligation rather than a delight.
However, when it comes to some of the lower members within their society; true actions are shown. 16 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. 17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. 18 The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
Many people are straying from the path of God and falling prey to temptation. This passage from the Book of Judges reminds us of the seriousness of our sins, despite the fact that God is very merciful and forgiving. In addition, the passage also reminds us that even though God often works through humans, He is the one who deserves the praise from us. In conclusion, The Canticle of Deborah preaches a message of the magnitude of God’s forgiveness, while also reminding us of the seriousness of our sins and rebellions against
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, and to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.(Biblegateway)” Reading this passage, I have felt that this verse calls out to God’s people to be His hands and feet. In the book, “Good News About Injustice,” it states it well, “The great miracle and mystery of God is that he calls me and you to be a part of what he is doing in history. He could, of course, with no help from us proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with lifeless stones, feed the entire world with five loaves and two fish, heal the sick with the hem of his garment, and release
Humans are sinful by nature, but at what point does the Lord tolerate inconceivable sin? When does He look down and say, “Enough is enough?” Investigating the act of lynching, makes one truly wonder about the evils of mankind. This monstrosity occurred in America, and in the South alone, ferociously ended the lives of nearly 4,000 individuals (Robertson). Although baffling, this disturbing incident is a major part of our history. Our educated ancestors took part in these crimes that plagued our land for many years for the specific reasons of lack of law enforcement, influence of previous generations, and unimaginable fear.
Psalm 89 of the Book of Psalms, advocates the message of consequentialism, foreground by man’s relationship with God, with direct lin...
The book consists of three parts. The first part has five chapters of which focuses on explaining what the key questions are and why we find them difficult to answer. The second part has nine chapters explaining in detail what N.T. Wright considers Jesus’ public career and the approach he had in first century Palestine. The third part of the book, the last chapter, challenges readers to wrestle with the questions of Jesus’ life and ministry.
The goodness of God is shown through the actions of Jeremiah. At the beginning of...
...all the people Ezekiel was strange but God did not believed, In God’s eyes, Ezekiel was truthful, forgiving, obedient, and had endurance. He was dependable, patience, faithful, and tolerant. Ezekiel was truthful in all that he spoke because all of his words were from God. Ezekiel was forgiving and tolerant of God when God decided to take Ezekiel’s wife away to make a point. Ezekiel was very obedient as he obeyed God’s every single command including not mourning when his wife died. God gave Ezekiel lots of endurance because he prophetized for over twenty-two years. With his endurance, showed he was always dependable and faithful. All God needed to do was tell Ezekiel what to say or do, and Ezekiel would complete the task without complaint. Ezekiel was very patient even though God did not allow him to speak for seven and a half years and he complied with that.
Commentary:James Calhoun. www.=Phlospages,exo.exe. Books 4,6,9,10Overview of Confessions. Commentary by Janice Tanoake. Teaching of phil to students.WC 1,578
The thoughts kept whirling around in his head, “Am I being too preachy? Am I over doing it?” Still, a constant pressing in on his heart to not hold back, made it abundantly clear, time will not wait for him or anyone to answer God’s call to fulfill the Great Commission.
While there is no generally acceptable or perfect characterization of life articles, they are helpful in providing a connection between texts from the bible and everyday human experience. In subsequent paragraphs, I discuss the book of Jonah.
Smith, James E. The Major Prophet. Joplin, MO: College Press, 1992. Print. The. Old Testament Survey Series -.
Let us start with this statement: I believe that new preachers and new people to the Christian Faith try hard to avoid the Old Testament. If they do, they only look at one section and struggle to connect all the pieces together. One of the issues that makes people uncomfortable is the prophets. First, there is a definite volume of them, and then they are divided into “major” and “minor.” I think at the core of our hearts, we are trying to understand the difference among the different biblical prophets.