'Is that not what it means to know YHWH?' Exploring Answers in Jeremiah's Preaching (original) (raw)

2019, 'Is that not what it means to know YHWH?' Exploring Answers in Jeremiah's Preaching

Jeremiah 1:2-3 gives an account of the time period of his preaching to be the last era of Kingdom of Judah before the Israelites went into exile, and during, which well defines the context within which Jeremiah spoke on behalf of God. It is shaped by few important factors. First, Jeremiah started speaking during the reign of Josiah, one of the most righteous kings of Judah. After Josiah, came four unrighteous kings; Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and, Zedekiah the last King of Judah. People having experienced both righteousness and unrighteousness of kingship in the sight of God, between two immediate Kings, a good ground for Jeremiah to position his message in terms of knowing and not knowing God is created. Secondly, the fact that the book of the law was recovered during Jeremiah’s lifetime (2 Chronicle 34:14) creates both positive and negative environments for him to get his message across to the people. That is, on the one hand, the attitudes of the Israelites changed with the holy vow they took to return to YHWH due to this recovery of the book of the law, and subsequent positive responses and decrees by King Josiah (Jacob Isaacs) , on the other hand, recovery of the book of law also gave Jeremiah’s contemporaries the opportunity to prophesy messages of their own to the community saying that YHWH’s hand will protect them before the hand of the coming Babylonian threat, repeating what YHWH has done to their forefathers during the time of crossing the Jordan and settle in the promised land (John Job, 2016), which challenged Jeremiah’s efforts to get across his message to the intended recipients.