August 20, 2025 • 30 mins
Prophets of God were human too. They struggled with their feelings. They felt like giving up at times. They wrestled with the unfairness of life. Jeremiah, sometimes called “The Weeping Prophet,” shows this side of himself in the book that bears his name.
This man of God asked God “Why?’ and “How long?” But God didn’t give him the answer we might expect. This is a hard lesson to learn, but this episode shows that God expects us to be adults and face our trials with resolve and not self-pity. We see this determination in Jeremiah as he fought against negative feelings and pushed forward. We also see that the hardships he faced activated strength and faith deep within his soul. That faith came from the Word of God in his heart.
Read about this subject
- Scripture: Jeremiah
- Teacher’s Annual Lesson Commentary on Uniform Bible Lessons for the Churches of Christ 1947
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Episode Transcript
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Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My Godand My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
Jeremiah is one of the greatexamples of suffering in the Bible.
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He is a man who wentthrough much in his life.
He endured a lot of hardship, andwe can learn many lessons from him
and we can gain great encouragementfrom this one man in the Bible just
by reading this book of Jeremiah.
He was a priest and a prophet tothe Jews in very wicked times.
How bad was the nation of Judah?
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Let's open the Bible to the bookof Jeremiah and let's read some
verses to see what this man endured.
In Jeremiah chapter six, verse 13,Jeremiah said, “Because from the
least of them even to the greatestof them, everyone is given to
covetousness.” So throughout theland, from the top to the bottom in
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the nation, these people were greedy.
And Jeremiah saw that.
That bothered him.
And Jeremiah is trying to tellthem to serve God and to take their
minds off of what they had and whatthey wanted and simply love God and
serve Him, but they wouldn't listen.
And in Jeremiah six, verse 13, healso says, From the prophet even to
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the priest, everyone deals falsely.”
In other words, they were dishonest.
And he says that the religiousleadership was dishonest.
The prophets were liars;the priests were liars.
And when you have a situation likethat, that is bound to torment a man
with a good conscience like Jeremiahwho is simply there to help them.
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In Jeremiah chapter six, verse 15,he says, “Were they ashamed when
they had committed abomination?”
Now the answer ought to be yes.
When someone has done something thatis disgusting in the sight of God
and in the sight of good God-fearingpeople, that person ought to be ashamed.
The Bible says that these peoplehad committed abomination.
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That means something that is disgusting.
So instead of answering yes when he says“Were they ashamed when they had committed
abomination?” he says the answer is no.
“They were not at all ashamed, nor didthey know how to blush.” That's a natural
human reaction when we're embarrassed.
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When we're ashamed, weblush; but not these people.
Even after they had committedabomination before God, they
did not know how to blush.
“They were not at all,” hesays, “ashamed.” Let's go
to Jeremiah chapter seven.
In Jeremiah chapter seven, God tellsJeremiah to go and preach to the people.
In verse two, he says, “Stand in the gateof the Lord's house.” That's the temple.
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“And proclaim there this word andsay, ‘Hear the word of the Lord,
all you of Judah who enter in atthese gates to worship the Lord.
Thus says the Lord of hosts,the God of Israel, Amend your
ways and your doings, and I willcause you to dwell in this place.
Do not trust in these lying words saying,‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of
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the Lord, the temple of the Lord, arethese.’” These people thought that they
could live any way they wanted to andthen go to the temple of God in Jerusalem
and say how great this temple is.
This is the temple of the Lord.
In other words, they were all talk.
They were hypocrites.
Notice what he says in verse eight.
“Behold, you trust in lying words thatcannot profit.” In other words, just
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saying all these great things that you sayabout the temple will not do you any good.
It will not put you in theproper standing before God.
Notice what he says in verse nine.
“Will you steal, murder, commit adultery,swear falsely, burn incense to Baal and
walk after other gods whom you do notknow, and then come and stand before
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me in this house, which is called bymy name, and say, ‘We are delivered
to do all these abominations’?”That's what they were doing.
Those are the sins they were committing.
They were stealing.
They were committing murder.
They were committing adultery.
They were swearing falsely.
They were lying and they wereburning incense to other gods.
And then they had the audacity to comebefore God in the temple and say we are
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delivered to do all these abominationsand then to praise the temple of God.
These people are purely hypocritical.
But if you think that list of sinsthat he gave in verse eight and nine
is bad—stealing, murdering, committingadultery, swearing, falsely burning
incense to Baal and other gods—thenwhen you look at Jeremiah chapter
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seven, verse 30 and 31, you'reprobably going to be shocked if
you've never read these verses before.
If you've never heard these verses,you may be downright horrified.
In Jeremiah chapter seven, theBible shows just how far people
can go once they leave God.
This is one of the most horrific andone of the most unconscionable acts
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that you'll ever read in the Bible.
Jeremiah chapter seven, verse 30,“For the children of Judah have done
evil in my sight, says the Lord. Theyhave set their abominations in the
house which is called by my name topollute it.” In other words, they had
put their idols in the temple of God.
Now the next verse showsthat it gets even worse.
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Notice verse 31.
Here's the atrocity thatis almost unmentionable.
“And they have built the high placesof Tophet, which is in the valley
of the Son of Hinnom, to burn theirsons and their daughters in the fire,
which I did not command, nor did itcome into my heart.” You almost have
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to read that again and say, “Didhe just say what I thought he did?
Did God actually say that theJewish people burned their sons and
their daughters in fire as an actof worship to these false gods?”
Yes.
They did this in a place calledthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom.
They practiced human sacrifice.
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They didn't sacrifice their enemies.
They're sacrificing theirown sons and their daughters.
The Bible says there's such athing called natural affection.
That's the feeling that Godplaced within us to have love
for our own flesh and blood.
The Bible talks about that inRomans one, verse 31 and II
Timothy chapter three, verse three.
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These people had reached a point wherethey were without natural affection, and
we're talking about God's people here.
We're not talking about the Gentiles.
The Gentiles started this and thenthe Jews adopted it because they
wanted to be like other nations.
They wanted to be like everybody else.
They wanted to be like the world,and so to fit in, they adopted,
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they accepted, even this atrocitythat we know of as human sacrifice.
Jeremiah lived when theJews were doing this.
Jeremiah knew about all this.
How could a man live knowing that hispeople were guilty of these things?
