What did Jeremiah preach (the prophet) preach? To whom does the prophet Jeremiah compare the Jewish people?

Jeremiah, the second of the four greatest prophets of the Bible, was born in the village of Anathoth, 4 km from Jerusalem. His father was a Levite, that is, a hereditary priest. Later, Jeremiah was to enter the service in the temple. However, the young man chose a different path for himself - he became a prophet.

Predestination

According to legend, the prophet Jeremiah, whose biography is briefly presented below, entered the path of piety at the behest of the Lord Himself. According to legend, Jehovah appeared to him at the age of 15 for the first time. The Lord informed the young man that he had chosen him as a prophet before his birth. At first Jeremiah refused the offer of God, referring, first of all, to his tongue-tied speech. Then the Lord touched his lips and said: "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth." After this, the young man accepted the gift of the prophet and carried it for 40 years of his life.

Sermons and instructions

The first meeting of the Lord with Jeremiah occurred around 626 BC, in the thirteenth year of the reign of the righteous King Josiah. Jerusalem was already a very big city, and there was a huge temple in which a huge number of Jews practicing the faith gathered for the holidays.

Apparently, it was in this great cult building, from which nothing is left today, and Jeremiah preached. The prophet (the photo of the mountain on which the Jerusalem Temple once stood , can be seen above), according to available information, proclaimed the word of God also in the squares, in the gates and even in the king's house. Unlike the various kinds of false prophets who preached at that time in Jerusalem, Jeremiah did not reassure or praise the Jewish people. On the contrary, he vehemently denounced his unrighteousness and his transgressions. He rebuked the high priests in hypocrisy, stating that, since there is no sincere faith in God in their hearts, the lush and expensive rituals they conduct are a waste of time. The prophet and the crowd confronted her, accusing her of idolatry. In those days, many Jews were engaged in cutting out figures of foreign gods from wood and stone and praying to them, as well as making sacrifices.

Hostile attitude of compatriots

Jeremiah is a prophet, and this title in Judea has always been considered very high. Such people were usually obedient and honored. However, despite this, the attitude towards the saint because of his intractability and strictness in Jerusalem was not very good. After all, few will like it, that he is constantly convicted of something and accused of complete disbelief. Among other things, the prophet Jeremiah predicted also the soon sunset of Jerusalem in the event that the Jews do not repent and turn to God. This, of course, also caused him hostility to the nobility and the crowd.

In the end, even his family refused the prophet. However, all his life, he apparently did not take place in Jerusalem or anywhere else, but in his hometown - Anathoth. This place, incidentally, has survived to this day. Now it is called Anata. The fellow citizens in Anathoth and Jerusalem, hated Jeremiah and laughed at him, asking: "Where is the Word of the Lord?" When will it come to us? ".

Righteous rulers

The death of the pious king Josiah was a real blow to the saint who foresaw the onset of troubled times. In honor of this event, the prophet Jeremiah, whose life can be an example for believing Jews and Christians, even wrote a special song-lamentation. And in fact, in the subsequent country, the rule was not too pious and intelligent king. True, after Josiah, a fairly kind and God-loving Jehoze also ascended the throne. However, he reigned, unfortunately, not for long - only three months. Jokhaz was the youngest son of the deceased Josiah and ascended the throne bypassing his elder brother, Joachim. It is historically known that he broke off relations with the Egyptian pharaoh Necho the Second because of the defeat of the latter under the Babylonian city of Harran. Angered by this, the treacherous ruler summoned Jochez to his bet in the city of Riblé, allegedly for negotiations, but captivated him and sent him to Egypt, where he later died.

About this king the prophet Jeremiah grieved even more than about Josiah, urging in his next song of the Jews "to regret not the deceased, but the one who will never return to his native land."

The Terrible Prophecy

Many biblical prophets advised the Jews to obey the will of God . Jeremiah is not an exception in this respect. After Jehozas, Jehoiakim's second-generation protector ascended to the throne of Judea, vowing to be the faithful vassal of Egypt. The reign of this ruler was a real curse for the prophet Jeremiah. Soon after his accession to the throne, the saint came to Jerusalem and announced that if the Jews did not repent and obey the will of God, turning to the young but rapidly growing state of Babylonia, the city would soon be captured by strangers, and its inhabitants taken to prison for 70 years. years. Also the prophet foretold the destruction of the main shrine of the Jews - the Jerusalem temple. Of course, his words caused particular dissatisfaction with false prophets and priests. The saint was captured and presented to the court of the people and nobility who demanded his death. However, the prophet still managed to escape. The noble friend Ahikam and some other princes favored him helped him.

The Book of Prophecy and the Tsar

Some time after these unpleasant events the disciple of Jeremiah Baruch collected all the prophecies he had made in one book and read them before the people in the porch of the Jerusalem temple. Upon hearing about this, King Joachim wished to familiarize himself with these records. After he read them, a terrible anger fell on the prophet's head. Eyewitnesses-courtiers told that the ruler personally cut off pieces from the scroll of Jeremiah's predictions and burned them in the fire of the brazier before him until he destroyed the book completely.

After that, the life of the prophet Jeremiah became especially difficult. He and his disciple Baruch had to hide from the wrath of Jehoiakim in a secret shelter. However, here the saints did not waste time and recreated the lost book, adding to it other prophecies.

