St. Irenaeus Ministries

Hananiah proclaims that Babylon will be defeated within two years and the things that they ave stolen from the temple will be restored. Jeremiah says that this is not what the true prophets have prophesied about before, and that the people should not believe Hananiah's words until they come true. Hananiah would die shortly thereafter. Jeremiah tells the people not to wait to start families and pre...

Jeremiah prophesies in the Temple that the Temple will be sacked, and the priests and false prophets want to kill Jeremiah for it, but the people are persuaded that if they do kill Jeremiah, and he is a prophet, they will have innocent blood on their hands. There is precedent among the prophets for this in Micah and a counterexample in Uriah. Jeremiah puts a yoke on his neck to warn the people of...

Jeremiah pronounces judgment on Jehoiachin and criticizes all the kings but Josiah. He also refers to the entire people returning to Israel, as well as a righteous branch of David who will rule there. This is a messianic prophecy, and it refers to Jesus. Jeremiah goes after the false prophets as well. Jeremiah is shown a basket of figs, some good and some bad. These figs are like the people of Isr...

Jeremiah sees a potter whose clay has not turned out the way he wanted to, and God uses this to explain his actions. God will rework Israel into a different type of vessel if Israel will change its path, which Paul would echo in 2 Timothy 2:20-21. This does not match what the priests and false prophets were saying at the time, but those people, both then and now are not guaranteed to proclaim what...

Jeremiah is distressed by the fact that the people are against him, and has no wife to comfort him in his distress, since children would not be safe in this time. Jeremiah prophesies that if Jerusalem keeps the Sabbath, kings will rule in Jerusalem and people will come bearing offerings, but if they do not keep the Sabbath, the city will be consumed by fire.

God tells the people of Israel and the surrounding nations that they will be conquered, but Israel will be restored, as well as any nation that will worship God as other nations have convinced Israel to worship Baal. Any nation that does not do this will be destroyed. There is an extended section of visions told in a parabolic form next. Jeremiah is told to bury a waistcloth, a piece of intimate a...

Jeremiah embraces the book of the law that was discovered, the book of Deuteronomy. Meredith Klein, in ''The Treaty of the Great King'', says that Deuteronomy follows a well-defined formula of a Hittite treaty from a subject to his ruler. These treaties go over the history of the relationship, the conditions of the treaty, and the consequences of breaking it. (Some of these curses can be found in...

The Lord tells His people that if they circumcise their hearts as Moses told them to do in Deuteronomy 10:16, they will be able to return to the land. Jeremiah protests to the Lord that He is deceving the people: we know from 2 Thessalonians that God can allow the people to be deceived. The people had been led astray by the priests (the tradition of being led astray by those claiming religious aut...

God recalls when Israel came into the land out of Egypt and how He dealt harshly with those who would dare to touch His people, the first fruits of the harvest. Unfortunately, Israel became dissolute. The people carried on the religious ceremonies despite God not being in the ceremonies, and the people didn't even ask where God was. The Israelites did not seek refuge in God when the nation was thr...

Josiah, at age 8, came to the throne, and showed signs of clear piety by his teens. During the time of his reign, there was a lack of competing power in the area, giving Josiah room to make needed reforms. Josiah cleansed the temple, and the priests discovered the book of the law there, which had been neglected. Josiah elevated the Passover to a great festival, and Huldah prophesies that those who...

Jeremiah is called to prophecy when he was preparing for the priesthood around age 20, in the reign of King Josiah, the great reformer. Jeremiah is reluctant and protests that he does not know how to speak, but God tells him that He watches over His words, but does not hide from Jeremiah that this will take many years, which will turn out to be forty years. Under Josiah, Jeremiah is somewhat prote...

After Jesus appears to the apostles, they tell Thomas, who had been apart from them following the crucifixion, that they have seen Jesus, but Thomas, cynical, does not believe. Jesus then appears to the apostles again with Thomas, who does believe is very deeply moved. Jesus tells Thomas that he has believed because he has seen, but those who have not seen but still believe (those reading the gosp...

Mary Magdalene visits the tomb of Jesus with some others, saying, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." John and Peter go to visit the tomb, and John sees the state of the burial cloths and believes. Mary sees two angels in the tomb, and Jesus reveals Himself to Mary, much like He reveals Himself to the apostles on the road to Emmaus. Jesus tells...

