JEREMIAH FAITHFUL TO THE MISSION JANUARY BIBLE STUDY 2020 PERSONAL STUDY GUIDE LIFE BY DESIGN We live in a broken world, seen in suffering, violence, poverty, pain, and death around us. Brokenness leads us to search for a way to make life work. The Bible tells us that God originally planned a world that worked perfectly—where everything and everyone fit together in harmony. God made each of us with a purpose—to worship Him and walk with Him. (See Gen. 1:31 and Ps. 19:1.) Life doesn’t work when we ignore God and His original design for our lives. We selfishly insist on doing things our own way. The Bible calls this sin. Sin leads to a place of brokenness. The consequence of our sin is separation from God—in this life and for all of eternity. (See Rom. 3:23 and Rom. 6:23.) At this point we need a remedy—some good news. Because of His love, God did not leave us in our brokenness. Jesus, God in human flesh, came to us and lived perfectly according to God’s design. Jesus came to rescue us—to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He took our sin and shame to the cross, paying the penalty of our sin by His death. Jesus was then raised from the dead—to provide the only way for us to be rescued and restored to a relationship with God. (See John 3:16; Col. 2:14; and 1 Cor. 15:3-4.) We don’t have the power to escape this brokenness on our own. We need to be rescued. We must ask God to forgive us—turning from sin to trust in Jesus. This is what it means to repent and believe. Believ- ing, we receive new life through Jesus. God turns our lives in a new direction. (See Mark 1:15; Eph. 2:8-9; and Rom. 10:9.) When God restores our relationship to Him, we begin to discover meaning and purpose in a broken world. Now we can pursue God’s design in all areas of our lives. God’s Spirit empowers us to recover His design and assures us of His presence in this life and for all of eternity. (See Phil. 2:13 and Eph. 2:10.) Now that you have heard this good news, God wants you to re- spond to Him. You can talk to Him using words like these: My life is broken—I recognize it’s because of my sin. I believe Christ came to live and to die, and that He was raised from the dead to rescue me from my sin. Forgive me. I turn from my selfish ways and put my trust in You. I know that Jesus is Lord of all, and I will follow Him. Excerpt taken from Life on Mission: A Simple Way to Share the Gospel (LifeWay Press, 2014). JEREMIAH FAITHFUL TO THE MISSION LifeWay Press® Nashville, TN © 2019 LifeWay Press® No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing by the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to LifeWay Press®, One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234. ISBN: 978-1-5359-3957-7 Item: 005811036 Subject Area: Bible Studies Dewey Decimal Classification Number: 224 Subject Heading: Prophetic Books of Old Testament Printed in the United States of America LifeWay Christian Resources One LifeWay Plaza Nashville, TN 37234 We believe that the Bible has God for its author; salvation for its end; and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter and that all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. To review LifeWay’s doctrinal guidelines, please visit www.lifeway.com/doctrinalguideline. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. Cover Image, Title Page Image, Contents Page Image, and Activity Box Image: iStock Photos CONTENTS Introduction: Jeremiah .................................... 4 Chapter 1 Understanding His Call Jeremiah 1 ................................ 10 Chapter 2 Courage to Tell Jeremiah 26 ............................... 21 Chapter 3 Judgment and Hope Jeremiah 29–31 ............................. 32 Chapter 4 The Problem with Promises Jeremiah 34 ............................... 43 Chapter 5 The Faithful Honored Jeremiah 35 ............................... 54 Chapter 6 God’s Eternal Word Jeremiah 36 ............................... 65 Chapter 7 No Compromise Jeremiah 37–39 ............................. 76 Chapter 8 The Loving Messenger Jeremiah 42–44 ............................. 86 INTRO JEREMIAH hen I was young, I went through a period when I was bullied for my faith. This was in part because I was W naive about the kids at school, and in part because I was raised in a Christian home by very sincere and God-loving parents. The result was that I functioned in two very different worlds—worlds that were not compatible. I could choose to stay true to one or the other, but not both. Ultimately, I chose to stay true to the view instilled in me by my parents. This worldview centered on a love for God and Jesus and a love for others. As a child, it didn’t occur to me to question the idea that Jesus was real and that He loved me. Likewise, it didn’t occur to me that lov- ing others and telling them about Jesus would not always be well received. To be quite honest, it did not enter my mind that oth- ers might view things differently and would not operate with the same set of beliefs. In my view, the way I understood the world was the only true way to understand the world. This sort of simple, unquestioning faith is why Jesus upheld the children of the world as examples for our faith. In Matthew 19:14, Jesus stated, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Similarly, in Matthew 18:2-3 we see Jesus upholding the faith of a child: “He called a child and had him stand among them. ‘Truly I tell you,’ he said, ‘unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” Children usually accept things as they are presented to them. They have not learned the mistrust or skepticism that comes from the expe- rience of deceit and lies. Such was my own perspective. When I went to school, I innocently shared the love of Jesus with my school friends. Naturally, this was not always well- received! As I struggled with the situation, I wondered where God INTRO / JEREMIAH 4 was and why He wasn’t backing me up. At that early stage, I didn’t wish for vengeance or judgment on those who were rejecting me. I just wanted God to show Himself and prove that my message was true. Sometimes even my teachers misunderstood and assumed I was intentionally stirring up trouble. God seemed strangely silent in all of this. I still trusted Him, but it was a frustrating experience. As challenging as it was at the time, however, my experience of faith and frustration is nothing when compared to what the prophets went through. Their experiences were much more dif- ficult than mine. And yet (and perhaps you can relate), my ex- perience does give me some inkling of what the prophets went through when they brought their complete trust in God to bear in the communities in which they lived. The prophets of God could see things with absolute clarity. They saw events and people from the perspective of the Holy God. Thus, little sins were a big deal. Ongoing sins were downright dangerous. The prophets saw the certain judgment that would come if the people did not respond by repenting of their sins and turning back to God in faith. The prophets also understood how much God loved His people. They loved their people, as well. They felt the pain and grief evident in God’s own heart as they called for the Israelites to open their eyes and love God fully and completely. They tried to explain the true worldview, but the people would not listen. Instead, their own people mocked and persecuted them, sometimes with jeering words and other times with physical violence. This expe- rience left the prophets wondering why God wasn’t intervening. They did not want their people to suffer judgment, but they also felt the pain of God’s delay. Why didn’t God do something? Why didn’t He at least verify the truth of their message in some way? The prophet Jeremiah is the perfect example of a prophet who went through both the joy and grief that comes from being totally committed to God. He was mocked and persecuted. He struggled with God and the seeming lack of action on His part. Jeremiah was a faithful man of God, yet he was also a fallen human being who struggled with understanding God and what God had asked him to do. For this reason, Jeremiah is very relatable to all who seek to follow God in a hostile world. Indeed, we all have times in our life in which everything seems to go wrong and we wonder what God is doing. What can make these periods in our lives even more difficult is that they are sometimes caused by God’s own people.