The meaning of Jeremiah's predictions

Thus, Jeremiah is a prophet, the main idea of all the predictions of which was that Jews should submit to the young, but quickly gaining strength of the state of Babylonia. The saint urged the nobility and the ruler to turn away from Egypt and not to bring upon Judah terrible misfortunes. Of course, no one believed him. Many considered him even a spy of Babylonia. After all, Egypt was the strongest state at that time, and no one could even imagine that some young country would be the cause of the disasters of its vassals. The appeals of Jeremiah only irritated the Jews and set against him the very same.

The Fall of Judea

The destruction of the scroll with unpleasant predictions for him to the unrighteous King Joachim, who spent all his time in unbridled entertainments, did not help. In 605 BC. E. In the Battle of Carchemish, the young Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar dealt a crushing defeat to the Egyptian troops. The Jews, who did not heed the words of Jeremiah, of course, participated in this battle as vassals of the Second Echo.

When Nebuchadnezzar went up to the walls of Jerusalem, King Joachim had to buy off part of the temple treasures from him and give the sons of many noble people as hostages to Judah. After the Babylonians left, the unjust ruler continued his careless life.

In 601 BC. E. Nebuchadnezzar undertook yet another campaign against Egypt. However, Necho II was able to fight back this time. King of Judea Joachim took advantage of this in order to finally break with Babylonia. The insulted Nebuchadnezzar, by that time Ammon and Moab had already subdued, moved to Jerusalem. In 598 BC. E. The city was taken by him, his ruler was killed, and the temple was destroyed. The prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled. As he predicted, in captivity, the Jews persecuted in Babylonia subsequently spent 70 years.

Jeremiah is a prophet who, as already mentioned, lived only a few kilometers from the walls of Jerusalem and for many years had the opportunity to admire his majestic outlines. The pictures of the ruined city and the temple deeply impressed him. The Prophet expressed all his pain and sorrow in a special poetic text. The latter is officially included in the Bible and is called "Lamentations of Jeremiah."

Death of the Prophet

What happened to Jeremiah after the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar is not known for certain. According to available information, the king of Babylonia generously allowed the saint to stay in his homeland. The appointed governor of Judea, Gedalius, even favored the prophet and protected him in every possible way. However, after the death of this governor, the enemies of Jeremiah forcibly took him to Egypt. It is believed that in this country, the angry Jews murdered the saint from revenge by beating him with stones.

Attitude to the Prophet in Other Religions

Christianity assesses Jeremiah as the second of the main prophets of the Bible and at the same time reveres as a saint. Approximately the same attitude exists to him in Judaism. The Jews also consider him to be the second most important prophet, but they do not include the saints. The prophet Jeremiah in Islam is not particularly venerated. In the Quran he is not mentioned. However, like many other nations, Muslims know about it and are revered for the prophet of the Old Testament.

To whom the prophet Jeremiah likens the Jewish people

The predictions of Jeremiah, therefore, are mostly connected with the political events that took place during his life. However, much attention has been paid to the moral side in his sermons and precepts. The Prophet sincerely believed that it was possible to avoid future misfortunes only by repenting and obeying the will of God.

He likens the Jewish people to an apostate who does not know what he is doing. All the faithless ancestors of the Jews of that time, Jeremiah compares to the bundle of firewood, which will blaze and burn from the sole word of God.

To the Jewish people, the prophet, in spite of everything, assigns a special role to the God-chosen. However, at the same time he compares it not only with a bundle of firewood ready to light up, but also with a clay pot. This is evidenced by the significant incident that occurred with the prophet. One day, walking through the streets of Jerusalem, he went up to the potter, took one of the pots from him and smashed it against the ground, prophesying of the imminent death of Judea and comparing it to this fragile vessel.

Predictions of Jeremiah today

Thus, we have found out what the prophet Jeremiah preached. First of all, the prophet called for forgetting pride and approaching God. At present, he is one of the most revered saints, including in Christianity. The history of his life and his predictions are set forth in the "Book of the Prophet Jeremiah", to find and read which, if desired, will not be difficult.

"Lamentations"

Jeremiah is a prophet, especially revered by Christians. His work, known as "Lamentations of Jeremiah," as already mentioned, is part of the Bible. This sacred book contains only five songs. In the first, second and fourth verses 22, each of which begins and is denoted by the letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. The third song contains 66 verses, divided into three groups. Verses in them also begin with letters of the Hebrew alphabet going in order . The fifth song also consists of 22 verses, but in this case by letter numbering they are not ordered.

Jeremiah (the prophet), whose years of life passed in Anathoth and Jerusalem, in the first song of "Wailing" with great sorrow tells about the withdrawal of Jews to the Babylonian captivity and the death of Zion. In the second, the prophet analyzes what happened, describing the disaster that happened to the country as a deserved punishment of God. The third song is the manifestation of the highest sorrow of the saint. Only at the end of this part of the prophet does he hope for the mercy of God. In the fourth part of "Weeping" the prophet moderates the bitterness of grief over the city's lost awareness of his own guilt before the Lord. In the fifth song, the saint achieves complete tranquility, accepts what happened as a given and expresses hope for the best.

Thus, you now know to whom the prophet Jeremiah likens the Jewish people and what he preached. This ancient biblical saint lived in troubled times, but, despite this, and on the misfortunes that befell him personally and the whole of Judea in general, he remained faithful to the God of his ancestors. That is why it can serve as an example for all Christians and Jews.