No wonder he had such pressure.
No wonder this was torturing his mind.
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But let's keep going.
In Jeremiah chapter eight, beginning inverse 18, Jeremiah, after he's talked
about the sinfulness of these Jews,says, “I would comfort myself in sorrow.
My heart is faint in me.
No wonder, we would say.
After all he's seen, after allhe's been through, Jeremiah
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said my heart is faint in me.
In verse 20, he says, “Theharvest is past, the summer is
ended, and we are not saved.
For the hurt of the daughterof my people, I am hurt.
I am mourning.
Astonishment has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no recovery forthe health of the daughter of my
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people?” He's crying out to God.
He's sorrowful for these people.
He's not just angry askingGod to destroy his people.
He's wondering why they won'trepent, why they won't listen.
So Jeremiah is undergoinggreat emotional trauma.
He is under a severe amount of stressbecause he's sent to these people to
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turn them from their sins, to helpthem to have a good life because
all they have to do is repent andturn to God, but they won't listen.
And as a matter of fact, notonly do they not listen, but
they seem to be getting worse.
Sometimes we talk aboutwhat the worst suffering is.
We talk about different kinds ofphysical pain, and yet when we look
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at emotional pain, when we look atheartache and emotional stress, we're
reminded of Jeremiah because Jeremiahdidn't have any physical pain at
this point as far as we know now.
Job had both physicalpain and emotional pain.
Jeremiah doesn't have any physical trauma.
He's not sick.
The devil hasn't struck him withsore boils from the sole of his foot
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to the top of his head, but he'sundergoing severe emotional stress.
Look at it in chapter nine.
Jeremiah chapter nine, verse one.
These are some more familiarverses perhaps to a lot of readers.
“O that my head were waters and my eyesa fountain of tears that I might weep day
and night for the slain of the daughterof my people,” that is, the Jewish people,
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“O that I had in the wilderness a lodgingplace for travelers, that I might leave
my people and go from them, for they areall adulterers, an assembly of treacherous
men.” Jeremiah says in the first placeI've cried my eyes out for these people.
It's not because Jeremiah hadsomething done personally to him.
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It's because he loves these people.
He wants the best for these people, butthey don't want the best for themselves.
Does that sound familiar?
Not only that, he said I'mready to get away from all this.
I'm ready to be alone.
And sometimes we doneed to be by ourselves.
Jesus did in Mark chapter one, verse 35.
He rose up a great while beforeit was day and went out into a
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solitary place and there he prayed.
In John chapter six, verse 15, the Biblesays that he left the multitude and went
out into a mountain and there prayed.
Jesus told his disciples in Markchapter six, verse 31, “Depart into a
desert place” or a deserted place “andrest for a while, for there were many
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coming and going,” insomuch that thedisciples did not have even time to eat.
But the situation with Jeremiah is worse.
Jeremiah didn't say I wish I could getaway by myself because everything is so
busy and people are just pulling at me andI have so many responsibilities to other
people that I just need some time for me.
He didn't say that.
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He said the reason that I need to getaway is because you can't trust anybody.
He said they're all adulterers.
And then in verse three he said, “Andlike their bow they have bent their
tongues for lies. They are not valiantfor the truth on the earth, for they
proceed from evil to evil. And they donot know me, says the Lord.” So he says
in verse four, “Everyone take heed to hisneighbor and do not trust any brother.
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For every brother will utterlysupplant and every neighbor
will walk with slanderers.
Everyone will deceive his neighborand will not speak the truth.
They have taught theirtongue to speak lies.
They weary themselves to commit inequity.”
We're talking about theworld that Jeremiah lived in.
It was a hard time, and it put alot of pressure on this godly man.
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Let's look at Jeremiah chapter12 at one of the famous
passages on the problem of evil.
In this book we've referred tothis before, but let's go into it
again here and see what God said tothis man who was suffering inside.
In Jeremiah chapter 12 verse one,Jeremiah is talking to God and he said,
“Righteous are you, O Lord, when Iplead with you.” You're a righteous God.
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You're a just God.
And yet I have somethingto say to you here.
“Yet let me talk with you about yourjudgements.” Let me ask you some questions
about how you deal with people andhow you don't deal with some people.
He says, “Why does the way of the wickedprosper?” There is our old familiar word.
Why?
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Jeremiah the prophet is asking thesame question that we have seen many
righteous men in the Bible ask—Why, Lord?
Why do wicked people prosper?
These wicked people that he's beentalking about and that we've been
reading about—those Jews who liedand stole and committed adultery
and murder and even sacrifice theirchildren in flames to a false God—he
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says that they were prospering in thisworld, and Jeremiah says, why God?
Why would you allow that?
Why are they so happy?
It just seems like that they have itgood, and those of us who are trying
to do what's right, which was a verysmall number, seem to have it bad.
In verse two, he said,“You have planted them.
Yes, they have taken root.
They grow.
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Yes, they bear fruit.
You are near in their mouth,but far from their mind.
But you, O Lord, know me.
You have seen me.
You have tested my heart toward you.” Sohe asked God to do something about it.
In verse three, he says, “Pullthem out like sheep for the
slaughter.” In other words, he'spraying God punish these people.
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Give them what they deserve.
This is not right.
This is unjust.
“Pull them out like sheep forthe slaughter and prepare them
for the day of slaughter.”
So Jeremiah wants God to takevengeance on these evil people.
Then he asked the other question thatwe've looked at so many times in verse
four (13:48):
“How long will the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither?
The beasts and birds are consumedfor the wickedness of those who
dwell there because they said,‘He will not see our final end.’”
These wicked people are mocking God.
They're saying he doesn't see it.
He doesn't know what we're doing.
He doesn't see where this is headed.
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He will not see our final end.
And Jeremiah with his heartbreaking is saying how long Lord?
How much longer are thesepeople going to do this?
Why are they prosperingand having a good life?
And how much longer areyou going to tolerate this?
How much longer are yougoing to allow this?
Jeremiah wanted God to act.
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Jeremiah wanted God to executehis justice on these people.
He wanted God to takevengeance on these people.
He wants to know whenGod is going to do that.
Now, God responds to himbeginning in verse five, and it's
interesting what God says to himand what God does not say to him.
God did not comfort him.
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God did not take pity on him.
