《Kretzmann’s Popular Commentary of the Bible - Jeremiah》(Paul E. Kretzmann)
Commentator
The Popular Commentary is Lutheran to the core. Dr. Paul E. Kretzmann's commentary reproduces Luther, his theology and religion, his faith and piety. Dr. Kretzmann's commentary offers to Lutheran Christians nothing but sound, scriptural doctrine on the basis of believing, Biblical scholarship. Because of this, the Popular Commentary possesses a unique distinction. It is a popular commentary in the truest sense of the term; a commentary for the people and offering to the people nothing but unalloyed exposition of the Bible.
About the Author
Paul Edward Kretzmann was born in Farmers Retreat, Indiana in 1883. His early education started in Fort Wayne, Indiana at Concordia College and he went on to earn his Ph.D. and D.D. at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis Missouri. From 1906-1907 he moved to Shady Bend, Kansas to pastor a church and in 1907-1912 he resettled in Denver, Colorado. Kretzmann then traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota where he accepted a professorship at Concordia College from 1912-1919.
Concordia's Literary Board of 1918 initiated the undertaking of The Popular Commentary and, after very mature consideration, nominated the author and drafted the general character and scope of this popular commentary. Accordingly Kretzmann, was called from the position of instructor to work on this project. The two volumes on the New Testament were published in 1921 and 1922 respectively and in April of 1923 Kretzmann wrote the concluding chapters on the Old Testament. He helped form the the Orthodox Lutheran Conference in 1948 and was president of it's seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Introduction
The Book Of The Prophet Jeremiah
Introduction
The prophet Jeremiah, a native of Anathoth, a town situated a little over three miles northeast of Jerusalem, within the boundaries of Benjamin, was born shortly before Josiah became king. He was a member of a priestly family, and God called him to be a prophet when he was still a very young man. He witnessed the great reformation in the eighteenth year of Josiah, whose death he lamented. During the early years of Jehoiakim's reign he was in danger of losing his life on account of his faithful preaching. He was threatened even by his townsmen and opposed by his own family. He was obliged to endure many other indignities and adversities, not only under the reign of Jehoiakim, but also under that of Zedekiah, the climax of his sufferings being reached when the armies of the Chaldeans approached the city. After the capture of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was taken in chains as far as Ramah, but released by Nebuchadnezzar's general. He lived with Gedaliah, the governor of the country, for a while, but after the assassination of Gedaliah was carried to Egypt by force. He continued to preach and prophesy in Egypt, predicting the conquest of the country by Nebuchadnezzar and warning the Jews to abstain from idolatry. He seems to have died in Egypt, according to tradition having been stoned to death by his own countrymen.
As the brief outline of Jeremiah's life shows, the period of Jewish history in which he lived was the critical time preceding the nation's doom. Only one of the five kings under whom Jeremiah prophesied was a pious ruler. The people became guilty of gross idolatry and, as they relapsed into paganism, of immoral practices. Covetousness, dishonesty, murder, adultery, stealing, false swearing, and other sins were prevalent throughout the nation. Year after year Jeremiah came with messages from God, whose mercy and compassion sought to turn His people to repentance, but the moral corruption was too great, and the people refused to obey. They preferred to listen to various false prophets, who predicted peace and prosperity. But though the work of Jeremiah, to all outer appearances, was vain, it resulted, in fact, in a clearing of the situation, since, as a consequence, the true Israelites were preserved in faith. In spite of all the trying experiences, therefore, which Jeremiah, naturally of a mild, sensitive, and retiring disposition, had to undergo, he remained faithful to his task as a prophet of the one true God. He ever found comfort and strength in the promise which the Lord had given him at the beginning of his labors: "Be not afraid of their faces; for I am with thee to deliver thee. . They shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. "
The arrangement of the Book of Jeremiah is topical rather than chronological. It may be divided into two large groups. The first division contains the introduction and the prophecies concerning Judah, together with some historical matter, 1-45; the second division contains ten prophetical discourses concerning nine foreign nations, together with a final historical account concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the release of Jehoiachin. A more detailed division of the book yields the following outline: prophecies belonging for the most part to the reign of Josiah, 1-6; prophecies belonging probably chiefly to the reign of Jehoiakim, 7-21; prophecies probably belonging to the reign of Jehoiachin, 22 and 23; prophecies and events in the reign of Zedekiah, 4-39; history and prophecies under Gedaliah's administration and in Egypt, 40-44; group of prophecies against heathen nations, 46-51; historical conclusion, 52. As stated above, however, this division is only general.
There are several notable prophecies in the Book of Jeremiah, some of them being veritable gems of epigrammatic utterance. But the most beautiful passages are the Messianic prophecies concerning the Lord, our Righteousness. Cf Jer_23:5-6; Jer_30:9. The prophecy of the New Covenant refers to the days of the New Testament, which began with the coming of Christ. Jer_31:31-34.
