06/20/2025 – “Prophetic Gleams from Conspicuous Persons”: Jeremiah – pgs. 249 – 253 excerpt
“The Jews of our Lord’s time had a deep reverence for the ancient prophets, so when He asked His disciples: ‘Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?’ They replied, ‘Some say … Elijah: and others, Jeremiah, we can understand why the Jews identified Jesus with him. In his heart-warming exposition of Jeremiah, Dr. F.B. Meyer, in the preface of his valuable book says that
“Jeremiah has always a fascination to Christian hearts, because of the close similarity the exists between his life and that of Jesus Christ. Each of them was a ‘man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’; each came to his own, and his own received him not; each passed through hours of rejection, desolation, and forsakenness. And in Jeremiah we may see which in our Lord, are but lightly touched on by the Evangelists … Amid names that shine as stars in the hemisphere of Old Testament Scripture, there is not one more brilliant than his. There is an especial message in the ministry of Jeremiah for those who are compelled to stand alone, who fall into the ground to die, who fill up what is behind of the sufferings of Christ, and through death arise to bear fruit in the great world of men, which they passionately love.”
“Before coming to the comparisons between Jeremiah and Jesus, it is interesting to gather out of the forecasts his prophecy contains of the Messiah. Although he may not unfold as much of the Predicted One as Isaiah does, yet he is included in those prophets who gave witness to Christ. Among the heroes of the faith named in Hebrews 11, none of the prophets, apart from Samuel, are specifically mentioned. Yet all, including Jeremiah, are included, in the phrase ‘and of the prophets’ (Hebrews 11:32). The following prophetic glimpses of Christ can be traced through Jeremiah’s remarkable book, saturated as it is with the character of his mind. ‘It is peculiarly marked by pathos. He delights in expression of tenderness, and gives touching descriptions of the miseries of his people.’ Christ-like virtues, are they not?
- Christ as the Fountain of Living Waters (Jeremiah 2:13).
- Christ as the Great Physician (Jer 8:22).
- Christ as the Good Shepherd (Jer 23:4: 31:10).
- Christ as the Righteous Branch ( Jer 23:5).
- Christ as David the King (Jer. 30:9).
- Christ as the Redeemer (Jer. 50:34).
- Christ as the Lord our Righteousness (Jer. 23:6).
In the list of divine titles, Jehovah Tsidkenu occupies a prominent place as a prediction of the majestic name of the Godhead of the Lord Jesus, as well as of His humanity, as a descendant of David. Jeremiah, however, not only revealed Christ in his prophecies, but reflected Christ in his personality. His very name, meaning ‘He shall exalt Jehovah,’ was indicative of his whole life, which was spent in the endeavor to promote God’s glory. Does not this aim mirror Him who could say, ‘I have glorified Thee on the earth’? While all that Jeremiah disclosed concerning the Messiah is of deep importance and very instructive, the life he lived spoke with a louder voice of Him that was to come. As Dr. Moorehead expresses it” :
“One cannot but see in Jeremiah something of the Spirit of Christ. Indeed, it is not too much to say that on a small scale that Life which is above all other lives is reproduced in this prophet. Jeremiah’s love for this people, his anxiety to them good and naught but good, his tears at the defeat of his efforts to reclaim them, and the hopefulness with which he looks forward to their final recovery and blessing, are but a dim reflection of what was perfect in the heart of the Lord Jesus. Grace and the Spirit of God will make any one like Christ.”
“Jeremiah’s most conspicuous Christ-like characteristic was his sorrow for the sins of those around him. Although he lived centuries before the cross, he was a man with a Calvary-heart, and was prepared to make any sacrifice or endure any pain if only he could see the people reformed and restored. Both of his books – Jeremiah and Lamentations, are drenched with his tears. He was indeed ‘The prophet of the Broken Heart.’ But his ‘liquid pain,’ as tears have been called, was as unavailing as that of Jesus when He wept over Jerusalem.
It added to his profound grief to see that his was to end in vain; that his was to a hopeless love; that those he wept over would have none of his counsel. In this, did he not symbolize Jesus, whose sob of a disappointed heart is heard in the cry, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee together … buy ye would not’? Thus Jeremiah himself with his tears and trials, ‘with his sensibilities always bleeding, with his blasted affections weeping to their life in silent injury, is ever before us as we read.’ Yes, and as we read, ever and anon, there rises before us the figure of another prophet who became a man of sorrow , and was, thereby, mistaken for Jeremiah.
How heart-moving is Jeremiah’s lament of the desolation over Jerusalem, the city of the great king, as recorded in his Lamentations! With the vividness of an eye-witness, he describes the captivity of Israel, and the city once great among the nations now sitting as ‘a widow.’ How his heart was crushed as he saw the city plundered by the Chaldean Army! Later on, the spot where he sat and sobbed was called ‘The Grotto of Jeremiah.’ But happened some 600 years later? Another prophet, greater than Jeremiah, looked out on the same proud city and wept aloud, saying, ‘If thou hadst known , even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace!’ Then ‘sorrow interrupted silence,’ and when He found voice could continue, Jesus could only add, ‘but now they are hid from thine eyes … Thou newest not the time of thy visitation.’
Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem as he foretold the destruction of the city by the Chaldeans, and Jesus wept over it as He predicted its destruction by the Romans. But Jesus went further than Jeremiah in that He not only shed His tears over those who rejected His witness – at Calvary He shed his blood for their sins and salvation. Several fore gleams of the cross can be traced in Lamenations:
“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow’. (Lamentations 1:12).
‘All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head’. (Lamentations 2:15, 16: Matthew 27:39).
‘All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee’ (Lam 2:16; Matt. 27:13).
‘He shutteth out my prayer’ (Lamentations 3:8; Matthew 27:46).
‘I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day’ (Lam 3:14; Psalm 69:12).
‘The wormwood and the gall’ (Lam. 3:19; Psalm 69:21).
‘He giveth his cheek to him that smitten him: he is filled full with reproach’ (Lamentations 3:30; Isaiah 50:6; Psalm 69:20).
‘Shed the blood of the just.’ ‘Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, … and killed the Prince of Life’ (Lamentations 4:13; Acts 3:14; 14; 1 Peter 3:18).
When Jeremiah received the message of the broken covenant, and learned of the terrible disaster about to overtake Jerusalem, he acquiesced to the divine decree and said, ‘So be it, O LORD’ (Jer. 11:5). For ‘So be it,’ the margin gives AMEN! Jesus likewise rested in His Father’s will and purpose, saying, ‘Even so – or Amen – Father.’ But He was also able to pray , ‘It thank thee, Father,’ implying that because of all He is in Himself, God’s will is ever best. John predicted the time when the redeemed church, witnessing the overthrow of the great opponent of the Lamb’s bride, will add a Hallelujah to the Amen (Revelation 19: 1- 6). Often we can say with Jeremiah, ‘Amen, Lord, ‘ but not Amen, Hallelujah! At the church’s final triumph, however, there will not only assent but consent — acquiescence and acclaim. Amen – subjection to the will of God: Hallelujah – the triumphant outburst of praise and adoration. Then the hymn of His glorious church will be
Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almost; righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages (Rev. 15:3, R.V.).
As we take our farewell Jeremiah as a type of Jesus it is with the feeling that he will ever remain as one the truest of patriots the world has ever known. Secretly and publicly he wept over surrounding iniquity, and bravely denounced the sins of his nation. He stood forth at the call of God, and proved himself a faithful, fearless champion of the truth, amid reproaches, insults, and threats. It was no easy task to fulfill his divine mission amid deepening apostasy, judgment, and disaster, but like the Master he resembled, he set his face steadfastly toward Jerusalem. Although the sword reached his own soul and he cried, ‘My heart! my heart! I writhe in pain! the walls of my heart will break! my heart groans within me; I cannot keep it still,’ (Jer. 4:19 [free translation]), yet struggling against the message of doom, he could no longer hold it in (Jer. 6:11), and so, with tears, delivered his soul. As with Jesus, so Jeremiah had a sob in his voice as he announced predicted judgment.
Raised up by God for the service of others, Jeremiah came to experience what it was to fall as the corn of wheat into the ground and die. The prophet’s privations and sorrows crowd his plaintive prophecy. ‘Death wrought in him, that life might work in Israel, and in all who should read the Book of his prophecy,’ As Dr. F. B. Meyer goes on to expound in his book on Jeremiah,
“He died to the dear ties of human love; He died to the goodwill of his fellows: He died to the pride of national patriotism; He died to the sweets of personal liberty; He died tot he meaning he had been won’t to place on his own prophecies.”
Before George Matheson wrote his famous hymn ‘O Love, that will not let me go,’ Jeremiah experience its sentiment and could sing
“O Cross, that lightest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee; I lay in dust life’s glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be.”
When like Jeremiah, we are summoned to run God’s errands for Him, no matter whether pleasant or painful it is not for us to demur or question why. When Jesus says, ‘Go into all the world,’ He means just what God had in mind when He told Jeremiah to ‘Go to Euphrates.’ The prophet did not plead the distance and hardship of the way. It was enough that God had said Go. May we know what it is to rise and follow, and thus imitate Jeremiah, who with charming simplicity records, ‘So I went to Euphrates’! The Lord grant that you and I may be found girding up up our loins and going out to witness as He commands.
The tragedy is that those Jeremiah sought to warn would not heed nor repent nor obey. Through His servant ‘God exhausted all means, tried every agency, employed every kind of appeal, to move His people and to lead them back to allegiance to Him. Obdurate, heard-hearted, stiff of neck, rebellious, they were insensible to every effort and dumb to every entreaty. And so at length the judgment which could no longer be delayed, broke down upon them in all its appalling fury. Grace despised, mercy rejected, and goodness outrages, become at length whips in the hand offended justice.’ Would that this godless age of ours could be aroused to a sense of the peril awaiting it!
We take our leave of the weeping prophet with the portrait of him, which Professor Moorehad has sketched for us to gaze at as an incentive to loyal and sacrificial service:
“Jeremiah was to be the solitary fortress, undismayed in any presence; the one, grand immovable figure who pursued the apostacising people and rulers, delivering his message in the temple court, the royal chamber, or the street, whether they would hear or forbear. In consequence he ws a prophet of unwelcome truths, hated by all, but feared as well by all. It was a mission requiring courage, faith, strength, will; a mission no weakling could fill, no coward could undertake. Jeremiah is on the very great men of the world.”
“And might we add he is one of the most untarnished mirrors of Jesus to be found among Old Testament personalities.”
Soli Deo Gloria!