Book of Jeremiah Quiz: The Weeping Prophet and the New Covenant

1. What was Jeremiah's response to God's call, and what was God's answer?

1. Jeremiah accepted immediately — he said 'Here I am, send me' as Isaiah had
2. Jeremiah asked for a sign — God showed him the almond branch and the boiling pot before he agreed to go
3. Jeremiah said 'Alas, Sovereign LORD, I do not know how to speak; I am too young.' God replied: 'Do not say I am too young. You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you... I have put my words in your mouth'
4. Jeremiah was afraid of the northern tribes — he asked God to send him south to Judah only, and God agreed

2. What were the two visions God gave Jeremiah at the beginning of his ministry, and what did they mean?

1. A vision of a clay jar being smashed and a restored vineyard — judgment and then restoration in sequence
2. A vision of a lion and a lamb — the lion was Babylon and the lamb was Judah; God would protect the weak from the strong
3. A vision of a scroll and a sword — the scroll represented God's word that Jeremiah was to eat, and the sword represented the Babylonian army
4. An almond branch (shaqed) — 'I am watching (shoqed) to see that my word is fulfilled'; and a boiling pot tilted from the north — disaster was coming from the north upon all who lived in the land

3. What did Jeremiah declare in his famous Temple Sermon (ch. 7), and why was it shocking?

1. He announced that worship was being permanently transferred from Jerusalem to the northern kingdom, as judgment for Manasseh's sins
2. He called for temple renovation — the priests had allowed it to fall into disrepair and Jeremiah demanded reform of the Levitical system
3. He praised the temple as God's eternal dwelling — his sermon assured the people that Jerusalem could never fall
4. He told the people not to trust in the false cry 'This is the temple of the LORD!' — their behaviour (stealing, murder, adultery, idolatry) had made it a den of robbers. God would do to the temple what he had done to Shiloh

4. What was the lesson of the potter's house in Jeremiah 18?

1. As the potter reshapes clay that was marred, God has the sovereign right to reshape nations — he can relent from threatened disaster if a nation repents, or revoke promised blessing if they turn to evil
2. If the clay is too hard, the potter gives up — God will abandon Israel if they are too stubborn to be shaped
3. The potter's wheel represents history's cycles — nations rise and fall but the master potter always produces a beautiful final product
4. The unfinished clay vessel represents Israel in exile — beautiful when completed, temporarily marred during Babylonian captivity

5. What were the Laments of Jeremiah (the Confessions), and what do they reveal about him?

1. Diplomatic complaints addressed to the king — Jeremiah formally petitioned the palace about his treatment by the false prophets
2. Formal liturgical laments composed for the temple — they show Jeremiah as a skilled liturgical poet
3. Personal prayers in which Jeremiah poured out his frustration, isolation, and despair to God — 'Cursed be the day I was born... Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow?' They are among the most honest personal prayers in Scripture
4. Public addresses to the people warning them of coming disaster — the 'laments' refer to Jeremiah's weeping before the city

6. What personal restrictions did God place on Jeremiah's life as a sign of the coming disaster?

1. Jeremiah was forbidden from entering the temple — his exclusion was a sign that God had rejected the temple worship of Jerusalem
2. Jeremiah was told not to marry or have children, not to attend funerals to mourn, and not to attend feasts — his solitary life was itself a prophetic sign of the death, mourning and joy that would disappear from the land
3. Jeremiah was told not to travel — he must stay in Jerusalem as a sign that the people could not escape God's judgment
4. Jeremiah was told to fast for forty days at the beginning of each year — this was a sign that famine was coming to the land

7. What did Jeremiah write in his letter to the first exiles in Babylon (ch. 29), and why was it controversial?

1. He told the exiles to resist Babylon at all costs — they should pray for deliverance and God would bring them back within two years
2. He told them the exile was permanent — they should abandon hope of return and become fully Babylonian in identity
3. He told them to maintain strict separation from Babylonians — no intermarriage, no participation in civic life, no prayer for the city that had enslaved them
4. He told them to settle down in Babylon — build houses, plant gardens, seek the peace and prosperity of the city, pray for it. God's plans were for 70 years; then he would bring them back. 'I know the plans I have for you... plans to prosper you and not to harm you'