God did not speak encouraging words tohim and say, “Jeremiah, I understand
what you're going through. But I'mgoing to be with you. I love you, and
I'm going to stand by you and encourageyou all the way.” He did not show
those words of compassion to Jeremiah.
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“But Jeremiah is struggling. Jeremiah ishaving trouble with this problem.” Now,
what you need to do is to realize thatthis is sometimes how God deals with you.
God doesn't always sendcompassion in your troubles.
Sometimes God says, I understand that,but you're going to have to man up.
You're going to have to bear up.
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In other words, you're goingto have to be an adult here.
We don't like those words.
We don't like it when a preacher saysthose words, but God is saying to Jeremiah
in Jeremiah 12 verses five and six, you'regoing to have to man up because if you
think that this is hard, then what areyou going to do when it gets even worse?
So let's look at it here inJeremiah chapter 12, verse five.
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God says to Jeremiah, after Jeremiahhas said, why and how long, God says
in verse five, “If you have run withthe footmen, and they have wearied
you, then how can you contend withhorses?” Now that's an illustration.
If you've run with people, that iswith men, and you're tired, then
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how are you going to be able tocontend or compete with horses?
Now the illustration isyes, you've got it hard.
Yes, you're up against it here becausethese people won't listen to you.
They won't repent, and as a matterof fact, they're making fun of you.
They're persecuting you,but it's going to get worse.
Jeremiah, you need to buckle down.
And you need to dig down deep inyour faith in me and trust in me
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because I will stand with you.
But you've got bigger battles to face.
We don't like to hear that in life.
That's not the most encouragingor the most compassionate news
that we would like to hear.
Do you remember the story of Achan inthe book of Joshua in the Old Testament?
God had sent the Israelites intothe land of Canaan, and the first
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city that they came to was Jericho.
And God warned the Israelite soldiers notto take of the silver and the gold and the
brass and the iron that they found in thecity of Jericho or any of these cities.
Those things—the silver, the gold,the brass, and the iron—were to
be dedicated to the temple of God.
So God said don't takeany of that for yourself.
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But one man named Achan saw some gold andhe saw some other items and he took them.
In other words, he stole them.
So they won the battle with Jericho,and the next city that they were
to attack was a city called Ai.
And Joshua said we don'tneed all the soldiers there.
Let's just take about two orthree thousand men and attack.
And they were soundlydefeated by the people of Ai.
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And the Bible tells us in versesix that Joshua tore his clothes.
He “fell to the earth on his facebefore the ark of the Lord, even till
the evening, he and the elders ofIsrael, and they put dust on their
heads and Joshua said, ‘Lord God, Whyhave you brought this people over the
Jordan at all to deliver us into thehand of the Amorites to destroy us?
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O, that we had been content and dwelton the other side of the Jordan.
O Lord, what shall I say, when Israelturns its back before its enemies?
For the Canaanites and all the inhabitantsof the land will hear it and surround
us and cut off our name from the earth.
Then what will you dofor your great name?’”
Now what will you expectGod to say to him?
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Would you expect God to say, “I'm sorryabout that, Joshua. I'll be with you,
but you've got a problem there, andif you'll take care of that first,
then you'll be able to prosper.”Listen to what God said to him.
“The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Get up.
Why do you lie thus on your face?
Israel has sinned and theyhave also transgressed my
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covenant, which I commanded them.
For they have even taken someof the accursed things and have
stolen and deceived, and they'vealso put it among their own stuff.
Therefore, the children of Israel couldnot stand before their enemies, but turned
their back before their enemies, becausethey have become doomed to destruction.”
God didn't show pity here.
He told Joshua you needto get up off your face.
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Don't feel sorry for yourselfbecause Israel has a problem.
You need to deal with a problem here.
And what God said to Joshua isbasically what God is saying to
Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 12.
Listen to it again.
In verse eight of chapter 12, he says,“If you have run with the footmen
and they have wearied, you, then howcan you contend with horses? And if
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in the land of peace in which youtrusted, they wearied you, then how
will you do in the floodplain of theJordan?” That evidently refers to
the time when the Babylonians come.
He says if you think it's badnow then you need to realize
that it's going to get worse.
Notice what he tells him in verse six.
God told Jeremiah you haveproblems in your own family.
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You can't even trust your brothers.
You need to deal with that, soyou're going to have to really show
yourself a man to do this great work.
He says in verse six, “For even yourbrothers, the house of your father,
even they have dealt treacherouslywith you. Yes, they have called
a multitude after you, but do notbelieve them,” he says, even though
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they speak smooth words to you.
If you have family problems today,just remember that Jeremiah long
ago had family problems too.
That's just one of theproblems that he had to endure.
Let's go to chapter 15.
In chapter 15, verse 15, Jeremiah said, “OLord, you know; remember me and visit me.
Take vengeance from me on my persecutor.
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In your enduring patiencedo not take me away.
Know that for your sakeI have suffered rebuke.
Your words were found and I atethem, and your word was to me the
joy and rejoicing of my heart.
For I am called by yourname, O Lord God of hosts.
I did not sit in the assemblyof mockers nor did I rejoice.
I sat alone because of yourhand.” Jeremiah is saying to
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God, yes, I've endured all this.
I've put up with all this.
I haven't backed down.
I haven't done evil, and yet youhave filled me with indignation.
He says in verse 18, why?
There's our question again,Jeremiah 15, verse 18.
“Why Lord, why is my pain perpetual?” Itjust won't stop, and my wound incurable.
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It just seems like thatthere's no fix for this.
He says my trouble refuses to be healed.
And then he says something in thelast part of verse 18 that, if
it's not disrespectful, borderson being disrespectful to God
because Jeremiah is frustrated.
He's getting angry.
He's like job.
Remember that Job became so angrythat he said some things to God
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that he shouldn't have said.
Well, when you look at the book ofJeremiah, you find that Jeremiah is
very similar to Job in those waysbecause Jeremiah did say some things
about God that he should not havesaid in the last part of verse 18.
He's talking to God and he said, “Will yousurely be to me like an unreliable stream
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as waters that fail?” In other words,you go to a stream of water, you expect
to get the water, and it's not there.
It doesn't give you what youthought that it would give to you.
He's saying you're like that, God.
Now the King James is even moreblunt because the King James says,
“Will you be to me as a liar?”
