Prophet Jeremiah: biography. The Lamentations of Jeremiah book. The image of the prophet Jeremiah in the Holy Scriptures

“I bring to your attention a summary of the life and time when Jeremiah prophesied.
This passage will be useful in that it will be possible to briefly get acquainted with one of the sad passages in the history of the Israelite people.

God's Last Attempt to Save Jerusalem

• Jeremiah lived a hundred years after Isaiah.
• Isaiah saved Jerusalem from Assyria.
• Jeremiah tried to save Jerusalem from Babylon, but could not.
• Jeremiah was called to be a prophet in 626 B.C.
• Jerusalem was partially destroyed in 606 B.C., further destroyed in 597, and finally burned in 586 B.C.

Jeremiah lived in those terrible forty years of the decline of the monarchy and the death agony of the people. He was heartbroken as he watched God make one last effort to save the holy city, which had been fanatically
attached to idols. If the people had repented of their sins, the Lord would have saved them from Babylon.
And just as during the ministry of Isaiah Assyria threatened Jerusalem, so during the ministry of Jeremiah Babylon was a threat.

Internal position

The northern kingdom and much of Judah had already fallen. They suffered defeat after defeat and only Jerusalem remained. Despite the constant warnings of the prophets, they sank lower and lower into idolatry and lawlessness. The hour of the final fall was approaching.

International environment

The struggle for world supremacy began from three sides: from Assyria, Babylon and Egypt. Assyria, located in the North Euphrates Valley, with its capital Nineveh, ruled the world for 300 years, and now began to lose its power. Babylon, in the South Euphrates Valley, began to strengthen strongly. Egypt, located in the Nile Valley, was a world power 1000 years before, then weakened, and now became strong again. In the middle of Jeremiah's ministry, Babylon defeated its opponents in this struggle. He conquered Assyria in 607 BC. and two years later he defeated Egypt in the Battle of Karchemis (605 BC) and ruled the world for 70 years, during those 70 years of Israel's captivity.

Sermon of Jeremiah

Twenty years before the outcome of this struggle, from the very beginning, Jeremiah insisted that Babylon would be victorious. In his constant and mournful warnings about the trespasses of Judas, the prophet states the following:

1. Judah will be defeated by Babylon.
2. If Judah backs down from his iniquity, God will find ways to save Judah from being destroyed by Babylon.
3. Later, when all hope of Judah's repentance was gone, even if for political reasons Judah submits to Babylon, God will preserve him.
4. Judas will rise after his defeat and rule the world.
5. Babylon, the conqueror of Judah, will itself be defeated and will never rise again.

Courage of Jeremiah

Jeremiah relentlessly advised Jerusalem to submit to the Babylonian king, for this reason Jeremiah's enemies accused him of treason. Nebuchadnezzar rewarded Jeremiah for these advices to his people by saving his life and gave him a place of honor in the Babylonian palace (Jeremiah 39:12). But Jeremiah did not stop talking strenuously that the king of Babylon
committed the heinous crime of destroying God's people and for this Babylon, in due time, will be devastated and will remain so forever (see chapters 50,51).

Jewish kings, contemporaries of Jeremiah

• Manasseh (697-642 BC). Reigned for 55 years. Very wicked (see 2 Chr. 33). Jeremiah was born during the reign of Manasseh.
• Amun (641-640 BC). Reigned for 2 years. The long and wicked reign of his father Manasseh sealed the fall of Judah.
• Josiah (639-608 BC). Reigned for 31 years. Pious king. Made big reforms. Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah. Pospi's reforms were external, but in their hearts the people remained devoted to idols.
• Jehoahaz (608 BC). He was on the throne for only 3 months. Taken to Egypt.
• Joachim (608-597 BC). Reigned And years. An open idolater. He obviously opposed God and was a great enemy of Jeremiah.
• Nechonia (597 BC). Reigned for 3 months. Captured by Nebuchadnezzar.
• Zedekiah (597-586 BC). Reigned for 11 years. He was on friendly terms with Jeremiah, weak in government, being under the strong influence of crafty people.

List of events in the time of Jeremiah

• 629 BC Josiah began his reforms. (See 2 Chr. 34.).
• 626 BC Jeremiah's call to the ministry.
• 626 BC Scythian raid. (See Jeremiah 4.).
• 621 BC Discovery of the book of the law. The Great Reformation of Josiah. (2 Kings 22:23).
• 608 BC Death of Josiah at Megiddo by the hand of the Egyptians.
• 607 BC Nineveh is destroyed by Babylon. (Perhaps in 612 BC).
• 606 BC Babylon conquered Judah. First captivity.
• 605 BC Battle of Carchemis. Babylon defeated Egypt.
• 597 BC Captivity of Jeconiah.
• 593 BC Zedekiah visits Babylon.
• 586 BC Jerusalem is burned by fire. Temporary cessation of David's kingdom.

Prophets, contemporaries of Jeremiah

Jeremiah was the leading prophet among other prophets during the destruction of Jerusalem.
His collaborator, the priest Ezekneel, years younger than he, preached in Babylon to the captives the same sermon that Jeremiah preached in Jerusalem.
The prophet Daniel was of royal lineage. He prophesied in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.
Habakkuk and Zephaniah helped Jeremiah in Jerusalem. Nahum predicted the fall of Nineveh at the same time. Obadiah at the same time predicted the destruction of Edom.

Chronology of the Book of Jeremiah

Some of Jeremiah's prophecies refer to a specific time, and some of them are not marked by time. The times indicated are as follows: In the time of Josiah: 1:2; 3:6; in the time of Joachim: 22:7; 25:1; 26:1; 35:1; 45:1; at the time of Zedekiah: 21:1; 24:1.8; 27:3,12; 28:1; 29:3; 32:1; 34:2; 37:1; 38:5; 39:1; 49:34; 51:9; in Egypt: 43:7.8; 44:1.

This shows that the book is not arranged in chronological order. Some of the later prophecies are written at the beginning of the book, and some of the earlier ones later. These prophecies were passed down orally and may have been repeated years later before Jeremiah wrote them down. Compiling a prophetic book was a large and cumbersome undertaking. At that time they wrote on parchment made of sheep or goat skin and long scrolls were rolled up on wooden rollers. It is possible that this was one of the reasons for the disorganization of the book of Jeremiah. Having recorded an event or conversation, the prophet could recall earlier events, which he recorded again, without indicating the time of their occurrence, just to fill the space in the scroll.

etc.) - the second of the so-called great prophets, the son of the priest Helkia from Anathoth. Jeremiah's prophetic ministry embraced the darkest period in Jewish history. His call to the prophetic ministry took place in early youth, at the age of 15, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, c. Jewish, and then continued under the kings Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, for almost forty-five years. Probably, for the most part, he lived in the city in which he was born, namely in Anathoth, since in the XI ch. his book (v. 21) says about the men of Anathoth as men seeking the soul of the prophet. But since this city, now known as Anata, was only three miles from Jerusalem, the Jerusalem temple was undoubtedly the place where the voice of the prophet of God was most often heard. However, besides this, he proclaimed the word of God both in the temple, and at the gates of the city, and in the king's house, and in the squares of the people, and in private houses, trying with all his might to prevent a storm that was ready to break out over the people stubborn in their sins (II, III, IV, V, VI). From early morning (XXV, 3) he preached the word of God, bringing upon himself through this reproach and everyday ridicule (XX, 8). His own family abandoned him (XII, 6), fellow citizens pursued him with hatred (XI, 21), laughed at him, asking the question: where is the word of the Lord? let it come (XVII, 15). There was no shortage of deep spiritual sorrows. Jeremiah was greatly distressed by the iniquity surrounding him (XII, 1, 2); it seemed to him that everyone is watching him, if he stumbles, he heard threats: he will get caught, and we will overcome him and take revenge on him(XX, 10); he was sometimes overwhelmed with doubt whether his ministry was ridicule and mockery?(XX, 7). The death of the pious King Josiah was undoubtedly one of the greatest misfortunes in the life of the prophet. He wept over Josiah and Jeremiah in a lamentable song, says the priest. book writer. Chronicles(). About Jehoahaz, who then ascended the throne, whose reign lasted only three months and who was therefore taken captive, St. Jeremiah speaks with special tenderness and participation. Do not weep for the dead and do not pity for him, he exclaims, but weep bitterly for the one who is taken captive(i.e., about Jehoahaz, otherwise Sallum), for he will no longer return and will not see his native country (). With particular vivacity St. Jeremiah describes some of the events of the subsequent reign of Joachim (607-597 BC). Shortly after his accession to the throne, on one of the solemn feasts, when the temple courtyards were overflowing with worshipers from all the cities of Judea, Jeremiah, at the command of God, appears in the temple and loudly announces to the people that Jerusalem will be stricken with a curse and that the temple itself will suffer the fate of Silom (XXVI , 6). From that time, one might say, he began to struggle with the priests and false prophets, who especially filled Jerusalem and its environs at the indicated time. For a terrible prophecy, false prophets seized Jeremiah and, having presented the princes and the people to the court, demanded his immediate death (v. 8). Only by the efforts of some princes favored by him, and especially by the efforts of his friend, Ahikam, who rose up to defend the prophet, he was saved from inevitable death (ch. XXVI). At another time, when, at the command of God, the prophecies of Jeremiah were collected into one book and rewritten by Baruch, his disciple, and read to the people in the porch of the temple (XXXVI, 1-9, Joachim wished to get acquainted with their content, and now the king’s anger fell like on Jeremiah himself, and on the scroll of his prophecies. scribe's knife the columns he read and burned on the fire of the brazier that stood in front of him, until the scroll was completely destroyed. Jeremiah himself and Baruch barely escaped the royal wrath, The Lord covered them(XXXVI, 26). After that, already in a secret refuge, Jeremiah and Baruch rewrote the prophecies for the second time, with the addition to them many similar topics of words(XXXVI, 32). But now, according to the prediction of Jeremiah, Joachim ended his life miserably: he was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, put in chains, and after his death (whether on the way to Babylon or in Babylon itself, it is not known), his son, Jeconiah, ascended the throne, but did what was displeasing before God and reigned only three months. If not under Joachim, then perhaps under this king, Paschorus, a priest and overseer in the House of God, hearing Jeremiah's prophecies about the coming disasters in Jerusalem, struck him and put him in a stock at the gates of Benjamin, at the House of the Lord, and although the next the same day he released him, but the prophet again announced that the Lord would deliver all of Judas into the hands of c. Babylonian, who will lead them to Babylon and strike them with the sword (XX). The prophecy was fulfilled with amazing accuracy. Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the city, occupied it without resistance, and resettled Jeconiah in Babylon with all his house, family, nobles, army and all the inhabitants, except for the poor people. Among those taken into captivity were several false prophets who consoled the people with the hope that their calamities would soon end. As a result of this, the third son of Josiah remained on the throne of the kingdom of Judah, Matthania, otherwise renamed Zedekiah(597–586); but under this king, Jeremiah's position did not change in the least for the better. The fight against false prophets continued. To his misfortune, Zedekiah decided to secure himself on the throne by betraying the king of Babylon and joined the alliance of the kings of Moab, Edom, and others. with bonds and a yoke around the neck(XXVII, 2); he sent the same yokes to the five kings who entered into an alliance with Zedekiah against Babylon. The false prophet Ananias, who broke the yoke on the necks of Jeremiah (XXVIII, 10) and predicted the fall of the Chaldeans in the course of two years (XXVIII, 3), was convicted by Jeremiah of a lie and died in the same year (16, 17). In the meantime, the enemy heavily besieged Jerusalem, and a severe famine opened up in it. The position of the prophet became very dangerous. He wanted to retire to the land of Benjamin (XXXVII, 12), but the head of the guard detained him, mistaking him for a defector, and brought him to the princes, who beat him and imprisoned him in a dungeon cellar, where he stayed for many days. Brought from there to Zedekiah, to his question: Is there a word from the Lord? answered: you will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon(XXXVII, 17), then, at the request of the prophet, he was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, giving him a piece of bread a day from the street of bakers, until all the bread in the city was exhausted (XXXVII, 21). But since the prophet, despite his imprisonment, continued to advise obedience to the Chaldeans without resistance, he was thrown by the princes into a dirty pit in the courtyard of the guard, in which he would have died of dampness and hunger, if one God-fearing man had not saved him with his intercession before the king. an Ethiopian who served at the palace, namely Ebedmelech. With great effort they dragged him out of the ditch and again left him in the courtyard of the guards. Zedekiah secretly sent for Jeremiah to hear from him the will of God. The prophet still advised the king to trust the victor's generosity: then, he said, the city would not be burned, and the king and his whole family would remain safe. Unfortunately, Zedekiah did not follow the prudent, divinely inspired advice of the prophet, he was afraid that the Chaldeans would not betray him to the Jewish traitors, who would swear at him (ch. XXXVIII, 19). The sad consequences came soon. The enemy broke into the city and took it. Zedekiah, with the soldiers who remained with him, fled from the capital at night, but they caught him and took him to the Syrian city of Riala, and there, according to the verdict of the winner, they slaughtered his sons before the eyes of their father, and they blinded him, bound them with copper shackles and took him to Babylon, where he and died in prison. After the capture and destruction of Jerusalem and the resettlement of the Jews to Babylon, in 586 BC, Nabuzardan, the head of the royal bodyguards, at the command of Nebuchadnezzar, showed St. Jeremiah some signs of his goodwill and provided him with a choice of locality for residence. Jeremiah wished to remain in his own country in order to be useful to his compatriots with his advice and consolations; however, he did not stay here long. After the murder of Gedaliah, the governor of Judea, appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah, along with Baruch and some of the other Jews, was dragged into Egypt against their will. About the subsequent fate of the prophet from the Holy. Scripture is no longer known. Ancient Christian tradition testifies that his death was a martyr, namely, that in the city of Tafnis he was stoned by the Jews for exposing their vices and for prophesying about their death. Alexandrian tradition says that Alexander the Great transferred his body to Alexandria. His tomb, located not far from Cairo, is still deeply respected by the Egyptians. According to the Alexandrian chronicle, a majestic monument originally stood over his grave, later renewed and decorated by Empress Helen. In Apocryphal II Mac. In the book we see St. Jeremiah surrounded by a halo of glory. According to her, St. Jeremiah hid in one of the caves of Mount Horeb the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the censer altar and blocked the entrance to it so that they would remain there in obscurity until then, until God, having mercy, he will not gather a host of people(). It also says that during the destruction of Jerusalem, some pious priests hid in one well the holy. the fire taken from the altar, which, when the temple was renewed, was found by their descendants (), and that Jeremiah, during the resettlement of the Jews, ordered the resettled to take with them from the fire of the temple (). In the vision of Judas Maccabee, Jeremiah is a man, adorned with gray hair and glory, surrounded by wondrous and extraordinary greatness, a brotherly lover who prays a lot for the people and the holy city, who gave Judas a golden sword to crush enemies (). Even during the Lord's earthly life, the certainty prevailed that Jeremiah's work was not over yet. Lord Jesus Christ some thought it was Jeremiah or one of the prophets(). The memory of St. Jeremiah is celebrated Rights. The 1 of May.

