had considered to be his friends (Read 11:18-23; 12:6; 18:11-18; 26:1-15; 32:1-3; 38:6-13, 28.) Jeremiah’s life as a prophet was one long, sad, stormy day Often he grew discouraged and was almost ready to give up the battle, but the re of the Spirit in his bones kept him true to God (read 20:9) James Gray describes the fiery trials: God placed him between two “cannots” or, if you please, between two res There was the re of persecution without, and that of the Holy Spirit within, the latter being the hotter of the two To avoid being consumed by the one, he was more than willing to walk through the other “I cannot speak any more in God’s name,” he says at one time, and follows it by adding, “I cannot refrain from speaking.”2 Jeremiah’s personal life was very lonely As noted above, even his friends and relatives plotted to kill him He was instructed of God not to marry and raise a family (16:1-4) But he had one companion at his side throughout most of his career: Baruch Baruch served as Jeremiah’s secretary, playing an important part in the story of the scrolls of the prophet’s messages (36:4-8) Chapter 45 is devoted wholly to a message from God to him Baruch remained close to Jeremiah throughout all the stormy years, and the two went into exile together Part of Jeremiah’s task was to convince the people and rulers of Judah that Babylon, the nation from the “north” (4:6), was the divinely destined master of Judah for the near future, and that Judah’s irting relations with other nations would add to the horror of the doom to come But his appeals were rejected In 588 B.C., the Babylonian conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar, did come, the siege of Jerusalem began, and about thirty months later (586 B.C.) the city and its Temple were utterly destroyed The Bible gives no details of Jeremiah’s death One tradition says that he was stoned to death in Egypt by the very Jews he tried so hard to save III THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH Jeremiah did not write this book overnight, nor even over a short period of time Many years and many experiences were the setting of its composition Though the theme of divine judgment for sin runs throughout the book of Jeremiah, the organization of the book’s materials is not always clear From the record itself we learn that Jeremiah wrote the di erent parts, including biography, history, doctrine, and prediction, at various times and under diverse circumstances When all the parts were brought together on one scroll as one book, a general pattern of composition was followed, placing the discourses in the rst half of the book and reserving the latter half mainly for narrative Jeremiah appropriately used the story of his call and commission as the introduction of the book, and ... exile together Part of Jeremiah’s task was to convince the people and rulers of Judah that Babylon, the nation from the “north” (4:6), was the divinely destined master of Judah for the near future,... III THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH Jeremiah did not write this book overnight, nor even over a short period of time Many years and many experiences were the setting of its composition Though the theme of. .. circumstances When all the parts were brought together on one scroll as one book, a general pattern of composition was followed, placing the discourses in the rst half of the book and reserving the latter