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(This is a transcript generated by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy or content by Crossroads)

Hi. Word ladies. I'm sitting here with Owen Chadwick. Welcome, Owen. Hi. And what are we doing today, Owen? Well, we're actually channelling Gary Miller. We are. If you were with us on the 31st of January, when we did the all-in for Christ. It was a Saturday. Gary took us through. Introduced us to Jeremiah and the book of Jeremiah and gave us a sheet which is called Order and Chaos Reading and Understanding.

Jeremiah. It's a really helpful time. You might remember it. You might not if you were there. We didn't get a recording. We would love this to be the recording of Gary Miller. So, imagine we have a slight Irish accent and I am male. And then we will be Gary. We're going to run through our notes to try and get a leg up on this beautiful, incredible book.

That's right. He said, " We're having dinner with Jeremiah, and the book of Jeremiah is not sad. Anyway. Let's go. It's got goodness in it. So I just wanted to introduce us to the book, and why he spoke about why the prophets are so relevant. They have situational relevance, theological relevance and experiential relevance. And he was talking about the prophets in general.

Yep. Do you want to walk us through that? Yeah. He said orientation is the key to understanding this book. So we orient ourselves to this period of time, so that those are the topics that you've just said. And Jeremiah was written in the time of the biggest upheaval in God's people's history. Yeah, we could argue that Exodus was an upheaval as well.

But, once they've settled so they've they've settled with they've gone for the exodus of God in the Promised Land. Then they split north and south. We've seen the north get taken away from us by Syria. And. 722, and now we're focused on the South. Yeah. And it is, as you say, big, massive time. Missed the last kind of five Kings of the South are on view in Jeremiah.

That's right. And Gary said this, this whole lot of capture phrases, which is wonderful. We are unable to leave the beautiful life. The Torah tells us how to live a beautiful life, but we can't. Yes, we can't. And that is the problem with the Torah. And then he's saying that Jeremiah is always driving us towards the New Covenant.

Yes. It's so wonderful, such a wonderful insight that this is the end of this is the sunset of of ancient Israel, correct? Yes. You know, they're about to go into exile. They're about to have Jerusalem destroyed. And Torah there. I liked what he said about that Torah. We think of it as law, as rules, as legislation, but really towards how to live the beautiful, how to live the beautiful life, living God's way.

That's why you can relish in it. And so this kind of situational relevance, you might say that we're living in a time of upheaval. Absolutely. And if anything, that's probably even more relevant now than it was in January. And that there's this theological significance that the whole Bible is pointing towards the glory of Jesus and these kinds of prophets, in particular Jeremiah, Ezekiel, as they are really showing how big God is?

Yeah. Yeah. And so this really plays out in our experience as well. But actually, this and we found this, I think as we've been looking at this book, this book really hits us in all different areas of life experience experientially, you know, can I change despair, superficiality, hypocrisy, trusting in the wrong things, seeking the wrong things? It's very kind of all of life.

Then he went on to kind of five things to remember when we're reading The Prophets. Let's go through some of those. First one. Prophets are individuals. This is Jeremiah, who was a real person in a real situation, in real history, a real situation dealing with, you know, real, you know, engagement. Yeah. Yeah. Then they are spoken word artists, and he called them like rappers in that they, they, they mesh words together.

They keep on saying the same thing using different, different ways of saying it. The first half of Jeremiah actually doesn't flow very well. That was he's taken. So if you find yourself bewildered and lost in the first 20 chapters, be comforted. You'll probably on the right track. And so the message and the medium go together is what he's the point he's making.

I like to say that his fair point was that the prophets are basically preachers of Torah. So they're basically taking those first kind of five books and preaching, what does this mean for life? And I think that's so helpful in saying in my head, like, this might not work for you, but in my head, Deuteronomy is like the mother of Jeremiah.

Like Jeremiah is just built in the idea of this, this covenant between God and Israel and how that was meant to work. And it's not working, it's not working, it's not working. And so it's kind of, yeah, Jeremiah is trying to preach to them to go back and live this life that God is offering of repentance and relationship with him.

