BEMA Episode Link: 56: Jeremiah — Weeping
Episode Length: 40:23
Published Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2018 01:00:00 -0800
Session 2
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings begin our journey through the Babylonian prophets, examining the famous weeping prophet: Jeremiah.

Discussion Video for BEMA 56

The Disciple Scroll by Allan Rabinowitz

Love Wins by Rob Bell

Erasing Hell by Francis Chan

Transcript for BEMA 56

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

BEMA Episode 56: Jeremiah — Weeping

Title & Source Summary

This episode introduces Jeremiah, known as “the weeping prophet,” and begins the examination of the Babylonian prophets. The hosts explore Jeremiah’s difficult prophetic call to announce that the time for repentance has passed and that Judah must accept God’s discipline through Babylonian captivity. The discussion emphasizes Jeremiah’s focus on covenant relationship, the combination of idolatry and injustice as interconnected sins, and the introduction of Gehenna (hell) as a physical location rather than an abstract theological concept.

Key Takeaways

  • Jeremiah served as a prophet before, during, and after the Babylonian captivity, spanning a vast period of time
  • His central message was that the time for repentance had passed and that Judah should surrender to Babylon to minimize bloodshed
  • Jeremiah’s image is “weeping” because of the difficulty of his prophetic call—he felt seduced by God into a harder task than expected
  • Jeremiah views all sin through the lens of broken covenant relationship, employing the marriage metaphor extensively
  • The prophet effectively combines both Source A (idolatry) and Source B (injustice), showing how they are interconnected
  • Idolatry directly feeds injustice—the gods we serve determine how we treat others
  • Gehenna (hell) was originally a physical valley outside Jerusalem (Gei Hinnom/Valley of Hinnom) that became a garbage dump
  • Chronicles later adds perspective to Jeremiah’s prophecy, revealing that the 70-year captivity allowed the land to receive its Sabbath rest

Main Concepts & Theories

The Babylonian Prophets

The podcast identifies five divisions of prophetic history:

  1. Pre-Assyrian prophets (Amos, Hosea, Micah, 1 Isaiah)
  2. Assyrian prophets (Jonah, Nahum, Zephaniah, 2 Isaiah)
  3. Babylonian prophets (beginning with Jeremiah—5 total)
  4. Exilic prophets (to be covered later)
  5. Remnant prophets (to be covered later)
Jeremiah’s Prophetic Timeline and Message

Jeremiah prophesied across multiple phases:

  • Before Babylon’s arrival
  • During Babylon’s conquest
  • While Babylon occupied Judah
  • After the people were exiled to Babylon

His core message: “You have failed to repent. God’s discipline is here. The best move for all of you would be to lay down your weapons and head into captivity. There will be much less bloodshed that way.”

This pro-Babylon stance was so pronounced that when Babylon conquered Jerusalem, they left Jeremiah behind rather than taking him captive, viewing him as an ally.

The Weeping Prophet

Jeremiah is called “the weeping prophet” because of his difficult calling. He cried out to God, “You seduced me, God, and I was seduced” (using the Hebrew word for “wooed” or “fooled”). He thought he was signing up for a glorious calling but found it to be an unbearably hard task. His message brought no friendships or accolades—only rejection and hardship.

Jeremiah’s Scribe: Baruch

Baruch served as Jeremiah’s scribe, following him like a “pet journalist” to record all his messages. At one point, the scroll was burned, requiring Baruch to rewrite everything. The book of Jeremiah as we have it is essentially this re-collection of prophecies spanning decades.

Covenant Relationship as Central Framework

Jeremiah sees everything through the lens of covenant relationship. His dominant metaphor is the marriage relationship between God (the husband/lover) and Israel (the bride). Key passages include:

  • Jeremiah 2:2: “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.”
  • Jeremiah 2:13: “My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me, the Spring of Living Water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot hold water.”
  • Jeremiah 3:14: “Return faithless people, declares the Lord, for I am your husband.”

The key problem isn’t abstract theology or concepts—it’s broken relationship. Israel has played the prostitute, running after other lovers (false gods) instead of remaining faithful to her covenant husband.

