Bible Study Notes 10/28/2025​

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(Much gratitude is given to Dr. Carol Kaminski for her Old Testament Survey course at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the study materials that accompany and inform this teaching.)

 

The Mosaic Covenant Has Been Broken

 

Immediately after Jeremiah’s condemnation og Judah’s idolatry, he establishes the fact that God’s people have broken the Mosaic covenant (Jer. 11:1-17).

            - They will be cursed because they have not kept God’s law: READ Jer. 11:3-4 and Deut. 27:26.

- J tells Judah that Yahweh’s judgment against them is completely righteous: God promised to bless his people if they obeyed him, but curse them if they disobeyed him.

            - Throughout Jeremiah, he tells Judah that they have disobeyed God’s voice.

            - Jeremiah speaks of Judah as God’s “rebellious sons,” who have not obeyed his voice (Jer. 3:11-14).

            - Punishment is coming!

Jeremiah describes the coming judgment, with their rebellion in full view, by recalling the curses of the Mosaic covenant.

- He says there will be four instruments of God’s wrath: the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky along with the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy (Jer. 15:3).

            - God’s people shall “die of deadly diseases. READ Jer. 16:4.

Moses warned the Israelites on the plains of Moab that if they disobeyed God’s laws, one of the curses entailed their dead bodies becoming “food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth” (Deut. 28:26).

            - Jeremiah is saying that the curses God had promised through Moses will be poured out upon Judah.

Jeremiah even warns of a famine, so severe that parents will eat their children: READ Jer. 19:8-9.

Moses warned the Israelites at Sinai that there would be cannibalism if they disobeyed the covenant (Lev. 26:29); Deut. 28:53)

These curses will occur according to the terms given in the law of Moses (Deut. 29:25-28).

            - The temple will be destroyed

            - The land will become desolate

            - Many people will be slaughtered

            - Others will go into exile

Jeremiah warns Judah that the nations will look at Jerusalem and hiss; they will shake their heads because the city has become a place of horror and astonishment (Jer. 19:7-8).

 

Jerusalem Becomes a Curse

 

Remember that God promised Abraham that the nations would be blessed through his offspring (Gen. 12:3; 22:18; 26:4).

God set Jerusalem at the center of the nations so they might witness his blessings and be drawn to worship Israel’s God.

BUT! In 586 BC, those in Jerusalem will suffer unimaginable punishment, when they experience hardship: famine, plagues, being bereaved of children because of wild beasts, being eaten by birds of prey, cannibalism, death without burial, killing by the sword, scattering among the nations, defeat by the Babylonians, and the departure of God’s presence.

Jerusalem becomes a curse to the nations rather than a blessing (Jer. 24:9; 25:18; 26:6; cf. Zech. 8:13).

This outpouring of God’s curse on Israel will call into question the very purposes of God:

- How will the nations be blessed through Abraham’s offspring when God’s people fall under his wrath because of their rebellion and disobedience?

- The problem is that Israel’s sin leads to curse rather than blessings, and as a result, they are unable to be a blessing to the nations.

- The story of Israel in the OT shows us that Israel’s failure to obey God’s law has the potential to thwart God’s plan to bless the nations through Abraham’s seed: Instead of the nations being drawn to the God of Israel, they hiss at God’s people and mock them, thus, God’s name is DISHONORED among the nations.

CONSEQUENTLY: If God’s blessing is ever to extend to the nations through Abraham’s offspring, the problem of Israel’s rebellion and disobedience MUST BE RESOLVED.

 

The Crucified Messiah Becomes a Curse

 

The Apostle Paul explains in his Galatians letter that those under the law are under a curse: “For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them;: (Gal. 3:10).

In the SINAI period, we saw (READ) Deut. 27:15-26, a list of covenant curses – Paul quotes verse 26, which is a summary statement of that list.

Jeremiah quotes this verse when describing God’s judgment that is about to come against Judah due to their failure to obey God’s voice (Jer. 11:3; cf. Deut. 27:26.

