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Lesson OneJeremiah: The Faithful God Rebukes and Preserves His Faithless People5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoEzekiel: How God Gives Hope When Hope is Gone5 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeGod Preserves His Divine Record: The Old Testament Canon5 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 103
Discussion Questions
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How is God’s loyalty demonstrated throughout the book of Jeremiah?
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Throughout the pages of the book of Jeremiah, God’ loyalty and faithfulness is clearly demonstrated. Take for instance the patience and long-suffering and forbearance he demonstrated towards the apostate Judah as illustrated in the analogy of a portal and the clay. The picture of a loving father who receives the raw impact of the consequences of his children misdeed is painted of God. He is seeing as a father who doesn’t enjoy seeing his children in trouble as one may erroneously believe. He is clearly not on the look out for the fault of his children.
When the potter noticed something is wrong with the pot he was forming, he went over to start work anew on the port. The enduring love of God was brought to the fore when the rubbles of the broken Judah was worked upon once again to produce a better fashion of a new community of faith. Through the oracle of Jeremiah, the captivity of Judah was foretold, which was fulfilled by the eventual invasion and destruction of Judah and Jerusalem. People were taken in drove to Babylonian captivity as prophesied by Jeremiah.
However, his loyalty toward his people was exemplified by the restoration of Judah to their land as prophesied by Jeremiah in chapter 25. Daniel who was aware of this set time by reading the passage in chapter 25 prayed for Judah restoration, which was answered beginning from Cyrus. The building and completion of the temple was consistent with the seventy years which was determined against Judah for her period of captivity.
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God is faithful to bring about the promises of His covenant, which are blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. At the same, God is faithful to His promises to Abraham and David, in that God still preserved a remnant after the exile to return to build the temple and the land. God has not utterly abandoned the people who have abandoned Him.
#Jeremiah
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Jeremiah is used by God by continually reaching out to the people by telling them how their sin is causing their ultimate destruction. But the destruction would only be for a period of time. This demonstrated His holiness but also His Mercy.
Jeremiah was also used to show the hope of the future by buying the field that couldn’t be worked by them but pointed to a future planting.
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The book of Jeremiah tells us throughout that, even though we can’t expect a “bed of roses” even roses have thorns, but God is every faithful. He was and is always in control and He sent His prophets to tell people that they were still so loved, and He was still there for them always. Through Jeremiah He even provided a timeline for the dispersion to end. He maintained a faithful remnant and He still does today.
On a personal note, I have a wonderful friend who loves the Lord so much that she decided it was time to establish a church right here in this town that stood by the Truth of the Lord. It has been so difficult, and her worst enemies have been people from other churches. She is about twenty years younger than I am and what with all the stress and pressure she had to be seen at the hospital a few nights ago having had a possible mild stroke. She is home and fine but when we talked about it I reminded her that I, myself, have a very bad hear that even the doctors says shouldn’t be working but I reminded her that God is in control. She was left with no residual signs of a stroke and, Praise be to God” I have never had an actual heart attack and, to me, that is God’s love and, by the way, the heart of Jesus.. -
God’s loyalty to His people is demonstrated many ways. Firstly, it is evident through His faithfulness to remind this wayward people of their sin. He gave them message after message through the prophet Jeremiah. God was patient with His people. He gave them time to repent. He gave the people real life examples – He knew their shortsightedness, so He made plain to them through Jeremiah’s actions the nature of their suffering should they fail to repent. Finally, God was loyal to them in His execution of judgement – He did not let them off the hook.
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How is Jeremiah an example of enduring opposition and resistance to share God’s Word? What obstacles to witnessing for Christ do you face and how can you overcome them?
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Jeremiah was tasked by God to share an unpopular message. He had to rebuke the people for their sins, particularly their disobedience to the covenant of God. When it became obvious that the people would not repent, Jeremiah had to preach about their impending destruction and exile under a great nation. God even revealed through Jeremiah that, since this was inevitable, the exiles were to settle down quietly in Babylon until they could return. This sounded like treason to the people! Moreover, there were false prophets preaching peace and prosperity to Judah. Jeremiah had to counter the lies of the priests and prophets. People wanted him dead. They did throw him into prison, and he almost died. In spite of all this, Jeremiah did not stop preaching and prophesying. Neither did he dilute or embellish his message to appease his hostile hearers.
In witnessing for Christ, I can’t say I face such outright persecution. What I encounter is unbelief or apathy, arising from postmodernism and materialism. The postmodernist doesn’t believe there is any absolute truth; so he doesn’t bother to investigate the truth you present him. But ultimately, most people don’t care, because they only care about the materialistic world which they can enjoy now.
#Jeremiah
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It is very difficult to make any inroads into the mindset of people regarding their faith, the One True God, Jesus Christ, how to live righteously because even the authorities are dictating the wrong things to the populace. Modern culture has become the attacking tool of Satan.
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He put everything into God’s hands and trusted Him with his life and safety throughout his time of preaching for prophesying for God. He just kept at it, and even when he felt inadequate or in harm’s way, he asked God for His help and guidance and through his faith in God he carried God’s messages everywhere. My obstacle is fear, so I need to just trust God and take steps forward…
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In my small hometown to which I returned several years ago, I have a battle for Truth. The conspiracy theories and twisted scripture I hear from even my church friends here now is very disheartening and I do cry out to God to help me. I’m no longer young at 75 but I do know that God has tole me that I must take a stand for the Truth. It hasn’t been easy.
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Not everyone will want to receive the word of God. But I won’t stop because the kingdom of God is most important.