Bio – Jeremiah

7^th–6^th century BC

Jeremiah, a son of a priest, was called to serve God at an early age. His first reaction was to shrink from the call, claiming that he was too young, that he did not have the right words. But God did not take no for an answer, and so began his ministry.

Jeremiah lived in a time of turmoil and imminent threat of invasion and war. He preached mainly in the southern kingdom of Israel, and was dismayed that although on the surface many of the people seemed to live a godly life, their hearts had hardened and they had turned from the Lord.

A man of deep sensitivity and understanding, Jeremiah lived a melancholy and apparently lonely life filled with sadness—knowing of God’s boundless love for his people and willingness to show mercy, yet faced with the reality of the people’s unwillingness to acknowledge their sins, and their refusal to repent and turn back to the Lord and beg for his forgiveness. The message he delivered was not welcome, and he lived a life filled with danger, facing persecution and imprisonment more than once. None of this ever discouraged him from telling the truth and passing on God’s message.

Often referred to as the Weeping Prophet, Jeremiah spoke achingly of the pain of the fall of his nation and the time of exile. He saw with his own eyes the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. Yet despite the sadness and sense of loss that feature in much of the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations (which was also written by Jeremiah) it would not be fair to say that his writings were entirely despondent and dark. Time and time again, Jeremiah wrote of God’s everlasting love and of his plans to give them hope and a future. He told the people that the Lord would punish them, but that he would never stop loving them, and that he would forgive them once they had learnt their lesson and returned to him with open and repentant hearts.

It is clear that Jeremiah was a humble and sensitive man who loved his country deeply and was filled with sadness at its destruction and at the sins of those around him. The stubborn refusal of his countrymen to heed his warnings broke his heart, yet he never gave up trying to convince them to change direction and seek forgiveness. A serious and melancholy man, Jeremiah understood how bleak the future would be, but he kept his faith in God’s love and mercy, and he offered hope to all those in despair.

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