Jeremiah: A Prophet for Our Times

The Weeping Prophet

Jeremiah:

A Prophet for Our Times                         

By: Sara Lamm

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, mourned exile, yet proclaimed redemption.

I have to admit something: I never really studied Jeremiah until I watched Rabbi Tuly Weisz’s new course on Bible Plus. I thought I knew him, the “weeping prophet,” the author of Lamentations, the voice we hear every Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av (when we remember the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem). But sitting down to follow Jeremiah’s story with Rabbi Weisz guiding the way, I was struck by how much more there is. Jeremiah’s words are not only about grief; they are about a stubborn hope that refuses to die even in exile. He does not only predict destruction, he insists on redemption.

That leads to the question at the heart of Jeremiah’s book: How do you hold on to faith when the world around you is collapsing?

Jeremiah, or Yirmiyahu, was born in Anatot just outside Jerusalem to a family of priests. God called him as a young man during the reign of King Josiah, Judah’s last righteous ruler. His mission lasted forty years, stretching through Josiah’s reforms, Egypt’s interference, and finally Babylon’s crushing siege.

From the very beginning, Jeremiah sensed the loneliness of his task. God commanded him not to marry or have children, a sign of the looming destruction of the next generation. His was a life of warnings, of pleading, of rejection. Kings burned his scrolls, nobles threw him into prison, and neighbors whispered that he was a traitor. But Jeremiah never abandoned his calling. He told Judah the truth they did not want to hear: rebellion against Babylon was national suicide. He urged surrender, not because he lacked love for his people, but because he loved them too much to lie.

One of Jeremiah’s most famous prophecies still rings with clarity today:

For I am mindful of the plans I have made concerning you—declares Hashem—plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a hopeful future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

These words were written not to a triumphant people in their land, but to exiles in Babylon. Jeremiah told them to build houses, plant gardens, marry, raise children, and seek the peace of the city where they had been sent. The exile, he said, would last seventy years but it would end.

This balance of warning and comfort, justice and mercy, is Jeremiah’s hallmark. He announces God’s judgment with searing honesty, but he also insists that the covenant is eternal. Even in exile, God’s people are never abandoned.

One of the moments Rabbi Weisz highlighted, which stayed with me, is Jeremiah’s purchase of a field at Anatot in chapter 32. While imprisoned in Jerusalem during Babylon’s siege, Jeremiah is told by God to buy land from his cousin. On the surface, this is absurd. Who purchases real estate when the city is about to be burned and the nation dragged into exile?

But Jeremiah obeys. He weighs out seventeen shekels of silver, seals the deed, and places it in an earthen jar so it will last for many days. Why? Because God declares:

For thus said the lord of Hosts, the God of Yisrael: “Houses, fields, and vineyards shall again be purchased in this land.” (Jeremiah 32:15)

That single act of buying land, when all land seemed lost, was a testimony of faith. Jeremiah believed that exile was not the end of the story. The covenant with the people and the land of Israel would endure.

It is impossible to read Jeremiah without thinking about modern history. For centuries, travelers from Mark Twain to Jewish sages like Nachmanides described the Land of Israel as desolate. Twain wrote of “sackcloth and ashes.” Nachmanides, arriving in 1267, could not find ten Jews in Jerusalem to form a prayer quorum.

Yet Jeremiah had promised: “Again you shall plant vineyards on the hills of Shomron” (Jeremiah 31:4–5). And after the Six-Day War in 1967, Jewish families moved back to Samaria and did exactly that. Today, vineyards flourish where desolation once reigned. Jeremiah’s words have literally come to life.

This is why Jeremiah resonates so deeply. He teaches us to see beyond the ruins, to believe in God’s word even when the world scoffs, to trust that exile is temporary but God’s covenant is forever.

Perhaps the most debated passage of Jeremiah is chapter 31, where God declares:

See, a time is coming—declares Hashem—when I will make a new covenant with the House of Yisrael and the House of Yehuda.(Jeremiah 31:30)

For centuries, this verse was torn from context and used as a weapon against Israel. But as Rabbi Weisz explained, the message is unmistakable if you keep reading. The new covenant does not replace the covenant of Sinai, it renews it. God says:

But such is the covenant I will make with the House of Yisrael after these days—declares Hashem: I will put My Teaching into their inmost being and inscribe it upon their hearts. Then I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jeremiah 31:32)

The covenant is eternal. The people of Israel remain God’s nation. The “new” is not abolition, it is restoration.

So how do you hold on to faith when the world collapses? Jeremiah shows us: by planting seeds of hope, by acting as if redemption is certain even when destruction seems near, and by trusting God’s word more than the headlines.

When Jeremiah bought that field in Anatot, he was not simply engaging in a land deal. He was showing every generation after him that faith is not passive. It requires action, visible, costly, committed action, that testifies to God’s promises.

And that is why Jeremiah is the prophet we need now. He reminds us that exile is never the final word, that redemption is written into the DNA of God’s covenant, and that even in the darkest hour, the Lord of Israel remains faithful.