The book of Jeremiah is about both political and personal crisis. Part of the message which the Lord told Jeremiah to deliver to the nation of Judah was that they were headed for the kind of disaster that no Israelite would ever believe God could allow to happen to His chosen people.
And yet another part of the message God gave Jeremiah was that God was working in the midst of this unthinkable disaster to accomplish something wonderful.
One commentator summarized the book with two phrases: “I will punish” and “I will restore.” What do you do when the world falls apart? Jeremiah has the answers.
Resources: Study Questions, Maps, Outlines & Background
01 Jeremiah 1:1-3 What do we do when our country falls apart?
The book of Jeremiah is about a prophet declaring disaster yet promising hope. What do you do when your country falls apart? You seek the Lord. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on September 14, 2016.
02 Jeremiah 1:4-19 What does God want from me?
What does God want from us? God wants each of us to live in relationship with him so that we might bring life to others. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on September 21, 2016.
03 Jeremiah 2:1-13 Why is God so difficult to believe in?
The truth is that God is really not hard to believe in. The problem is that it is our hearts that are fickle. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on September 28, 2016.
04 Jeremiah 7:1-15 What is wrong with religion?
Believing in God means we ought to love and value what God loves and values, and therefore we ought not to be nicer to each other. Yet, religion doesn’t seem to solve all the problems we think it ought to solve. What is wrong with religion? Why doesn’t it make more difference? Teacher: Krisan Marotta on October 12, 2016.
05 Jeremiah 17:1-11 What is wrong with me?
What do you do when you sin repeatedly? What do you do when you see something about yourself that you decide to change, you give it your best effort, and you don’t change? What’s wrong with us? Teacher: Krisan Marotta on October 19, 2016.
06 Jeremiah 17:19-27 Does it matter if I take a break?
I suspect many of believers today are convinced that Sabbath still means something but have no idea what it is. You take the Bible seriously, you sincerely want to follow and obey God, but in this particular instance you have no idea how to begin, what to do or what not to do. What can we learn from Jeremiah about Sabbath? Teacher: Krisan Marotta on October 26, 2016.
07 Jeremiah 18:1-17 Who does God think He is?
One of the most common complaints today is that the God of the Bible doesn’t seem to be very “fair.” We come from different backgrounds, we have different accents and we have different gifts and opportunities. Some people face repeated tragedies and setbacks while others sail through life easily. We look at that and ask, “Is God fair?” Teacher: Krisan Marotta on November 9, 2016.
08 Jeremiah 20:7-18 Why is life so hard?
We all come to a place at one time or another where we ask the question, “Why is my life so hard? Why do I have to endure this particular problem or experience this pain or go through this situation?” In Jeremiah 20:7-19, we see Jeremiah reach that place. He hits rock bottom and cries out asking, why his life was so hard. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on November 16, 2016.
09 Jeremiah 23:1-8 Who will help us out of this mess?
Today’s leaders promise hope and change only to deliver corruption and scandal. We elect bright promising outsiders who go to Washington and immediately become insiders. They cease fighting for the ideals they promised in the campaign and start fighting to keep themselves in power. Who can make things right? Who will help us out of this mess? Teacher: Krisan Marotta on January 25, 2017.
10 Jeremiah 23:9-33 Who should we listen to?
We live in a world of a million conflicting voices today. You can be constantly updated with tweets, texts, alerts and notifications. Which voice has authority? Which voice can be trusted? Teacher: Krisan Marotta on February 01, 2017.
11 Jeremiah 29:1-14 What’s there to do in Babylon?
Jeremiah 29:1-14 is addressed to people from Jerusalem who have already been deported to Babylon but before Jerusalem itself has been completely destroyed. These people want to escape. They want the exile to end and they want to get back home. Jeremiah write the letter in this chapter to set them straight. Surprisingly, he doesn’t tell them how to escape; instead he tells them how to endure. What do we do while we await the not-yet? What’s there to do in Babylon? Teacher: Krisan Marotta on February 08, 2017.
12 Jeremiah 31:31-34 What good is faith?
Jeremiah warns the people of Judah that God is about to let the Babylonians conquer Jerusalem and deport them because they have disobeyed God. That raises the question, “If God really is going to let our city be destroyed and send us into exile, what good is believing in Him? What good is faith?” Teacher: Krisan Marotta on February 15, 2017.
13 Jeremiah 32:1-15 Is hope for real?
For many people today, religious hope is a fairy tale. They see no difference between believing in Jesus Christ and believing in Santa Claus. Hope, they think, is something that religion fabricated to make it easier for people to believe. To teach His people that hope is real, the Lord told Jeremiah to do something crazy, as recorded in Jeremiah 32:1-15. In fact it was perhaps the most ridiculous move anyone could take – unless hope is true. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on February 22, 2017.
14 Jeremiah 36:1-32 What’s so special about the Bible?
Jeremiah 36:1-32 records a story about Scripture and reveals part of the process of how it was written down. In looking at why God instructs Jeremiah to write down His words, we’re going to answer, “What’s so special about the Bible?” Teacher: Krisan Marotta on March 01, 2017.
15 Jeremiah 38:1-13 Why do I get punished for doing the right thing?
Sometimes we despair over our sinfulness and turn the Lord for mercy (Psalm 130). But other times, we do the right thing and are punished for it. That’s the situation we find in Jeremiah 38:1-13. Jeremiah has spoken the message that the Lord asked him to speak and others are seeking to kill him for it. Teacher: Krisan Marotta on March 22, 2017.
16 Jeremiah 50:1-20 Will the bad guys get what’s coming to them?
Does it ever seem to you like the good guys get left behind while the bad guys flourish? In Jeremiah 38, we talked about how doing the right thing sometimes leads to punishment. That raises a question: What about the people doing the punishing? When Babylon destroys our city or we get thrown into a cistern of mud, what happens to the guys doing the destroying or throwing? Will the bad guys get what’s coming to them? And, is it okay to want that to happen? Teacher: Krisan Marotta on April 12, 2017.
This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Copyright © 2024 · Krisan Marotta, WednesdayintheWord
Photo used here under Flickr Creative Commons.
Podcast Season 8, Episodes 1-16