5 Minute Bible

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Browsing Posts tagged jeremiah

Jeremiah by Michaelangelo from the Sistine Chapel roof (Wikimedia)

Sorry this podcast is firstly out of order (it should have come before the last confession ;) and then late (it should also have come a while back but I’ve been busy trying to get a paper on Isaiah finished :(

This fourth confession illustrates strongly both the dramatic narrative character of these “confessions” and that they are not to be taken as examples to follow, or as a mine from which we can quarry “texts”. For anyone who followed Jeremiah’s example would be rightly shunned, and any text torn screaming from this matrix would yield most unchristian applications!

No! Rather read this “confession” as a further episode in the continuing drama of Jeremiah and his Yahweh. As you read, allow yourself to be read, and you will listen with profit to the prophet ;)

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Pulpit Bible by contemplativechristian

Jeremiah’s third confession is a monologue, mainly (or all, depending where we think it starts) addressed to God. Complaint is the dominant tone, and Jeremiah asks for vengeance on his opponents. So this text raises interesting questions about the nature of Scripture, and how God might read (some parts of) the Bible…

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Continuing a series on The Confessions of Jeremiah, we’ll explore the second of these rich and complex texts Jer 15:10-21. Although I only have 5 minutes I hope I’ll give you material to spark several times that of study of the biblical text ;) for it is out of such personal wrestling (sometimes like Jeremiah’s struggles with Yahweh) that we grow and learn from our Bible reading :)

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An Act against Atheism and Blasphemy, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1697 (Wikimedia)

In the previous two podcasts in this series I’ve introduced “the Confessions of Jeremiah” and the first confession (11:18-12:6). Here we’ll look at this text from the point of view of how it portrays the characters of Jeremiah (in the book the speaker of the passage) and his God (whom he often addresses and on whose behalf he speaks to others).

I’ll suggest that this passage is far from a neat static cartoon of Jeremiah and God on one side and the Judeans (or the “Men of Anathoth”) on the other, goodies and baddies. Rather it shows a rich depth of character as Jeremiah learns to experience God more profoundly.

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In What is the Bible (Part 1) I talked of the Bible as witness, and mentioned stories where Abraham and Amos haggle with God, and ended with a reference to arguing with God in the Bible. Here I’ll begin to explore Jeremiah’s side of the conversation from Jer 12:1-4 (we’ll get to God’s reply later!)