Jeremiah was written during the...
Illustration
Jeremiah was written during the period of Babylonian exile at the close of the seventh century. He lived through the time when the Assyrian power declined. Hope for national recovery and greatness appeared justified until the Babylonians asserted their power over Judah. So the message of hope and new covenant was set against a background of political disaster and immense human suffering. In Sarajevo, the children were climbing in a cherry tree and were blasted to oblivion by a tank shell. A young mother fell to the sidewalk mortally wounded by a Serbian sniper and her baby was thrust from her arms by the power of the blast. Verdan Smailovic, a member of the Sarajevo Opera, in formal evening attire, played his cello outside the bakery where Serbian mortars struck a bread line and killed 22 people. For 22 days, Smailovic braved sniper and artillery fire to play Albinoni's Adagio in honor of those who had died. -- Steffey Morrow