The Integration of Source A and Source B

Throughout the earlier prophets, the podcast has highlighted two prophetic concerns:

  • Source A: Idolatry (worship of false gods)
  • Source B: Injustice (failure to care for the vulnerable—the alien, orphan, and widow)

Jeremiah masterfully combines both, showing they are interconnected rather than separate issues:

Jeremiah 7:5-9 exemplifies this integration:

  • First, addressing injustice: “Deal with each other justly…do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow”
  • Then, connecting to idolatry: “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, then come and stand before me in this house?”
Why Idolatry Feeds Injustice

The gods we worship shape how we treat others:

  • Baal (god of agricultural fertility, commerce, and economy) → doesn’t care about people, only profit and well-being
  • Asherah → doesn’t invite care for others
  • Modern idols discussed in the episode:
    • God of consumerism → we buy cheap products at the expense of others
    • God of security → comes at the expense of the foreigner, fatherless, and widow (refugee debate)
    • God of comfort/leisure → causes us to ignore those in need

As Marty explains: “Idolatry feeds the injustice. If we were to talk about the god of comfort or the god of leisure, what does that come at the expense of? Our idolatry is directly connected to our injustice, and injustice feeds our idolatry.”

The solution is a “reverse catch-22”: Look out for the alien, orphan, and widow, and let them remind you of the appropriate story and “pure and undefiled religion” (James).

The Den of Robbers

Jeremiah 7:11 states: “Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching, declares the Lord.”

This passage becomes significant later when Jesus quotes it during his cleansing of the temple, directly referencing Jeremiah’s condemnation of false religion that doesn’t produce justice.

Gehenna: The Valley of Hinnom

One of the most important concepts introduced in this episode is the true meaning of “hell” (Gehenna) in biblical context:

The Word:

  • Greek: gehenna (used 12 times in the New Testament, 11 by Jesus)
  • Hebrew: Gei Hinnom (Valley of Hinnom)
  • Also called: Tophet

The Location: An actual valley outside Jerusalem

The History:

  1. Originally used for child sacrifice to Moloch (idolatry)
  2. Condemned by Jeremiah as detestable
  3. Jeremiah prophesied it would become a place of slaughter and desolation
  4. Later turned into Jerusalem’s garbage dump
  5. Became a perpetual trash fire

Key Jeremiah Passages:

Jeremiah 7:30-33: “They have built the high places of Tophet in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire…the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call it Tophet or the Valley of Ben Hinnom but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury the dead in Tophet until there is no more room.”

Jeremiah 19:11-12: “I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Tophet until there is no more room.”

Significance: When Jesus later uses the imagery of Gehenna, he’s not describing an abstract afterlife destination but using a very present, physical image that his audience would recognize—the garbage dump outside Jerusalem where trash burned continually. Hell represents “the utter desolation of choosing to not be a part of what God’s doing”—a very present tense, not just future, reality.

The 70 Years of Captivity

Jeremiah 25 prophesies the 70-year Babylonian captivity:

“This whole country will become a desolate wasteland and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years. But when the 70 years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon…”

The Chronicle’s Perspective:

2 Chronicles 36:20-21 adds crucial interpretive perspective written after the fact:

“The land enjoyed its Sabbath rest. All the time of its desolation it rested until the 70 years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.”

This reveals that the captivity was specifically tied to injustice—the failure to observe:

  • Shemitah (Sabbath years—every 7th year the land rests)
  • Year of Jubilee (every 50th year—debt forgiveness, land restoration)
  • Economic justice for those on the bottom

The land itself needed Sabbath rest because the people had disrupted shalom. Chronicles, written with hindsight perspective, highlights Source B (injustice) as the key issue, while Jeremiah emphasizes both idolatry and injustice together.

Jeremiah’s Use of Nature Imagery

Jeremiah is the prophet most dedicated to imagery from nature—trees, animals, and natural phenomena appear throughout his prophecies more than any other prophet. Examples include:

  • The swift she-camel and wild donkey (Jeremiah 2:23-24)
  • The choice vine becoming corrupt (Jeremiah 2:21)
  • References to birds, beasts, and vegetation
Street Theater and Prophetic Actions

Like other prophets, Jeremiah engaged in dramatic symbolic actions:

The Broken Jar (Jeremiah 19): God commanded Jeremiah to take a jar in front of the people and shatter it, declaring: “I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired.”

These guerrilla theater actions made the prophecy memorable and visceral for the audience.

