If things are constantly destabilized, it is very hard to live faithfully. Nevertheless, in particular times and places, God needs to shake things up. Sending prophets is one of the ways God does this. Full reading and audio »
The thing about idolatry, however, is that it often induces a case of spiritual blindness so that you can’t properly diagnose your own illness. This is exactly where the people of Judah find themselves. Full reading and audio »
The word of the LORD finally comes to pass. Jerusalem falls and the Babylonians take over. The destruction is terrifying and the suffering is immense. After months of mistreatment at the hands of Jerusalem’s political powers, Jeremiah turns out to have been right. Full reading and audio »
Without question, the book of Jeremiah is unrelenting in its account of the LORD’s judgment of Judah. There is much more in this text about plucking up, pulling down, destroying, and overthrowing than there is about building and planting (Jeremiah 1:10). This week’s chapters, however, focus on restoration and renewal using a variety of styles and images. Full reading and audio »
In this section, we will read about Hananiah, a prophet who claims to speak from the LORD. We have no reason to doubt his sincerity. On top of that, his message is a lot happier than Jeremiah’s. He predicts a quick end to the exile. The only problem is that his prophecy is not true. Full reading and audio »
Our political mythologies celebrate the hero who persists despite all odds. When things look their bleakest, the hero perseveres, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Full reading and audio »
In this section, Jeremiah moves beyond speaking words from the LORD to enacting messages from God. These examples present the same message that Jeremiah has proclaimed from the outset. Full reading and audio »
This passage begins with Jeremiah questioning his own vocation. Jeremiah does not question whether he has been called by God. Instead, Jeremiah questions whether the message he carries is worth the hostility he must face as a result of that message. Full reading and audio »
This represents one of the low points of the book. It reminds us that when we think of vocation and God’s call to each of us, it is not always a call to participate in great and glorious ventures. It is not always a call to popularity and security. Full reading and audio »
Lament and solidarity could be the title of many sections in Jeremiah, including this one. Lament is one of the ways we can address God when we sharply feel the great chasm between the way the world is and the way God wants the world to be. Full reading and audio »
In biblical times, many relatively common activities, such as trade, marriage, and political negotiations, required sacrifices. Avoiding idolatry required vigorous attentiveness to how one carried oneself in the world. Full reading and audio »
My prayer is that in reading Jeremiah, you will discover a complicated and richly textured picture of God’s relationship to Jeremiah and the people of God that will strengthen your own complicated and richly textured relationship with God. Full reading and audio »
CBTE is an arm of the SPU School of Theology whose purpose is to provide biblical and theological education for the SPU community, the church, and the world. More»
In this free six-part video series, Associate Professor of Old Testament Bo Lim, CBTE Lectio guide for Isaiah, discusses several major topics in this book that has been called the “Fifth Gospel.”
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