“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That’s not only part of the opening line to Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, it’s also a decent way of characterizing the historical backdrop for the book of Jeremiah. Only, the percentage of time that was good was much, much less than the time that wasn’t. I’ll explain why I say that and how we know that in a moment but first let’s quickly see how Jeremiah is introduced to us. He is the prophet whose words we read – “the words of Jeremiah” (1:1a) and the prophet “to whom the word of the LORD came” (1:2a). He was one of those holy men that Peter described who was carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:19-21), writing with his personality and writing style all intact, yet so sovereignly superintended that the result of his script was, none other than, God-breathed Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16).

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