Orethapedia

11 Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.- Jeremiah 11:11

Now that sounds ominous.

The horror film Us finished No. 1 at the box office over the weekend, smashing all expectations by grossing $71 million – the largest opening for an original movie since 2009’s Avatar.

But it was the film’s inclusion of a Bible verse, Jeremiah 11:11, that drove moviegoers to Google. The verse ranked No. 12 on Google Trends on Thursday, opening night, with more than 200,000 searches taking place that day alone. The film’s title ranked No. 2 the same day.

It has driven people to search out the meaning of the verse.

Here is what you need to know.

• The book of Jeremiah eventually gives the people of Judah hope, saying God has a plan to “prosper” them and not “harm them” — after they have been taken into captivity to Babylon
• .Jeremiah, also called the “weeping prophet”  was one of the major prophets of the Old Testament. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, the Books of Kings and the Book of Lamentations, with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple.
• Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, a Levitical priest, was likely born between 650 and 645 B.C. He was from the small village of Anathoth, about three miles northeast of Jerusalem in the territory of Benjamin (Jeremiah 1:1).
• God gave Jeremiah the overview of his prophetic ministry: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant” (verses 9-10). This meant that God had appointed Jeremiah to proclaim the destruction and building of nationsJeremiah plays a foundational role in Christian thought as it presages the inauguration of a new covenant , to which the New Testament testifies.
• There are about forty direct quotations of the book in the New Testament, most in Revelation in connection with the destruction of BabylonOf the Gospel writers, Matthew is especially mindful of how the events in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth fulfill Jeremianic prophecies Matthew 2:17, 27:9).

God told Jeremiah to announce Jerusalem’s coming destruction by invaders from the north (Jeremiah 1:14-15; 4:6; 6:22-23). God’s people had broken their covenant with God (Jeremiah 11:10). They had forsaken God by worshipping the false gods called Baals (Jeremiah 2:8; 7:9; 11:13) and even went as far as building altars to Baal in order to burn their children as offerings (Jeremiah 19:4-5).

Jeremiah exposed some of the persistent sins of the people, including pride and ingratitude toward God’s lovingkindness. Other specific sins he identified included idolatry (Jeremiah 44:1-30); adultery (Jeremiah 5:7-9; 7:9); oppressing the foreigners, orphans and widows (Jeremiah 7:5-6); lying and slander (Jeremiah 9:4-6); and Sabbath-breaking (Jeremiah 17:19-27). (How many of these sins are being repeated in our modern world?)