And they're not changing. They're not doing it. Yeah. He writes a book. He's a prophet who's not a speaking prophet. He writes a book. And this is a reflection on his life and ministry as well. His own suffering is being, you know, it's biographical, even though it's chops and changes, and you can't always get the timing right.

And he writes this book as the exile unfolds. So he's in the midst of turmoil himself. But looks like he puts his book together, looking backwards. He writes it to those in exile, but he's looking backwards through the time that has led up to exile. So there is a lot, and there are lots of questions on there about the structure of Jeremiah and how it's been put together and all that kind of thing.

But it's helpful to say that, yeah, that's what he's doing, it. He's kind of looking back, writing for these exiles, looking back at his whole life and ministry. We do find it hard. This is a I was quite intimidated by Jeremiah before I got into it. Why do we find Jeremiah a difficult book to come to terms with?

Five reasons, but Gary says five reasons. He does. Let's have a look at them. The first one was it's long. Yeah. So it's 52 chapters. We could do one chapter every week for a whole year. We're actually not going to do that. Yep. But it is. It's the longest book of the Bible by word count. Is that right?

In the Psalms, it is by verse. Number of verses. It's one of the. Yeah, that doesn't matter. Also, secondly, it is disorientating. Yep. Lots of chopping and changing, lots of shifting of a point of view. Keep reading. He's a good writer. This is Gary's advice. Keep reading. Just press on. He's a good writer. And it is. It's worth saying, isn't it?

There are different genres in Jeremiah. There's poetry, there's sermons, there's letters, there's syntax. There's also a history. What's the sign? You know, sign. You know, when he, like, has a. Thanks for asking. When God tells him to do something like get your undies and hide them in a sign. Sign. I thought it was funny. Would I like to sign up that night, and I not that, sign acts.

To do something which is symbolic of a lesson that he's teaching. So, that's right. Yeah. He can create an emotional effect with his word choice and the way he describes things. Yes. And that's deliberate. So if you're emotionally confused, it could be your book. That's right. But it's also in a different order, isn't it? We used to chronicle chronology.

When you start at the start, and you go to the end, but Jeremiah is flat out obviously, deliberately not chronological. That's right. And we don't even know always who's speaking. Sometimes it's God, sometimes it's Jeremiah. And so that's disorienting. Gary said there are five reasons it's long, disorienting, confronting, confusing, and emotional. Which is true. And it is.

It's big. This isn't dry stuff. This is why drama, and this is the breadth of canvas of Jeremiah, like the breadth of the prophets. We're only going to get the greatness of Jesus if we see the breadth of what God is doing in this whole world. Very helpful. We've got halfway there. Yeah. We're turning the page on our notes now.

So, in Jeremiah chapter one, I love how Gary was so helpful at pointing out that this one chapter, that first chapter, Jeremiah, is the key which unlocks the book. How does it do that? How did he explain that that is what happens? Well, he says verse five, no other prophet in the Bible is told what he's told in verse five, before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.

I appointed you a prophet to the nations. And he's probably 14 years old, according to Gary. I mean, get your head around that. That's right. And his response is, our Lord. Behold, I do not know how to speak from any a youth. True. You are. You are you. But that doesn't change anything. And he goes and speaks and uses some images of the tree, the almond tree, which is also a tree that is looking or waiting or observing or something like that.

Like God is watching over his word for it to come true. What God says, God's word is going to achieve what it wants it to. Yeah. And these chapters are so good, we meet the main characters, we meet Jeremiah, we meet the Lord. We meet the word of the Lord. We even meet some of the kings.

But we also meet the big problem. Yeah. God's people are not listening to God, and they are facing exile. What other things about chapter one do you want to put in there? He says the emotional intensity is dialled up in chapter one. This is really off the scale. He's going to make, he's going to make Jeremiah, bronze wall ways that it's going to make 18 verse 18, it's going to make him a bronze wall, a fortified city against the whole land, against the kings of Judah.

He's got a tough gig in front of him. Oh, he does. And that's, I guess, flagging some of the key themes in the book, doesn't it, that he's going to be the suffering prophet. He's going to persevere. It's going to be hard. He's facing a country that is stubborn and hypocritical. But the Word of God is powerful.