The Church remembers the prophet Jeremiah on May 14. The prophet Jeremiah lived almost a hundred years later than the prophet Isaiah, grew up in the family of a priest, was a member of the temple. The kings in those days were mired in paganism and vice. They decided to build obligatory worship of pagan idols, imposed heavy tribute on the people and built luxurious palaces for themselves, took wives and concubines for themselves. People attributed all disasters to the wrath of the pagan gods, not turning their souls to the true God. The Jews stopped celebrating Passover, the salvation of the people from Egyptian captivity. It was in this troubled time that the prophet Jeremiah was born, who reminded people of the true faith. The people did not heed the words of the prophet. And then the Babylonians moved to Judea, called through disasters to show people that they are ruining their souls. Through the prophet, the Lord foretold that Judah would be under the yoke of the Babylonians for seventy years. That is how much it will take for people to come to their senses and change their lives. The prophet Jeremiah urged the people not to prepare weapons, but to pray to God, because the Babylonians were sent for the sins of the people. It was possible to defeat them only by performing the spiritual feat of repentance, but again no one heeded the voice of the prophet ...

I. Prophet Jeremiah

Truly, Jeremiah is now needed with his great lamentation not for the Israelites, but for today's Christians! And since Jeremiah is now gone, we, humble, will cry out instead of him, weep, and we will, like brethren, ask for our brothers.

About the fate of Jerusalem, it was said that they would go against it all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north<…>and each one will set up his throne at the entrance to the gates of Jerusalem, and around all its walls… (Jer 1:15). The blessed city collapsed due to the fault of the perfidious inhabitants who renounced their God. During the reign of King Zedekiah (597-586) in 586 BC, our Judah was tightened by the noose thrown by pagan Babylon.

During this tragic time, there lived a man who, like a giant, tried to keep the world from an impending disaster. In bold prayer he shouted to God for mercy on his beloved people; in mournful weeping he irrigated with tears the dear land, which was awaited by a bitter fate. In his last hope, he rushed through the streets of the once sacred city in search of some poor or rich man in order to avert the unfortunate from committing sin. He could boldly enter both the dirty potter's workshop and the bright royal mansions and fearlessly proclaim the will of Yahweh. He, who selflessly loved his people, turned out to be a laughingstock and an outcast, a stranger among his people. Until the last minute, he fought for the life of his king Zedekiah, although he was stupid and cowardly, putting the Divine will into his ears. He preferred the ruins of his homeland to the most powerful despot - pagan Babylon. He shared poverty with his unfortunate people, rejecting the luxury of the Gentiles. Finally, he fell dead, exposing his head to the blows of the very people to whom he devoted his life. It was the prophet of God - the righteous Jeremiah.

... Jeremiah, Jeremiah - an outlet for Judea! Only the earth was grateful, carefully accepting his bones. The mother of Jerusalem (as Blessed Theodoret calls it in his interpretation of the book of the prophet Jeremiah) left her children orphaned. However, the tears of the unfortunate children themselves began to flow in a stream; tears of repentance moistened the earth, but now someone else's, Babylonian: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept when we remembered Zion(Ps 137:1). After the death of the prophet, the attitude towards him changed radically - he was appreciated by the Jews in captivity. A few decades later, Jeremiah became a national hero; there were stories and legends about him.

The Christian Church calls him a great prophet. She sees in him the image of all the Old Testament sufferers, thirsting to exhaustion for the coming of the righteous Branch of David (Jer 23:5) - the Mediator between God and man. The Church draws a parallel between the prophet Jeremiah and the long-suffering Job: both describe their sorrows in almost identical words. However, Jeremiah, unlike the righteous Job, endures suffering for those around him - for his beloved people. In the Christian tradition, the blessed sufferer becomes a prototype of the Savior who shed blood for the fallen human race. “In any case, among the prophets, no one was in his life and suffering a more vivid prototype of Christ than Jeremiah,” Lopukhin wrote.

Jeremiah for Christians became an example of what kind of repentance a person can bring to God. The gift of tears was an unceasing companion of his repentant prayer. The Monk Theodore the Studite already expressed grief that in his time there was no such sad man who would have prompted Christians of his day to turn to tearful repentance for their sins.

II. The image of the prophet

1. Saint Jeremiah in front of himself.
inner drama

You heard, soul, about Jeremiah, in a dirty pit with sobs, crying out to the city of Zion and looking for tears; imitate his life and you will be saved.

Great penitential canon
Saint Andrew of Crete.
Tuesday Canto 8

1.1. Motherland. Holy youth, pleasing to God

“Three great witnesses the prophet has about himself - the priesthood, prophecy, wisdom,” - this is how the holy righteous appeared to blessed Theodoret. St. John Chrysostom, comparing the prophet Jeremiah and the apostle Peter, found in both firmness "among all the turmoil", strength and invincibility. Looking at the virginal life of Saint Jeremiah, Blessed Jerome calls him a gospel man.

These qualities were to be combined in a young prophet named Jeremiah, who came from the city of Anathoth, which means obedience and thus speaks of the prophet's obedience to his God. Now on the site of Anathof is the village of Anata. In addition to the fact that the city was singled out among the surrounding cities and transferred to the Levites (see Joshua 21:18), it was also known for the fact that Eviezer, one of the thirty-seven noble leaders under King David, once lived in it (2 Samuel 23:27 ), the priest of Aviathar (1 Kings 2:26) and Jehu the warrior of David (1 Chronicles 12:3). The father of Jeremiah Hilkiah was from hereditary priests. The Bible very briefly mentions the kindred environment of the prophet. Blessed Jerome reports that “Helkiah and Sellum were brothers, the son of Helkiah was Jeremiah, the son of Sellum was Anameel”. St. Hippolytus of Rome also names the daughter of the priest Helkia by the name Susanna (cf. Dan 13:2-3), who “was the brother of the prophet Jeremiah,” but we find no confirmation of the message of the St.

Blessed Jerome is the name of the prophet ( irmeyahu) is interpreted as the height of the Lord. Other sources, interpreting this name as God exalts or God overthrows, suggest that it could symbolize the prayer of the parents of the prophet for the fate of their unfortunate fellow tribesmen, as well as hope for their son. Parents "brought up Jeremiah in the spirit of respect for the laws of Moses and, perhaps, introduced him to the teachings of Isaiah and other prophets of the previous century."

The birth of Jeremiah, around 650, fell on the theomachic era of Judea, which foreshadowed his life on the cross. The Bible testifies that Jeremiah was sanctified by God even before he was born (Jeremiah 1:5). The hereditary priesthood is the future that should have awaited Jeremiah. However, God decreed otherwise. Blessed Theodoret reflects on the fate of Jeremiah as follows: “The election was not made contrary to justice, because knowledge preceded it. God knew, and then sanctified, and He knows everything before this comes into being.

The impending drama of the prophet's life soon revealed his image in the pages of Holy Scripture. God visited young Jeremiah, telling him that from now on appointed you a prophet to the nations(Jer 1:5). “The holy prophet,” says St. Demetrius of Rostov, “then was the fifteenth year of his birth: at such a young age he became an instrument of the effective grace of God!” . We are witnessing a dispute between God and Jeremiah: And I said, oh my God! I can't speak because I'm still young(Jer 1:6). The prophet tries to object to God, or, as Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Prophet<…>he recognizes his youth as incapable of the title of a prophet.” St. Macarius of Egypt teaches: “Jeremiah was equally compelled, and yet he prayed that I was young and inept, so as not to be carried away by the glory of prophecy and applause<…>God's people are only directed to this, not only to speak, and to be glorified by people, but so that their word does some work. God's command was inexorable, His will uncompromising. Jeremiah could not evade Yahweh's blessing.

The lot that fell out turned out to be very difficult, it demanded complete self-denial from Jeremiah (cf. Jeremiah 1:7). Blessed free youth ended. Like Abraham, Jeremiah will be led by God in ways known only to Him. Yahweh reveals the destiny of His chosen one: To all to whom I send you, you will go, and whatever I command you, you will say(Jer 1:7). The prophetic ministry demanded from its carrier a firm, uncompromising character, a resolute and ascetic appearance of a warrior; the images of the former prophets-sufferers spoke of this. The young man's tender soul shuddered; fear of the expected future gripped Jeremiah. The voice of God hurried to destroy the state that had taken possession of the righteous: Fear not them, for I am with you to deliver you(Jer 1:8). Blessed Jerome in his interpretation of this passage exaggerates even more: “If you<…>If you don’t leave fear, then I will leave you and give you over to fear, and it will turn out that I make you afraid when I leave you to the feeling of fear.” The holy righteous, having heard the words of consolation, accepts the prophetic cross. “Jeremiah was afraid of youth, and did not dare to be called a prophet until he received promises from God and strength exceeding his age,” says St. Gregory the Theologian. Finally, the “vessel of God” was ready to receive prophetic grace: And the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.(Jer 1:9). The newly appointed prophet also learns about his upcoming mission: ... uproot and destroy, destroy and destroy, build and plant(Jer 1:10). The Prophet had to break through the path of chastity and truth in the midst of lies and sin to the hearts of his fellow tribesmen. The main test lay ahead: Woe to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me as a man who argues and quarrels… (Jer 15:10). “He thought he would say nothing against the people of the Jews. And he will speak only against various neighboring peoples, which is why he willingly accepted the prophetic calling; but it happened on the contrary - that he predicted the captivity of Jerusalem and had to endure persecution and disasters. For the loving prophet, this will turn into unrestrained crying and the curse of his birthday.

1.2. Jeremiah as a hermit

Ascetics are called hermits, who, for a holy, charitable life, retired (literally - moved away) from worldly fuss, human society to deserted and secluded places. But is it possible to apply such a character of service to God to a brotherly who prays a lot for the people and the holy city(2 Mac 15:14). In Jeremiah we have just such a unique case.

I did not sit in the assembly of those laughing and rejoice: under Thy hand weighing on me I sat alone, for Thou filled me with indignation., - the prophet wept in deep prayerful grief before his only intercessor Yahweh (Jer 15:17). Thus, Jeremiah testified to his voluntary renunciation of the very joys and blessings that could muffle the brewing tragedy in him. “The prophet says,” Blessed Theodoret explains, “that he did not participate either in the meal or in their laughter, but preferred the fear of God to everything, and did not cease to grieve about their craftiness and the punishment that threatened them.” Blessed Jerome, in the interpretation of this verse, names the motives for renunciation of worldly joy. He writes: "This<…>holy man's words<…>From the face, he says, of Your hand, I sat alone - because I fear You, because I always wait for Your hand that threatens me. I did not want to sit in the assembly of the players, but I ate my bitterness in order to prepare myself for joy in the future.<…>For those who vexed me prevailed, and my wound became strong. But I had consolation in that, that she was like deceitful and transient water. For, just as flowing waters, when they flow, they appear and disappear: so every attack of enemies, with Your help, passes by. However, voluntary renunciation of worldly pleasures is not enough; he is commanded to move further and further away from the vanity of the world: Do not enter the house of mourners and do not go to weep and pity with them For I have taken away from this people, says the Lord, My peace and mercy and pity<…>And they will not break bread for them in sorrow, as a consolation for the dead; they will not give them cups of comfort to drink after their father and their mother(Jer 16:5,7). A feeling of deep sorrow covers a person who is deprived of his neighbor, remains alone. How important in these bitter moments is not to pass by the house of mourning, the house of mourning, but to visit and share sorrow with compassion. The blessed prophet considered this a great virtue. It was in his nature to "carry one another's burdens", that was part of him, that was Jeremiah. What happened in the prophetic heart when he heard this divine blessing will remain known only to Yahweh Himself. At the same time, a ban is imposed on the prophet on one more side of his relationship with his beloved people, in which he could draw joy for his soul. Do not go also to the house of feasting, to sit with them, to eat and drink.(Jer 16:8). Here, probably, the house of the wedding feast was meant. Sincere participation in the joy of others was also perceived by the prophet as a virtue, but even this turns out to be forbidden. Now, being in the crowded sacred capital, he is looking for a hermit's abode, a desert where he could retire.

However, Jeremiah had to ascend one more step of asceticism - the angelic path of celibacy. The Jews of the Old Testament did not know such a way; marriage was perceived as a divine commandment. Particular importance in marriage was given to childbearing. Jeremiah is known to have had a hereditary priesthood. He was supposed to become in his family tree a link with the future generation in the transfer of the family shrine. However, he heard the opposite definition about himself: And the word of the Lord came to me: do not take a wife for yourself, and let you have neither sons nor daughters in this place(Jer 16:1-2).

Did the blessed sufferer endure these trials? In the choir of church tradition, we distinguish the voice of St. Theodore the Studite: “None of the saints despaired at the duration of trials and did not change at the constancy of sorrows.” Finally, exhausted by suffering, the hermit, gathering all his strength, exclaimed to God: Lord, my strength and my strength and my refuge in the day of trouble!(Jer 16:19).

2. Holy prophet Jeremiah before the people of God.
External drama

Oh, who will give water to my head and a source of tears to my eyes! I would weep day and night for the slain daughters of my people.

2.1. Jeremiah - mother of Jerusalem

A mother gives birth and raises her children. She surrounds the child with her tender feelings, filling his emotional capacities. All her life she serves him; all the joys of the child that occur in his life become her own, all his sorrows and suffering pierce the mother's heart. The maternal image should be supplemented with the colors of a warrior, intercessor, when, at the sight of a danger threatening the child, the mother becomes like an indomitable lioness.

The fate of the Jewish people unfolded tragically: the moral decline of society plunged it ever deeper into the darkness of sin. There was little that could distinguish the once God-chosen people from the pagans around them. Indifference to the fulfillment of the Divine commandments led to the fact that instead of Yahweh, primitive deities "bred" in the land of Israel (cf. Jer 2:13). What feelings, besides disgust and rejection, could be experienced towards such behavior of the Jewish society? What could be found to justify this people to cover up their sins? Who could, turning a blind eye to the horror of idolatry, intercede in defense of impudent apostates? Indeed, at this time, the Jews reached a turning point in their fate, when they could hear the word of God addressed to them, transmitted through the prophet: Even though Moses and Samuel stand before Me, My soul will not bow to this people; drive them away from my presence, let them depart(Jer 15:1).

The native of Anathoth did not engage in dry discussions about the salvation of his brethren, did not reflect on the sacrifices by which an angry God could be propitiated. Like a blossoming flower, young Jeremiah, in serving the people, revealed the whole depth of his beautiful soul. His fiery love is truly comparable to the love of a mother for her beloved child. “The Prophet is ill about them, complains and says that his womb and the feelings of his heart hurt; and he is likened to a mother tormented by the death of her children,” writes Blessed Theodoret. In an unstoppable unconscious impulse, she is ready to throw herself into the very heart of the tragedy of children. An inextinguishable sorrower rushed into the midst of the suffering of his people, sharing with them the bitter cup of trials. Mother's eyes do not stop exuding drops of deep sorrow - so tired eyes of the holy husband were filled with sad tearful moisture because they were haunted by the shadow of the dying "daughter of Jerusalem". “If all of me, he says, turns into weeping, and tears flow not in drops, but in rivers, then even then I will not be able to adequately mourn the murdered daughters of my people. For the disasters are so great that they surpass all sorrow in their greatness, ”commented the ninth chapter of blessed Jerome. As if waiting for comfort and satisfaction, Jeremiah wished to double his gift of tears (cf. Jeremiah 9:1).

