“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
~ Jeremiah 31:31
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you remember the dreams that you have while you are sleeping? Do your dreams ever scare you? Do you tell a kid or kid friends or your dad and/or ma what you dreamed while you were sleeping? Jeremiah was called by God to be a spokesman for Him. Jeremiah had dreams. Because Jeremiah recorded the dreams that God gave him while he was sleeping and what happened during his lifetime, Jeremiah’s Jeremiah Book is one of the longest books in the Old Testament. Five Old Testament books – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel, are called major prophet books. Jeremiah probably scribed Lamentations. The other three Old Testament books that are called major prophet books were also given the guy’s name who scribed a book. Another twelve Old Testament books are called minor prophet books. These twelve books were scribed by twelve other guys who were called by God to be spokesmen for Him to His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals. The books that are called minor prophet books are generally shorter books. Each of the twelve minor prophet books was given the name of the guy who scribed the minor prophet book. God called Jeremiah to be His spokesman to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem and in the country of Judah after they were captured by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army and after many of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem and in the land of Judah were taken by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to Babylonia to live as exiles. Jeremiah saw what was going to happen before it happened because of how God’s specially chosen guys and gals were going out of their way to ignore God’s expectation that they worship only Him instead of worshipping inanimate gods that were handmade from wood, stone and metal. Jeremiah knew that God was going to finally fulfill what He had always said that He was going to do – which was that He would punish His specially chosen guys and gals if they were unfaithful to Him by doing what He told them absolutely not to do.
God gave to the sixteen guys who He called to be His prophet spokesmen a variety of dreams, visions, images, experiences and words as they spoke for and represented Him to guys and gals who He chose to be His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals. God gave His specially chosen guys and gals ample warning through the guys who He chose before He created planet Earth to be prophet spokesmen for Him of what would happen to them if they turned away from only worshipping Him. God also gave His specially chosen guys and gals encouraging promises that even though He would have to punish them for not doing what He expected them to do – which was to worship only Him, that He would have them be able to go back to their homes that were in the city of Jerusalem and in the country of Judah. God also – through His spokesmen prophets like Jeremiah, gave His specially chosen guys and gals a promise that something very special was going to happen one day. Jeremiah 31 includes a dream that Jeremiah had. Jeremiah scribed in verse 31 something that he could not have known about or why he was scribing what he did when he scribed, ““The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” This new covenant that Jeremiah scribed about was a prophecy of a ‘new testament’ that would come about because of a guy named Jesus coming to planet Earth to fulfill prophecies and . . . this ‘new testament’ prophecy began a series of four verses that talk about when Jesus would come to planet Earth to live. The four verses probably were the highpoint of Jeremiah’s prophecies to God’s specially chosen guys and gals or of Jeremiah’s foretelling to God’s specially chosen guys and gals of something a whole lot better that was going to happen one day after going through the punishment that they would have to go through because they ignored God’s will to do what He expected them to do – which was to worship only Him.
What do you think that it was like to be a spokesman for God – like Jeremiah was? What do you think that it was like to be a spokesman for God – like Jeremiah was, to a people group of guys and gals who God had specially chosen for Himself before He created planet Earth who constantly did not do what God expected them to do – which was to worship only Him? Your grandpaa thinks that Jeremiah had to have felt very frustrated that God’s specially chosen guys and gals would not listen to the words that God was telling him to tell them. Your grandpaa thinks that God replaced Jeremiah’s frustrations with special dreams that filled him with hope of something a lot better ahead for His specially chosen guys and gals. When your grandmaa and grandpaa sensed God the Spirit prompting them to go to Guatemala to enable guys and gals to be Christ-followers in their churches, communities and villages, your grandpaa went to Guatemala with the ‘dream’ of being able to tweak the rural resident training center program that he and your grandmaa implemented in January of 1982 in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez, Bolivia to be contextual in the context of taking the concepts of the center of learning program to towns where twelve guys live who commit to studying through the forty – two week class modules. It took your grandpaa and Hector – your grandpaa’s right hand guy, over ten times presenting the program that they call PEB – Programa de Educación Bíblica, to groups of guys before a group of a dozen guys in a town that is located in the Ixcan called Xalbal agreed to study through a PEB. Hector about a year ago sent a brochure to your grandpaa in which he reports that because of the guys who have graduated from fifteen different PEBs that there are now over 1377 new Christ-follower communities in Guatemala.
Jeremiah 31 (401)