Note:  The podcast has an extra section after the "last trumpet."  This is more historical background on how the book of Jeremiah was formed.  This may or may not be for Biblical history buffs.

Next up as we walk through the Bible in a Year:  Jeremiah.   Jeremiah runs high on emotions, as the Word of Lord consumes the prophet.  Because this Word brings the deepest judgment and the most too-good-to-be-true hope, people do not listen to Jeremiah.  In fact, seek to stifle him. In our age of competing truths and efforts to stifle voices with whom we disagree, we find strange resonance with the story of Jeremiah. 

It is the longest book in the Bible (by words). Here are some parts definitely worth reading 

Jeremiah 1:4-10 (the prophetic call and commission)  

Jeremiah 18:1-10 (Potter's house)  

Jeremiah 20 (His arrest and lament)  

Jeremiah 22:1-17 (Jeremiah's prophetic words on what makes a good king)  

Jeremiah 29:1-14 (God's plans for a future)   

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (the New Covenant)  

Jeremiah 33:1-16 (More words of hope that point to Jesus) 

Questions for discussion  

1) Does it surprise you that Jeremiah is attacked for speaking God's Word?   

2) When else in the Bible are people attacked for speaking God's Word?  

3) Why do you think the temple priests got it so wrong?  

4) Are there times in your life where you've had to acknowledge you were wrong -- that a previously held truth no longer made sense?  

5) How do you handle people whose understanding of truth is different than yours? Are there people you no longer associate with because their version of the truth is so different than yours?    

6) What needs to happen for our culture again to have the capacity to handle people having different points of view? Or do we need to limit what is said?  

7) Why do you think that God allows for there to be different interpretations of the truth, even if only for a time?  

8) What are truths you hold to because they resonate, not because you can prove them?