It uses that word liar!
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But God didn't strike him dead.
He didn't give him leprosy oranything, but He did correct him.
Verse 19 (22:30):
God said to him, “If you return,” in other words, if you get back
up on your feet, spiritually speaking,if you get your thinking right and
get back on the right track of mind,Jeremiah, “then I will bring you back.
You shall stand before me.
If you take out the precious fromthe vile, you shall be as my mouth,
but let them return to you, but youmust not return to them.” And he
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says if you do this then I'm goingto make you a fortified bronze wall.
They will fight against you, butthey will not be able to prevail
because I'm going to deliver you.
It's just amazing whatthis man went through.
In chapter 16 verses one throughfour God told Jeremiah not to
take a wife and have children.
Now that might seem like a formof punishment, but it was not.
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God was not punishing him here.
God was protecting him because God saidin Jeremiah chapter 16, verse one, “The
word of the Lord also came to me saying,you shall not take a wife, nor shall you
have sons or daughters in this place. Forthus says the Lord concerning the sons and
daughters who are born in this place andconcerning their mothers who bore them and
their fathers who begot them in this land: they shall die gruesome deaths.” That's (23:38):
undefined
going to happen when the Babylonians come.
So it might seem that on top of everythingelse, Jeremiah cannot even enjoy a
simple pleasure called the family.
He can't enjoy that.
He can't get married, he can't havechildren, he doesn't have anybody to
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support him and to be with him in thosehard times and just to enjoy life.
This man did not have a natural,normal, enjoyable life because God
had chosen him to do this work.
Now let's turn to a veryimportant passage on this whole
issue in Jeremiah chapter 20.
In Jeremiah chapter 20,the Jews arrested Jeremiah.
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Why?
Because he told them the truth.
He was preaching the truth, andJeremiah told them this nation will
fall to the Babylonians [Jeremiahchapter 20 verses one through six].
Then he said in verse seven, “Lord, youinduced me and I was persuaded, you are
stronger than I, and I have prevailed now.
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That's the New King James Version.
The King James says, Lord You“deceived me and I was deceived.”
What could he be talking about there?
What does he mean when he says, Lordyou have misled me—because that's
basically what he's saying here.
Well, in Jeremiah chapter one, Godpromised Jeremiah that he would take
care of him, and yet what we find hereis that Jeremiah has been arrested
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and Jeremiah is complaining to God.
You said that you would protect me.
You said that you would be with me andlook at what's happening to me here.
It keeps happening over andover again, and he became so
discouraged that he decided to quit.
He decided to quit preaching.
Verse eight (25:24):
“For when I spoke, I cried out. I shouted violence and plunder.”
In other words, that's whatthese people were guilty of.
That's what I preached against becausethe word of the Lord was made to
me a reproach and a derision daily.
These people rejectedhim on a daily basis.
When you preach the word or when youjust as a Christian talk to other people
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about the gospel and they throw that backin your face, that's hard to take, and
it's hard not to take that personally.
Sometimes you get your feelingshurt, it hurts and it angers you.
It hurt Jeremiah deeply, and hesaid this didn't just happen one
time or two times or three times.
He said this happened on a daily basis,and so he reached the point in verse nine
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where he said I will not make mentionof him nor speak anymore in his name.
I'll just quit.
I'll just live my life and Iwon't even speak to these people.
I'm going to quit talking to them.
I'm going to quit preaching tothem as he says, “I will not speak
anymore in his name.” Now, thisis a prophet of God Almighty.
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He heard the voice of God.
But he became so discouraged becauseof the rejection and the persecution
and the sin that he saw all aroundhim that he just decided to give up.
He decided that he wasnot going to do any good.
Preachers today often gothrough times like this.
We feel like that we'renot doing any good.
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We feel like that nobody is listening.
We wonder, in our minds, whatdifference would it make whether
I preached or didn't preach.
Jeremiah said I reached that point and Idecided I'm not going to do this anymore.
I'm not going to take this anymore.
And if you're not a preacher stillsometimes you reach the point where
you say I'm just tired of this.
I'm tired of the battle.
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I'm tired of the struggle, I'm tired ofthe hardships, and I'm just going to quit.
But the Bible tells us in versenine what delivered him, and it
was not a miracle from heaven.
It was not a vision from God.
It was not some kind of specialoperation of the Holy Spirit that
just clicked something in his mind.
He said here's what happened (27:33):
“But his word was in my heart like a burning
fire shut up in my bones, and I wasweary of holding it back and I could
not.” Jeremiah said I decided to quit.
I decided not to say anything moreabout God or to speak in His name any
longer, but he said I could not do that.
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And the reason was because ofthe word of God in his heart.
It was because of what was in his soul.
He said it was like a burningfire shut up in my bones.
He said I couldn't hold it back.
Now, that is what motivates ustoday and realize that we are
like Jeremiah as Christians today.
Sometimes we want to just pull back andsay, “I'm not going to say anything to
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anybody because nobody wants to hear it.People are against us, people persecute
us” and sometimes we pull back like that.
And yet the word of God insideof us is like a burning fire
and we say I can't do that.
I have to speak out.
I must say something.
But I want you to notice what happensin Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 11,
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after he says this, after he wentthrough this struggle inside.
Sometimes as a human beinghe would still struggle.
Now he's going to take youdeep inside his heart here.
Notice in verse 11 that he says, “Butthe Lord is with me.” Verse 13: “Sing to
the Lord, praise the Lord.” And yet inthe very next verse, verse 14, he said,
“Cursed be the day in which I was born.
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Let that day not be blessedin which my mother bore me.
Let the man be cursed who brought newsto my father, saying ‘A male child has
been born to you,’ making him very glad.
In verse 17 and 18, he said, “Because hedid not kill me from the womb, that my
mother might have been my grave and herwomb always enlarged with me. Why did I
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come forth from the womb to see labor andsorrow, that my day should be consumed
with shame?” Does that remind you of job?
Job talked exactly likethat in Job chapter three!
What are we seeing here?
Humanity.
We're seeing that Job was human.
We're seeing that Jeremiah was human.
Our emotions go back and forth.
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Our emotions are like a rollercoaster.
They're up and down and sodon't be discouraged when you go
through that up and down cycle.
Jeremiah knew what that was about.
