The chapters in book of Jeremiah are out of chronological order....and we don't know why....but we know it is perfect. If the reader is familiar with the various kings of Judah in the book....and/or Jeremiah's life....then this chronological mishmash might be more noticable....but then again when one has read Jeremiah ten or twenty or thirty times....there is no longer any concentrating on historical or chronological points....but rather the message given over a long time to the people and to the false prophets that were promising peace and security and to the kings....particularly Zedekiah.
Jeremiah is often referred to as....The Weeping Prophet....primarily because for forty years....and increasingly so....God told him what was going to happen to his beloved Judah and Jerusalem....but he also wept because his own people and his own family persecuted him for giving these prophecies....for they wanted good news.
So the chronology is not that important because God's message is consistent throughout....the people had forgotten God....the prophets prophesied their own thoughts....(just like we hear...."the best is yet to come"....and...."we are going to keep on winning winning winning")....and the Kings listened to the false prophets....(as if they would have changed even if they believed the words of Jeremiah....for they would not have.)
The people burned incense to other gods....and that is what we do today in our many idolatries. They "hewn themselves cisterns-broken cisterns that can hold no water"....just like we turned to politics to save us. The fear of God was not in them....and it surely is not in us today. They...."made their faces harder than rock"....and were...."stiff-necked"....and that is us when men like Billy Graham had pleaded with us....also for forty years....to heed God's warnings. Their "shepherds" had become...."dull-hearted"....and that is evangelicalism today....for a powerful sermon is as rare as wisdom in the halls of our government.
So as you read these things in Jeremiah....over and over....over years....you cannot help but see that God was giving them a way out....but that they consistently refused to accept the offer.
Apparently the 1994 movie....Pulp Fiction....is also not in chronological order.....(I never saw the movie)....and it may have confused people....I don't know....did it confuse you.....if you saw the movie back then?
Jeremiah is rock-solid truth as it is and as it will be....and just as every prophecy came true on the temple's destruction....and the people being taken back to Babylon....just as those prophecies came about....so will the many prophecies in Jeremiah that are speaking to every one of us....today! Turn away if you want....but nothing is stopping this coming judgment.....for we had warnings all through God's Word....the Old Testament and the New Testament....and yet we said that we will not listen.....we will not turn!
Note: The film take a lot of liberties and employs a lot of poetic license....but it is still worth watching.....and it's free....no registrations....just Google up....'movie/Jeremiah....this one stars PAtrick Dempsey and Oliver Reed....and Klaus Maria Brandauer as Nebuchadnezzar.
