Who Was the Weeping Prophet?

Jeremiah was given an unenviable task: to pronounce God’s judgment upon His people. Like many prophets before him, he learned what it is to be despised for teaching God’s Word. But as the last prophet of Judah before the exile, he faced unique challenges.

In today’s message from his video teaching series Dust to Glory, R.C. Sproul introduces us to the weeping prophet and sets the scene for his ministry. In temple worship, the people were going through the motions, but their hearts were far from God. They remained deeply embedded in idolatry. So Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people led into captivity in Babylon.

But wherever Jeremiah preached, false prophets were on his heels, peddling false hope and predicting peace and prosperity. Jeremiah was hated, mocked, and persecuted. At one point, he became so despondent that he cursed the day he was born. Yet the Word of God was like fire in his bones, and he continued to preach.

Although he wept over the destruction that would sweep over the city, Jeremiah also had hope, for the Lord who tears down nations can also rebuild them. The people would suffer the loss of the promised land, but their exile would not last forever. Before he himself was carried out of Jerusalem, one of Jeremiah’s final acts was to buy a field—a sign that God would one day raise the city out of the ashes and make a new covenant with His people.

Watch today’s message, or for a limited time, request your copy of the full teaching series Dust to Glory for a donation of any amount. You can also dig deeper into the Scriptures with the Reformation Study Bible.