Jeremiah (Believers Church Bible Commentary | BCBC)
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
The Believers Church Bible Commentary Series is published for all who seek more fully to understand the original message of Scripture and its meaning for today—Sunday school teachers, members of Bible study groups, students, pastors, and other seekers. The series is based on the conviction that God is still speaking to all who will listen, and that the Holy Spirit makes the Word a living and authoritative guide for all who want to know and do God’s will.
Each volume illuminates the Scriptures; provides historical and cultural background; shares necessary theological, sociological, and ethical meanings; and, in general, makes "the rough places plain." Critical issues are not avoided, but neither are they moved into the foreground as debates among scholars. The series aids in the interpretive process, but it does not attempt to supersede the authority of the Word and Spirit as discerned in the gathered church.
The Believers Church Bible Commentary is a cooperative project of Brethren in Christ Church, Brethren Church, Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Brethren Church, and Mennonite Church.
Overall Outline
The commentaries are organized into sections according to the major divisions of the text. Each section comprises five parts:
- An introductory preview
- A summary outline of the section
- Explanatory notes
- The text in its biblical context
- The text in the life of the church
Jeremiah
Elmer A. Martens explores the message and insights of Jeremiah for today. In Jeremiah, God disciplines people and punishes them. Yet there is also forgiveness and the promise of a new covenant. This ancient book is strangely relevant to our generation.
The more we learn about the stressful times in which Jeremiah lived, about the passionate prophet himself, and about the arrangement of the book that bears his name, the more forceful the message becomes.
Top Highlights
“SHALOM A Hebrew term for peace which describes comprehensive well-being. Shalom, while used in a daily greeting among the Hebrews, is a weighty theological term in the Old Testament. Shalom embraces concepts of harmony, security, serenity, right relationships, wholeness, health, prosperity, and even success. The term may refer to a condition or a relationship, and in the latter designates a right relationship to God.” (Page 308)
“Jeremiah’s task is to be first destructive, then constructive. He is to be a verbal wrecking ball that smashes into well-preserved but erroneous traditions (e.g., Jer. 7).” (Page 34)
“God answers the excuse: He will assume responsibility for the message content and the itinerary” (Page 34)
“Jeremiah has pleaded his inadequacy but has not mentioned fear. God is now speaking, not to the given reason, but to the real reason for resisting the call. God’s answer to the fear is the promise of his presence: I am with you and will rescue you (1:8). The promise for deliverance is a reminder of the Exodus, since the same language is used for that event (Exod. 3:8; 5:23; 6:6). The phrase, ‘I am with you,’ occurs in interesting settings (e.g., Gen. 28:15, Judg. 6:12). [Divine Assistance Formula.] God’s reply demolishes both the given reason, inability, and the real reason, fear. The call is anchored in who God is.” (Page 34)
“Such courage entails boldness to confront evils in a world where evil is normalized; to protest against preachers of an ‘easy grace’ which promises endless benefits without responsibility; to present a God who demands righteous living and sends his wrath against all evil.” (Page 27)
- Title: Jeremiah
- Author: Elmer A. Martens
- Publisher: Herald Press
- Publication Date: 1986
- Pages: 326