Like a grieving mother, desperately seeking support from those around her tender shoulders, so the restless Jeremiah cried out and fell to the soulless elements (cf. Jer 2:12 and Lamentations 2:18). The Holy Fathers literally understood these passages of Holy Scripture. So, for example, St. Gregory the Theologian said: “Jeremiah mourns Jerusalem so much that he calls soulless things to weeping, and demands tears from the walls.” John Chrysostom echoed him in this: “The Prophet calls even inanimate elements to take the strongest part in weeping for all sins in general.<…>Inanimate creatures weep, sigh and get angry together with the Lord.”

The mother, in the hope of improving the situation of the delinquent child, defends and covers him, looking for an excuse for his actions. With regard to the guilty people, it would be naive to do so. They had nothing to justify. What about Jeremiah? He, as if not knowing the bitter reality, bickers with God: I know, Lord, that it is not in the will of a man to go his way, that it is not in the power of the one who walks to give direction to his steps.(Jer 10:23). St. John Chrysostom tries to explain the motives of the blessed Jeremiah: “Those who pray for sinners usually act like this: if they cannot say anything solid, then they come up with some shadow of justification, which, although it cannot be accepted as an indisputable truth, nevertheless consoles those who grieve about perishing. Therefore, we will not examine such justifications exactly, but remembering that these are the words of a grieving soul, seeking to say something for sinners, so we will accept them.

So, all means have been tried, all emotional reserves have been poured out, all spiritual feelings have been exposed. The long-suffering Jeremiah gave himself entirely to the people and for the people. He expected that he would find a response in the lost hearts of his brethren, that the righteous would nevertheless be found in Jerusalem, thanks to whom the angry hand of God would be withdrawn from the holy city. But nothing hopeful awaited the grieving prophet. The gentle soul of Jeremiah faced only deadly insensitivity. In his groan flashed the desire to rush away from this crowded sinful land (cf. Jer 9:2). Now he “is asking for some solitary refuge on the extreme limits of the desert, where he wants to live and not hear about the evil deeds that the people have dared to do,” writes Blessed Theodoret. It became obvious that the “daughter of Jerusalem” stubbornly renounced the intercession of Jeremiah, who voluntarily embarked on the maternal feat of service.

2.2. Unrepentance is inevitable doom

The failures of the sermon, the indifference of the listeners to the word of God, inflicted endless wounds on Jeremiah. The insensitivity of the tribesmen fettered the optimism of the prophet. He was forced to accept the bitter reality that surrounded him. But hopes still flickered in him of finding souls who sympathized with him. An inner feeling, one might say, with childish naivete, suggested that he turn to the upper class of society from the simple ones, who maybe the poor; they are foolish because they do not know the way of the Lord, the law of their God(Jer 5:4). In the crowd, with its primitive pagan faith, the righteous man was clearly disappointed. She was greedy for magical cults, which were in great demand in the practical life of a farmer. The commoner did not need high moral requirements. Despite this, the prophet treats the doomed people with condescension: Jeremiah sees the stupidity of the people as the main excuse (cf. Jer 5:4). On behalf of the prophet, blessed Jerome says: “I reasoned with myself: perhaps a rude people cannot know the admonition of God, and therefore they can be excused because, due to ignorance, they cannot understand the commands of God.” Another way in which you can try to search for the truth should be successful. These are the teachers of the law who know the way of the Lord, the law of their God(Jer 5:5). They are in possession of the book of the law, which was recently acquired by the high priest Hilkiah under King Josiah (2 Kings 22:8). I will go to the nobles and talk to them... - the prophet says to himself (Jer 5:5). At the same time, according to the thought of blessed Jerome, with these words Jeremiah expresses doubts. His inner intuition already foresaw the futility of the search. “Those whom I considered teachers turned out to be worse than students, and the greater the importance of the rich, the more impudence they have in sins, for they crushed the yoke of the law ...”, concludes Blessed Jerome. Jeremiah was finally convinced that he was alone. Crowded Jerusalem streets, noisy city squares appeared before him as deserted places. “And he,” says Chrysostom, “standing among the multitude of Jews<…>He exclaimed thus: To whom shall I speak and testify?<…>there are many bodies, but not people; many bodies that have no hearing. Therefore, he added: ears not cut…” .

The land dealt harshly with Jeremiah. It seemed that the breath of life in her stopped. It remains to be wondered how the prophetic heart could withstand the turning away faces and the silhouettes of people leaving it? Its end? All in vain and it's time to stop? Only the silent sky was calm, as if it was ready to listen attentively to the saint. However, in response to Jeremiah's pleading prayer, God rejected his petition (Jeremiah 7:16). It seemed that Heaven also left Saint Jeremiah alone in his longing for perishing Judea.

Jerusalem deliberately renounced the blessing of God. The glory of the Lord was banished from the walls of the once sacred temple. Saint Cyril of Alexandria calls the inhabitants of Jerusalem, mourned by the prophet, none other than God-killers: “The prophet Jeremiah mourns Jerusalem as an unholy city, as a murderer of the Lord, as a vile and ungrateful city. That's what he said: The breath of our life, the anointed of the Lord, is caught in their pits, the one about whom we said: “Under his shadow we will dwell among the nations” (Lamentations 4:20)» . After the words spoken by St. Cyril, one can once again think about how daring the sin of the Jews was in relation to God who loves them, and what pain the Old Testament sufferer bore in himself. The prophet was looking for an answer to the question: why? Is there a sage who would understand this?<…>would you explain why the country perished and was scorched like a desert, so that no one passes through it?(Jer 9:12). Soon the answer followed: “Because they left the law of God given by Him, did not listen to His voice, did not listen to the commandment, but went after the wickedness of their hearts!” - writes Blessed Jerome. On this occasion, blessed Theodoret says that only repentance could quench the fire of anger, and since repentance does not occur, then “no one is able to deliver from punishment.”

The pages of Holy Scripture also captured another side of Jeremiah's character. Just before us was a gentle prophet, weeping for the bitter fate of Judea. He constantly begs God for mercy on fallen Jerusalem. When his eyes see blasphemy, insensitivity and impenitence, he is filled with righteous zeal for God. Therefore, I am filled with the wrath of the Lord, I cannot keep it in myself; I will pour it out on the children in the street and on the assembly of young men, - boils the prophet (Jer 6:11). There is no room for a prophet to compromise with sin. Prophetic jealousy haunts him. Saint Jeremiah is likened to King David, who exclaimed to God: Time for the Lord to act: Your law has been destroyed(Ps 119:126). The earth bearing the prophet became an unwitting witness to his rather unusual prayer. Jeremiah, in the frenzy of his mind, moved by the Spirit of God, as Athenagoras the Athenian, the Christian apologist, characterized him, said to God: Lord of hosts, righteous Judge, testing hearts and wombs! let me see your vengeance on them, for I entrusted my work to you(Jer 11:20). How could the loving Jeremiah leave his noble appearance as an intercessor, expecting from now on the death of his brothers? Is the prophet broken? St. Gregory of Nyssa helps to correctly understand the motives of the blessed sad man: “One goal in words: it tends to correct the nature from the vice that has settled in it<…>Jeremiah, having a zeal for piety, since the then king was madly devoted to idols, and his subjects were carried away along with him, not heals his own misfortune, but in general brings prayer for people, wishing that with a blow that is inflicted by the ungodly, he would be chaste the whole human race."

Thus the prophet expresses the same love for the sinning Judah. Thus, he opened the whole depth of his personality, unwaveringly following his “Calvary path” for the sake of his beloved people.

2.3. Retribution for love and contemplation of the Image of God

The insults and insults committed by the Jews over Jeremiah were the only way they “thanked” their benefactor. But Jeremiah was fearless. He could boldly express words of rebuke to his countrymen: to the common people on the street, to the priests in the temple, to the king in his royal palaces. Jeremiah's fearlessness was rooted in his firm trust in God, who promised His protection (see Jeremiah 1:8). A heavy blow for Jeremiah was betrayal by fellow countrymen. The bitter truth was stated at one time by the prophet Micah: The enemies of a man are his household(Micah 7:6). The inhabitants of Anathoth renounced Jeremiah (see Jer 11:21), in which the blessed youth of the saint passed. “The inhabitants of Anathoth conferred about the death of Jeremiah,” writes St. Ephraim the Syrian. The same teacher of the Church also points out the reasons that provoked the hatred of the Anathothians: “Of course, there were two reasons for this hatred: one common, because Jeremiah denounced the common sin of idolatry among the people and horrified the Jews with terrible threats<…>the other reason was private, for the inhabitants of Anathoth envied Jeremiah, seeing his superiority<…>and knowing that the name of Jeremiah was in reverence among all the people.

Jerusalem also prepared a bitter cup for the meeting with the prophet. For accusatory words on behalf of God, Jeremiah was rejected by the ruling circles of Jerusalem. The first striking incident occurred with the head of the house of God, the priest Pashur (Jer 20:1). Because “this prophet rebuked his fellow priests; and it was grievous to Paschorus that Jeremiah was openly teaching in the royal city against the will of the priests, who forbade him to do so,” this man deprives Jeremiah of his freedom by putting him in a log (Jeremiah 20:2). Jeremiah turned out to be superfluous to the rest of Jewish society; it already dreamed of killing the prophet of God (Jer. 18:18). St. Ephraim the Syrian comments on the motives of the Jews in the following way: “It is beneficial for us that Jeremiah should die; for otherwise, from his hostile prophecy, the law of the priests, the advice of the wise, the word of the prophets will perish<…>And if Jeremiah is put to death, neither the law, nor the priesthood, nor prophecy will cease.” The embodiment of the insidious plan lacked the royal permission. The proud short-sighted Joachim (r. 609-598) was quite a suitable figure for this. He did not endure the caustic prophet for long, but imprisoned him, Jer. 36:5. The spirit of the prophet did not succeed in breaking the irritated king. “He was in prison and did not leave a prophecy! Let us pay attention to the courage of the righteous and the wisdom of his soul.”

Many troubles went to the prophet from the ruling Jewish elite during the reign of the soft-bodied king Zedekiah (598 (7) - 587 (6) of the reign). A dark dungeon, a swampy, muddy pit became his permanent home. By such actions, the Jews testified only to their callousness and impenitence to the calls of Yahweh. Their anger towards God, the faith of their fathers, towards their subordinates (cf. Jer 34:16) and, finally, towards the prophet himself deeply shook the soul of the righteous.

However, the suffering experienced by Jeremiah produced a profound upheaval in his mind. They helped him to look at the Creator Himself with new eyes. Blessed Theodoret explains what happened in the soul of the prophet of God: “God did not allow the prophet to experience sorrows in vain; but, since he was often ready to offer prayers for the wicked, with the intention of convincing him that he would not recognize himself as philanthropist, but the treasure of grace was unmerciful, God allowed this uprising of the Jews against him. The prophet was given the opportunity to see for himself that he was dealing with a morally rotten people. But against this gloomy background, the prophet was able to contemplate the Divine love for the unfortunate human race. Jeremiah saw the Most Merciful God. The speeches of God-bearing Jeremiah, like springs of living water, filled with amazing teaching about the New Testament of Yahweh with His people (Jer 31:31-37).

3. Prophet Jeremiah before God.
True prophet and false prophets

I think that certainly no one is holier than Jeremiah, who was a virgin, a prophet…

Blessed Jerome of Stridon

3.1. Chaff and clean grain

One day, an unexpected drama broke out in the temple of the Lord, which was witnessed by many people and the local priesthood. This happened in the fifth month of the fourth year of the reign of King Zedekiah (see Jer. 28). Its culprits turned out to be two authoritative prophets, conductors of the words of God, as they appeared in the eyes of the crowded people. The name of the first was Ananias, the son of Azur, probably from Gibeon. The name of the other is Jeremiah. Both startled the audience with contradictory words, or rather, the excited behavior of the prophet Ananias and the expression of doubt on the part of Jeremiah. The prophet Ananias, convincing others that the Babylonian ties would collapse literally in two years and the captive Jews would return to their homeland, tore the wooden yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it. Jeremiah only recalled the confirmation of the truth of the prophecy by its fulfillment, which must be awaited. Silently, having swallowed the insult, as blessed Jerome put it, he left the place of the competition. It was clear to everyone that Jeremiah was defeated. He could also give away the hidden grief that was displayed on his face. “The Lord had not yet revealed to him what to say. By this, Holy Scripture without words shows that the prophets speak not only according to their own arbitrariness, but according to the will of God, especially about the future, which God alone knows. But soon the prophet Jeremiah appeared with an iron yoke around his neck, thereby expressing that the yoke of Babylon would be very strong and long.

Holy Scripture also tells how false prophets, together with the whole people, invented a way to extinguish the preaching of God-bearing prophets. As soon as the prophetic speech began to sound, it was met with laughter and jokes.

The prophet Jeremiah became more and more convinced that there was nothing to hope for the people, since the crowd finally chose the liars. Society was no longer capable of recognizing the truth. It was hard for him to listen to rebellious restless speeches. But the judgment of God was not slow to recognize and separate truth from falsehood. The prophet Jeremiah was revealed the image of a grain of wheat and chaff (in the church-glory. Bible - wheat and chaff).What does chaff have in common with pure grain? says the Lord(Jer 23:28). In the reading of the church-glory. Bibles: What spit to wheat? In the future, Holy Scripture brings this image to an eschatological conclusion. Speaking of the Messiah, John the Baptist says: His shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into a barn, and the chaff(church.-glory . - hymen)burn with unquenchable fire(Matthew 3:12). A similar parable of the wheat and the tares was offered by Christ to His disciples. In the field of God, the enemy sowed tares, which sprouted along with the wheat. But the householder did not order the slaves to choose them before the harvest, so as not to pull out the wheat together. At harvest time I will say to the reapers: Gather first the tares and bind them in sheaves to burn them, but put the wheat into my barn.(Matthew 13:24-30). Thus, God promises the end of every sinful soul to the harsh and terrible. God will leave the sinner, will renounce the one who himself has renounced the Creator: I tell you: I don't know where you come from; depart from me, all workers of iniquity(Lk 13:27; cf. Mt 25:12; Mk 8:38; Lk 9:26). Like straw, fit only for fire, the sinner will accept its completion.

