Jeremiah and his Temple Sermon

Today I read Jeremiah chapters 24 to 26. Chapter 26 is known as the Temple Sermon (although I have found later that Chapter 7 is probably the more famous Temple Sermon). So I decided to dig a little deeper into the life of Jeremiah and in particular, this sermon which incurred to him a very heavy personal cost.

The best summary resource I found is in Wikipedia! It contains a very nice summary of Jeremiah's life and his place in the Christian, Jewish, and Islam religions. Points worth noting:

• Jeremiah is known as the "Weeping prophet" because, as John Holbert puts it: "based on his wish to have a "fountain of tears" with which he might weep for the slain of his own people (Jeremiah 9:1). It is this trait of deep empathy for those he continually chastises that differentiates him from others... This profound connection that Jeremiah maintains with his people leads him to astonishing admissions of personal grief, anguish, and fury in his so-called "confessions," searing portraits of what it is like to do the work of God for forty years and to receive in return little more than condemnation and hatred from those to whom he has been sent to announce the demands of that God."
• His ministry spans 40 years (626 BC - 528 BC) and 5 kings of Judah (Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah). It began with King Josiah's religious reforms and ended with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's Temple.
• He was the son of Hilkiah (a Jewish priest) from the village of Anathoth and yet even his own people sought to kill him (Jeremiah 11). Doesn't he remind you of Jesus?  "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." (1 John 1:10-12).
• In Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah was called to deliver a call to repentance in the courtyard of the temple (verses 4-6). The priests and prophets called for his death (verses 8-9). When the officials came to find out why there was a disturbance in the temple, Jeremiah repeated God's message of judgement (verses 12-13). The officials and people relented. The elders reminded the priests and prophets of how the prophet Micah has reversed God's judgement against King Hezekiah when he repented (verses 18-19). (Yet there is included in verses 20-23 an interesting story in quotation of how the prophet Uriah was put to death when he prophesied against King Jehoiakim!). Jeremiah was later taken into protective custody by Ahikam (verse 24).

Lessons from Jeremiah:

• He loved his own people. He couldn't bear to see his people rebelling against God. He shed tears when he foresaw the suffering that would come upon them. Doesn't it sound like the apostle Paul? "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel."(Romans 9:1-5). How much do I love my Christian brothers and sisters? How much do I feel the pain when I see my brothers and sisters living in sin?
• He was obedient to God's calling. He remained faithful to his ministry despite huge personal cost. He never lived to see God's redemption of his people. Do I have that kind of faith? "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for... All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth." (Hebrews 11 is a great chapter on faith).