Sometimes he's talking like he's veryencouraged and then he's very depressed.
This is the inwardstruggle that we all face.
Jesus said, the Spirit is willing, butthe flesh is weak, and that is a very
(30:02):
important part of dealing with theproblem of sin and suffering in this life.
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
(30:23):
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate programs.
Study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My Godand My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
Jeremiah is one of the greatexamples of suffering in the Bible.
(00:21):
He is a man who wentthrough much in his life.
He endured a lot of hardship, andwe can learn many lessons from him
and we can gain great encouragementfrom this one man in the Bible just
by reading this book of Jeremiah.
He was a priest and a prophet tothe Jews in very wicked times.
How bad was the nation of Judah?
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Let's open the Bible to the bookof Jeremiah and let's read some
verses to see what this man endured.
In Jeremiah chapter six, verse 13,Jeremiah said, “Because from the
least of them even to the greatestof them, everyone is given to
covetousness.” So throughout theland, from the top to the bottom in
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the nation, these people were greedy.
And Jeremiah saw that.
That bothered him.
And Jeremiah is trying to tellthem to serve God and to take their
minds off of what they had and whatthey wanted and simply love God and
serve Him, but they wouldn't listen.
And in Jeremiah six, verse 13, healso says, From the prophet even to
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the priest, everyone deals falsely.”
In other words, they were dishonest.
And he says that the religiousleadership was dishonest.
The prophets were liars;the priests were liars.
And when you have a situation likethat, that is bound to torment a man
with a good conscience like Jeremiahwho is simply there to help them.
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In Jeremiah chapter six, verse 15,he says, “Were they ashamed when
they had committed abomination?”
Now the answer ought to be yes.
When someone has done something thatis disgusting in the sight of God
and in the sight of good God-fearingpeople, that person ought to be ashamed.
The Bible says that these peoplehad committed abomination.
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That means something that is disgusting.
So instead of answering yes when he says“Were they ashamed when they had committed
abomination?” he says the answer is no.
“They were not at all ashamed, nor didthey know how to blush.” That's a natural
human reaction when we're embarrassed.
(02:31):
When we're ashamed, weblush; but not these people.
Even after they had committedabomination before God, they
did not know how to blush.
“They were not at all,” hesays, “ashamed.” Let's go
to Jeremiah chapter seven.
In Jeremiah chapter seven, God tellsJeremiah to go and preach to the people.
In verse two, he says, “Stand in the gateof the Lord's house.” That's the temple.
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“And proclaim there this word andsay, ‘Hear the word of the Lord,
all you of Judah who enter in atthese gates to worship the Lord.
Thus says the Lord of hosts,the God of Israel, Amend your
ways and your doings, and I willcause you to dwell in this place.
Do not trust in these lying words saying,‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of
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the Lord, the temple of the Lord, arethese.’” These people thought that they
could live any way they wanted to andthen go to the temple of God in Jerusalem
and say how great this temple is.
This is the temple of the Lord.
In other words, they were all talk.
They were hypocrites.
Notice what he says in verse eight.
“Behold, you trust in lying words thatcannot profit.” In other words, just
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saying all these great things that you sayabout the temple will not do you any good.
It will not put you in theproper standing before God.
Notice what he says in verse nine.
“Will you steal, murder, commit adultery,swear falsely, burn incense to Baal and
walk after other gods whom you do notknow, and then come and stand before
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me in this house, which is called bymy name, and say, ‘We are delivered
to do all these abominations’?”That's what they were doing.
Those are the sins they were committing.
They were stealing.
They were committing murder.
They were committing adultery.
They were swearing falsely.
They were lying and they wereburning incense to other gods.
And then they had the audacity to comebefore God in the temple and say we are
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delivered to do all these abominationsand then to praise the temple of God.
These people are purely hypocritical.
But if you think that list of sinsthat he gave in verse eight and nine
is bad—stealing, murdering, committingadultery, swearing, falsely burning
incense to Baal and other gods—thenwhen you look at Jeremiah chapter
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seven, verse 30 and 31, you'reprobably going to be shocked if
you've never read these verses before.
If you've never heard these verses,you may be downright horrified.
In Jeremiah chapter seven, theBible shows just how far people
can go once they leave God.
This is one of the most horrific andone of the most unconscionable acts
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that you'll ever read in the Bible.
Jeremiah chapter seven, verse 30,“For the children of Judah have done
evil in my sight, says the Lord. Theyhave set their abominations in the
house which is called by my name topollute it.” In other words, they had
put their idols in the temple of God.
Now the next verse showsthat it gets even worse.
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Notice verse 31.
Here's the atrocity thatis almost unmentionable.
“And they have built the high placesof Tophet, which is in the valley
of the Son of Hinnom, to burn theirsons and their daughters in the fire,
which I did not command, nor did itcome into my heart.” You almost have
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to read that again and say, “Didhe just say what I thought he did?
Did God actually say that theJewish people burned their sons and
their daughters in fire as an actof worship to these false gods?”
Yes.
They did this in a place calledthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom.
They practiced human sacrifice.
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They didn't sacrifice their enemies.
They're sacrificing theirown sons and their daughters.
The Bible says there's such athing called natural affection.
That's the feeling that Godplaced within us to have love
for our own flesh and blood.
The Bible talks about that inRomans one, verse 31 and II
Timothy chapter three, verse three.
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These people had reached a point wherethey were without natural affection, and
we're talking about God's people here.
We're not talking about the Gentiles.
The Gentiles started this and thenthe Jews adopted it because they
wanted to be like other nations.
They wanted to be like everybody else.
They wanted to be like the world,and so to fit in, they adopted,
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they accepted, even this atrocitythat we know of as human sacrifice.
Jeremiah lived when theJews were doing this.
Jeremiah knew about all this.
How could a man live knowing that hispeople were guilty of these things?
No wonder he had such pressure.
No wonder this was torturing his mind.
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But let's keep going.
In Jeremiah chapter eight, beginning inverse 18, Jeremiah, after he's talked
about the sinfulness of these Jews,says, “I would comfort myself in sorrow.
My heart is faint in me.
No wonder, we would say.
After all he's seen, after allhe's been through, Jeremiah
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said my heart is faint in me.
In verse 20, he says, “Theharvest is past, the summer is
ended, and we are not saved.
