The Via Emmaus Reading Plan

• Reading for Scripture Saturation: Introducing the Via Emmaus Bible Reading Plan
• How to Use the Via Emmaus Bible Reading Plan

Reading Strategies

Jeremiah is a big book and there are lots of ways to read it. Here are three different approaches.

1. Whatever and Whenever

The first approach is always to read as much as you, whenever you can. Keep a running clock and make sure you get to the end—once, twice, three times or more.

2. With Guidance

The second approach would be to find an outline of the book and use that for guidance. So for instance, if you follow the ESV Study Bible, you will find an outline with nine parts.

1. Introduction (1:1–19)
2. Israel’s Covenant Adultery (2:1–6:30)
3. False Religion and Idolatrous People (7:1–10–25)
4. Jeremiah’s Struggles with God and Israel (11:1–20:18)
5. Jeremiah’s Confrontations (21:1–29:32)
6. Restoration for Judah and Israel (30:1–33:26)
7. God Judges Judah (34:1–45:5)
8. God’s Judgment on the Nations (46:1–51:64)
9. Conclusion: The Fall of Jerusalem (52:1–34)

With this outline, you could take a section each day. And if you combined the introduction and the conclusion, to see the beginning and the end, you could read through Jeremiah in eight days. This would permit you to read the book three times with a couple extra days for catch up.

Another way you could read this book, is to divide sections 4, 5, 7, and 8.

1. Jeremiah 1
2. Jeremiah 2–6
3. Jeremiah 7–10
4. Jeremiah 11–15
5. Jeremiah 16–20
6. Jeremiah 21–25
7. Jeremiah 26–29
8. Jeremiah 30–33
9. Jeremiah 34–40
10. Jeremiah 41–45
11. Jeremiah 46–48
12. Jeremiah  49–51
13. Jeremiah 52

With this outline you could read Jeremiah in two weeks time and twice in the month. Then, you would still have a few extra days.

3. With Help

Finally, a third approach would include adding some resources to assist you. Or you could follow the outline of a course like this one.

This approach could look like reading the book during the first half of the month and following up with articles and sermons on particular chapters. Or this could look like reading two chapters a day and adding in an article or sermon on most days.

Because Jeremiah is so long (the longest book in the Bible), and so literarily and historically challenging, not to mention downcast in much of the book, having someone show you the connections to the gospel and/or its theological message is more necessary than for other books. To that end, I offer the following resources.

Articles

Here are a handful of articles on Jeremiah, two of whom are written by Andrew Shead. Shead’s book on Jeremiah, book, A Mouth Full of Fire: The Word of God in the Words of Jeremiah, is excellent. Anyone who wants a full understanding of Jeremiah, should pick it up. For now, here are a few articles to get a handle on Jeremiah.

• How to Read the Major Prophets Devotionally by Mike McKinley
• “See and Read All These Words”: The Concept of the Written in the Book of Jeremiah by Andrew Shead
• Jeremiah among the Prophets by Andrew Shead

Audio: Studies and Sermons

Here are three ‘types of sermons’—whole book overview, a series on the heart, and a verse-by-verse exposition by Phil Ryken.

1. Whole Book

• Justice: The Message of Jeremiah by Mark Dever
• Help Me Teach the Bible: Jeremiah with Nancy Guthrie and Paul House

2. The Prophet of the Heart preached at All Souls, Langham Place

The teachers of All Souls (e.g., John Stott, Rico Tice, others) have preached seven sermons on Jeremiah 1–31 that tracks the theme of the heart. If you 65 sermons is too many for you (see below), seven sermons might be the right number.

3. Expositional Series by Phil Ryken

Phil Ryken is the author of Jeremiah and Lamentation in the Preaching the Word series. Leading up to that commentary, Dr. Ryken preached sermons on every part of Jeremiah. Here are many of them. (Other sermons may (or may not) still be available on the The Gospel Coalition website.)

Videos

Soli Deo Gloria, ds