Comparing The Prophet's Letter To The Exiles In Babylon

The prophets are difficult to interpret mainly due to misunderstandings about their function and form (Fee/Stuart p182). Most dictionaries define the word “prophecy”as ‘foretelling or prediction of what is to come. Using the prophets in this way is highly discerning, for less than 2% of OT prophecy is messianic; less than 5% describes the new covenant age and less than 1% concerns future events (Fee/Stuart p182). The prophets usually announced the immediate future of Judah, Israel and the surrounding nations, rather than our future. Those events were forthcoming for them but past for us (Fee/Stuart p182). The primary function of prophets as a spokesperson was to speak for God to their own contemporaries. Of the hundreds of prophets in

The Book of Jeremiah is of prophecy genre. Jeremiah is appointed a prophet to the nations by the Lord. Israel is unfaithful and Jerusalem is attacked. Jeremiah addresses the people of Judah and declares that false religions are worthless. The covenant is not kept. Jeremiah complains to God of the wicked. God answered

First, what must be looked at is who is a prophet and what is a prophet’s message. A prophet is an Israelite called on by God to express in poetic form the vision of God, His kingdom, the messianic age of peace, the work of the Holy Spirit, a new community of people, and the transformation of creation and humanity (VanGemeren 16). One example of a prophet is Amos, where the feeling of prophetic sense of an inner compulsion, “Surly the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7-8).

Ezekiel was a young priest when he was growing up, he was always around the temple in Jerusalem. The exiles in Babylon received hope from Ezekiel. Quickly after the first exiles arrived in Babylon, he began preaching. When Ezekiel received the messages from God, they mostly came from visions. Once he kept receiving these messages, he then realized that God would still take care of his people. The people of Babylon will receive a new life and return back home to their land from God’s spirit. God was with the people in Babylon the same amount of time he was in the Temple. In God’s exile, he would bring everyone closer to him. It was everybody’s responsibility to share group individuality.

The message to the exiles was very practical. First, they should realize that God had sent them into captivity. “There are no greetings from Jeremiah here, no personal words. Instead the letter begins with “This is what the Lord says,” as Yahweh addresses the entire exilic community and identifies himself as the one who exiled them from Jerusalem to Babylon.”6 That being the case, they should make the best of their situation. The normal activities of life should be resumed. Specifically he mentioned building houses, planting gardens, and marrying their children. Jeremiah directed them to pray for the

Jeremiah had instituted the help of his friend and secretary, Baruch, to take dictations. Together they created a scroll that warned of Babylonian danger. When the scroll was sent to the Jehoiakim, the king, He ripped the columns off with a knife and had them burned. Shortly after Jeremiah and Baruch started on another scroll, this one they did not send to the king. After warnings from Jeremiah Jerusalem was subdued by Babylon in 598B.C.E. Many were taken into Exile including the newly appointed king Jehoiachin. In 594B.C.E Babylon seemed vulnerable due to a revolt in King Nebuchadnezzer's army. Jeremiah was sent to Jerusalem by Yahweh to discourage this

wish identity can be based on several things. One might consider them selves Jewish because they practice Jewish customs. Others identify as Jewish but rarely follow the rules that have been put in place by Jewish law and rarely attend synagogue. These people consider themselves ethnically Jewish because both of their parents may be Jewish. People can be Jewish because of their ethnicity, their culture, their religious practices, or a combination of all three.

In Genesis 1, the chapter describes how the heavens and earth are created. The earth preexisted. In Genesis 1:2, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” God formed the light and brought positivity to the dark world.

The book of Lamentations poetically describes the people of Judah's disillusionment after exile. "The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off

Jeremiah lived about 600 years before the time of Jesus, in the southern Kingdom of Judah. In his time, people didn’t treat each other equally and worshipped idols. Instead of helping the poor, the wealthy boasted about their wealth. God chose Jeremiah to be a prophet so he could spread his word and teach them to repent. Jeremiah’s message was to treat others fairly and worship God alone. The people denied his message and continued to worship false gods and looking down on the poor. They beat Jeremiah for spreading God’s word and took him to prison. Jeremiah still spread God’s word after being imprisoned.

The word that Jehovah spake concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet. 2 Declare ye among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed. 3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and beast. 4 In those days, and in that time, saith Jehovah, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Jehovah their God. 5 They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces

In Isaiah 42:1-6, Jeremiah is speaking on behalf of the Lord reminding Israel of their vocation. As a prophetic community Israel was called to be a

The story of the Exile in Babylon connects to myself because I have been in a situation where I felt like nothing could be worst than the position I was in, yet the biggest mistake for me was forgetting to stay faithful to God by not praying and instead have reminded myself to appreciate all God has brought us and he'll always help us from bad situations. The situation I was in was my parents wanted me to move out of Milton, where I was completely furious as the Kingdom of Judah were as they lost their temple, were sent to Babylon and the Hebrew people no longer had a nation. As I was angry at my parents for considering this I should have gone to them and asked them the reason for this huge move as a family. Yet, it took me a while to ask them

Jeremiah’s message was especially unwelcomed, since he proclaimed Judah’s destruction; he

Many new prophets came about in books Isaiah through Malachi. The goal for the prophets was to have Christ-like characteristics and tell people the good news. God is the shepherd who chooses his prophets to change the future. This was a time where the nation of Israel, Judah, Jerusalem and Nineveh were not obeying God. However, God offered hope to the people by exiling the nation and offering the people a new opportunity for a personal relationship. The nations existed to be a disappointment to God because he had clearly informed the people to walk humbly with him in order to experience the good life.