Bernard and Jeremiah

Marvin is ready to quit evangelism class - why keep sharing his faith when nobody listens? Bernard has an answer, and it comes with a trip in the Imagination Station to ancient Judah, where the prophet Jeremiah is warning Jerusalem that Babylon will destroy the city unless its people turn back to God. The response? Forty years of mockery and beatings, a king who slices up Jeremiah's scroll and burns it, an arrest, and a muddy cistern. Yet Jeremiah keeps obeying, even buying a worthless field in the middle of the invasion because God has promised His people will one day return. Marvin watches every warning come true - Jerusalem falls, and seventy years later the exiles come home to rebuild, just as God said. Maybe being ignored doesn't mean giving up after all.

Found on Into the Light Album 47 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

2 of 2 0595 A Time for Action While tracing a mysterious fax to its true source, Eugene follows a trail of clues through a gas station, a homeless shelter, and a cemetery in his desperate search for his long-lost father.

0596 Cover of Darkness Twenty years after a tragedy tore them apart, Eugene Meltsner reunites with the father who believed him dead - but a shadow from their past forces their reunion into secrecy.

0597 Out of Our Hands When their parents' separation upends everything, a sister stakes her hopes on a play meant to reunite the family - while her brother plots a very different kind of response.

0598 My Favorite Thing A family's meticulously planned birthday surprise built around Mom's favorite things collides with a scheming couple, an overdue school report, and a lobster liberation at a fancy restaurant.

0599 Blood, Sweat, and Fears When a hospital blood drive comes to Whit's End, its most confident organizers and promoters must confront the hidden fears that threaten to derail it.

0600 The Nudge A middle schooler's hard-won fundraising prize becomes a test of conscience when a quiet nudge during a lesson on prayer suggests it may not be meant for him.

0601 Bernard and Jeremiah When Marvin gives up on evangelism because no one listens, Bernard takes him back in time to meet a prophet who spent forty years delivering a message nobody wanted to hear.

0602 Mum's the Word A well-meant secret about an anonymous valentine snowballs into a web of promises, plagiarism, and blackmail that threatens to spill out over Odyssey's airwaves.

0603 The Family Next Door Feeling invisible in her own quiet house, Mandy finds warmth next door with the Washington family - until her constant presence starts to strain the very household she's leaning on.

0604 Like Father, Like Wooton A fatherless boy's carnival lie and Connie's undercover hunt for a dramatic story both collide with the truth in Odyssey.

1 of 2 0605 The Chosen One A gifted young runaway with a mysterious past arrives alone in Odyssey, and her stay at Whit's End brings a string of strange troubles no one can explain.

2 of 2 0606 The Chosen One A troubled runaway's cry for help forces one family to weigh their comfortable plans against what it truly means to choose someone.

0607 The Undeniable Truth While hiding from a dangerous pursuer, Eugene's father tries to protect his son - only to jeopardize the very work and reputation Eugene has built.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 8 more roles

8 supporting roles

Ebed Fred Tatasciore Hanamel Will Ryan Jehudi Townsend Coleman Jeremiah Townsend Coleman Pashur Actor Unknown Jehoiakim's Head Guard Will Ryan Jehoiakim's Herald Marshal Younger King Jehoiakim Fred Tatasciore

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Nathan Hoobler Writer · Director Jonathan Crowe Sound Designer Bob Hoose Producer Marshal Younger Producer Dave Arnold Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

Marvin admits to Bernard that he has stopped attending evangelism class. Whenever he tries to share his faith, people laugh and no one seems to listen. If God wants him to evangelize, Marvin cannot understand why the work feels impossible and produces no visible result. Bernard decides that the prophet Jeremiah’s life may answer him.

Bernard intends to tell the account himself, but Marvin argues for using the Imagination Station. They make a bargain: if Marvin can name three of Joseph’s brothers, Bernard will join him. Marvin names four, and the reluctant window washer climbs into the machine for his first adventure.

Marvin arrives in ancient Judah and meets Jeremiah, who is amazed to find someone willing to listen. At the temple, the prophet warns that God will bless the nation if the people abandon their idols, but that the city will become a curse if they refuse to change. Temple leaders accuse him of blasphemy, call their own comforting prophets trustworthy, and have Jeremiah dragged outside.

Marvin expects a later triumph that will explain why Bernard chose this story. Instead, Bernard tells him that Jeremiah repeats the same cycle for forty years: God gives him a message, he delivers it, and people mock, strike, and reject him. Marvin fast-forwards through the decades and finds the prophet still obeying without anyone turning back to God.

Because Jeremiah has been banned from the temple under threat of death, he sends Marvin and his servant Baruch with another warning. Baruch reads it publicly, and officials carry the scroll to King Jehoiakim. The king hears that Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar will destroy the nation, then slices up the scroll and burns it as kindling. He orders Jeremiah killed rather than listening.

Jeremiah calmly dictates another scroll containing the same warnings and more. Soldiers arrest him and Marvin, but even prison cannot silence his message that Jerusalem will fall and its people must surrender. Frustrated, Marvin asks what good forty years of failed preaching can possibly accomplish. Jeremiah cannot yet understand his part, but he knows that without holding to God’s word, he has nothing reliable to hold at all.

The soldiers throw Jeremiah into a covered cistern to silence him. When one threatens Marvin, the frightened boy denies believing the prophet and is spared. Back in prison, Marvin regrets his answer but still tells Bernard that he has seen no reason to believe. Bernard finally reveals the ending: every warning Jeremiah has delivered will come true because God has spoken it.

Nebuchadnezzar’s army begins breaking through Jerusalem’s walls. Jeremiah is rescued from the cistern because the king wants his advice, yet the king still refuses to follow it. In the middle of the invasion, Jeremiah’s cousin Hanamel offers to sell him a field in Anathoth. Jeremiah buys the apparently worthless land for seventeen shekels while the entire country is about to fall to Babylon.

The purchase is an act of faith. Jeremiah explains that the same God who accurately foretold destruction has also promised that His people will someday return and possess land again. He sends the deed to Baruch in a sealed jar and dictates a message for the coming exiles: God’s plans give them a future and hope, and He will eventually gather them home and turn sorrow into joy.

Marvin and Bernard then see Jerusalem seventy years later. Babylon has burned the earlier city, and Jeremiah has died in captivity, but God’s people have returned and the walls stand rebuilt. Marvin wonders whether the purpose of all Jeremiah’s suffering was to preserve hope for the exiles. Bernard admits that he does not know the complete purpose, just as Jeremiah did not.

What Bernard does know is that obedience cannot depend on seeing results. God knows the future impact of faithful actions when His servants do not. Marvin decides Jeremiah’s account belongs in the evangelism class after all, and he is willing to return and help Bernard tell it. Being ignored no longer proves that sharing God’s message is useless.