Jeremiah 21:1-14

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God Rejects Zedekiah’s Request - Jeremiah 21:1-14 Topics: Anger, Complacency, Death, Enemies, Evil, Justice, Life, Mercy, Miracles, Opposition, Oppressed, People, Prophecy, Questions, Security, Submission, War Open It 1. What would you do if forced to choose between immediate death and life without any possessions or freedom? 2. What do you think is the worst thing for a human being to lose? * 3. What, for you, represents security? Explore It 4. Why did King Zedekiah send messengers to Jeremiah? (21:1-2) * 5. What did the king hope God would do for Judah, as He had done in the past? (21:2) 6. What was God’s answer concerning the outward enemy facing Jerusalem? (21:3-4) 7. Rather than intervening to save Judah, what did God promise to do? (21:5-7) 8. What, specifically, did Jeremiah say would become of the king who ruled in Jerusalem? (21:7) 9. What choice was God offering to the people of Jerusalem? (21:8) * 10. Why did God say that surrender would be a preferable option to staying in the city of Jerusalem? (21:9-10) 11. What did God require from the descendants of David? Why? (21:11-12) * 12. Where were the people of Jerusalem placing their confidence for the city’s security? (21:13) 13. To what did God compare the wrath deserved by the people of Judah? (21:14) Get It 14. Why was Jeremiah a logical go-between when the people sought God’s help against an enemy? 15. If the choice were yours, would you choose God’s anger or that of a human enemy? Why? * 16. Why don’t more people choose life when they realize the spiritual choice before them? * 17. In what are the people around you trusting for their security? 18. What does it mean to find our security in God? Apply It 19. The next time you are faced with only undesirable choices, how will you remember that one of them might actually be God’s provision for you? * 20. In what area of your life do you need to let God be your primary source of security? .

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The Prophet Jeremiah As Theological Symbol in the Book of Jeremiahâ•Š
Scholars Crossing LBTS Faculty Publications and Presentations 11-2010 The Prophet Jeremiah as Theological Symbol in the Book of Jeremiah” Gary E. Yates Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_fac_pubs Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Other Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Yates, Gary E., "The Prophet Jeremiah as Theological Symbol in the Book of Jeremiah”" (2010). LBTS Faculty Publications and Presentations. 372. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_fac_pubs/372 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in LBTS Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ETS, Atlanta 2010 “The Prophet Jeremiah as Theological Symbol in the Book of Jeremiah” Gary E. Yates, Ph.D. Introduction Timothy Polk has noted, “Nothing distinguishes the book of Jeremiah from earlier works of prophecy quite so much as the attention it devotes to the person of the prophet and the prominence it accords the prophetic ‘I’, and few things receive more scholarly comment.”1 More than simply providing a biographical or psychological portrait of the prophet, the book presents Jeremiah as a theological symbol who embodies in his person the word of Yahweh and the office of prophet. 2 In fact, the figure of Jeremiah is so central that a theology of the book of Jeremiah “cannot be formulated without taking into account the person of the prophet, as the book presents him.”3 The purpose of this study is to explore how Jeremiah the person functions as a theological symbol and what these motifs contribute to the overall theology of the book of Jeremiah.
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