Jeremiah wrote sometime around 600 BCE, when Josiah was king of Judah. A little more than a decade after Josiah assumed power, it was beginning to look like independence from domination by Assyria was possible.

Jeremiah did not share the confidence of his fellow countrymen but rather continued to warn that Judah was in danger of an invasion from the north. He chastised the people, claiming they had strayed far from God’s expectations. During Jeremiah’s time, workers found the Book of the Law scrolls that had been abandoned in the Temple (see 1 Kings 22–23). Many of Jeremiah’s contemporaries considered this discovery a significant turning point in Judah’s spiritual renewal, but Jeremiah remained cautious.

We often ignore people who deliver facts we don’t want to hear. Many simply dismissed Jeremiah as a doom-and-gloom malcontent. But Jeremiah kept calling out what God directed him to say and what his own convictions compelled him to proclaim. He accused the people of abandoning Yahweh, making the case they had mistreated the Lord.

Like a skilled prosecutor, Jeremiah demanded to know if the people had completely forgotten everything the Lord had done for them. Did they not remember that astonishing escape from slavery in Egypt to freedom in a land of plenty?

Human nature hasn’t changed through the centuries. We’re eager to call upon the Lord for help but are quick to forget how God has rescued us. We neglect to listen to God’s word until we’re in trouble; then we call on God to bail us out—again.