8. What is Jeremiah's most famous theological contribution — the promise of the New Covenant in chapter 31?

1. 'The days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel... I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts... They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest... For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more'
2. God would build a new temple — constructed from heaven itself, it would be filled with the glory of the LORD as the tabernacle had been
3. God would give Israel a new land — Canaan would be expanded and no nation could ever take it from them again
4. God would raise up a new David who would be both king and high priest — combining royal and priestly roles in one figure

9. Who was Baruch, and what was his role in the book of Jeremiah?

1. Baruch was a Babylonian official who allowed Jeremiah freedom after Jerusalem's fall — the non-Israelite who showed more mercy than Jeremiah's own people
2. Baruch was a false prophet — he disputed Jeremiah's predictions of doom and was publicly rebuked by Jeremiah in the temple
3. Baruch was Jeremiah's scribe and companion — he wrote down Jeremiah's dictated words, read the scroll in the temple when Jeremiah was barred, and preserved the book. He received his own oracle from God in chapter 45
4. Baruch was the king's secretary who secretly protected Jeremiah from the palace officials who wanted to kill him

10. What did King Jehoiakim do with the scroll of Jeremiah's prophecies?

1. As Jehudi read the scroll column by column, the king cut it with a penknife and threw each section into the fire — despite the pleas of his officials. Then he tried to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch
2. He locked the scroll in the treasury — preserving it while publicly rejecting its message and expelling Jeremiah from Jerusalem
3. He read the entire scroll in the temple and then publicly endorsed Jeremiah as a true prophet of the LORD
4. He sent the scroll to Egypt for diplomatic consultation — asking Pharaoh's priests to validate or refute Jeremiah's predictions

11. What happened to Jeremiah when Jerusalem fell, and what choice was he given?

1. Jeremiah fled to Egypt before Jerusalem fell — he had arranged a safe passage in exchange for the intelligence about Judah's defences
2. Jeremiah was executed as a traitor — his pro-Babylon stance led the remaining leaders to sentence him to death
3. Jeremiah was taken to Babylon as a prestigious captive — the Babylonians recognised him as a prophet who had predicted their victory
4. Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to treat Jeremiah well; the Babylonian commander gave Jeremiah the choice of going to Babylon (with good treatment) or remaining in Judah. Jeremiah chose to stay with the remnant under Gedaliah

12. What was the confrontation between Jeremiah and the false prophet Hananiah?

1. Hananiah agreed with Jeremiah's message but disputed the timeline — he said 100 years, not 70
2. Hananiah challenged Jeremiah to a public debate before the king — the king ruled in Hananiah's favour and Jeremiah was imprisoned
3. Hananiah performed signs and wonders that Jeremiah could not counter — the people believed Hananiah because his miracles seemed to validate his message
4. Hananiah publicly broke the wooden yoke Jeremiah had been wearing as a sign, declaring God would break Babylon's yoke within 2 years. Jeremiah responded: God has replaced the wooden yoke with an iron one — and because Hananiah made the people trust a lie, he would die within the year. Hananiah died two months later

13. What is the theological theme of Jeremiah's purchase of a field in Anathoth (ch. 32) while Jerusalem was under siege?