Blessed Jeremiah was completely different. His soul longed and searched for God. He was like a pure grain of wheat, absorbing fresh moisture and vegetating in good soil. He looked at his life through the word of God, in which he drew everything for his soul. He took a step on his life path only when Yahweh Himself walked in front of him. So once God led Abraham, the founder of the Jewish people, in His ways; so once the God-chosen people came out of Egyptian captivity, when Yahweh followed in a pillar before them. The great Moses, in a bold impulse, once even exclaimed to the Almighty: If You Yourself do not go with us, then do not take us out of here.(Ex 33:15). The Monk Cassian mentioned the prophet's own experience of gaining the presence of the Lord in his life. Indeed, we can be convinced of this by recalling, for example, the well-known story of the prophet Ananias. Ananias in a rather harsh way offended the prophet Jeremiah. Touched to the quick, in fact, accused of false prophecy, Jeremiah, nevertheless, restrained his feelings and, having swallowed the insult, left the place of the dispute. He humbly waited for what God would command him. Blessed Jerome draws attention to yet another side of his moral principles: “Not only the words, but also the deeds of the prophets serve as an incentive for us to virtue. Jeremiah could proclaim auspicious things and enjoy the favor of King Zedekiah; but he preferred to obey God rather than men.” God often encouraged a lonely truth-seeker so that his heart would not accidentally tremble before an unexpected test. Jeremiah had to endure everything that would meet, for he was entrusted with an extraordinary mission. He was chosen by the “mouth” of God. A path was laid through his heart, along which the righteous Yahweh “walked” towards perishing Jerusalem. At the same time, Jeremiah had no doubt that “the word from God has the most nourishing power and protects the heart of man.<…>but the word of the wicked prophets or false teachers, being very fragile and straw, does not bring any benefit to the hearers.

Jeremiah, against the background of professional prophets, turned out to be not only a rebel who denounced treachery, but also a ruthless reformer. The pious reformer dealt a blow to the prejudices of the Jews about their exclusivity and, accordingly, invincibility. The Jewish community had no doubt about this, since circumcision and sacrifices, the temple and the ark, stood behind it. However, the prophet saw things differently. In his speeches there was a sermon about the circumcision of the heart, which alone can remove the wrath of God and clothe it with invincibility (Jer. 4:4). In this case, not only the ark, but even the memory of it won't come to mind<…>and they will not come to him, and he will be no more(Jer 3:16). At the same time, the prophet clearly neglected the “guarantees” that the apostates covered themselves with. Jeremiah, being himself circumcised according to the flesh, nevertheless did not hesitate to point out other nations practicing similar circumcision (see Jeremiah 9:25-26), thus wishing to neutralize national pride. “The prophet,” writes St. Ephraim the Syrian, “takes away from the Jews the hope of circumcising their flesh, and shows that it is useless for others (that is, peoples) to observe the circumcision that they observe, and the Jews who neglect the circumcision of their hearts will face judgment<…>And you Jews, says the prophet, although you circumcise the flesh, you remain uncircumcised in heart.”

The divine Jeremiah justified the hopes placed on him. The mission was difficult, but he did not despair, and, even more, according to the Monk Maximus the Confessor, he courageously endured any pain, blasphemy and reproach, not plotting any evil at all against anyone. A grain of wheat, ripening under the rays of Divine grace, gained its ear. The prayer of the righteous ascended to God: Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed(Jer 17:14). The last stage remained - the reaping of the harvest, when the clean grain must be freed from chaff and weeds. By the hands of the Gentile Nebuchadnezzar, the judgment of God completed this last work.

3.2. True Israeli

3.2.1. Wrestling with God

The outcome of the struggle of Patriarch Jacob with God was the naming of his new name - Israel(since then, the descendants of Jacob began to be called Israelites). The soul of the righteous Jacob was deeply shaken, and he said: I saw God face to face, and my soul was saved(Gen 32:30).

Some seventeen centuries later, Christ will call Nathanael a true Israelite (see John 1:47) as a worthy descendant and heir to the sacred name. This man longed to see the promised Messiah, for which he studied the prophetic passages about Him. Saint Chrysostom says that Nathanael had a strong desire to see the coming of Christ, for which he receives praise from the Savior.

Righteous Jeremiah, in whose genealogy stands the daring patriarch Jacob, may well be called by the same name. Holy Scripture reveals him to us as a true God-fighter. However, the question is appropriate: is it possible to fight with God, to resist Him? Maybe the holy patriarch Jacob is an exception? At the same time, it must be remembered that the very initiative to fight Jacob came from God, and the righteous Jacob is by no means an exception. In the book of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 27:18) we read: And if they are prophets, and if they have the word of the Lord, then let them intercede before the Lord of Hosts... In one ancient translation, which was used by the blessed Jerome of Stridon, instead of the words “let them intercede”, it says “let them resist”. So, offering an interpretation of this place, blessed Jerome says: “In the words: let them resist Me or the Lord of hosts, it shows that a true prophet can resist the Lord with prayers, just as Moses resisted the Lord in punishment in order to turn away the fury of anger His. Samuel did the same (1 Samuel 8). And the Lord said to Moses: leave me and consume this people(see Ex 32:10). When he says: leave me, he shows that by the prayers of the saints He can be restrained. Let, he says, the prophets oppose and prove that everything they predicted was fulfilled in practice, and then the prophecy will be confirmed by the truth. Biblical name theomachist depicts a spirit-bearing, daring person in faith. Such a struggle was also necessary for the spiritual development of the personality. “Then and only then,” writes St. Cyril of Alexandria, “he (that is, a person) will be strong to fight people when he masters in the fight with God.”

The life of the prophet swept in the hardest struggle with God, the subject of which was the God-chosen Jewish people. He boldly challenges God to judgment: You will be righteous, O Lord, if I go to court with You...(Jer 12:1). And yet I will speak with You about justice: why is the path of the wicked prosperous, and all the treacherous prosper?(Jer 12:1). Here, according to the thought of St. John Cassian the Roman, Jeremiah, exploring the reasons for the disproportion between happiness and misfortune, "argues with God about the well-being of the wicked, although he does not doubt the righteousness of the Lord." The image of a person who participated in this spiritual struggle is vividly displayed in the book Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lamentations 2:11; 3:1-4).

In his defeat, Jeremiah confesses to God: You are stronger than me - and overcame, and every day I am laughing… (Jer 20:7). This is how Patriarch Jacob was once wounded. God touched the joint of his thigh and damaged the joint of Jacob's thigh when he wrestled with Him(Gen 32:25). It was Jacob's defeat. “For having completely conquered and being able to leave, even if the conquered did not let Him go, however, giving him the power, if he wants, not to let go. He says: let me go…”, writes St. Cyril of Alexandria. How does the struggle of the patriarch with God end? He achieves what he wants and asks for blessings, a good word from God: from now on, your name will not be Jacob, but Israel, for you fought with God, and you will overcome men<…>And blessed him there(Genesis 32:28-29). For Jeremiah, the good word of God even becomes food, and instead of renaming, the prophet bears the very name of the Lord: Your words have been found, and I have eaten them; and your word was to me the joy and gladness of my heart; for your name is called upon me, O Lord God of hosts(Jer 15:16).

3.2.2. Jeremiah's first victory: And you will overcome people

However, the defeat, suffering and plagues did not at all cast the prophet to the ground, but, on the contrary, exalted him above all Israel. Yahweh did not allow Jeremiah to be defeated in his defeat, just as he once did not allow the patriarch Jacob to be deposed, for he saw that does not overcome him(Gen 32:25). Jeremiah began to "strengthen men." The prophet overcame people's hatred, which he accepted in response to intercession for them before God. The malice and anger of the Jews were destroyed by the judgment of God; Babylonian captivity sobered their minds. Instead of hatred, deep respect for the prophet awakened. Before the Jews appeared the image of a courageous warrior and brotherly lover. The pages of Holy Scripture immortalized this image of Jeremiah, which can now be observed.

The life of the prophet ended abruptly. Its outcome was revealed to us by the Tradition of the Church: “Jeremiah, who, together with those who remained after the migration of the people to Babylon, was taken to Egypt and settled in Tafna, where he prophesied and then died, stoned by his own compatriots.” Despite this, the image of the prophet-martyr in the minds of Israel has changed radically. The fulfillment of the prophecies, the tasting full of grief and the loss of an expensive temple prompted him to look at Jeremiah as a fiery patriot. Thus, for example, Maccabee, a zealot of the faith and champion of the freedom of Israel, was given a vision of two intercessors, one of whom was Jeremiah, to sustain his spirit (2 Mack 15:13–14). Consoling the mother of the sons of Maccabees, the Lord promises to help her two husbands with whom He has counsel: Isaiah and Jeremiah (3 Ezra 2:17-18). Finally, the reverent veneration of the prophet can be seen in the Gospel. Once, when Jesus came with his disciples to the countries of Caesarea Philippi, He asked them: Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, is?(Matthew 16:13). The question was asked to the students not by chance. They were, first of all, witnesses of His marvelous miracles, which a mere mortal could not perform. And now the Savior longs for reciprocal love - acceptance of Him as the promised Messiah. The answer on behalf of the common people turned out to be very sad. They said: some for John the Baptist, others for Elijah, and others for Jeremiah, or for one of the prophets(Matthew 16:14). The opinions of the people were different. They sounded aloud, were vigorously discussed in the crowds and were known to many, including the disciples of Christ. Saint Theophylactus of Bulgaria argues about this in the following way: “Those who called Him John were among those who, like Herod, thought that John, after the resurrection, received this gift (the gift of miracles). Others called Elijah because he rebuked and therefore expected him to come; the third - Jeremiah, because His wisdom was from nature and without learning, and Jeremiah was appointed to the prophetic ministry as a child.

These episodes betray the reverent veneration of the prophet by the people; the prophet is endowed with the gift of miracles and profound wisdom. And this means that his struggle with the Almighty turned out to be successful. In this sense, the words spoken by God to His chosen one: They themselves will turn to you, and not you will turn to them.(Jer 15:19), fulfilled.

3.2.3. Jeremiah's second victory: The people who survived the sword
found mercy in the wilderness, I go to appease Israel

And Jacob was left alone. And someone fought with him until dawn(Gen 32:24). The lone patriarch struggled in the darkness of the night. While Jacob was enveloped in the darkness of the night from the outside, Jeremiah was surrounded by the sinful darkness of "God's chosen people." The light of Divine grace has left this earth, the glory of the Lord has departed from the people. Darkness of night came upon Jerusalem, as the perfidious people themselves testified: Woe to us! the day is already fading, the evening shadows are spreading(Jer 6:4). Only the bright prayerful sighs of Jeremiah broke through this sinful darkness to God. However, Yahweh repeatedly interrupted the prayers of the righteous (see Jer 7:16; 11:14; 14:11; 15:1). The Lord sobered the mind of the prophet, demanding to open his eyes and look around before asking for sinners: Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?(Jer 7:17).

But the indefatigable intercessor did not stop praying. It was as if he really was in the darkness of the night, closing his eyes. Despite this, God strengthens the call to Jeremiah to stop praying. At the same time, the prophet hears about the complete hopelessness for perishing Jerusalem, hears that no one will be able to prevent the impending judgments of God. Jeremiah himself testifies to this: And the Lord said to me: even though Moses and Samuel stand before me, my soul will not bow down to this people; drive them away from my presence, let them depart. If they say to you: “Where shall we go?”, then tell them: thus says the Lord: whoever is doomed to death, go to death; and who under the sword - under the sword; and whoever is hungry, is hungry; and who is a prisoner - a prisoner(Jer 15:1-2). Soon the judgment of God put an end to Jerusalem. The God-chosen people, for whom the blessed prophet so advocated, were taken into captivity, into the formidable Babylon that dominates the entire Middle East. Yet the prayer was not fruitless. “Jeremiah, who, although it was spoken to him from God (Jer 7:16), nevertheless prayed and asked for forgiveness. Through the petition of such a great prophet, the Lord bowed down to the mercy of Jerusalem. For even this city brought repentance for its sins<…>God, having heard this prayer, graciously says: Jerusalem! take off your clothes of weeping and your anger and put on the splendor of glory from God forever(Bar 5:1)” .

From the words of the Fathers one can see how fateful the role of the blessed Jeremiah was in the life of Israel. He was pardoned. However, reading the word of God, we understand the history of Israel and its fate in the key of God's chosen people. We hear the prophet say: With eternal love I have loved you, and therefore I have extended favor to you(Jer 31:3), and thus we conclude that the reason for the return of the people of God from captivity is the eternal love of the Lord for the chosen people. So God did His mysterious work. These were the methods of the wise Teacher, as Clement of Alexandria called God. Here we see affection and tenderness, severe reprimands and corporal punishment. The Babylonian captivity was a forced pedagogical reception, after which - again into the arms of the Father. But this was Jeremiah's sincere desire, which came true after seventy difficult spiritually useful years.

3.2.4. Jeremiah's third victory: Yahweh found a Savior

Prayer was not fruitless for the prophet himself. With his bold prayer, he achieved the most important thing in his relationship with Yahweh: he banished the mortal horror that his soul experienced when meeting with God. We find evidence of this state of the prophet in the cry of Saint Jeremiah to God: Don't be scary to me(Jer 17:17) . But why does the prophet ask God not to be terrible for him, while the fear of God, as you know, is one of the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit? For it is said in the Psalms of David: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord(Ps 110:10); and on behalf of the wise Ecclesiastes it was expressed: Let us listen to the essence of everything: fear God and keep His commandments, because this is everything for a person.(Ecclesiastes 12:13). But Jeremiah did not cry out for such fear, but for mortal horror, which turned into final destruction.

But how could such horror penetrate the heart of such a great righteous man, whom God sanctified even before he came out of the womb? This can be answered more easily by referring to the purpose of the prophetic mission to which he was called: Behold, I have placed you this day over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and destroy, to destroy and destroy, to build and plant.(Jer 1:10). And these peoples and kingdoms have become rigid in sins and idolatry. Jeremiah, on the other hand, had to plunge into the core of a corrupt society in the hope of finding there souls that had not yet died. The heart of the prophet beat to every soul he met in order to awaken it. From this hell intercessory prayers ascended to God: Remember that I stand before You, to speak good for them, to turn Your wrath away from them.(Jer 18:20). However, the horror of someone else's sin, which the prophet experienced, lay a shadow on his soul. (Jer 8:21). The Prophet entered into the hopeless sinful darkness of his people. This test was a test of life and death. If you turn, I will raise you up, and you will stand before Me; and if you extract the precious from the worthless, you will be like my mouth, - the righteous Judge now turned to the prophet (Jer 15:19). There really isn't much to choose from! From this sinful darkness it was terrible and deadly to look at the dazzling light of the face of God. The pages of the Bible record the cry of Saint Jeremiah: Don't be scary to me. Looking through the prism of sin at the sky, the prophet could only see the horror of death, to see what was the only end of the sinful path.

Prayer poured out from his heart again: Punish me, Lord, but in truth, not in Your anger, so as not to belittle me.(or from L. V. Manevich: Punish me, O Lord, but justly, not in anger! Don't ruin me) (Jer 10:24). Jeremiah called on God's righteousness, remembering that death is coming for sin. In this sense, he turned out to be like the long-suffering Job, who appealed to the righteous Judge: Behold, He kills me, but I will hope; I would only wish to stand my ways before Him!(Job 13:15). The conviction of his innocence before the truth of God allowed him to boldly compare himself with the sacrificial lamb: And I, like a meek lamb led to the slaughter… (Jer 11:19). What could such a comparison mean? The best and purest is always sacrificed to God. It was the Lamb that Christ was called in the Gospel of John (John 1:29; cf. John 1:36). The blessed prophet, whom God preferred to Himself as a sacrificial offering, perceived himself as such a lamb.