Examples & Applications

Modern Idolatry and Injustice Connection

The episode draws direct parallels to contemporary life:

  1. Consumerism: We worship cheap prices and convenience at the expense of workers in other countries who are exploited to provide our inexpensive goods (Walmart example)

  2. Security: When we worship our own safety and security, we close our doors to refugees—the modern “foreigner, fatherless, and widow”

  3. Comfort and Leisure: When we prioritize our own comfort, we ignore the needs of others and fail to act justly

  4. Greed: The pursuit of wealth comes at the cost of caring for the vulnerable in society

These modern examples demonstrate how Jeremiah’s message remains relevant: the gods we serve (even secular “gods” or values) directly shape how we treat other people.

The Temple as “Den of Robbers”

Jeremiah’s condemnation of the temple in Jeremiah 7 has two applications:

  1. Historical: The people trusted in the physical structure (“This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”) while simultaneously oppressing others and worshiping false gods. They believed the temple made them safe regardless of their behavior.

  2. Jesus’ Application: When Jesus cleanses the temple (Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46), he quotes Jeremiah 7:11 directly, showing that the same false religion persisted—religious devotion without justice.

The Value of Historical Fiction

The episode recommends The Disciple Scroll by Alan Rabinowitz as a way to understand Jeremiah’s context better. This illustrates the value of:

  • Imaginative engagement with Scripture
  • Understanding the human elements of prophetic ministry
  • Grasping the historical and emotional context of biblical books
Environmental Sabbath

The concept of the land receiving its Sabbath rest (2 Chronicles 36:21) connects to modern environmental concerns:

  • Land needs rest and restoration
  • Economic systems that continuously exploit resources without rest are unjust
  • The biblical worldview includes care for creation as part of justice

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

  1. The Full Book of Jeremiah: This episode covers only the first half of Jeremiah’s 52 chapters. The remaining chapters contain:
    • More prophecies against the nations
    • Jeremiah’s personal laments and complaints to God
    • The promise of a new covenant (Jeremiah 31)
    • Historical narratives of Jerusalem’s fall

  2. Lamentations: Traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, this book expresses the grief and mourning over Jerusalem’s destruction

  3. The Concept of Hell in Jesus’ Teaching: The episode sets up a future discussion (Session 3) about how Jesus uses Gehenna imagery and what this means for understanding biblical teaching on hell, judgment, and God’s justice

  4. Baruch the Scribe: The book of Baruch (in the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books) provides additional perspective on this period

  5. Sabbath Economics:
    • Shemitah (Sabbath year) practices in ancient Israel
    • Year of Jubilee and its radical economic reset
    • Modern applications of Sabbath economics
    • Environmental implications of Sabbath for the land

  6. The Potter and the Clay: Jeremiah 18-19’s pottery imagery (not fully covered in this episode) provides rich metaphors about God’s sovereignty and human response

  7. The New Covenant: Jeremiah 31:31-34’s prophecy of a new covenant written on hearts becomes foundational for New Testament theology

  8. Jeremiah’s Suffering and Laments: Jeremiah’s personal prayers and complaints to God (often called his “confessions”) provide insight into the emotional toll of prophetic ministry

  9. Comparison with Other Babylonian Prophets: As the first of five Babylonian prophets, how do the others (Habakkuk, Nahum, Obadiah, etc.) complement or differ from Jeremiah’s message?

  10. Archaeological Evidence for the Babylonian Conquest: Extra-biblical evidence for the events Jeremiah describes

  11. Rob Bell’s Love Wins vs. Francis Chan’s Erasing Hell: The contemporary debate about hell’s nature, sparked by differing interpretations of Gehenna

  12. Prophetic Images: Each prophet has a distinctive image or theme:
    • Amos: Plumb line and ripe fruit
    • Hosea: Prostitute
    • Micah: Judge
    • 1 Isaiah: Vineyard
    • Jonah: Potential
    • Nahum: Diyn (judgment)
    • Zephaniah: T’shuvah (return/repent)
    • 2 Isaiah: Woe
    • Jeremiah: Weeping

    How do these images shape our understanding of each prophet’s message?

