Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we started hanging out with the major prophet Jeremiah. He comes from a long line of

priest but gets a call from God to be a prophet. So he hires a scribe named Baruch to write down his prophecies which span roughly 40 years and five kings of Judah.

In addition to Jeremiah's prophecies, Baruch writes down some of the stories from Jeremiah's life as well, and it's not an easy one.

Jeremiah is referred to as the weeping prophet because he carries some deep grief over the state of the people of Judah.

It's easy to imagine prophets as these self-righteous people who just go around telling everybody

else what they're doing wrong.

But more often what we actually see is that God has a way of putting them in tough

circumstances so they can feel the pain of the people. It helps them stay humble and

it also has a way of increasing the potency of their message. When God first calls Jeremiah, he refuses to prophesy, but then God

rebukes him, confirms him, and encourages him with the reminder, I am with you.

Then God gives him three assignments to pluck up and break down, to

destroy and overthrow, and to build and plant. Just reading that, doesn't it

remind you of all the other prophetic books we've read so far?

There will be destruction, but there will be restoration.

God gives Jeremiah two visions then tells him what he's about to do.

He's going to send a conqueror from the north and we already

know this refers to Babylon and they're going to destroy Jerusalem. This is a judgment on

the people of Judah who have turned their backs on God.

Then God tells Jeremiah that he shouldn't be afraid,

because while God does promise a battle,

he also promises a victory.

...