Jacob's wrestling ended with the rising of the dawn, and the Struggler retreated from him. And God retreated from Patriarch Abraham only when He saw in His servant the determination of faith at the slaughter of his beloved son...

And again we return to the image of the blessed Jeremiah. The devotion of the prophet to the Lord did not break in trials, God retreated from him: The Lord said: Your end will be good, and I will make the enemy do good to you in times of distress and in times of trouble.(Jer 15:11). The image of Yahweh, the bearer of death, dissipated in the soul of Jeremiah, being forced out by a new image that appeared: before him appears Yahweh the Savior, in whom all his hope is. The lips of the prophet exclaimed to God with a fiery doxology: You are my hope in the day of distress(Jer 17:17). God answers the prophet with comfort: I am with you to save and deliver you(Jer 15:20). So, the struggle of St. Jeremiah ended; the victory was finding God as Savior.

III. The image of the prophet Jeremiah in the Christian tradition

1. The holy prophet Jeremiah contemplates the Son

Contemplating Him and understanding Whose Son and Image He is, the holy prophets said: Be the Word of the Lord to me...

Saint Athanasius the Great

Finally, turning to the Living Tradition of the Church - its liturgical life, let us also draw colors from there to draw the image of Jeremiah as a Divine contemplator. The earthly Church, in its prayerful appeal to him, reflected the purely Christological character of prophetic contemplation as exceptional in the matter of her salvation. Of particular interest in this regard for us will be the Canon to the Prophet at Matins, the first paremia at the first hour on Maundy Thursday and the first paremia at the ninth hour on Great Friday, as well as the fourteenth paremia at Vespers on Great Saturday. If the fathers mentioned earlier spoke about the contemplation of God by Jeremiah, they revealed this subject of reflection from the side corresponding to the spirit of the time. Thus, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, defending the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father in a polemic with the Arians, reflected precisely this: “The Word is the Son and the Image of the Father.” Another saint, Hippolytus, defending the faith of the Church in the incarnate Son, confessed the truth of the Incarnation: "The Word sent became visible." Here the Church reveals its cornerstone - Christ - in His Divine Image. Before us unfolds the panorama of the entry into the world of the Savior, starting from the expectation of the Most Pure Virgin and ending with His death on the cross. In the “Mother of God” of the sixth ode of the canon we read: “The Word, which from the Father was born incorporeally before a century, is born of You, Pure, in the summer in the flesh, and in the canopy of That we will all live, as Jeremiah prophesied of old.” The idea of ​​the Most Pure Virgin and the Divine Infant born of Her, set forth here, is taken from the 31st chapter of the 22nd verse of the book of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah in contemplation anticipates future events, consoles humanity with the great Sacrament of the Incarnation. The first troparion of the fifth ode of the canon depicts him as a preacher of Christ. Saint Jeremiah, as a seer of the sufferings of Christ, is shown in the third troparion of the sixth ode of the canon: “You secretly foretold the death of the Redeemer, O Godglas: as if Agnes, on the Tree of Christ, raised up the belly of the Head, the unlawful Jewish cathedral, the Benefactor of all creation.” The paroemia reading on Passion Days (Maundy Thursday, at the first hour, and Good Friday, at the ninth hour) again transfers the believers to Golgotha: And I, like a meek lamb led to the slaughter, did not know that they were plotting against me, saying: “Let us put a poisonous tree for his food, and we will cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be mentioned”(Jer 11:19). On the eve of Pascha, on Great Saturday at Vespers in paroemia (paremia fourteenth), Jeremiah will testify to us about the coming of the New Testament, about which the Lord will say that he is in my blood that is shed for you(Luke 22:20).

Clarifying the thoughts of the Church about the prophet Jeremiah, we thereby open him as a man contemplating God; as a witness affirming the existence of the Word of God; as an eyewitness meeting the incarnation of the Son of Man; as a prophet who predicted the death of the Savior Christ on the cross.

1.2. About the states of the divine Jeremiah,
or the thoughts of the Holy Fathers on the characteristic features of contemplation

A. Condition one:It's like a burning fire in my heart

It was in my heart like a burning fire, enclosed in my bones, I was exhausted, holding it, and could not(Jer 20:9) . The external cause of what happened was the resistance of the prophet to God. The prophet experienced this state for the first time, and, as can be seen from his own words, he tried to cope with it, but tired of holding it.

What was the nature of Jeremiah's experience? St. Basil the Great claims that the prophet Jeremiah was sent "a cleansing fire to heal his soul." Listening to the liturgical singing, we hear the testimony of the Church about the holiness of the prophet: “Your thoughts are visual, wiser, having cleansed from the filth of the flesh” (1st ode of the canon, 3rd troparion) or “cleansing with the spirit, great prophet and martyr, your radiant heart ” (kontakion of the canon). According to St. Simeon the New Theologian, purification is the most important condition for the vision of God, after which comes the acceptance of fire. St. Ambrose of Milan calls this fire the fire of love. He writes: "Jeremiah<…>burned and could not endure the fire of love, which burned in the performance of the prophetic ministry. They even threw him into the ditch, for he announced to the Jews future destruction and could not be silent. In St. Simeon the New Theologian, we find a description of the state of a person who has been vouchsafed divine contemplation. “He who has the light of the All-Holy Spirit within himself,” recalls the Reverend, “not being able to bear the vision of it, falls on his face to the ground, screams and cries out in frenzy and great fear, as he who sees and suffers disasters that are higher than nature, higher than words, higher than thought. He becomes like a man who has everything inside set on fire: being scorched by it and being unable to endure the burning of the flame, he becomes as if frantic. Having absolutely no strength to control himself, irrigated incessantly by tears and refreshed by them, he kindles the fire of love even more strongly. From this, he sheds more tears and, washed by their outpouring, shines even brighter. St. Maximus the Confessor, as if emphasizing the result of contemplation, calls the prophet one who has acquired Divine love. We read from him: “He who has acquired Divine love in himself does not bother, following the Lord his God, like the divine Jeremiah ...”.

Finally, St. Ambrose of Milan, mentioned earlier, directly names the reason that caused the appearance of the state that took possession of Jeremiah. The culprit was the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit,” says the Saint, “like fire ignites the faithful spirit and mind. Why does Jeremiah, who has received the Spirit, speak…” .

So, Jeremiah, feeling in his heart as if a burning fire, felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in himself, descending on him. By this, His servant Jeremiah was revealed to be the One Who, with His glory, terrified the godless pagan nations. “To the extent that God wants to be known by us,” concludes St. Simeon, “to the extent that he reveals himself, and to the extent that he reveals himself, he is seen and known worthy. But no one can experience or see this unless he first unites with the Holy Spirit, acquiring through labor and sweat a humble, pure, simple and contrite heart.

B. State two:I am like a drunk, like a man who has overcome the wine

Opening the twenty-third chapter of the book of the prophet Jeremiah, we meet with another strange feeling, or, more precisely, the state of the Old Testament righteous man. He testified to this himself, saying: I am like a drunkard, like a man overcome by wine, for the sake of the Lord and for the sake of His holy words(Jer 23:9) . Undoubtedly, here the blessed Jeremiah speaks of his state of spiritual intoxication, the only reason for it was the face of the Lord, the face of the splendor of His glory, as the Slavic Bible tells us. Spiritual intoxication was the result of a person's meeting with God. “From the contemplation of the face of the almighty God,” writes blessed Jerome, “that is, the Father, and from the contemplation of the face of the Son, Who, according to the Apostle, is called the radiance of His glory and the image of the hypostasis of God (Heb 1:3), the prophet trembles both in spirit and body, and comprehends his own insignificances. From this he becomes like a drunkard and like a man drunk, or lulled to sleep with wine, having no understanding and no wisdom.” For St. Jeremiah, this state turned out to be very unusual. To convey his feelings, the prophet could not pick up any semblance, except for the state of intoxication, from which the mind weakens, feelings become dulled. Over time, a person who has tasted wine has a thirst to return to this state, to re-experience the old sensations. Similarly, “true contemplation of God,” according to St. Gregory of Nyssa, “which consists in never being satiated in one’s lust, but, constantly looking at Him, despite what one has already managed to see, yet burning with the desire to see more more. And therefore there is no such boundary that could interrupt the ascent of man to God. Because there is no limit to the good, and no saturation will stop the desire for it.

Let not likening oneself to a drunk seem to be some kind of vulgar or vulgar comparison. The holy prophet was not at all a rude person, moreover, he could not get carried away with wine. There is no reason to suspect him of this, since Yahweh Himself strictly forbade him to enter the houses of merrymaking, wedding feasts, and all places where wine is distributed and drunk. However, this similarity was not accidental. In addition to the natural properties that wine has in its effect on a person, it is deeply symbolic. Even the prophet David spoke of the cup of salvation, which he receives (Ps. 115:4) from God and revels in it (Ps. 22:5). One can also recall the beautiful bride Shulamita, who tried to enter the house of wine in order to behold its sacrament: Enter me into the house of wine, make love to me(Song 2:4) . “She longs,” explains St. Gregory of Nyssa, “to be led into the very house of wine, in order to join her mouth to the very winepresses pouring out sweet wine, to see the bunch that is crushed in the winepresses, and that vine that nourishes such a bunch, and the Maker of the true vine that makes this bunch so nourishing and pleasant.” In the same place, in this house of wine, she contemplates the Winemaker himself, who produces fine sweet wine. He's all at work. His garments are made scarlet “from the trampling of the winepress”, which will notice the prophetic look of Isaiah: Why, then, is Your robe red, and Your vestments, as those of one who trampled in the winepress?(Isaiah 63:2). St. Gregory of Nyssa calls this winemaker the Divine Word, which he offers to his friends and neighbors. drink and get drunk(See Song 5:1), which is usually the cause of frenzy of the mind.

Let us return again to the divine Jeremiah, to his state, in which he was like a man "who was overcome by wine, from the presence of the Lord." It was the face of the Winemaker, who said about Himself and about the Father: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser(John 15:1). He will incarnate to feed with wine and bread all those who believe in Him and to conclude a New Covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20). The divine prophet feels this state of intoxication and sweetness, as from fine wine. He becomes, as it were, a companion at the Last Supper of Christ. This is exactly what St. Gregory of Nyssa calls those who have been rewarded with tasting spiritual wine: “So, since such is the intoxication from the wine offered by the Lord to the associates, from which there is spiritual frenzy in the Divine, then the beautiful Lord commands those who have become neighbors in virtues, and not far away, commands: eat, my neighbors, and drink, and be drunk."

The property of wine is such that those who have tasted it tend to sleep. Weakened by wine, he cannot resist its nature and sinks into a pleasant sleep. “Rapture is followed in order by sleep, so that by digestion the suppering strength in the health of the body is returned,” remarks St. Gregory. Thus, while intoxicated with Divine contemplation, the God-bearing righteous man was seized by a sweet and pleasant dream.

B. Condition three:... looked, and my dream was pleasant to me

If you compare sleep with death, you can certainly find common features. This is exactly what St. Gregory of Nyssa once did. He saw that “in sleep, all sensory activity of the body ceases: neither sight, nor hearing, nor smell, nor taste, nor touch, during sleep, do not act as is characteristic of them. On the contrary, sleep relaxes the bodily forces, makes even oblivion of the worries that a person has, lulls fear, tames irritation, takes away strength from the grieving and makes all calamities insensible while it owns the body. When we observe the bride Shulamita in the Song of Songs, we see that after a beautiful feast she fell into a dream (Songs 5:2). Blessed Jerome, in his interpretation of the 26th verse of the 31st chapter, remarks regarding intoxication that it must be taken in this place in a good way. An interesting understanding of this place from the book of the prophet Jeremiah is offered to us by the Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons. He transfers the whole story to the Son of Man who came in the flesh, while also connecting the dream of the Savior with His ecstasy. In his writings, one can find such reflections: “When did He pour out on the human race the vital seed, that is, the Spirit of the remission of sins, through which we are made alive? Was it not when He ate with men and drank wine on earth? For it is said: The Son of Man has come, eating and drinking(Matthew 11:19), and when he lay down, He fell asleep and slept, as He Himself says through David: I fell asleep and slept(Ps 3:6). And since he did this while living among us, he also says: And My sleep became pleasant to Me(cf. Jer 31:26)” .

St. Jeremiah, reveling in the contemplation of the greatness of God, plunged into a state that he himself called sleep. Blessed Jerome names the reasons that plunge a person into a similar state: this is fatigue and hunger (or thirst), which is satisfied with drunkenness and satiety. Fatigue is due to the weakening of the body. It is interesting here to recall the Apostles, who were honored to ascend the mountain with the Savior and contemplate His transfiguration. They experienced a state similar to that of the prophet Jeremiah. During the prayer of Christ the Apostles, fatigue overcame sleep. “Peter was burdened with sleep,” writes the blessed Theophylact, “for he was weak and, serving sleep, paid tribute to human nature.” In another place, blessed Theophylact directly names the reasons that caused this state: “Unable to bear the cloudy light and voice, the disciples fell on their faces. Their eyes were heavy with sleep. By sleep is meant fainting from a vision. Jeremiah's dream was sweet and pleasant. Because of the light and contemplation of the prophets, the Apostles were also pleased. The Apostle Peter even desired to subjugate the source of these sensations, trying to settle the prophets Elijah and Moses along with Christ on Mount Tabor. Being in an ecstatic state, in a kind of spiritual intoxication, Peter offered Elijah, who appeared from the paradise villages, the prophet Moses and the Lord of glory Himself some man-made tents-sheds. The Evangelist Luke notices of the Apostle Peter that he did not understand what he was saying. The weakened mind of the Apostle was not able to clearly perceive reality and control his thoughts.

St. Simeon the New Theologian also spoke about the sweetness of Divine contemplation. “What is more beautiful and sweet than seeing Him?” - asks St. Simeon. On behalf of the prophet Jeremiah, blessed Jerome said: “And my dream, he says, was pleasant to me, so that I imitated the words of my Lord, saying: I fell asleep and spah, wake up, for the Lord will intercede for me.” However, the prophet could fully realize all the sweetness and pleasantness of the state only when he woke up: At the same time I woke up and looked, and my dream was pleasant to me(Jer 31:26). The prophet came to his senses, again became the master of his feelings, took control of his mind. The apostle Paul experienced a similar state when he was raptured into paradise. At the same time, he did not feel himself, because he could not figure out whether he was in the body or outside it. God alone knew his state. The Monk Maximus the Confessor in his "Chapters on Love" explains what actually happens to a person who has been rewarded with Divine contemplation. In the tenth chapter of the first centurion, he says: “When the mind is lifted up to God by the attraction of love, then it does not feel at all either itself or anything that exists. Illuminated by the Divine infinite light, he ceases to feel everything created, just as the sensual eye ceases to see the stars when the sun rises.