Over 600 years later, Paul quotes this same text to describe those under the law.

- The importance of this is that the law brings people under God’s wrath, for no one is justified by works of the law (Rom. 3:19-20; 4:15; 7:7, 10-11; Gal. 2:16).

- Paul says in his latter to the Romans, that “both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one’” (Rom. 3:9-10).

- He draws the conclusion that “by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20) and further says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22).

This is where God’s plan of redemption through history has led us, for we discover that human beings, whether Jews or Gentiles, are unable to meet God’s righteous requirements set forth in his law, and as a result, they fall under his wrath.

Paul wants us to understand that the law places God’s people under his wrath, but the solution to the curse is found in Jesus: READ Gal. 3:13-14 – Jesus became the curse for us – Jesus takes upon himself the penalty of the law in order to redeem those under it – thus, the curses of the Mosaic covenant are resolved, where there is an exchange curse in which the innocent dies in the place of the guilty.

 

The Seventy-Year Exile

 

Jeremiah announces that God’s plan of redemption through history will not end with exile, but reaches well beyond the exile and raises expectations of a future hope of restoration after the judgment – the exile will not last forever.

The exile will be “seventy years” (Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10).

Why 70 years?

            - God is reclaiming his sabbatical years.

- He told the Israelites that they were to harvest their crops for 6 years, but on the seventh year, they were to give the land a “Sabbath rest” (Lev. 25:1-7).

- Because the Israelites had not kept the sabbatical years, God explains to Jeremiah that he is reclaiming them.

- 70 years of exile suggests that the Israelites had not kept the land’s “rest” for about 490 years – there is some debate whether the 70-year period for the exile is literal or figurative.

The main takeaway here is that Jeremiah not only speaks of God’s judgment but also hope for a future restoration and remember: Jeremiah – Jerusalem will fall.

 

Jeremiah Warns King Jehoiakim

 

Jeremiah furthers his ministry during the days of Kin Jehoiakim (reigns 609-598 BC).

In the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign, God tells Jeremiah to stand in the court of the temple and warn the people that God’s judgment is about to come.

            - He is to announce that God will do to Jerusalem what he had done to Shiloh (Jer. 26; cf 1 Sam. 4).

            - The priests, prophets, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem respond by saying: “You shall die!” (Jer. 26:8).

            - Tragically, this will be the fate of Uriah the prophet by the hand of Jehoiakim (Jer. 26:20-23).

Many years later, Jesus will lament over Jerusalem, saying, READ Mt. 23:37-38.

The same city is now seeking to kill Jeremiah, as he proclaims God’s word in the temple court, but this time the prophet is spared (Jer. 26:16-20), and he continues to proclaim God’s word to Judah.

 

In 605 BC Jeremiah Warns that Judgment is Coming

 

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign in 605 BC, some important events take place that underscore how close the end of the southern kingdom is.

- Jeremiah warns Judah that God’s judgment is coming (Jer. 25:1-11), lamenting that he has been warning them for 23 years, but they haven’t listened, even though God has sent his prophets to them again and again – they are still blind and deaf and have become like the idols they worship.

- Then Jeremiah announces that God is about to send the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem, and the whole land will become “a ruin and a waste” (Jer. 25:11; 29:10).

- God instructs Jeremiah to write all his words concerning Jerusalem and Judah on a scroll (Jer. 36: 1-2), and this is why we have the book of Jeremiah today.

- The prophet sends his scribe, Baruch, to read aloud the word of God in the temple (Jer. 36:4-8), but Judah again refuses to use their eyes and ears, so judgment will be inescapable.

 

The First Deportation in 605 BC

 

In 605 BC, the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer. 46:2), the Babylonians achieve a huge victory over the Egyptians.

Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylonian’s crown prince, attacks the Egyptian army at a place called Carchemish, which is on the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia and results in a decisive Babylonian victory over Egypt and which Jeremiah describes in detail (Jer. 46:1-26).

