DAY FORTY-SEVEN: 

The Call of Jeremiah 

Jeremiah 1:1-3:5 

Jeremiah being lowered into a cistern.

Jeremiah is a man with whom I can identify. He shares more of his heart in his book than any other prophet. Reading this book is like reading David's Psalms. In addition to the book that bears his name, he also wrote the short Book of Lamentations. We often overlook this little book, but we cheat ourselves when we do.

The book begins, "The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month." Jeremiah's father was a priest, and Jeremiah was expected to follow that career path. But like John the Baptist, whose father was also a priest, God had a different plan for Jeremiah. He would be a prophet and speak God's Word to wayward Judah. He began in the thirteenth year of Josiah, which would have been around 636 BC. Josiah became king when he was just eight years old, so God's call came to Jeremiah when Josiah was still a young man of twenty-one.When he was just seventeen he began to seek after the Lord. He tore down the altars to Baal and the other gods and he began much-needed repairs of the Temple. In those early ears Jeremiah had a willing listener in Josiah. But when Josiah was killed in battle his son Jehoiakim became king and started to undo what his father had done. Then the Babylonians came and Jerusalem surrendered. Jehoiakim was carried into exile with the first wave along with Daniel and Ezekiel. His younger brother Zedekiah became king in his place. He rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians came, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and carried the bulk of the population off to exile.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah as a young man and said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Wow! God knew Jeremiah even before he was born, and had a plan for his life! That's mind-blowing. But the same is true for us. Psalm 139:13-16 says, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." And Ephesians 1:4-6 says, "...even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." Even before God created the world, He knew me! He knew you! All we can do is praise God for His amazing love!

Jeremiah responded to God much the same way as Moses. "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth." The prospect of standing before the whole nation and declaring God's Word scared him! And that fear is not totally unfounded, as he knows that many will hate him for the message he brings. But the Lord replied, "Do not say, 'I am only a youth';
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord." Then the Lord touched Jeremiah's mouth and said, "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." The Lord made Jeremiah an offer he couldn't refuse! He was now a prophet of the God of Israel, and would speak for Him for the next fifty years.

The Lord revealed to Jeremiah that He would not relent in His judgment on Judah. Nevertheless, God still tried to woo His people back. "Thus says the Lord: 'What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?'" (2:5) "Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." (2:11-13)

After Josiah's death Jeremiah probably felt like he was talking to a brick wall. First Jehoiakim and then Zedekiah cared nothing for the things of God. Jeremiah came before Zedekiah when he was surrounded by false prophets who were proclaiming that the exiles would be back within two years. Jeremiah wore a yoke on his neck, and declared that Judah must not rebel but rather submit to Babylonian rule. The Lord had revealed to him that the exile would last 70 years. Zedekiah preferred the counsel of his hundreds of false prophets to the word of a true prophet of God. After this Zedekiah and the other leaders of Judah viewed Jeremiah as a traitor. He had to go into hiding and deliver God's word to the king in written form. Zedekiah took the scroll, cut it up and threw it in the fireplace. Then he had Jeremiah beaten and arrested. At first he was held in prison, but at one point lowered down into an empty cistern, left there to die. But in a rare show of character, Zedekiah ordered that he be pulled out of the cistern and put back in jail. Jeremiah was freed when the Babylonians came and destroyed the city.

A prophet had what might be the worst job of all time. They spoke truth to power and they paid a price. Jeremiah poured out his complaint to God: "O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, 'Violence and destruction!'
For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." (20:7-9) Further on in chapter 20 Jeremiah goes so far as to curse the day he was born! The burden was more than he could bear. But the Lord was with him as He promised.

The other prophets of Israel suffered as well. The Lord told Hosea to marry a prostitute, and then to buy her back when she left him and their children to go back to prostitution. I can't imagine the heartache Hosea felt, but he was acting out in his own life how God dealt with faithless Israel. Amos was threatened and ordered to stop prophesying. Tomorrow we'll look at the story of Daniel, and how he was thrown into a den of ravenous lions because of his faith in God. Israel consistently abused and rejected God's messengers. Jesus said in Matthew 23:29-31, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets." And in a short time Israel would murder yet another prophet on a Roman cross. 

It takes courage to speak God's Word in a world that doesn't want to hear it. When I lived in Wisconsin I visited State Street, which passes through the heart of the University of Wisconsin campus. I came upon a small crowd gathered around a street preacher, who was calling his hearers to repent of their sins and to trust in Jesus. Of course there were some who mocked, But most, if they stayed there, were listening. The man was making a fool of himself in that sophisticated college setting. But then that's what we're all supposed to be- fools for Christ. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:9-10, "For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake..." I have to confess that I'm afraid to step out for God, and if I'm afraid I'm sure you are as well. 

Yes, it will cost us to be followers of Jesus. But it's worth whatever it costs to be in God's perfect will. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "The messengers of Jesus will be hated to the end of time. They will be blamed for all the division which rend cities and homes. Jesus and his disciples will be condemned on all sides for undermining family life, and for leading the nation astray; they will be called crazy fanatics and disturbers of the peace. The disciples will be sorely tempted to desert their Lord. But the end is also near, and they must hold on and persevere until it comes. Only he will be blessed who remains loyal to Jesus and his word until the end."

Here's a little song to help you remember the promise God gives us in Jeremiah 29:11-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SrvKWzKU-8