Peter comes to the palace where Jesus is being tried, and denies that he knows Him three times, as Christ prophesied. Christ is brought to Pilate, who finds no guilt. Pilate tries to send Jesus back to be punished by the Jews, but they refuse, as there is a law preventing them from executing Him, but they must see Jesus executed for declaring Himself the Son of God. The people lodge a complaint th...

Jesus and His disciples go into the Kidron Valley to the garden of Gethsemane, where they are met with a large number of soldiers. Jesus confronts the soldiers, finds out that they are looking for Jesus, and declares "I am," echoing the the fact that He is God. The soldiers come to take Jesus away and He tells them to let the disciples go. This was to fulfill what Jesus said in John 17, showing th...

Jesus repeats his final command: love. Through a long explanation, Jesus declares His love for His disciples and explains that He must go away, but that He will return. Once more, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will come, proceeding through the Son. Jesus also explains that some in the world will try to hurt the disciples. After this, He prays to His Father that we would be preserved from a h...

Jesus calls himself the true vine, which calls to mind the imagery of Psalm 80[79], and He states that His Father is the vinedresser, who will prune away the branches that do not bear fruit. Thus, we must accept and grow the fruit that God is giving us. If we do not take the discipline that God requires of us and prove that we are His disciples, we will be eating and drinking judgment on ourselves...

At the Passover feast, Judas is already preparing to betray Jesus. Jesus takes off His outer robe and washes the feet of His disciples. Such washing by the master is unheard of in the tradition of ritual washing. Even knowing the betrayal, and the prophecy from Psalm 41 that Jesus will be betrayed by an intimate friend, Jesus is hurt by the knowledge of Judas' sin. Jesus gives Judas the morsel, a...

Jesus goes to Bethany, which becomes His base of operations, and there, Martha anoints His feet with costly oil. Jesus lets her do it, saying that she is preparing His body for burial. Judas thinks that the money should have been given to the poor, and plans to betray Jesus. Jesus then enters Jerusalem on an ass, like a peaceful king. Jesus, who had said all along that His time had not yet come, d...

Some Jews come to ask Jesus to plainly declare Himself the Christ, but He tells them what He already said, but they take up stones because Jesus makes Himself out to be God. Jesus tells them that they do the same thing when they use the title of God for their religious. Jesus then hears that Lazarus has died. He stays for two more days and then returns Judea to Lazarus' home. Thomas cynically sugg...

Jesus tells the parable of the Good Shepherd, which recalls Zechariah 11, Ezekiel 34, and Malachi 2. A father must feed his children first, and likewise the priests must tend their flocks before themselves. Jesus uses an example of sheep who come to the shepherd's name to explain Himself. He is the gate for the sheep, and while a hireling would abandon his flock, the good shepherd will not. Jesus...

Jesus and the authorities get into a heated argument. Jesus tells them that He knows the will of the Father, and that the authorities do not. Jesus then says that Abraham saw His day, and that before Abraham was, I am, referring to the name of God. The authorities then take up stones against Jesus, but He escapes. Jesus then heals a man born blind, but the Pharisees question the man, who tells the...

John 8 begins with the narrative of the woman caught in adultery. This section, while an authentic eyewitness account of the Gospel, was probably not written by John, since early manuscripts attached it to different gospels or different parts of John, but it was too important to be left out of the Gospel altogether. Jesus proclaims that He is the Light of the world. Darkness is used to denote that...

Jesus says that He is the bread which has come down from Heaven, that we must physically eat His body to have eternal life, and that He will raise those who believe on the last day, and this upsets many of his followers. Jesus states these things clearly and without equivocation and makes no attempt to offer a more crowd-pleasing teaching. John next tells of Jesus teaching at the Fesival of Booths...

Jesus is provoking the religious with His statements; if the statements are true, we must worship Him, if they be false, His blasphemy would carry the punishment of death. Whatever His followers knew, His detractors understood this. A number of people listen to Jesus preach for a day, and by the end, they are hungry. Jesus finds a boy with five barley loaves and two small fish. With this, five tho...