When Nebuchadnezzar hears that his father, Nabopolassar has died, he departs for Babylon to take the throne but soon resumes his campaigns in the west and Jerusalem is in view – he besieges the city, for he is an instrument of God’s wrath against Judah (2 Kgs. 24:1-4).

The book of Daniel tells us that Nebuchadnezzar takes leading citizens of Judah to Babylon at this time, along with some of the vessels from the temple: READ Dan. 1:2.

- King Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, but he is now bound in chains and taken to Babylon (2 Chr. 36:6-7), but does not remain there (2 Kgs. 24:6).

- Also taken to Babylon at this time were members of the royal family, nobles, and some of Judah’s best young men, who will be pressed to serve in the court of the Babylonian king.

- Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, are among this initial wave of deportees removed from Judah and taken to Babylon (Dan. 1:1-7).

This is the first deportation to Babylon, which takes place in 605 BC; the second deportation to Babylon will take place in 597 BC when the prophet Ezekiel and King Jehoiachin are taken to Babylon as well.

 

In 604 BC Jeremiah Warns that Jerusalem Will Fall

 

In the following year, 604 BC, Baruch the scribe goes to the temple court to read Jeremiah’s oracles before the Jerusalem officials.

They are concerned and so tell King Jehoiakim, who was in his winter house, warming himself next to a fire.

- A messenger named Jehudi enters his house and reads from the scroll to the king and his officials.

- After reading just a few lines, Jehoiakim jumps up from his seat, snatches it from him, cuts it with a

scribe’s knife, and throws it into the fire.

- God’s word goes up in flames, but judgment lasts and is surely coming against his own people (Jer. 36).

God then tells Jeremiah to take another scroll and write the same message on it, but this time God has a personal word for the king.

- No son of Jehoiakim’s will sit on the throne – although his son Jehoiachin does rule for a short time, he only lasts for 3 months – and his dead body will be cast out to the elements (Jer. 36:27-32; cf. Jer. 22:18-23).

- God will punish Jehoiakim’s descendants and judge Jerusalem, and their king will die without honor (Jer. 22:18-19); 36:30-31).

            - The king refuses to listen, as usual, as from his youth he had not obeyed God’s voice (Jer. 22:21).

- Thus, Jehoiakim dies, and his son Jehoiachin assumes the throne (2 Kgs. 24:6), although it’s a very short reign.

Read about Jehoiakim in 2 Kgs. 23:34 to 24:6, 2 Chr. 36:4-8, Jer. 22:18-19, chapters 25-26, and 36.

 

Jehoiachin (598-597 BC)

2 KGs. 24:6-16, 2 Chr. 36:8-10, Jer. 22:24-30, and 52:31-34

 

Now Jehoiachin (also called Coniah or Jeconiah) is king of Judah but he only reigns for three months.

God fives Jeremiah a word for Jehoiachin: even is the king was a signet ring on God’s right hand, God would pull it off – Jehoiachin will surely be given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 22:24-25).

- In 597 BC, in the second deportation of Judah to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar besieges the city of Jerusalem and takes Jehoiachin captive to Babylon, as well as other leading citizens, craftsmen, and smiths (2 Kgs. 24:10-16; cf. Jer. 24:1), while only the poorest in the land remain.

- The prophet Ezekiel is brought to Babylon at this time, and he begins his ministry a few years later in 593 BC (Ezek. 1:1-3).

- Jehoiachin remains in prison in Babylon for the next 37 years, but he is finally released, never to return to Jerusalem, but dies in Babylon (Jer. 22:24-30; 52:31-34).

Even though he has 7 sons (1 Chr. 3:17-18), he is “childless” with respect to the throne, for none of his sons will reign as king in Jerusalem.

The line of Judah continues through Jehoiachin’s sons, especially through his grandson Zerubbabel (1 Chr. 3:19; cf. Hag. 1:1), whose genealogical line is taken up in the NT (Matt. 1:12-16).