Comprehension Questions

  1. Why is Jeremiah called “the weeping prophet,” and what made his prophetic calling so difficult?
    • Answer: Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet because of the emotional burden of his difficult message. He felt “seduced” by God into a calling harder than he expected. His message was that the time for repentance had passed and that Judah should surrender to Babylon—a message that brought him no friendships or honor. He had to proclaim this unpopular truth before, during, and after the Babylonian conquest, spanning decades of rejection.
  2. How does Jeremiah combine Source A (idolatry) and Source B (injustice), and why are they interconnected?
    • Answer: Jeremiah shows that idolatry and injustice are not separate issues but interconnected problems. The gods we worship determine how we treat others. For example, Baal (god of commerce) doesn’t care about people, only profit, so worshiping Baal leads to oppressing others for economic gain. In Jeremiah 7, he condemns both their idolatry (burning incense to Baal) and their injustice (oppressing the foreigner, fatherless, and widow), showing how one feeds the other. Modern examples include how worshiping consumerism leads to exploiting workers, or worshiping security leads to rejecting refugees.
  3. What is Gehenna, and how does understanding its original meaning change our conception of “hell”?
    • Answer: Gehenna (Greek) comes from the Hebrew “Gei Hinnom” (Valley of Hinnom), an actual valley outside Jerusalem. Originally used for child sacrifice to Moloch, Jeremiah prophesied it would become a place of desolation and slaughter. After the exile, it became Jerusalem’s garbage dump with perpetual fires. When Jesus uses Gehenna imagery (11 of the 12 New Testament uses), he’s referencing this physical location his audience knew, presenting hell as “the utter desolation of choosing to not be a part of what God’s doing”—a present reality, not just a future destination. This is a very different image than the abstract, disembodied afterlife concept many modern readers assume.
  4. According to 2 Chronicles 36:20-21, what was the deeper reason for the 70-year Babylonian captivity, and what does this reveal about God’s priorities?
    • Answer: Chronicles reveals that the 70 years allowed “the land to enjoy its Sabbath rest”—meaning the captivity was directly tied to Israel’s failure to observe Shemitah (Sabbath years) and the Year of Jubilee. These were economic justice practices that gave rest to the land and relief to the poor. This reveals that God’s priorities include not just religious orthodoxy but economic justice, care for creation, and systemic shalom. The people’s failure to practice Sabbath economics—to let the land rest and to provide for those on the bottom—was a key reason for judgment.
  5. How does Jeremiah use the marriage metaphor to describe the covenant relationship between God and Israel, and what does this reveal about the nature of sin?
    • Answer: Jeremiah extensively uses marriage imagery, calling Israel God’s bride who followed him through the desert honeymoon (Jeremiah 2:2). He describes their idolatry as adultery and prostitution—running after other lovers (false gods) with the passion of “a wild donkey in heat” (2:24). God says “I am your husband” (3:14) to the faithless people. This reveals that sin is fundamentally relational, not just behavioral or conceptual. It’s not primarily about breaking abstract rules but about breaking covenant relationship with a loving God. The personal, emotional language (God feeling rejected, betrayed, wounded) shows that idolatry and injustice are acts of infidelity that damage the relationship God desires with his people.

Brief Summary

BEMA Episode 56 introduces Jeremiah, the first of five Babylonian prophets and one of the most significant prophetic voices in Scripture. Known as “the weeping prophet,” Jeremiah received the difficult calling to announce that the time for repentance had passed and that Judah must accept God’s discipline through 70 years of Babylonian captivity. His message—that the people should surrender peacefully to minimize bloodshed—was so pro-Babylon that the Babylonians left him behind when they exiled the nation.

Jeremiah’s prophecy consistently views sin through the lens of broken covenant relationship, using extensive marriage metaphors to describe Israel as an unfaithful bride who has prostituted herself to other gods. More than any other prophet, Jeremiah masterfully integrates both idolatry (Source A) and injustice (Source B), demonstrating that they are interconnected: the gods we worship directly determine how we treat others. Baal worship leads to exploitation; modern idols like consumerism, security, and comfort similarly produce injustice toward the vulnerable.

The episode introduces the crucial concept of Gehenna (hell) not as an abstract afterlife destination but as a physical valley outside Jerusalem (Gei Hinnom) that was used for child sacrifice, prophesied to become desolate, and eventually became the city’s garbage dump. This understanding transforms how we read Jesus’ later references to Gehenna as representing the present desolation of rejecting God’s way.

Finally, 2 Chronicles provides retrospective perspective on Jeremiah’s 70-year prophecy, revealing that the captivity allowed the land to receive its Sabbath rest—highlighting that the core issue was injustice, particularly the failure to observe Sabbath economics (Shemitah and Jubilee) that provided for the poor and rested the land. Jeremiah’s weeping was justified: his people had broken relationship with God through both their idolatry and their injustice, and the consequences were unavoidable.

Study notes generated for BEMA Discipleship Podcast Episode 56: Jeremiah — Weeping

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