01 Chapter 1
Verses 1-3
The Superscription
v. 1. The words of the word of the Lord came in the days of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, this being one of the four cities within the territory of Benjamin allotted to the Kohathites, Jos_21:18;
v. 2. to whom Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
v. 3. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem, that is, of its inhabitants, captive in the fifth month. Note that Jeremiah expressly claims divine authority and inspiration for his prophecies, insisting that it is the Word of the Lord which he recorded. He omits the names of Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin from his list, since they reigned only three months each, and his title intends to specify in a general way only. "Since Jeremiah labored from the thirteenth year of Josiah, consequently eighteen years under Josiah, and eleven years each under Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, he ministered altogether, including the six months under the kings omitted, forty years in the midst of the theocracy. " Jeremiah was a member of a lowly family, and yet the Lord called him to a very important position as chief adviser of kings. God often chooses the weak, base, and despised things to confound the mighty. 1Co_1:27-29.
Verses 4-19
The Call and Commission of the Prophet
v. 4. Then, namely, at the time designated in the introduction, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
v. 5. Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, before ever his conception had taken place, the Lord had destined him to be His prophet; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, separating and consecrating him, setting him apart for the sacred office, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations, not only to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, but to other nations as well. Jeremiah's choice of his calling was not the result of meditation and reflection, of a false enthusiasm and ecstasy, but of a supernatural revelation, of a selection on the part of God, which was in no way influenced by any ability or disposition on the prophet's part.
v. 6. Then said I, with some realization of the difficulty and danger of the divine commission. Ah! Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child, a young man below the age at which the Israelites took an active part in public work. The sensitive nature of Jeremiah shrank back from a position which would expose him to public criticism. The work of the ministry is a good work, 1Ti_3:1, but it is attended by difficulties which the average person appreciates only in rare instances. Well may a timid person shrink back from its ordeal.
v. 7. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child, in an effort to make his youth and inexperience an excuse for refusing to follow the Lord's call; for thou shall go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. It was not a matter to be argued, but the Lord, by a categorical declaration of His will, commissioned Jeremiah. No matter to which nations and princes the Lord would bid him go, he was cheerfully to declare God's counsel and will, regardless of any show of hostility.
v. 8. Be not afraid of their faces, in an excess of awe which would interfere with the effectiveness of his message; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. He thus imparted the necessary courage to His servant to enable him to stand before the mighty of the world. Cf Mat_10:16-22.
v. 9. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, this, of course, being a symbolical act experienced by Jeremiah in a vision, its meaning being that God Himself would give His servant the right utterance, would inspire him to proclaim His message in its full truth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. The Lord made the individuality of Jeremiah the instrument of His eternal wisdom in making His will known to men.
v. 10. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, the naturally timid and fearful prophet being appointed to their oversight, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, to extirpate, exterminate, and eliminate, and to throw down, to pronounce the divine judgment upon His enemies, to build and to plant, by announcing God's mercy and grace to all who heeded His call. The conditions in Judah were such at that time as to provoke threatenings and rebukes on the part of the Lord rather than promises of grace and mercy.
v. 11. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? Jehovah wanted to give His prophet some signs confirming his call. And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree, a shoot or branch of the tree which was the first to awaken to life after the winter's sleep and was therefore a symbol of wakefulness.
v. 12. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen; for I will hasten My word to perform it, literally, "wakeful (or intent) shall I, on My part, be with regard to My words to do them," the allusion to the wakeful tree thus being justified.
v. 13. And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? a second vision being vouchsafed the prophet. And I said, I see a seething pot, one of the large kettles used to prepare vegetables for many guests; and the face thereof is toward the north, so that its contents threaten to be emptied from that side.
v. 14. Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth, out of a great and wide opening, upon all the inhabitants of the land. A boiling kettle is an Oriental symbol of a raging war, and since Babylon was regarded by the people of Judah as situated toward the north, it was clear that the Lord prophesied the Babylonian invasion.
v. 15. For, lo, I will call all the families, the tribes or clans, of the kingdoms of the North, saith the Lord, all the great chieftains of the Chaldeans uniting in an effort to overthrow Judah; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, the conquering princes establishing their tribunals of justice in the place set aside for this purpose of old, thereby taking over the administration of the land, and against all the walls thereof round about and against all the cities of Judah, thereby laying siege to all the fortified cities of the land in a successful campaign.
v. 16. And I will utter My judgments against them, the wicked inhabitants of the land, touching all their wickedness, pronouncing their condemnation and doom, who have forsaken Me and have burned incense unto other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands. Thus the Lord, by His stern judgments and punishments, would visit His wrath upon the apostate Jews for their idolatry, the sin which, like the unbelief of today, is the essence and summary of disobedience. The symbols having been explained, the Lord now adds an admonition to Jeremiah to fulfill the duties of his office with fearless zeal.
v. 17. Thou, therefore, gird up thy loins, like a soldier or a man on a journey, to remove every hindrance in traveling, and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee, the fact of his being the Lord's messenger and representative once more being stressed; be not dismayed at their faces, shrinking back before them, lest I confound thee before them, so that he would be rejected, crushed, and overcome before them.
v. 18. For, behold, I have made thee this day a defensed city, one fortified most strongly, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, enduing him with strength which no power of the enemies would be able to overcome, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land, all of whom would unite to oppose his message and warning.