I am sitting here reading a document that is 2,600 years old. It reads like the memoirs of man who had an ongoing dialogue with God. Chances are, you have a copy of this same document right there in your home—it is the Book of Jeremiah in your Bible.

God first spoke to Jeremiah when he was just a boy, and he sent him down to the gate of the city to speak to the people who came there to conduct business. The Gate of the city was something like our county courthouse is today. You made your contracts there, transferred property, held trials, and carried out all the legal business of the community. And it was there that Jeremiah had to go and speak In the name of Yehovah. (By the way, I am not a Jehovah’s Witness. Jehovah is an English rendering of the name of God—Yahweh, in Hebrew, or something close to that.)

It was a very rocky course for Jeremiah, and as he grew in influence, his enemies list grew proportionately. The prophecies were spoken to the men of that generation, but they were written down for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come to quote the Apostle Paul. And in fact, some of Jeremiah’s prophecies seem to be singularly directed at the last days of man on earth. For example, we’ll find an enduring sign between God and his people in Jeremiah, chapter 17.