Key verse
Jeremiah 1:8 - "Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord.
Ecclesiastes
In terms of human nature, the truth about the world, and basically all abstract ideas, I suppose there is nothing new since the beginning of time. However, I think we see things in a different and new way all the time, and for each person, life is new. Life is not meaningless either, unless we decide to not give it meaning. All we do here on earth has a lot of meaning, provided we do it with a view to eternity. So long as we are investing in others and growing in God, we can have a lot of meaning in life, even if what we are doing is mundane and seemingly pointless.
Jeremiah
There is more than one version of the book of Jeremiah. Our English translations are based on the Masoretic (Hebrew) text, but there is a different version in the Septuagint (ancient Greek) text. This difference is likely due to the turmoil of Jeremiah's time. Jeremiah prophesied about the impending doom of Jerusalem, and lived to see the city captured by foreigners, while he himself was one of the captives.
I have to admire Jeremiah's tenacity in bringing God's message to the people of Jerusalem. At this time, circa 626-580 BC, the people of Judah were intent on straying from God's commands, even though Jeremiah, and Josiah, the king at the beginning of Jeremiah's career, kept trying to bring them back to God.
*Here's a neat fact: the term 'Jew' is actually a short form for Judahite, or an inhabitant of Judah, and therefore only came into existence when Judah split from the rest of Israel. This term was then later applied to all "Israelites" when northern Israel was completely assimilated into foreign countries (approx. 720 BC) -all of this information on Jeremiah is compliments of the Archaeological Study Bible
Interesting comparison - God touch Jeremiah's mouth with his hand when he called him to be a prophet, and an angel touched Isaiah's lips with a hot coal when he received his calling. In both cases, the mouths were sanctified and cleansed, so as to be worthy of the words which they would later speak.
**More on today's reading later. As we are starting four new books today, I will give some thoughts on the New Testament ones tomorrow.
I suspect the writer of Ecclesiastes did not factor in eternity. Was life after death a popular doctrine back then, or did it become clear through Jesus' ministry? Remember the Sadducees; they did not belive in the resurrection of the dead (that is why they were sad you see). (Salem House)
ReplyDeleteVery true! Thanks for mentioning this. Life after death was not a popular idea. Quite often, Sheol or the grave meant just that - a grave, death. There was still mention of an existence in Sheol, but the idea was not widespread until after Jesus came.
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