St. Jeremiah had such an attraction to love. It was this that served as the most important condition for the vision of God. On the other hand, the vision of God that the blessed prophet had was a confirmation of his sincere sacrificial love both for God and for his people. St. Maximus the Confessor beautifully portrayed such an image of the prophet in his “Chapters on Love”: “He who loves God cannot but love every man as himself, although the passions of those who have not yet been cleansed cause disgust in him. Therefore, seeing their conversion and correction, he rejoices with immeasurable and inexpressible joy.” Jeremiah's words: About the contrition of the daughter of my people, I lament<…>who will give water to my head and a source of tears to my eyes! I would weep day and night for the slain daughters of my people(Jer. 8:21; 9.1, etc.) become clear evidence of this.

2. The Holy Prophet Jeremiah Represents
the Son who came in the flesh

I think that, of course, no one is holier than Jeremiah, who was a virgin, a prophet, sanctified in the womb and by his very name represents the Lord Savior. For Jeremiah means: High Lord.

Blessed Jerome of Stridon

The coming fifth century prepared for the blessed Jerome of Stridon a very hot time. A passionate polemic with the followers of Origen awaited him. At the same time, he will enter into a fierce struggle with those who denied the superiority of virginity and monasticism over married life. But the heaviest fight at the blessed Jerome will be with the Pelagians. The conflict that broke out in theological disputes between the two sides turned out to be almost a tragedy for the bishop himself: the Pelagians burned his monastery, and Jerome himself barely escaped death. Blessed Jerome's pretext for disputes this time was the doctrine of human nature. Pelagius preached about the perfection of human nature, its sinlessness. From his lips sounded the denial of the heredity of original sin; Adam's sin was recognized only as a bad example. Blessed Jerome could not listen to this. On the contrary, he testified to the nature of man damaged by sin. Wanting to convince his opponents, he, in particular, proposed to consider the personality of one Old Testament righteous man, namely, the prophet Jeremiah. But why this ancient man? The attention of blessed Jerome was attracted by the fact that the holy prophet, having mighty faith and strong hope in God, emphasized his insignificance, and at the same time he was as if drunk, having “no understanding and no wisdom.” “If this is so,” blessed Jerome argued with the heretical Pelagius, “then where are those who preach perfect righteousness in man? If they answer that they are talking about the saints, and not about themselves, then I think that, of course, no one is holier than Jeremiah, who was a virgin, a prophet, sanctified in the womb and by the very name represents the Lord Savior. For Jeremiah means: High Lord.

So, for St. Stridon, the personality of the prophet Jeremiah is a clear prototype of Christ. This conviction, as we see, is used by Blessed Jerome in polemics with heretics. But wasn't this a risk on Jerome's part? Did it sound convincing? In order to give a positive answer to these questions, it is necessary to listen to the reflections of the Fathers of the Church who speak on this subject.

2.1. prophet to the nations

The life of a prophet, even before his birth, was already foreordained by the Spirit of God. This was not suspected by his parents; young Jeremiah will not know about this until Yahweh Himself reveals to him His plans. The words spoken by God struck Jeremiah to the core. It turns out that he was known and sanctified in the mother's womb. His mission is to be a prophet to the nations. In the knowledge and sanctification of Jeremiah by God even before his birth, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem sees a prototype of the Incarnation, the mystery of the creation of His human nature by the Logos. “He (God) is not ashamed to take flesh from these members, being Himself the Creator of the members. And who tells us about this? The Lord speaks to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5). If, during the creation of people, it touches the members and is not ashamed, then will shame impute the creation of holy flesh, the veil of the Divinity for Himself? From now on, Saint Jeremiah is called those who have power over nations and kingdoms, in other words, a prophet for the nations. “Look, I have placed you this day over nations and kingdoms to uproot and destroy, destroy and destroy, build and plant,” the righteous Yahweh spoke His will over the meek youth. This place from the Holy Scriptures in the Christian society was given special attention. Here Saint Jeremiah, as it were, gave to understand the image of the mission of the Savior. We learn about this from the blessed Jerome. He reports that “some places understand this in relation to the Savior, who in the proper sense was the prophet of the nations and through the Apostles called all the nations. For, - concludes blessed Jerome, - truly, before He was formed in a virgin womb and before He came out of the womb, He was sanctified in the womb and was led by the Father, since He is ever present in the Father and the Father is ever present in Him. Jeremiah's gentle and meek nature was reflected in his prophetic ministry. It was such a vessel that turned out to be pleasing to God for the fulfillment of His will. The type of the coming Prophet was also obvious to churchmen in the character of the ministry of the prophet Jeremiah.

2.2. Prophet in public service

Saint Jeremiah burned with sincere love for his people. Each formidable word of the judgment of God, which the prophet conveyed to the Jews, aroused in him a desperate hope for their repentance and correction. On the other hand, every false step of the Jew, his fall left painful scars in the prophetic soul. The tears of compassion did not dry up on the cheeks of the God-bearing husband. The book of his prophecies has made us unwitting witnesses to his deep, soul-rending groans. My womb! my womb! I grieve in the depths of my heart, my heart is troubled in me… (Jer 4:19). Or When will I be comforted in my sorrow! my heart ached within me<…>About the contrition of the daughter of my people, I lament, I walk gloomy, horror seized me(Jer 8:18,21) - the divine sufferer wept. Behind this weeping, blessed Jerome discovered the sorrow and sorrow of the Savior. Through the prophet, we can see, reasoned St. Stridonsky, “just as the Savior grieved over the death of Lazarus and wept for Jerusalem, not hiding his sorrow with silence.” St. Gregory the Dialogist, Pope of Rome, probably read the book of the prophet Jeremiah in the Vulgate translation. In one of the discourses on the Gospel, he touched on the eleventh verse of the sixth chapter of this book, interpreting it in a Christological key: “God, who, although in Himself always remains calm and unchanging, yet declares that He is at work when He suffers the gross iniquities of people. Why and through the prophet says: I have become tired, supporting (according to the Vulgate). But God has appeared in the flesh, made weary of our weakness. When the unbelievers saw this work of His suffering, then they did not want to honor Him. For they did not want to believe that the one who was seen as mortal according to the flesh is immortal in divinity.”

The ungrateful people did not notice the flowing tears of the prophet, did not appreciate "the labor of his suffering." On the contrary, more and more irritation and anger turned towards Saint Jeremiah, and thus inevitable death was prepared for him through the path of suffering.

On the other side in understanding this place was the Monk Ephraim the Syrian. In the passion of Jeremiah himself, he sees a prototype of the suffering of Christ. The prophet, suffering himself, thus prophesies about the suffering of the Savior. “So the inhabitants of Anathoth conferred about the death of Jeremiah and said: let us put a tree in his bread, that is, we will give him a tree for food, because in Scripture everything that is used for food is called bread. To offer someone a tree means either to beat him with a tree, or hang him on a tree, or burn him; also the expression swallow blows means to be struck by the rod. And just as a tree is destroyed when bread is baked on it or a house is set on fire with it, so let the tree be destroyed when we beat, burn or hang the flesh of the Prophet. From such and such flour the inhabitants of Anathoth prepared the bread of Jeremiah. But in Jeremiah, only the image was mysteriously presented, because the Jews killed him not with wood, but with stones. And this has come to pass in our Lord. The Jews put the tree into the bread for him, that is, they killed him by nailing him to the tree,” such profound reasoning was presented by St. Ephraim in defense of his assertion. From ancient traditions, we know by what death the prophet Jeremiah died: through stoning at the hands of his beloved Jewish people.

Cold night shadows approached the bright life of Jeremiah: the council of priests and prophets decided to kill him (Jer 26:7–9). All the people joined them. Lonely Jeremiah, according to the word of the blessed Theodoret, was preparing "the fruit of homicide." The fruit of the murder was presented to the true Man - Christ according to the flesh. The idea of ​​deicide was born in the hearts of priests and teachers of the people (scribes and Pharisees). In front of the ruler of Palestine, the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate, about six centuries after the murder of Jeremiah, the same raging crowd rumbled.

The Son of Man, whose prototype was the prophet Jeremiah, did not forget His suffering martyrs. He is the Father of the future age, as the prophet Isaiah called Him, accepted His true children. From the murderers and all accomplices of these crimes, Christ promises to exact the blood of His sufferers: May the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, be demanded from this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the temple. She, I tell you, will be required from this generation(Luke 11:50-51).

Prophet Jeremiah, a fiery intercessor for sinful people - the bright image of Christ, as A. Bukharev called him, finally waited for the true Intercessor before God, the righteous Branch of David whom in due time he contemplated and comforted his perishing people (Jer. 23:5).

3. The holy prophet Jeremiah in ancient traditions

In addition to the books of Holy Scripture, we can find the image of Jeremiah or any mention of him in some ancient traditions transmitted to us by church writers. It is difficult to talk about their origins now. Some of them were born in the depths of the Jewish religion and accepted by Christianity in its pure form, or entered the Church, being rethought in the Christian mind. Others are probably drawn from pagan sources. There are also those who can be called Christian in origin.

Below are a few such traditions that St. Ephraim the Syrian and Epiphanius, Blessed Augustine, Dorotheus of Tire and Isidore of Spain (of Seville), John Moschus, Nicephorus Callistus, and St. Demetrius of Rostov will tell us.

3.1. Jeremiah's Concern for the Holy Place of the Lord
(explained according to St. Demetrius of Rostov)

A. Shelter of the sacred fire

Having received freedom and seeing the patronizing goodwill towards himself from Nabuzardan, Jeremiah first of all took care of the holiness of God ... The Prophet of God ignited the lamp he had prepared from the fire that miraculously descended from the Lord in the days of Moses and Aaron for the burnt offering and from that time on, unquenchably supported on the altar, and hid this lamp in a waterless well, having strong faith and prophetically foreseeing that if the fire there temporarily goes out (changing miraculously into another element, thick water), then in due time again, returning its former property, it will ignite, which was fulfilled according to the return of the Israelites from the Babylonian captivity at the resumption of the temple in the time of Nehemiah (cf. 2 Mack 1:19-32), many years after the death of the holy prophet Jeremiah, who put this fire in a well and leveled the very place, so that it became invisible and long time remained unknown to anyone.

B. Hiding the Ark of God

Taking advantage of the freedom and tranquility of his country, Saint Jeremiah, together with the reverent priests and Levites, took the shrine of the house of God that he had preserved and carried it to a mountain in the land of Moab, beyond the Jordan River, near Jericho, from which the prophet Moses once contemplated the Promised Land, on which he died and was buried in a place unknown to anyone. On the mountain, the prophet Jeremiah found a cave and brought the kivot of the Testament into it; The entrance to this cave was blocked with a large stone. And this stone, as it were, was sealed by Jeremiah, inscribed on it with his finger the name of God, and this writing was like writing with an iron point, for the hard stone under the writing finger of the prophet was soft, like wax, and then again hardened according to the property of its nature. And the place became strong, as if cast from iron. After this, Saint Jeremiah, addressing the people accompanying him, said: “The Lord has departed from Zion into heaven! - and He will return with power, and the sign of His coming will be: when all the peoples of the earth worship the tree ”(the cross on which the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, was crucified).

To this, Jeremiah added that no one can take this ark out of this place, only Moses, the prophet of God, and the tablets of the Covenant, which are in the ark, none of the priests will open or read, only Aaron, the saint of God; on the day of the general resurrection, he will be taken out from under the stone sealed with the name of God and placed on Mount Zion, and all the saints will gather to him in anticipation of the coming of the Lord, who will deliver them from the terrible enemy - the Antichrist, who seeks their death. When Saint Jeremiah spoke this to the priests and Levites, suddenly a cloud covered that sealed cave and no one could read the name of God, inscribed on the stone with the finger of Jeremiah; even the place itself became unrecognizable, so that no one could recognize it. Some of those who were present there would like to mark this place and the way to it, but they could not do it. The prophet, in spiritual illumination, said to them: “This place will not be known to anyone until the Lord gathers the cathedrals of people, and then, having mercy, He will show this place - then the glory of God will clearly be revealed on it and the cloud will overshadow it as it was under Moses, under Solomon.

So this cave remains in obscurity, and that place will be unknown until the end of the world; but the glory of God covertly illuminates the covenant of the Covenant with a bright, flaming cloud, as it covered it in the tabernacle of Moses and in the Temple of Solomon, for its illumination cannot cease.

3.2. Death, burial and veneration of a prophet

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian

In the Egyptian city of Tafnis, his own, that is, the Jews, stoned him to death. There he died and was laid in the place where once was the house of the pharaohs, because the Egyptians benefited greatly from Jeremiah and honored him. Then his bones were transferred to Alexandria and honorably buried there.

Saints Epiphanius, Dorotheus of Tire and Isidore of Spain

They say that the prophet Jeremiah, with his prayers, drove asps, crocodiles and other wild animals from the Egyptian city (maybe Tafnis) and its environs, the Egyptians still deeply respect the grave of Jeremiah, located near Cairo, and take earth from it for protection from crocodiles and for healing snake bites.

It testifies that Alexander the Great transferred the body of Jeremiah to Alexandria.

Alexandrian Chronicle

Upon the acceptance of the body of the prophet there, in Alexandria, a fitting monument was erected in honor of Jeremiah.

He wrote down the legend that this monument was renewed and decorated by Empress Helen.

3.3. Jeremiah's prediction about the destruction of Egyptian idols

Saints Dorotheos and Epiphanius

They have preserved a tradition that tells of Jeremiah's prediction to the Egyptian priests that their idols will fall when the Virgin Mother comes to Egypt with her Baby; - and that this prophecy was fulfilled during the stay of the Mother of God with the baby Jesus in Egypt, who hid there from the malice of Herod the Great.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov

He reports that this prophecy allegedly gave the basis for the custom that existed among the Egyptians, to depict a virgin resting on a bed, with a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying next to her in a manger, and to worship such an image. At the same time, it is also reported that the Egyptian priests, when asked why such an image is venerated, answered that this is a mystery predicted by the holy prophet to their ancient fathers, and that they are waiting for the realization of this mystery.

3.4. To the question of whether Plato was familiar with the prophecies
Saint Jeremiah

A very curious reflection is offered by Blessed Augustine as an answer to the question posed: Where could Plato acquire the knowledge that brought him closer to Christian science?

