Crystallization-Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations
Message One
Jeremiah, the Tenderhearted Prophet of the Tenderhearted God
Scripture Reading: Jer. 1:1, 4-8, 10, 18-19; 4:19; 9:1, 10; 13:17
I. Jeremiah was born a priest, but he was called by God to be a prophet not only to the nation of Israel but also to all the nations; hence, he was a priest -prophet—Jer. 1:1, 4-8.
II. Jehovah appointed Jeremiah to be over the nations and over the kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to tear down, and to build up and to plant—v. 10:
A. The plucking up, the breaking down, and the destroying are Jeho-vah's tearing down, whereas the building up and the planting are Jehovah's exalting.
B. This corresponds to the two meanings of the name Jeremiah— "Jehovah exalts" and "Jehovah tears down."
III. Jehovah made Jeremiah into a fortified city, into an iron pil-lar, and into bronze walls against the whole land, the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land; they would fight against him but would not prevail against him— vv. 18-19:
A. On earth there is always a battle raging between God and those who oppose Him and fight against Him—Eph. 6:12.
B. God fights not by Himself directly but through His servants who have been sent by Him—1 Tim. 1:18; 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7.
C. God sent His army—a young man named Jeremiah—to fight those who opposed Him:
1. Jeremiah was equipped by God to such an extent that he be-came a fortified city and an iron pillar and bronze walls—Jer. 1:18.
2. Those who fought against Jeremiah—Jehovah's one-person army—were actually fighting against Jehovah—v. 19a.
3. No one would defeat him because Jehovah was with him— v. 19b.
IV. Jeremiah was an overcomer speaking for God—vv. 9-10; 2:1-2:
A. In the age of typology, the overcomers were the prophets; all the genuine proph ets were overcomers.
B. When the majority of God's people were desolate, there was the need for some to rise up to be God's overcomers to maintain the testimony established by God.
C. The prophets took care of God's oracle first, and based upon the oracle, they exercised, to some extent, God's authority, as seen with David the king and Nathan the prophet—2 Sam. 7:1-17; 12:1-15.
D. The overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3 are the fulfillment of the typology of the prophets.
E. As an overcomer, Jeremiah was an anti-testimony:
1. The children of Israel had become desolate, and Jeremiah was called by God to be an anti-testimony—Jer. 27:1-15.
2. God's people did not realize that they were deep in sin before God and that God had already ordained that Babylon would be used to punish them, causing them to be captured to Bab-ylon—15:12-14.
3. Because Israel had fallen into such a befuddled situation, Jer emiah, an over comer, was an anti-testimony, speaking the word given to him by Jehovah and being contrary to the false prophets—27:16—28:17.
V. The book of Jeremiah has as its particular characteristic and standing God's tenderheartedness plus God's righteous-ness—9:10-11; 23:5-6; 33:16:
A. Our God is a tenderhearted God, full of compassion and sympa-thy, yet He is absolutely righteous—9:10-11; 23:6.
B. According to the book of Jeremiah, God's love is a composition of His tender care, compassion, and sympathy; even while He chas-tises His elect people Israel, He is compassionate toward them— Lam. 3:22-23.
C. The words in Jeremiah 9:10-11 and 17-19 express Jehovah's feel-ing concerning Israel's suffering of His correction:
1. Although Jehovah was punishing Israel, He was still sympa-thetic toward them.
2. The words us and our in verse 18 indicate that Jehovah joined Himself to the suffering people and was one with them in their suffering.
3. Jehovah Himself was weeping in sympathy with His people.
VI. The book of Jeremiah is also an autobiography in which Jeremiah tells us of his situation, his person, and his feeling, revealing his tender heart:
A. God is tender, loving, compassionate, and righteous, and Jere-miah, a timid young man, was raised up by God to be His mouth-piece to speak for Him and express Him—3:6-11; 4:3-31; 32:26-27; 33:1-2.
B. Jehovah is the tenderhearted God, and in being tenderhearted, Jeremiah was absolutely one with God; thus, God could use the prophet Jeremiah to express Him, speak for Him, and represent Him—2:1—3:5; 4:19; 9:1, 10.
C. Jehovah came in to correct His hypocritical worshippers, and Jer emiah reacted to Jehovah's correction; the prophet's reaction was very tender, sympathetic, and compassionate—8:18-19, 21-22; 9:1-2; 10:19-25.
D. Jeremiah wept on God's behalf; his weeping expressed God's weeping—4:19; 9:1; 13:17:
1. In his weeping Jeremiah represented God—9:10.
2. We may say that God wept within Jeremiah's weeping, for in his weeping Jeremiah was one with God—13:17.
E. Because Jeremiah often wept, even wailed, he is called the weep-ing prophet—Lam. 1:16; 2:11; 3:48:
1. Although God was grieved and hurt because of His people, He had to find someone on earth who had these feelings.
2. When His Spirit came upon that particular one, Jeremiah, and put His feel ings in Jeremiah's spirit, the prophet could then express the sorrowful feeling of God.
3. As we read the book of Jeremiah, we can sense that, although he wept, his emotion had been disciplined—4:19; 9:1, 10; 13:17.
4. Jeremiah's sorrowful and weeping emotion had been disci-plined and restricted so that God could come to him and use him to express the sorrowful feelings that were in His heart.
VII. In order that God may be fully expressed through us, we need to have spiritual emotions, be tenderhearted with one another, and be able to serve God with tears—James 5:11; Exo. 34:6; Psa. 103:8:
A. A spiritual person is full of emotions; the more spiritual we are, the richer our emotions are—1 Cor. 4:21; 2 Cor. 6:11; 7:3; 10:1; 12:15:
1. We need the Lord to work on us until our feelings are fine and tender.
2. Every time God works on us, chastises us, and deals with us, our feelings become finer and more sensitive; this is the deep-est lesson in the breaking of the outer man—4:16.
B. In the church life we need to be tenderhearted with one another— Eph. 4:32:
1. We should not judge and condemn our fellow believers but be kind to them, tenderhearted, forgiving them even as God in Christ also forgave us—Luke 6:37; Eph. 4:32.
2. The more we experience Christ as our life supply, the more our hearts become tender, and when we are tenderhearted, we will forgive others.
C. The apostle Paul served the Lord with tears and admonished the saints with tears—Acts 20:19, 31; Phil. 3:18:
1. If we do not know how to weep or shed tears, we are not very spiritual.
2. When we live in the spirit, using the soul as an organ, we will be able to serve the Lord and admonish the saints with tears— Acts 20:19, 31.
D. "Out of much affliction and anguish of heart" Paul wrote to the Corinthians "through many tears"—2 Cor. 2:4:
1. Paul's expression was tender and filled with the intimate con-cern of the ministering life—11:28; 12:15.
2. In 2 Corinthians 7 Paul conveyed a deep, tender, and intimate concern for the Corinthians; his word was very touching— vv. 2-3.
3. Because Paul's expression was tender and filled with intimate concern, it had power and impact, and it was able to touch the believers deeply.
E. When, in the church life, we pass through the valley of Baca (weeping), God makes this valley a spring; this spring is the Spirit—Psa. 84:6; John 4:14; 7:38-39:
1. The more we weep on the highways to Zion (Psa. 84:5), the more we receive the Spirit; while we are weeping, we are being filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit becomes our spring.
2. The tears we shed are our own, but these tears issue in a spring, which be comes the early rain, the Spirit as the bless-ing—Zech. 10:1; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:3.