It's going to break down, and through breaking down, it's going to rebuild. Then the next kind of break. So chapter one unlocks the book, then chapters 2 to 24. It calls it the man in a man. And his message. Jeremiah. Spiritual autobiography. What's that about? He's kind of saying, there is this big key. Margaret, chapter 25, which kind of echoes lots from chapter 21 and that first section, 2024.

For Gary is the moment where we really meet, Jeremiah himself. And so the best way to read it is to keep reading, keep reading, look for firm places to stand. I think that's a helpful thing. If you're confused, read on, and you will say things. You're like, okay, now I know what this is about. This is about the hypocrisy.

This is about, and the judgment is coming. Judgement is. Judgement is coming. He never gets the good news at this point. No, he. Well, there are some flickers of light. Yeah. Flicker in 23. Yeah. But otherwise it's pretty hard stuff. And so embrace the pain with step two. Yes, he did say 23. It's like opening a window.

From this point on, there is hope that there is return the Word of God. And then he goes on to talk about chapter 33. So in this first section, he said, if you get to the first chapter 20, if you get through to chapter 20, it's downhill from there. And you, me, in a good way, a bit easier. I think that was his.

That's right. That's right. Because it can be particularly disorientating in chapters 1 to 20 and one. And chapter 20 is quite a strong autobiographical moment for Jeremiah. It's the fire in my bones section, if you know that bit. That's not to say it's all roses, though. He's in real conflict, but he is committed to being God's prophet even amidst the anguish that he has.

And then chapters 25 to 52, the second half of the book. Within that, you have the book of comfort in 32, 33, and you've got the prophecies against the nations in 46 to 51. He kind of the way that Gary described, that it's the word bringing salvation beyond judgment. He talks about how we get to see a glimpse of the future.

I take it he's particularly referring to chapters 3233, which is that New Covenant section? We think about the New Covenant a lot in just how we think about Jesus, how we think about the Christian life. And yet Jeremiah is the only place in the Old Testament which speaks about the New covenant. And that is the key to survival, the game changer.

And that kind of helps us understand the book as a whole. Conclude, let's conclude, Gary concludes. Pull the threads together, Gary. Words. He keeps preaching. He becomes a prophet to the nations. God is the God of all the nations. His plans are still on track. Yep. Even though this looks like chaos and failure and destruction, God's plans for the nations are still on track.

Even though Babylon is going to come and crush them. The big, sad, gripping, but weirdly comforting truth of Jeremiah is that God is the one using Babylon. This is on target, like you say, on track. Yup. Chapter 52. Tell us about that. Salvation around judgment. 52 post-credits scene. What does that mean? So, in chapter 52, we go back into kind of telling history.

It almost feels like it's been lifted out of Two Kings, which, if you want to read of just the history that's going on behind Jeremiah, I read two Kings 22 to 24. The post-credits scene. I love this in a movie, when you've had the movie, and then they have those words at the end that tell you what happened.

And this is the account of Jerusalem falling, which we have. Nine has been coming the whole time because it God's people will not change. That cannot change. And so we see Jerusalem fall, but we get this flicker of one of the kings, Jehoiachin, who was taken to Babylon. He is released, and he is a king in the line of David.

So, there's even at this dark, dim moment in history, there's this flicker of hope that there is still a king in the line of David. So they could be something beyond this, that God is going to be doing for his people. Wonderful. And Jeremiah finishes on a high note. An emotional high point. Well, that's the book of Jeremiah.

Thanks, Gary. Thank you, Gary. Wonderful. Please keep reading it. This is what his advice to us is: encourage your group members to keep reading. And I've been sitting on a bus going from Canberra to Wagga, reading Jeremiah ten chapters ago and, you know, yeah, I think yeah, I'm halfway there. And, I'll keep on doing that.

Just keep reading it. You'll get it if you keep reading it. And this is Gary's promise. Get a guaranteed promise. Keep reading. If you're confused, you've probably got it right. And that from chapter 20, it's probably downhill in a good sense. From there, from there. Enjoy, Jeremiah. Don't be scared. There's great stuff in there. And it is an incredible book.

That gives hope for stubborn hearts. I'm so excited for this series in time, too. Looking forward to it. See?