Some who are united with us in the grace of Christ are surprised when they hear or read that Plato had such a way of thinking about God, which they find very close to the truth of our religion. As a result, some thought that he, at the time when he reached Egypt, was listening to the prophet Jeremiah there, or that during the journey itself he was reading prophetic writings. I expressed their opinion, however, in some of my writings (De Dostrina Christiana lib. 2. Sar. 28 - Retract. 2,4). But careful calculation of time, which is the subject of the historical chronicle, shows that Plato was born almost a hundred years after the time when Jeremiah prophesied. Then, although Plato lived 81 years, from the year of his death until the time when Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, begged from Judea the prophetic books of the Jewish people and took care of their translation and correspondence with the help of 70 Jewish men who knew the Greek language, passed turns out to be almost 60 years old. Therefore, during that journey of his, Plato could neither see Jeremiah, who had died so many years before, nor read these writings, not yet translated into Greek at that time, in which he was strong. It is possible, however, that, due to his fiery curiosity, he became acquainted with both the Egyptian and these writings through a translator, not in the sense, of course, that he made a written translation of them, which, as you know, Ptolemy, who could even inspire fear with his royal power, could achieve only in the form of a special favor; but in the sense that he could learn from the conversation, as far as he was able to understand, their content.<Далее анализирует место из книги Бытия(1:1–2) и сравнивает его с сочинением Платона об устройстве мира, написанном в Тимее>... And most importantly, what most of all encourages me to almost agree with the opinion that those books were not unknown to Plato, this is the following ...<в примере сопоставляет мысль Платона о том, что все, что сотворено изменяемым, не существует, с библейским местом: Исх 3:14> .

Many centuries have passed. The “wheel” of history has been spinning from its sad tragic page for more than two and a half millennia. Now the desperate cries and groans of the perishing people are not heard behind the walls of sacred Jerusalem, and now there are no impregnable walls themselves. The rattle of wall-beating guns is not heard, and the clanging of deadly iron is not heard. The unfortunate human souls that then brought upon themselves the judgment of God are forever forgotten in history. No one will ever remember the names of the inhabitants of Jerusalem - the perpetrators of the death of the blessed city, with the exception of only those who are frozen on the pages of sacred books. Their names were erased from human memory. They died, buried in the ages of time.

However, the names of the righteous do not die, as it was once said: In eternal memory there will be a righteous(Ps 111:6). They, like life-giving juices, moistened the dry human history. By their presence on earth they portrayed the presence of God with man. Even then, in those fateful days of the fall of the great city of Jerusalem, when eyewitnesses could only assert that the sacred land was abandoned by God, where flowing milk and honey(Ex 3:8) - and then there was the presence of God. For there was the witness of the Living God - the righteous Jeremiah. This amazing man remained in the eternal memory of all mankind.

At present, it is very relevant to compile interpretations of the books of the Bible in the patristic key, as well as in the light of church and Jewish traditions. I would like this work, dedicated to the disclosure of the image of a biblical character, to be useful for further historical and exegetical analysis of the book of the prophet Jeremiah.

Explanatory Bible, or a commentary on all the books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament / Edition of the successors of A. P. Lopukhin. T. VI. Petersburg, 1909 (reprint of the Institute for Bible Translation. Stockholm, 1987. Vol. 2). S. 6.

Saint Theodoret of Cyrus. Creations. Ch 6. Interpretation of the prophecy of the divine Jeremiah. M., 1859. At 18 ch. 18 art. P. 555. Do not be the cause of my fall. The Lord created salvation in a new planting: in Him salvation will be bypassed by people; and Akila has the same saying: The Lord has created something new in the woman. Created to plant us a new salvation, and not ancient, with us<…>there is Jesus as the Savior made man; the name Jesus is sometimes translated as the rescue, and sometimes the word Savior <…>So, the salvation created by the Savior is a new<…>and as Akila puts it, the Lord created new things in the woman, that is, Mary: because nothing new is created in a woman, except the body of the Lord, born of the Virgin Mary without carnal fellowship. - Saint Athanasius of Alexandria. Decree. op. T. 1. S. 266.

According to the lane L. V. Manevich: But behold, it is as if a fire is burning in my heart, it is flowing in my bones! I tried to keep him, but I was unable to, see: Old Testament. Book of Jeremiah / Per. Manevicha L.V. RBO, 2001. In the Church Slavonic Bible: And be in my heart like a burning fire, scorching in my bones, and relaxation from everywhere, and I can’t bear it.. Teachings are categorical and secret. M., 1991. The twelfth proclamation. S. 168.

Holy Alexander Men

§ 8. Prophet Jeremiah: life and ministry (until 597)

On the life and personality of St. The Bible contains more information about the prophet Jeremiah than about any other prophet-writer. And this is no coincidence. Jeremiah is the great herald of personal religion, the "religion of the heart", who revealed to people the world of his inner prayer life. Jeremiah is close in spirit to the psalmists. He exposes before us the secrets of his soul, loving and suffering, a soul that is in constant dialogue with God. He belongs to the chosen remnant, he is destined to be a witness and predictor of a national catastrophe. And he was the first to pronounce the word "New Testament" more than five centuries before the appearance of Christ the Savior.

1. Book of St. Jeremiah written by him for almost forty years. It consists of accusatory speeches, predictions, parables, psalms-prayers and biographical chapters. The writings of the prophet were collected by his disciple Baruch, but this collection received its final form in the era of Captivity. Baruch began his work around 604, while the teacher was still alive.

The book consists of four main sections:

• Prophecies and denunciations written before the fall of Jerusalem between 626 and 586 (Jer 1-25).
• History of St. Jeremiah's struggle with princes, clergy, false prophets, written mainly by St. Baruch (Jer 26-45). In the same section is the so-called Book of Consolation (prophecy of the New Testament, Jer 30-31), the main parts of which were probably created after the destruction of Jerusalem.
• Prophecies about the nations (Jer 46-51).
• Historical appendix (Jer 52).

In the Septuagint Book. St. Jeremiah has a number of distinctive features: part of the text is reduced (by about one eighth); the prophecies about the nations are given in a different order and are placed after the chapter of Jer 25:13.

2. The main features of the theology of St. Jeremiah. In this section, we note only the most characteristic features of his proclamation.

Etc. Jeremiah speaks of the end of the Sinai stage of the Covenant and its replacement by the New Covenant to be written in human hearts (see $10). The prophet denies the absolute significance of the Temple and the Ark and predicts their destruction. He is the forerunner of the New Testament worship of God "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23).

Jeremiah calls God the Father and emphasizes the importance of personal religiosity. In his book we find the theme of the sonship of God as the foundation of faith (Jer 3:4, Jer 3:19).

Like Amos, St. Jeremiah teaches that the chosen people of God is not a privilege, but a heavy burden of responsibility before God. He severely condemns the blind patriotism of politicians and recognizes Israel's primarily religious mission and vocation. Like St. Isaiah, Jeremiah is an opponent of war, considering peace as the key to the success of internal transformations.

Jeremiah says little about the Messiah as a Person, but he refers to Him as "David's Branch" (Jeremiah 23:5), thus continuing the messianic tradition going back to St. Nathan. This prophecy is read on the feast of the Nativity of Christ.

3. Calling a prophet. Jeremiah was born into a family of a priest in the small Levitical town of Anathoth (Heb. Anatot), 9 km from Jerusalem. The style of his writings shows that he was deeply imbued with the spirit of the northern tradition. Apparently, his ancestors were associated with those circles of the clergy of Ephraim who kept the Deuteronomy. Jeremiah as a child witnessed the persecution of the prophets (under Manasseh).

626 was a turning point for Judea. At this time, King Josiah proclaimed himself a faithful worshiper of the God of the fathers. Then the Lord called Jeremiah to serve. A young Levite relates how he feared the mission entrusted to him:

I said, oh my God! I can `t talk,
for I am still young. But the Lord said to me:
Don't say "I'm young";
For to all to whom I send you, you will go
and whatever I command you, you will say.
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you,
to deliver you, said the Lord.
And the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me:
Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms to uproot and destroy,
destroy and destroy
build and plant.

Jeremiah clearly realized that he was not going to Jerusalem to prophesy of his own free will. It was God who chose and loved (knew) him before he was born (Jer 1:4-5; cf. Gal 1:15). He must become an instrument and a sanctified vessel of the Spirit of God. The prophet confronts the Lord with the sincerity of a son. He is ready to do His will, but does not consider himself capable of doing so. Like Moses, he is sure that he will not be able to serve the purposes of Providence. After all, he needs to say things that will cause protests and even rage. Only hope for help from above helps Jeremiah overcome fear. Here again we see one of the most important features of prophetism. Man serves God not as a thoughtless instrument, but as a free being, choosing the path of God in the name of love and obedience.

When the prophet appears in Jerusalem, he finds there a struggle with the old superstitions that King Josiah is trying to eradicate. Jeremiah, with all the ardor of a young heart, attacks paganism, which has taken firm roots under Manasseh. Wanting to remind the people of their betrayal of the Mosaic Testament, the prophet repeats the parable of Hosea about the unfaithful wife and the parable of Isaiah about the vineyard:

Return, renegade children,
says the Lord
because I have combined with you.

The prophet is perplexed: has the Lord really deceived Jerusalem and ahead of him is only destruction and ruin (Jer 4:10). And then he receives a new revelation, full of light and hope. The time will come when people will turn to God and “all the nations will gather to Jerusalem for the sake of the name of the Lord, and will no longer walk according to the stubbornness of their evil heart” (Jer 3:17). Then even outward symbols of worship will be superfluous, for God will be with people (cf. Rev. 21:22):

They will no longer say: "The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord"; He will not come to mind, and they will not remember him, and they will not come to him, and he will no longer be. (Jer 3:16)

But for now, the prophet must continue his struggle. The moral state of the people causes him bitter reflections:

Walk the streets of Jerusalem
and look and discover
And look for him in the squares,
can't you find a person
Is there no one who keeps the truth,
seeker of truth?
To whom should I speak and whom should I exhort,
to listen?
Behold, their ear is uncircumcised,
and they can't listen.
Behold, the word of the Lord is in their derision,
it is unpleasant for them.
Therefore, I am filled with the wrath of the Lord,
I can't keep it to myself.

Jeremiah, considering that his mission was completed, returned to his native town. He lost hope for a speedy return of Israel. However, the Book of the Law was soon found in the Temple, and King Josiah began reforms (see §7).

Jeremiah welcomed the beginnings of the pious monarch. The Lord commanded him to cry out everywhere: “Hear the words of this covenant!” (Jer 11:2). But the Levites of Anathoth were against the reform. She deprived them of the opportunity to serve at their altars. Not daring to attack the king, they turned their hatred against Jeremiah and probably even made an attempt on his life. In prayers before God, the prophet poured out his grief. He was completely alone. He had no family, was surrounded by mistrust and enmity.

I am like a meek lamb
led to the slaughter
And didn't know they were plotting
against me saying:
“Let us put a poisonous tree for his food
and cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name is no longer mentioned.
But, Lord of hosts, righteous Judge,
testing hearts and wombs!
Let me see your vengeance on them,
for I have entrusted my work to you.

The death of King Josiah in 609 brought the work of reform to a halt. From this moment begins a new stage in the ministry of St. Jeremiah.

4. Sermon St. Jeremiah between 608 and 597. The slain reformer king was to be succeeded by his eldest son Eliakim, but the people preferred Prince Shalum, who took the throne name Jehoahaz. Three months later, Pharaoh Necho II summoned him to his headquarters and announced that he was establishing control over Judea. The king was forced to obey. Necho kept him as a hostage, placing Eliakim on the throne of Jerusalem. As a sign of submission to Egypt, he took the new name Joachim (2 Kings 23:31-37).

The new monarch was not going to continue the work of his father. Religious life fell into decay. People consoled themselves with the hope that God would save Jerusalem from its enemies in any case. And then Jeremiah appeared again in the capital to denounce the people. He came to the gates of the Temple when crowds had gathered there to participate in worship.

“Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel,” he began, “mend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not rely on deceptive words: “here is the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord!” ...How! You steal and kill and commit adultery and swear lies and incense to Baal and walk in the footsteps of other gods that you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this House, over which My name is called, and say: "we are saved" to continue to do all these abominations! Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? (Jer 7:3-4:9-10).

This speech was perceived as a desecration of the national shrine. The priests were especially indignant: “You must die. Why do you prophesy in the name of the Lord and say, This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate? (Jer 26:8-9).

There were, however, some elders - apparently from among the followers of King Josiah - who came to the defense of Jeremiah. They referred to the fact that before there were prophets who predicted the death of Jerusalem, and they were not punished for this. Nevertheless, at the court of Joachim, it was decided to deal with Jeremiah. He was saved by one of the courtiers, the son of Nathan, the secretary of the deceased monarch. But the prophet Uriah, who said the same thing as Jeremiah, was captured and executed. Traditional piety and patriotism could not put up with such "disturbers".

Jeremiah continued his denunciations, now speaking openly against Joachim. The true “son of David” is only the one who fulfills the commands of God, and the violator of the law loses the right to be the “leader of the people of God”:

Do you think to be a king
because he enclosed himself in a cedar?
Your father ate and drank
but produced judgment and truth,
and therefore he was well.
He dealt with the case of the poor and the beggar,
and therefore he was well.
Isn't that what it means to know Me? says the Lord.
But your eyes and your heart are turned
only for your benefit
And the shedding of innocent blood
to doing oppression and violence!

The prophet would have been immediately thrown into prison if new troubles had not fallen upon the capital of Judah. In 605, at the Battle of Carchemish, Nebuchadnezzar defeated the pharaoh, and soon he was crowned king in Babylon. Jerusalem had to decide whether to remain loyal to Egypt or go under the rule of the Chaldeans.

Jeremiah again delivered a sermon in which he declared Nebuchadnezzar "the scourge of God" sent to rebuke Israel. He demanded that Jehoiakim submit to the Chaldean king (Jer 25:1-17).

In December 604, Nebuchadnezzar gave Joachim an ultimatum. And just at that time, St. Jeremiah's disciple Baruch copied his book of prophecies and publicly read them in the Temple (Jer 36). This was reported to the king. He ordered the scroll to be brought to him and read. As the king listened to two or three lines, he took a book from the reader's hands, tore off part of it and threw it into the brazier. By this he wanted to show that he considers all the prophecies of Jeremiah to be insidious delirium. But the prophet again dictated prophecies to Baruch, which were even more severe than before.

Jeremiah was arrested in the Temple, he was put in the stocks, like a pillory. He saw that he had become hated by everyone: he was considered an enemy of the fatherland and a detractor of the Temple. He wanted to stop preaching forever, go home and let things take their course. But the Lord urged him to stand to the end. The state of mind of the prophet conveys his psalm:

You drew me, Lord,
and I'm addicted
You are stronger than me
and overcame;
And every day I laugh
everyone mocks me.
For as soon as I begin to speak,
I scream for violence, I cry for ruin,
Because the word of the Lord has become a reproach to me
and everyday laughter.
And I thought: “I will not remind of Him
and I will no longer speak in his name”;
But it was like a burning fire in my heart,
enclosed in my bones,
And I grew weary holding him
and couldn't.

In 601, the pharaoh began to overcome Nebuchadnezzar for a while. Joachim immediately went over to the side of Egypt. But, having learned about this, the Chaldeans sent their troops to Judea. In the autumn of 598 Joachim died and the throne passed to his son Jehoiachin. In January 597, Nebuchadnezzar's army was already at Jerusalem.

