Isaiah and Jeremiah

Michael Calhoun
May 10
3 min read

Normally I would dive right into Isaiah, much like I have done with some of my other “favorite” books. This week, I will start with Jeremiah and Lamentations, and given what the text in Lessing’s book contains along with what I read, it is logical to conclude Jeremiah wrote both. I see familiarity and new things in his books. The styles and subjects are like those of other books we’ve studied but have combinations of both frustration and hope expressed in standard text format, as well as meter and prose. The most striking thing to me is their timelessness among other books. As Luther puts it in his opening on Jeremiah: “So it goes everywhere even now. Now that the end of the world is approaching, the people rage and rave most horribly against God.”[1] This, made me think of how people, at any time, in any place could look at some of the warnings and laments of both books and find them relevant to their (our) own times. (The end of the world is approaching, we just don’t know exactly when).

[1] The ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version, St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House; 2009. 1203.

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem - Rembrandt

Jeremiah contains histories like other books, though not necessarily in chronological order, but with Lamentations contains messages of warning that are in some ways harsher because they feel more personal and accusative. His warnings and laments seem more heartfelt because of the lack of order, as though a man were trying to record all his emotion; reflecting his direct interactions with the Holy Spirit – emphasizing that we must repent and equally letting us know that God’s Grace is there for the taking. I especially liked Lessing’s linking of the “blood of the eternal covenant” in Jeremiah 34[2]. It helped me personally to understand more of the New Testament referencing.

[2] Lessing, R. Reed. 2014. Prepare the Way of the Lord: An Introduction to the Old Testament. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 403.

I understand why the Concordia commentaries on Isaiah are broken into multiple books! And what a way Dr. Pulse describes him in the initial video: “The evangelist of the Old Testament”.[3] I’m not ashamed to admit that I tear at the reading of Isaiah 53 (in particular verses 3-6). That a Father’s love could be so much that He sends His only Son to suffer for me/us – and I/we still turn(ed) “to his own way” (Isa. 53:6, ESV) from Him breaks my heart and at the same time fills me with a joy I cannot easily describe.

Where Jeremiah is often disjointed due to its length and lack of chronological order, Isaiah seems to me very ordered. Where Jeremiah and Lamentations have the sorrow and guilt of sin and conquest – Isaiah, even with his references to conquest by foreign powers and judgments because of sin seems to end all of it with an announcement of the coming Grace – and not just for the people of Israel, but for all. “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isa 56:6-7, ESV).