For the hurt of the daughterof my people, I am hurt.
I am mourning.
Astonishment has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no recovery forthe health of the daughter of my
(08:00):
people?” He's crying out to God.
He's sorrowful for these people.
He's not just angry askingGod to destroy his people.
He's wondering why they won'trepent, why they won't listen.
So Jeremiah is undergoinggreat emotional trauma.
He is under a severe amount of stressbecause he's sent to these people to
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turn them from their sins, to helpthem to have a good life because
all they have to do is repent andturn to God, but they won't listen.
And as a matter of fact, notonly do they not listen, but
they seem to be getting worse.
Sometimes we talk aboutwhat the worst suffering is.
We talk about different kinds ofphysical pain, and yet when we look
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at emotional pain, when we look atheartache and emotional stress, we're
reminded of Jeremiah because Jeremiahdidn't have any physical pain at
this point as far as we know now.
Job had both physicalpain and emotional pain.
Jeremiah doesn't have any physical trauma.
He's not sick.
The devil hasn't struck him withsore boils from the sole of his foot
(09:03):
to the top of his head, but he'sundergoing severe emotional stress.
Look at it in chapter nine.
Jeremiah chapter nine, verse one.
These are some more familiarverses perhaps to a lot of readers.
“O that my head were waters and my eyesa fountain of tears that I might weep day
and night for the slain of the daughterof my people,” that is, the Jewish people,
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“O that I had in the wilderness a lodgingplace for travelers, that I might leave
my people and go from them, for they areall adulterers, an assembly of treacherous
men.” Jeremiah says in the first placeI've cried my eyes out for these people.
It's not because Jeremiah hadsomething done personally to him.
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It's because he loves these people.
He wants the best for these people, butthey don't want the best for themselves.
Does that sound familiar?
Not only that, he said I'mready to get away from all this.
I'm ready to be alone.
And sometimes we doneed to be by ourselves.
Jesus did in Mark chapter one, verse 35.
He rose up a great while beforeit was day and went out into a
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solitary place and there he prayed.
In John chapter six, verse 15, the Biblesays that he left the multitude and went
out into a mountain and there prayed.
Jesus told his disciples in Markchapter six, verse 31, “Depart into a
desert place” or a deserted place “andrest for a while, for there were many
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coming and going,” insomuch that thedisciples did not have even time to eat.
But the situation with Jeremiah is worse.
Jeremiah didn't say I wish I could getaway by myself because everything is so
busy and people are just pulling at me andI have so many responsibilities to other
people that I just need some time for me.
He didn't say that.
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He said the reason that I need to getaway is because you can't trust anybody.
He said they're all adulterers.
And then in verse three he said, “Andlike their bow they have bent their
tongues for lies. They are not valiantfor the truth on the earth, for they
proceed from evil to evil. And they donot know me, says the Lord.” So he says
in verse four, “Everyone take heed to hisneighbor and do not trust any brother.
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For every brother will utterlysupplant and every neighbor
will walk with slanderers.
Everyone will deceive his neighborand will not speak the truth.
They have taught theirtongue to speak lies.
They weary themselves to commit inequity.”
We're talking about theworld that Jeremiah lived in.
It was a hard time, and it put alot of pressure on this godly man.
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Let's look at Jeremiah chapter12 at one of the famous
passages on the problem of evil.
In this book we've referred tothis before, but let's go into it
again here and see what God said tothis man who was suffering inside.
In Jeremiah chapter 12 verse one,Jeremiah is talking to God and he said,
“Righteous are you, O Lord, when Iplead with you.” You're a righteous God.
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You're a just God.
And yet I have somethingto say to you here.
“Yet let me talk with you about yourjudgements.” Let me ask you some questions
about how you deal with people andhow you don't deal with some people.
He says, “Why does the way of the wickedprosper?” There is our old familiar word.
Why?
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Jeremiah the prophet is asking thesame question that we have seen many
righteous men in the Bible ask—Why, Lord?
Why do wicked people prosper?
These wicked people that he's beentalking about and that we've been
reading about—those Jews who liedand stole and committed adultery
and murder and even sacrifice theirchildren in flames to a false God—he
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says that they were prospering in thisworld, and Jeremiah says, why God?
Why would you allow that?
Why are they so happy?
It just seems like that they have itgood, and those of us who are trying
to do what's right, which was a verysmall number, seem to have it bad.
In verse two, he said,“You have planted them.
Yes, they have taken root.
They grow.
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Yes, they bear fruit.
You are near in their mouth,but far from their mind.
But you, O Lord, know me.
You have seen me.
You have tested my heart toward you.” Sohe asked God to do something about it.
In verse three, he says, “Pullthem out like sheep for the
slaughter.” In other words, he'spraying God punish these people.
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Give them what they deserve.
This is not right.
This is unjust.
“Pull them out like sheep forthe slaughter and prepare them
for the day of slaughter.”
So Jeremiah wants God to takevengeance on these evil people.
Then he asked the other question thatwe've looked at so many times in verse
four (13:48):
“How long will the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither?
The beasts and birds are consumedfor the wickedness of those who
dwell there because they said,‘He will not see our final end.’”
These wicked people are mocking God.
They're saying he doesn't see it.
He doesn't know what we're doing.
He doesn't see where this is headed.
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He will not see our final end.
And Jeremiah with his heartbreaking is saying how long Lord?
How much longer are thesepeople going to do this?
Why are they prosperingand having a good life?
And how much longer areyou going to tolerate this?
How much longer are yougoing to allow this?
Jeremiah wanted God to act.
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Jeremiah wanted God to executehis justice on these people.
He wanted God to takevengeance on these people.
He wants to know whenGod is going to do that.
Now, God responds to himbeginning in verse five, and it's
interesting what God says to himand what God does not say to him.
God did not comfort him.
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God did not take pity on him.
God did not speak encouraging words tohim and say, “Jeremiah, I understand
what you're going through. But I'mgoing to be with you. I love you, and
I'm going to stand by you and encourageyou all the way.” He did not show
those words of compassion to Jeremiah.
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“But Jeremiah is struggling. Jeremiah ishaving trouble with this problem.” Now,
what you need to do is to realize thatthis is sometimes how God deals with you.
God doesn't always sendcompassion in your troubles.
Sometimes God says, I understand that,but you're going to have to man up.