1. At God's command, Jeremiah bought a field while Babylon was besieging Jerusalem — a symbolic act that 'houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.' In the darkest hour, Jeremiah performed an act of hope in God's promised restoration
2. It demonstrated that private property rights would be maintained under Babylonian rule — the purchase was a legal record for the returning exiles
3. It showed Jeremiah's personal financial security — he had invested in property that would survive the Babylonian attack
4. It was a trap set by Jeremiah's cousin to defraud him — Jeremiah exposed it as a test of his integrity and donated the money to the temple

14. What does Jeremiah say about the 'heart' of human sinfulness in chapter 17?

1. 'Create in me a clean heart, O God' — Jeremiah's prayer anticipates what only God can do in the human interior
2. 'The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure — who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct'
3. 'The sin of Judah is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablet of their hearts' — sin has become so deeply embedded it is part of Israel's character
4. Both of the above are found in Jeremiah 17

15. What does the structure of Jeremiah reveal about its historical context?

1. Jeremiah is arranged as a series of legal cases — each section presents God's charge against Judah, the evidence, and the verdict
2. Jeremiah is arranged in strict chronological order — it begins with Josiah's reign and ends with Jerusalem's fall, following a clear timeline
3. Jeremiah is arranged thematically with no chronological information at all — the superscriptions naming kings are later additions
4. Jeremiah is not arranged chronologically — events from different reigns are mixed together, and the book appears to have been assembled from multiple sources (Baruch's memoirs, prophetic oracles, biographical narrative). This complex structure reflects the turbulent history it describes

16. Who was Gedaliah, and what happened to him?

1. Gedaliah was a Babylonian official who governed Judah for twenty years before handing authority back to a restored Jewish community
2. Gedaliah was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar as governor over the remaining people in Judah. He was assassinated by Ishmael (of royal blood) at Mizpah — despite being warned of the plot. His murder triggered a chain of events that led the remaining Jews to flee to Egypt against Jeremiah's warnings
3. Gedaliah was Jeremiah's protector in the final days of Jerusalem — he helped Jeremiah escape the city before the walls were breached
4. Gedaliah was the last king of Judah — he surrendered Jerusalem to Babylon and was taken into exile

17. What does the 'Oracles Against the Nations' section of Jeremiah (chs. 46-51) declare?

1. That all surrounding nations are exempt from God's judgment because only Israel was in covenant with God
2. That Babylon is the permanent ruler of the nations — these oracles commission Babylon to execute judgment indefinitely on all other peoples
3. That God's sovereignty extends over all nations — Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, Elam, and especially Babylon are all subject to divine judgment. No power is beyond God's reach
4. That Israel should conquer these nations as part of the restoration — the oracles are military commissions, not prophetic judgments

18. What made Jeremiah's ministry uniquely costly compared to other prophets?

1. Jeremiah faced more false prophets than any other — he had to compete with hundreds of rival prophets who undermined his message daily throughout his ministry
2. Jeremiah was deported to Babylon against his will — the cost was being separated permanently from the land he loved
3. Jeremiah was forbidden from marrying, was isolated from community celebrations, was beaten and imprisoned multiple times, had his scroll burned, was thrown into a cistern to die, was accused of treason, and ministered for over forty years watching everything he warned about come true — yet God withheld from him the comfort of family and friendship
4. Jeremiah was the only prophet to be killed for his message — he was martyred in Egypt after years of ministry

19. What does Jeremiah 31:15 say, and how is it applied in the New Testament?

1. 'A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more' — Matthew applies this to Herod's massacre of the children in Bethlehem
2. 'Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations' — Isaiah's parallel text is quoted in John as referring to John the Baptist
3. 'For the LORD will ransom Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they' — this is applied to Christ's ransom payment on the cross
4. 'Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight?' — this is applied in the NT to Jesus as the beloved Son

20. What is the overall theological contribution of the book of Jeremiah?

1. Jeremiah's primary contribution is liturgical — he reformed the temple worship and established the pattern for synagogue prayer that replaced temple sacrifice
2. Jeremiah's primary contribution is political prophecy — he accurately predicted the rise of Babylon and the exile, making him the most historically specific of the prophets
3. Jeremiah's theological contribution is primarily negative — he diagnosed Israel's sin more thoroughly than any other prophet but offered no positive vision of restoration
4. Jeremiah's theological legacy: the individual's direct relationship with God (new covenant written on hearts); honest prayer that brings the whole self before God; the sovereignty of God over all nations; the possibility of life with God outside the promised land; and the hope of restoration that comes after — not instead of — judgment