Jeremiah's Prophecy of the Coming of the Son of God

When Nephi, son of Helaman, preached to the Nephites at Zarahemla, he emphasized how many of the prophets had testified that the Son of God would come.  He told of how Moses and Abraham both testified of the coming of the Savior, and then he added, “And now I would that ye should know, that even since the days of Abraham there have been many prophets that have testified these things….  And behold, also Zenock, and also Ezias, and also Isaiah, and Jeremiah, (Jeremiah being that same prophet who testified of the destruction of Jerusalem) and now we know that Jerusalem was destroyed according to the words of Jeremiah. O then why not the Son of God come, according to his prophecy?” (Helaman 8:20)  It appears, then, that on the brass plates, Nephi had access to the prophecies of Jeremiah and that there was there recorded a particular prophecy that “the Son of God come.”  As I’ve mentioned before, of the writings of Jeremiah that we have in the book of his name in the Bible, only chapters 1-20 could have realistically been on the plates of brass.  So are there any prophecies of the coming of the Savior in those twenty chapters?

               There are certainly some references in Jeremiah 1-20 that allude to the mortal ministry of the Savior.  For example, Jeremiah recorded these words of the Lord: “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).  The “fountain of living waters” certainly reminds us of the Savior’s words during His ministry when He said to the woman at the well that He could give her “living water” (John 4:10).  Jeremiah also wrote this condemnation of the Lord: “Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 7:11).  We know this scripture is connected to the Savior’s mortal ministry because He quoted it Himself when He said to the people at the temple, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matt. 21:13).  Jeremiah also gave a prophecy in which the question would be asked, “Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her?”  This is reminiscent of the question of Pilate when He asked Jesus, “Art thou the King of the Jews?” Jesus responded affirmatively, and those the rulers of the people denied it, Pilate subsequently announced in writing at the crucifixion: “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Matt. 27:11, 37).  Jeremiah’s writings here may have been in part an allusion to this moment, especially since two verses later Jeremiah wrote these words that could easily be applied to Christ’s atoning sacrifice as their king: “For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt” (Jeremiah 8:19, 21).  Jeremiah also spoke of his own sufferings in terms that appear to be Messianic as well: “But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter” (Jeremiah 11:19).  This is very similar to Isaiah’s prophecy of the Savior’s mortal suffering, “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb” (Isaiah 53:7). 

               These references in Jeremiah 1-20 strongly suggest that Jeremiah did indeed know of the coming of the Savior and referenced it in his writings.  That said, I can find no clear prophecy of the coming of the Son of God like Nephi mentioned.  In the context in which he spoke of Jeremiah to a group of unbelievers, the words he referenced must have been very clear about the coming of the Son of God.  His next prophet he quoted as evidence that the Son of God would come was Lehi, a contemporary of Jeremiah, who declared very clearly (as his son Nephi paraphrased it), “Yea, even six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jews—even a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world” (1 Nephi 10:4).  Surely Jeremiah had the same revelations about the coming of Christ as Lehi did, and I believe that we don’t have the specific prophecy mentioned in Helaman 8 in our Bibles.  Jeremiah, like all true prophets, knew and testified of the coming of Jesus Christ.