You're going to have to bear up.
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In other words, you're goingto have to be an adult here.
We don't like those words.
We don't like it when a preacher saysthose words, but God is saying to Jeremiah
in Jeremiah 12 verses five and six, you'regoing to have to man up because if you
think that this is hard, then what areyou going to do when it gets even worse?
So let's look at it here inJeremiah chapter 12, verse five.
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God says to Jeremiah, after Jeremiahhas said, why and how long, God says
in verse five, “If you have run withthe footmen, and they have wearied
you, then how can you contend withhorses?” Now that's an illustration.
If you've run with people, that iswith men, and you're tired, then
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how are you going to be able tocontend or compete with horses?
Now the illustration isyes, you've got it hard.
Yes, you're up against it here becausethese people won't listen to you.
They won't repent, and as a matterof fact, they're making fun of you.
They're persecuting you,but it's going to get worse.
Jeremiah, you need to buckle down.
And you need to dig down deep inyour faith in me and trust in me
(16:41):
because I will stand with you.
But you've got bigger battles to face.
We don't like to hear that in life.
That's not the most encouragingor the most compassionate news
that we would like to hear.
Do you remember the story of Achan inthe book of Joshua in the Old Testament?
God had sent the Israelites intothe land of Canaan, and the first
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city that they came to was Jericho.
And God warned the Israelite soldiers notto take of the silver and the gold and the
brass and the iron that they found in thecity of Jericho or any of these cities.
Those things—the silver, the gold,the brass, and the iron—were to
be dedicated to the temple of God.
So God said don't takeany of that for yourself.
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But one man named Achan saw some gold andhe saw some other items and he took them.
In other words, he stole them.
So they won the battle with Jericho,and the next city that they were
to attack was a city called Ai.
And Joshua said we don'tneed all the soldiers there.
Let's just take about two orthree thousand men and attack.
And they were soundlydefeated by the people of Ai.
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And the Bible tells us in versesix that Joshua tore his clothes.
He “fell to the earth on his facebefore the ark of the Lord, even till
the evening, he and the elders ofIsrael, and they put dust on their
heads and Joshua said, ‘Lord God, Whyhave you brought this people over the
Jordan at all to deliver us into thehand of the Amorites to destroy us?
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O, that we had been content and dwelton the other side of the Jordan.
O Lord, what shall I say, when Israelturns its back before its enemies?
For the Canaanites and all the inhabitantsof the land will hear it and surround
us and cut off our name from the earth.
Then what will you dofor your great name?’”
Now what will you expectGod to say to him?
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Would you expect God to say, “I'm sorryabout that, Joshua. I'll be with you,
but you've got a problem there, andif you'll take care of that first,
then you'll be able to prosper.”Listen to what God said to him.
“The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Get up.
Why do you lie thus on your face?
Israel has sinned and theyhave also transgressed my
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covenant, which I commanded them.
For they have even taken someof the accursed things and have
stolen and deceived, and they'vealso put it among their own stuff.
Therefore, the children of Israel couldnot stand before their enemies, but turned
their back before their enemies, becausethey have become doomed to destruction.”
God didn't show pity here.
He told Joshua you needto get up off your face.
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Don't feel sorry for yourselfbecause Israel has a problem.
You need to deal with a problem here.
And what God said to Joshua isbasically what God is saying to
Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 12.
Listen to it again.
In verse eight of chapter 12, he says,“If you have run with the footmen
and they have wearied, you, then howcan you contend with horses? And if
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in the land of peace in which youtrusted, they wearied you, then how
will you do in the floodplain of theJordan?” That evidently refers to
the time when the Babylonians come.
He says if you think it's badnow then you need to realize
that it's going to get worse.
Notice what he tells him in verse six.
God told Jeremiah you haveproblems in your own family.
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You can't even trust your brothers.
You need to deal with that, soyou're going to have to really show
yourself a man to do this great work.
He says in verse six, “For even yourbrothers, the house of your father,
even they have dealt treacherouslywith you. Yes, they have called
a multitude after you, but do notbelieve them,” he says, even though
(20:15):
they speak smooth words to you.
If you have family problems today,just remember that Jeremiah long
ago had family problems too.
That's just one of theproblems that he had to endure.
Let's go to chapter 15.
In chapter 15, verse 15, Jeremiah said, “OLord, you know; remember me and visit me.
Take vengeance from me on my persecutor.
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In your enduring patiencedo not take me away.
Know that for your sakeI have suffered rebuke.
Your words were found and I atethem, and your word was to me the
joy and rejoicing of my heart.
For I am called by yourname, O Lord God of hosts.
I did not sit in the assemblyof mockers nor did I rejoice.
I sat alone because of yourhand.” Jeremiah is saying to
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God, yes, I've endured all this.
I've put up with all this.
I haven't backed down.
I haven't done evil, and yet youhave filled me with indignation.
He says in verse 18, why?
There's our question again,Jeremiah 15, verse 18.
“Why Lord, why is my pain perpetual?” Itjust won't stop, and my wound incurable.
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It just seems like thatthere's no fix for this.
He says my trouble refuses to be healed.
And then he says something in thelast part of verse 18 that, if
it's not disrespectful, borderson being disrespectful to God
because Jeremiah is frustrated.
He's getting angry.
He's like job.
Remember that Job became so angrythat he said some things to God
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that he shouldn't have said.
Well, when you look at the book ofJeremiah, you find that Jeremiah is
very similar to Job in those waysbecause Jeremiah did say some things
about God that he should not havesaid in the last part of verse 18.
He's talking to God and he said, “Will yousurely be to me like an unreliable stream
(22:04):
as waters that fail?” In other words,you go to a stream of water, you expect
to get the water, and it's not there.
It doesn't give you what youthought that it would give to you.
He's saying you're like that, God.
Now the King James is even moreblunt because the King James says,
“Will you be to me as a liar?”
It uses that word liar!
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But God didn't strike him dead.
He didn't give him leprosy oranything, but He did correct him.
Verse 19 (22:30):
God said to him, “If you return,” in other words, if you get back
up on your feet, spiritually speaking,if you get your thinking right and
get back on the right track of mind,Jeremiah, “then I will bring you back.
You shall stand before me.
