Jeremiah and Jesus had several note worthy similarities. Let’s look at them closely:
Jeremiah
The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for travelers; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men” (Jeremiah 9:1-2).
The language in the above passage has been correctly called the poetry of suffering (Isaiah 22:4; Lamentations 2:11; 3:48). The hopeless sadness of Judah affected the prophet Jeremiah deeply, and he wept intensively. The above passage is without a doubt why the prophet was called the “weeping prophet.”
Through preaching and warning, Jeremiah tried to stop Judah’s rapid decline into moral depravity and ruin. But his efforts for the nation were largely unsuccessful. His preaching of repentance was unheeded by the nation and this led to their defeat and ruin by Babylonians.
Jesus
The deepness of Jeremiah’s feelings and the sensitivity of his words remind us of the Savior who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). Six centuries later than Jeremiah, Jesus wept for the sins and the fate of His doomed people.
Luke recorded, “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:41–44).
Jesus wept audibly, for He could see what the people of Israel could not see. He was saddened by the dreadful destiny of Jerusalem at the hands of Roman armies who would destroy it less than 40 years later. Jesus saw how the Romans would siege Jerusalem and starve it into submission.
The Savior saw that the leaders and people needed to repent in order to prevent the coming disaster and assure the nation of peace and prosperity. The inhabitants needed to obey the commandments of God so that He could fully prosper them as a nation and allow them to be His representatives to the nations of earth.
Sadly, Jerusalem rejected Jesus Christ. And at the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus announced, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’“ (Matthew 23:37,38). And the nation sealed their rejection by crucifying the Son of God at the cross.
God’s Call
The Savior says to you today, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Therefore, accept the Savior’s love and invite Him into your heart. Read His Word daily and pray that you may have a living relationship with Him. And, He promised, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you” (Psalm 50:15). His Word can’t fail.
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
