Welcome to the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast.

Right now we're going through the entire Bible to understand it as one big cohesive story.

We're covering one book each day, and this one is about Jeremiah.

Do you remember how yesterday we were looking at the book of Isaiah, and you kind of come

away feeling like, all right, there's some pretty stiff judgment in there, but the balance

of it is hope and optimism that goes far beyond the circumstances that are immediately

in view.

Remember that, right?

It's kind of fun, hopeful.

Today we're talking about Jeremiah and just invert all of that ratio.

Here there's a glimmer of hope, but more so what we're going to see is a whole lot of judgment.

We're going to see one guy, Jeremiah, well, and his helper is scribe Baruch, who supports

him and chronicles all of this stuff, pushing back against this tidal wave of foolishness

and immorality and hostility from the people of Judah toward their God.

You got one guy who is pleading with them not to continue on the course they're continuing

on, but when it becomes clear that that's what they're going to do, this one guy is also

bold enough to proclaim on behalf of God, there is judgment coming and it is going to hurt

a lot.

So Jeremiah is writing toward the very end in the closing years of the kingdom of Judah.

That's the southern kingdom, the one that outlasted the northern kingdom, which you'll

recall got defeated by Assyria.

But during the lifetime of Jeremiah, Assyria fades into the background and a new thread

...