If you take out the precious fromthe vile, you shall be as my mouth,
but let them return to you, but youmust not return to them.” And he
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says if you do this then I'm goingto make you a fortified bronze wall.
They will fight against you, butthey will not be able to prevail
because I'm going to deliver you.
It's just amazing whatthis man went through.
In chapter 16 verses one throughfour God told Jeremiah not to
take a wife and have children.
Now that might seem like a formof punishment, but it was not.
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God was not punishing him here.
God was protecting him because God saidin Jeremiah chapter 16, verse one, “The
word of the Lord also came to me saying,you shall not take a wife, nor shall you
have sons or daughters in this place. Forthus says the Lord concerning the sons and
daughters who are born in this place andconcerning their mothers who bore them and
their fathers who begot them in this land: they shall die gruesome deaths.” That's (23:38):
undefined
going to happen when the Babylonians come.
So it might seem that on top of everythingelse, Jeremiah cannot even enjoy a
simple pleasure called the family.
He can't enjoy that.
He can't get married, he can't havechildren, he doesn't have anybody to
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support him and to be with him in thosehard times and just to enjoy life.
This man did not have a natural,normal, enjoyable life because God
had chosen him to do this work.
Now let's turn to a veryimportant passage on this whole
issue in Jeremiah chapter 20.
In Jeremiah chapter 20,the Jews arrested Jeremiah.
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Why?
Because he told them the truth.
He was preaching the truth, andJeremiah told them this nation will
fall to the Babylonians [Jeremiahchapter 20 verses one through six].
Then he said in verse seven, “Lord, youinduced me and I was persuaded, you are
stronger than I, and I have prevailed now.
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That's the New King James Version.
The King James says, Lord You“deceived me and I was deceived.”
What could he be talking about there?
What does he mean when he says, Lordyou have misled me—because that's
basically what he's saying here.
Well, in Jeremiah chapter one, Godpromised Jeremiah that he would take
care of him, and yet what we find hereis that Jeremiah has been arrested
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and Jeremiah is complaining to God.
You said that you would protect me.
You said that you would be with me andlook at what's happening to me here.
It keeps happening over andover again, and he became so
discouraged that he decided to quit.
He decided to quit preaching.
Verse eight (25:24):
“For when I spoke, I cried out. I shouted violence and plunder.”
In other words, that's whatthese people were guilty of.
That's what I preached against becausethe word of the Lord was made to
me a reproach and a derision daily.
These people rejectedhim on a daily basis.
When you preach the word or when youjust as a Christian talk to other people
(25:48):
about the gospel and they throw that backin your face, that's hard to take, and
it's hard not to take that personally.
Sometimes you get your feelingshurt, it hurts and it angers you.
It hurt Jeremiah deeply, and hesaid this didn't just happen one
time or two times or three times.
He said this happened on a daily basis,and so he reached the point in verse nine
(26:13):
where he said I will not make mentionof him nor speak anymore in his name.
I'll just quit.
I'll just live my life and Iwon't even speak to these people.
I'm going to quit talking to them.
I'm going to quit preaching tothem as he says, “I will not speak
anymore in his name.” Now, thisis a prophet of God Almighty.
(26:34):
He heard the voice of God.
But he became so discouraged becauseof the rejection and the persecution
and the sin that he saw all aroundhim that he just decided to give up.
He decided that he wasnot going to do any good.
Preachers today often gothrough times like this.
We feel like that we'renot doing any good.
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We feel like that nobody is listening.
We wonder, in our minds, whatdifference would it make whether
I preached or didn't preach.
Jeremiah said I reached that point and Idecided I'm not going to do this anymore.
I'm not going to take this anymore.
And if you're not a preacher stillsometimes you reach the point where
you say I'm just tired of this.
I'm tired of the battle.
(27:16):
I'm tired of the struggle, I'm tired ofthe hardships, and I'm just going to quit.
But the Bible tells us in versenine what delivered him, and it
was not a miracle from heaven.
It was not a vision from God.
It was not some kind of specialoperation of the Holy Spirit that
just clicked something in his mind.
He said here's what happened (27:33):
“But his word was in my heart like a burning
fire shut up in my bones, and I wasweary of holding it back and I could
not.” Jeremiah said I decided to quit.
I decided not to say anything moreabout God or to speak in His name any
longer, but he said I could not do that.
(27:55):
And the reason was because ofthe word of God in his heart.
It was because of what was in his soul.
He said it was like a burningfire shut up in my bones.
He said I couldn't hold it back.
Now, that is what motivates ustoday and realize that we are
like Jeremiah as Christians today.
Sometimes we want to just pull back andsay, “I'm not going to say anything to
(28:15):
anybody because nobody wants to hear it.People are against us, people persecute
us” and sometimes we pull back like that.
And yet the word of God insideof us is like a burning fire
and we say I can't do that.
I have to speak out.
I must say something.
But I want you to notice what happensin Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 11,
(28:37):
after he says this, after he wentthrough this struggle inside.
Sometimes as a human beinghe would still struggle.
Now he's going to take youdeep inside his heart here.
Notice in verse 11 that he says, “Butthe Lord is with me.” Verse 13: “Sing to
the Lord, praise the Lord.” And yet inthe very next verse, verse 14, he said,
“Cursed be the day in which I was born.
(28:59):
Let that day not be blessedin which my mother bore me.
Let the man be cursed who brought newsto my father, saying ‘A male child has
been born to you,’ making him very glad.
In verse 17 and 18, he said, “Because hedid not kill me from the womb, that my
mother might have been my grave and herwomb always enlarged with me. Why did I
(29:19):
come forth from the womb to see labor andsorrow, that my day should be consumed
with shame?” Does that remind you of job?
Job talked exactly likethat in Job chapter three!
What are we seeing here?
Humanity.
We're seeing that Job was human.
We're seeing that Jeremiah was human.
Our emotions go back and forth.
(29:40):
Our emotions are like a rollercoaster.
They're up and down and sodon't be discouraged when you go
through that up and down cycle.
Jeremiah knew what that was about.
Sometimes he's talking like he's veryencouraged and then he's very depressed.
This is the inwardstruggle that we all face.
Jesus said, the Spirit is willing, butthe flesh is weak, and that is a very
(30:02):
important part of dealing with theproblem of sin and suffering in this life.
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
(30:23):
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate programs.
Study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
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