In March, eighteen-year-old Jehoiachin decided to surrender to the mercy of the conqueror. Many noble Jews, led by the king, were sent to Babylon. On the throne, the Chaldeans approved his brother Mattanias, who received the name Zedekiah, as the vicar of Jeconiah. The time of his reign became the slow agony of Jerusalem.

Review questions

1. What is the meaning of St. Jeremiah in St. stories?
2. How was his book created?
3. What parts is it divided into?
4. What are the main features of St. Jeremiah's theology?
5. How and when did the calling of St. Jeremiah take place?
6. What did St. Jeremiah preach about at the beginning of the ministry?
7. How was his sermon received?
8. How did St. Jeremiah react to Josiah's reforms?
9. Tell about Jeremiah preaching in the Temple.
10. How did the prophet understand the calling of the king?
11. Under what circumstances was St. Jeremiah arrested?
12. What was the tragedy of his life?
13. To whom did Judea obey in 597?

Biography

The prophet Jeremiah lived 100 years after Isaiah (the first). At this time, Assyria began to lose its power, and the power of Babylon was becoming stronger. The fall of Assyria could not be prevented even with the help of Egypt. Having concluded an alliance with the Medes, the Babylonian king Nabopolassar in 612 BC. e. occupied the Assyrian capital Nineveh.

Jeremiah, perhaps more lively than his contemporaries, reacted to complex foreign policy problems. In an effort to save his homeland, he made a lot of efforts to turn the policy of the courtiers in a different direction, but his attempts were unsuccessful. His prophecies came true: the collapse of official policy, the fall of Jerusalem, the disasters of the people. Coming from a priestly family, Jeremiah began prophesying very young, during the reign of Josiah. He reduces his mission, like Isaiah, to Divine destiny: “And the word of Yahweh came to me: before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you: I appointed you a prophet to the nations …

And Yahweh stretched out his hand and touched my mouth, and Yahweh said to me, Behold, I have put My words in your mouth” (Jer.).

Jeremiah was afraid of such a great task, considering himself too young: “Oh, Yahweh, God! I do not know how to speak, for I am still young” (Jer.). And later, Jeremiah considered the task beyond his strength, although he did everything to fulfill the mission of the prophet.

Not having achieved success, he bitterly complained to Yahweh: “You attracted me, Yahweh, - and I am carried away, you are stronger than me - and overcame, and every day I am ridiculed, everyone mocks me. For as soon as I start talking, I shout about violence, I cry out for destruction, because the word of Yahweh turned into a reproach to me and into everyday ridicule. And I thought: “I will not remind him and I will no longer speak in his name.” In the beginning of his career, Jeremiah supported King Josiah, who to restore a single cult of Yahweh. He made every effort to ensure that the people kept the agreement with Yahweh and turned away from foreign gods. When a single cult of Yahweh was introduced in the country with the help of the king, Jeremiah abandoned the prophecies for a while, because he considered his activities useless .

But he soon came to the conclusion that the people needed his words. With the weakening of Assyrian power, complacency began to spread in the country, which led to a misguided foreign policy. The Jewish politicians underestimated the power of Babylon and sought an alliance first with Egypt and then with Assyria. At the instigation of Egypt, they opposed the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II and refused to pay tribute to him. All this led to the punitive campaigns of the Babylonian king against Judah, previously predicted by the prophet, and then to the complete destruction of the Jewish state.

Note that it was not difficult to come up with such prophecies. It was clear to a shrewd man that Babylon would not accept the refusal of the Jewish rulers to pay tribute to her. Jeremiah clearly saw the danger of Judah's policy and its catastrophic outcome. He opposed the conclusion of all kinds of alliances, criticized the refusal to pay tribute. He predicted that the hopes of the Jewish politicians for an alliance with earthly kings were in vain, they would be punished, Jerusalem would fall and the temple would be destroyed. For these prophecies, Jeremiah was accused of betrayal and apostasy. After all, Yahweh promised to protect his people and the temple, while Jeremiah preaches the fall of the city, thereby questioning the words of God.

Jeremiah wrote down his prophecy and sent it to King Jehoiakim. When this threatening message was read to the king, he tore the scroll into pieces and burned them. Jeremiah, with the help of his disciple Baruch, rewrote his prophecies, supplementing them with new threats.

Jeremiah performed many, so to speak, symbolic actions that were supposed to emphasize the possible sad consequences of an incorrect policy, the onset of a catastrophe. So, he received a command from Yahweh to break an earthen jar, which shattered into thousands of fragments. Thus, he wanted to show how the people of Israel will be scattered in different parts of the world. For this he was chained in a deck.

On another occasion, Jeremiah took a linen belt and, taking it to the Euphrates, hid it in a cleft of the rock, where the belt gradually rotted away. A similar fate was predicted for the Jewish people. Before King Zedekiah, Jeremiah appeared with a yoke around his neck, emphasizing the future fate of the people who would bear the yoke of Yahweh if they did not heed the words of the prophet. The servants removed the yoke from Jeremiah's neck, but he put on a new iron yoke and again appeared before the king.

The fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy was his greatest personal tragedy.

During the siege of Jerusalem, he proclaimed with pain in his heart that the promised judgment of Yahweh had come. At the same time, he emphasized that this was not the end, not complete annihilation, that a happy time would come when Yahweh would give Israel and Judah joy, would conclude a new covenant with the people. Then the laws will be written not on the tablets, but in the heart of every believer.

After the fall of Jerusalem, most of the inhabitants were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar II to Babylon. Godolia became the head of the rest. He released Jeremiah from prison, where he was accused of treason, and allowed him to choose one of two things: either he will go with the majority of the inhabitants to Babylon, or he will remain in his homeland. Jeremiah chose the latter. It is noteworthy that a few years before that, the father of Godalia Ahikam (English) also saved the prophet from certain death, when Jeremiah was threatened with reprisal at the hands of an angry mob for his diatribes.

The radical group of Jews who remained at home, being dissatisfied with the rule of Godalia, organized a conspiracy and killed him. Then, fearing the revenge of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, they fled to Egypt, taking the prophet with them.

From that time on, the trail of Jeremiah is lost. According to tradition, he is believed to have died in Egypt.

Personality of the Prophet Jeremiah

Jeremiah is known to everyone as the weeping prophet. There is even such a term "Jeremiad" to denote woeful complaints and lamentations.

“Jeremiah weeps over their former calamities and laments the captivity of Babylon. How could one not shed bitter tears when the walls were dug up, the city was razed to the ground, the sanctuary was destroyed, the offerings were plundered... The prophets fell silent, the priesthood was taken captive, there is no mercy for the elders, the virgins are mocked... the songs are replaced by lamentation. Every time I read… tears flow by themselves… and I weep with the weeping prophet” (St. Gregory the Theologian).

As a person, as a person, the prophet Jeremiah experienced a huge internal drama (deacon Roman Staudinger): He was born in the family of a pious priest, he also had a path of priesthood, service in the Temple, he would probably marry, rejoice with his wife at the success of his children etc. But God calls him to a special ministry, which required him to renounce himself completely, from all plans, comfort, satisfaction of some of his personal needs.

And God calls not a mature, wise Jeremiah, but just a boy, he was about 15-20 years old. And God does not accept objections, but says that "before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you: I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

The next sacrifice God demanded of Jeremiah was his love for his own people. Of course, the Lord did not forbid loving the people, on the contrary, for the sake of their good, Jeremiah made sacrifices. But it was not easy for a loving heart (blessed Theodoret even calls him “mother of Jerusalem” for his truly maternal love) instead of prosperity and happiness, to predict death and destruction for the people, rejection by God. And in contrition of heart, Jeremiah cries again: “Woe to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me as a man who argues and quarrels.”

And what was it like for the Old Testament Jew, who knew the Law and built his life according to it, to hear from his God: “do not take a wife for yourself, and let you have neither sons nor daughters ...”. The path of celibacy was unknown to the Jews of the Old Testament. Marriage was considered a divine commandment, children - evidence of God's presence in the family and His blessing.

But the prophet Jeremiah was able to endure and exclaimed in the end: “Lord, my strength, and my strength, and my refuge in the day of trouble!”.

The internal drama of the prophet was accompanied by an external drama due to his relationship with the people of God:

The condition of the Jews at that time wounded the heart of the prophet: “they left a source of living water, left and carved out for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” From here, a moral decline of such depth was observed among the people that even the Lord commands Jeremiah: “Drive them away from My presence, let them depart.” “The Prophet is ill for them… his womb and the feelings of his heart ache, he is likened to a mother tormented by the death of her children” (Blessed Theodoret). “Jeremiah tried to find some justification for sinners…” (St. John Chrysostom).

The failure of preaching among both the poor and the noble, and as a result - an acute sense of loneliness.

God rejects the prophet's prayers for the people:

“But do not ask for this people, and do not offer up prayers and petitions for them, and do not intercede with Me, for I will not hear you.”

But for what? “Is there a wise man who would understand this? And to whom does the mouth of the Lord speak - would you explain why the country perished and was scorched like a desert, so that no one passes through it? And the Lord said: because they forsook my law, which I decreed for them, and did not listen to my voice and did not act on it; but they walked ... after the Baals ... ".

St. Cyril of Alexandria called those mourned by the prophet "god-killers" for consciously renouncing the blessing of God.

Blzh. Jerome: "Because they left His law, ... and went after the wickedness of their hearts."

Blzh. Theodoret: "Repentance could extinguish the fire of anger, and since it does not exist, no one is able to deliver from punishment."

In addition to a loving motherly heart, Jeremiah also had a righteous zeal for God: “Therefore, I am filled with the wrath of the Lord, I cannot keep it in myself; I will pour it out on the children in the street and on the congregation of young men…” This jealousy haunts the prophet: "But, Lord of Hosts, the righteous Judge, ... let me see Your vengeance on them, for I have entrusted my work to You." There is no room for compromise with sin in his thoughts and actions.

All outsiders disowned him: the countrymen, because he inspired terror in them by his threats and envy by his superiority over other priests; the ruling circles of Jerusalem; the whole Jewish society, the kings (for example, Joachim put him in prison).

But with God, nothing is in vain. It would seem that such excessive undeserved torment to such a righteous man, for what? Not for anything, but in order to make a revolution in the mind of the prophet Jeremiah through all the suffering: he saw God in a new way.

“God did not allow the prophet to experience sorrows in vain; but, since he was ready to pray for the lawless, with the intention of convincing him that he would not recognize himself as philanthropic, the Treasury of grace merciless, God allowed this uprising of the Jews against him ”(Blessed Theodoret).

Through all this, Jeremiah saw the love of God for the people, for the human race. God ceased to be for him punishing children for the guilt of their fathers. God appeared before Jeremiah the Most Merciful and gave the doctrine of the new covenant: “The days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will put My law in their entrails and write it on their hearts…all will know me…I will forgive iniquity them...and the whole valley of ashes and corpses, and the whole field to the stream of Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate to the east, will be holy to the Lord; will not be destroyed and will not fall apart forever.

Wrestling with false prophets within the people of God: An example of wrestling - chapter 28 - wrestling with Ananias, who was one of many.

During the years of Jeremiah's ministry, false prophets calmed the vigilance of the people with imaginary prosperity, and when troubles nevertheless fell on Jerusalem, they promised that all this would not last long. They even came up with a new way to extinguish the preaching of God-bearing prophets: when a true prophet spoke, the crowd excited by the liars began to laugh and make jokes about him.

Against their background, Jeremiah looked, on the one hand, a rebel, a disturber of public peace, who was accused of treachery. On the other hand, he also acted as a ruthless reformer, crushing the prejudices of the Jews about their exclusivity, preaching a kind of "circumcision of the heart", struggling with the national pride of the chosen people.

Personal characteristics of Jeremiah

The book of the prophet Jeremiah reflects with particular relief the personal qualities of its author. We see in him a soft, yielding, loving nature, which is an amazing contrast to the steady firmness with which he acted in the sphere of his prophetic calling.

It can be said that there were two people in him: one who was under the influence of weak human flesh, although ennobled in its impulses, and the other who was completely under the influence of the almighty Spirit of God. Of course, the flesh obeyed the spirit, but the prophet suffered excessively from this.

As a young man, the prophet willingly accepted his high mission, but then, when the work he had taken on isolated him from other people, turned him into an “enemy of the people,” his sensitive heart began to suffer very much.

His position could be called tragic in a high degree: he had to turn the apostate people from Jehovah to God, knowing full well that his calls to repentance would remain ineffectual. He had to constantly talk about the terrible danger that threatened the Jewish state, and remain incomprehensible to anyone, because they did not want to understand him! How he must have suffered, seeing the disobedience of the people whom he loved and whom, however, he could not help...

How burdensome he must have been with the stigma attached to him by public opinion as a traitor to the state... Therefore, it was a matter of great courage that Jeremiah, in spite of such an accusation hanging over his head, still continued to speak of the need to submit to the Chaldeans.

The fact that the Lord did not even want to accept his prayers for the Jewish people and the hostile attitude towards him of all the Jews, even relatives - all this drove the prophet to despair, and he only thought about how he could go to the distant desert, so that there mourn the fate of his people.

But the words of God in his heart burned like fire and asked to come out - he could not leave his ministry, and the Lord with a firm hand continued to lead him along the once chosen difficult path. Jeremiah did not leave the fight against the false prophets, who unconsciously sought to destroy the state, and remained an iron pillar and a copper wall, from which all the attacks of his enemies were repelled.

Of course, the feelings of discontent and despair expressed by the prophet of his cursing his enemies put him incomparably lower than that Son of Man, Who suffered from His fellow tribesmen, without uttering complaints and without cursing anyone even at the moment of His suffering death.

But in any case, among the prophets, no one was in his life and sufferings a more vivid type of Christ than Jeremiah.

And the respect that the Jews had for him was sometimes shown against their will. So Zedekiah twice consulted with him, and the Jews, who did not heed Jeremiah's advice regarding removal to Egypt, nevertheless took him there with them, as if some kind of sacred Palladium.

Jeremiah and Deuteronomy

Bible scholar Baruch Halpern (en: Baruch Halpern) suggested that Jeremiah is the author of Deuteronomy. The main argument is the similarity of language: Deuteronomy and the book of Jeremiah are close in style, using the same fixed expressions. For example, many times in Deuteronomy there are instructions on how to and how not to deal with the most disadvantaged social groups: “A widow, an orphan, a stranger” (Deut. 10:18, 14:29, 16:11, 16:14, 24 :17, 24:19-21, 26:12-13, 27:19), Jeremiah gives the same instructions for the same groups (Jer 7:6, 22:3). This triple combination - widow, orphan, stranger - is used in Deuteronomy and in the book of Jeremiah - and nowhere else in the Bible.

There are other examples of the same or very close expressions that are found only in Deuteronomy and the book of Jeremiah: for example, the expression "The host of heaven" (in the sense of "stars") (Deut 4:19, 17:3, Jer 8:2, 19:17 ), “circumcise the foreskin of your heart” (Deut 10:16, Jer 4:4), “The Lord brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt” (Jer 11:4 Deut 4:20) “with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut 4:29 10:12; 11:13; 13:4; Jer 32:41).