The Message of Jeremiah: Against Wind and Tide (Bible Speaks Today)

By Derek Kidner

Book Overview

The prophet Jeremiah and King Josiah were born at the end of the longest, darkest reign in Judah's history. Human sacrifice and practice of the black arts were just two features of the wickedness that filled Jerusalem from one end to the other with innocent blood. As outspoken prophet and reforming king, these two men gave their country its finest opportunity of renewal and its last hope of surviving as the kingdom of David. The book of Jeremiah is full of turmoil and national tragedy, the story of key people like Baruch, Gedaliah and Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, and the drama of rediscovering the forgotten book of Mosaic law. National events interweave with the lives of individuals; the rediscovered book of God's law transforms Josiah, Jeremiah and the future of the world. Derek Kidner, with careful attention to the text, reveals its startling relevance to our own troubled time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830812253
• ISBN13: 9780830812257
• Release Date: December 1987
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Characteristically Kidner

If you have used any of Derek Kidner's other commentaries (Psalms, Proverbs, Ezra-Nehemiah, Isaiah in New Bible Commentary), then you know his strengths. His Jeremiah commentary is just as good as his others. First, he is brief yet profound. I've yet to find another commentator who is quite as good at this. I'm impressed over and over with his ability to get to the heart of a passage in so few words. See his treatment of Zedekiah's ruin on pages 126-127. Second, he is vivid. His writing is evocative, not drab. He often makes an idea come alive like this: "Prayer is never superfluous to the study of Scripture or the quest for guidance. God is then speaking to an upturned face, not a preoccupied back" (p. 114). Excellent. May we have upturned faces. Third, he has amazing discrimination in using cross references. Many commentators apparently just consult the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and pile on a few references. Kidner is delightfully judicious, and most of his selections are worthy of deep reflection. Note Kidner's connection of Jeremiah 7:11 not merely with Jesus' quotation of it in Matthew 21:13 but with later references (Matt. 23:38; 24:2). I have used this book weekly for a year and a half, and I've come to appreciate it more and more. Don't judge it based on short acquaintance. There's depth here that keeps coming out after repeated use, and of course there is more to love in Kidner than the three things I've mentioned.