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| JEREMIAH |
| Explanatory Footnotes - page 3 |
| 16:8 No Social Life Jeremiah was a man swallowed up in his work. He had no family and little social life, because God told him never to marry and not to attend weddings, funerals, or any other ceremonial feasts (16:1-9). God's message through him was so negative that a tale of woe or complaint came to be knows as a "jeremiad." Other prophets kept predicting peace (14:13), but Jeremiah wouldn't say what people wanted to hear. He told the truth, and the truth was bleak. 18:6 The Potter and the Clay God is in control - a message vividly portrayed to Jeremiah as he watched a potter start over on a pot that did not take the shape he wanted it to take. Israelites had gradually come to think that God, because he had chosen them as his people, was obliged to protect them. But their unnatural behavior toward him had brought God to the point of "starting over." In Romans 9:21, Paul returned to this metaphor to answer people who were claiming God was unjust. 20:9 Fire in His Bones When Jeremiah spoke to God, he often complained angrily about the role God had given him. Here he claimed that God "overpowered" him into carrying a message that people ridiculed (20:7). Jeremiah cursed his own birth, wishing he had been stillborn (verses 14-18). Just how did God "overpower" Jeremiah? God's mesage was like fire in his bones, so powerful that he could not resist telling it. The "force" God used on Jeremiah was the power of truth. 23:6 The Messianic Promise Long before, God had promised David that his descendants would always rule Israel. But the kings who followed David had been more like wolves than shepherds of God's people. Jeremiah predicted that the kings of his day would either be killed or carried into captivity - which in fact occurred. He also predicted that a good king would replace them - the Messiah. |