Jeremiah 1-20

Lesson number one: The Prophet Nobody Listened To.

Our truth: The Lord sends warnings through his prophets as an expression of his love and mercy.

What gives me a fire in the bones for teaching this lesson is, is how the context of Jeremiah's life helps us to feel the cost of being a prophet.

Jeremiah's rejection came from almost every direction, even his own family.

But in reality, who were they refusing? W- well, it wasn't a man, but God.

The Lord had sent his words in the hope that his people would turn, be forgiven, and avoid the terrible consequences that their choices were naturally leading them to.

Jeremiah's message was difficult to hear.

It wasn't popular, but it was the only thing that could save them from destruction.

Eh? Perhaps understanding the story can help us to receive difficult counsel with a softer heart.

What should the teacher know? When I think of difficult prophetic assignments in the scriptures, Jeremiah is the first prophet that comes to mind.

We do get a lot of his prophecies in his book, but, but what's nice here is that it also tells us quite a bit about the life of the man who had to deliver them.

And I feel that his message means more when we understand the context of his life.

Jeremiah lived during the years leading up to the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.

He was a, a contemporary of Lehi, Ezekiel, Daniel, Nephi.

And Nephi even mentions Jeremiah in 1 Nephi 7:14, where he tells us that Jeremiah had been shut up in prison.

But while Lehi was led away from Jerusalem, Jeremiah remained, continued warning the people who were still there.

His was a hard and unpopular message to deliver.

He had to tell them that because of their wickedness and rejection of God, Jerusalem would fall to Babylon, and resisting the Babylonians wouldn't save them.

To many of his listeners, that sounded like, like treason when, when they wanted him to support their efforts to defend the city.

And the opposition that Jeremiah faces for this doesn't come from just one direction.

The list of all the groups of people who reject him is really kind of sad.

King Zedekiah imprisons him because of his prophecies, Jeremiah 32:2-5.

Uh, the public officials wanted to put him to death, claiming that his words were weakening the soldiers and the people in 38:4.

Priests and false prophets also said that he deserved to die, 26:11.

And later, even after Jerusalem fell, the leaders and all the people who remained still refused his counsel in 43:4.