Jeremiah 1b: Call and Commission.

 Notice the contrasting phrases in the first paragraph of the first chapter, verses 1-3, and the second paragraph below, verses 4-5. This is the beginning of a long conversation in the same direction. That is, a constant dialogue between God and Jeremiah that forms the backbone of this book of prophecy. Several other conversations hang on this one, including the conversation between God and the people of Judah, and the conversation between Jeremiah and the people. 

1: 1a.  The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah....

1: 4-5. Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 

           ‘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’.

 In the first verses of Chapter 1, Jeremiah located himself in time and space. He was in the Kingdom of Judah during the reigns of the last kings. We place his time as: Born around 645 BC; called by God to be a prophet in 627 BC; he endured the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and prophesied still during the first half of the Exile. Jeremiah died in captivity in Egypt around 570 BC. That was thirty-some-odd years before the first exiles began to return to Jerusalem from Babylon.  

 That is Jeremiah’s lifespan, but that is not God’s timeframe. In God’s perspective, Jeremiah is one link in God’s larger plan of salvation for Israel and for the nations. God’s plan began long before Jeremiah’s birth and encompasses much more than Judah and Israel. God’s grace includes Babylon, Egypt, and the rest of the nations of the world. That has been God’s promise all along, to Adam and Eve, to Noah and his wife, and to Abraham and Sarah. 

 Jeremiah, like most of us, has a narrow view of who he is and where he lives. Though God has a larger plan, we usually only catch a glimpse of it. Then we mistake our life and times as the most important ever. Get over it. A lifelong conversation with God will open our eyes. It takes a lifetime to build that relationship. 

 God says to Jeremiah, ‘I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and you are the man for this job’. What is the job? To be a priest in Anathoth like his father? To be a prophet for the Kingdom of Judah? No. God is operating in a much larger arena. That is the message of Jeremiah’s call. As Christopher Wright says, “By making it clear that this foreknowledge and choice had happened before his birth, God removes any grounds for pride” (The Message of Jeremiah, 2014; page 36). 

 At this point, Jeremiah was more hesitant than prideful. He responded with something like: ‘Me? A prophet to the Gentiles? Are you sure?’

1:6.  Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” 

 Note: Usually, in the place of the formal name of God, the Hebrew text uses Adonai. Translators then use the word ‘LORD’ in English to represent Adonai. But here, Adonai is followed by the name of God: YHWH. It would be awkward to read ‘Lord LORD’. Instead, the translators write ‘Lord GOD’. The duplication emphasizes the majesty of God. 

 Is Jeremiah ‘only a boy’? Yes, he was only about 18 or 19 years old at the time. He comes from a family of priests, so there are plenty of relatives who are more prominent and practiced than he is. That is what “I do not know how to speak” means; he is not a polished preacher.

Others have responded to God’s call in a similar manner. Moses said, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? … O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, …I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 3:11, 4:10). Isaiah said, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Amos said, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’” (Amos 7:14-15).   

 Does it matter that Jeremiah is only a boy? Well, we’ll see. Perhaps God says, ‘Oh, I forgot about that. I’ll come back later’. 

1: 7-8.  But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy,’ for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.”

 Again, the point is made. Being a disciple and responding to God’s call does not depend primarily on specific skills, past behavior, or the qualities of our personality. Those will grow over the long obedience in the same direction. Will your call be like Jeremiah’s? Almost certainly not! God is not stuck in a groove. 

 When Jesus called Simon, he was only good at fishing. When God called Amos, he was only good at herding sheep. When God called Moses, he was a fugitive, a stranger in a strange land, a failed prince who had nothing to show for his life. Their calls were not about them, but about how God could work through them if they were willing to be faithful and obedient. Your call, or calls in life, will be appropriate to your circumstances and God’s next step. Your call will not be to serve yourself, that’s for sure. Your call will be to serve God, then God will empower you to carry it out.   

 Jeremiah says, ‘I am only a boy’, and God says, ‘So what? It’s not about you, it’s about pushing forward my plan to save the world’.

1: 9-10.  Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, 

‘Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant’.

 Jeremiah’s call was like no other. His life and ministry show it. He prophesied during the latter years of the independent Kingdom of Judah, during the rise and spread of the Babylonian Empire, then during the destruction of Jerusalem (think of the pictures of Kyiv, Ukraine) and the scattering of the Jews which involved deportation and life as a second-class citizen. Finally, Jeremiah lived out his last years as an unwilling captive of a rebel community of Jews in southern Egypt. 

 But there are parallels to Jeremiah’s times. Jeremiah’s home nation did not repent but instead repeated their sins of chasing after satisfaction in economic greed and the idolatry of nationalism. Judah tried to play the game of military build-up and alliances with the like-minded states. There was no satisfaction there. All of this failed, yet the people did not repent, did not abandon their self-serving behavior, and did not turn to God. Obedience to God involves defending the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the alien while being a shining example of how a godly people act both at home and in the community of the nations.

 Judah refused God’s call, yet God proceeded with his salvation plan which was more important than the rise and fall of nations. God can accomplish his will without the help of any nation. The Jews should never have been caught up in nationalistic schemes, just as Christians should never be caught up in self-destructive economies and man-worshipping politics.   

 To move his plan to the next phase, God chose to start over with younger prophets and younger leaders as the area of Palestine became no country for old men. The prophet over this radically shifting terrain was Jeremiah. Out of the mouth of Jeremiah came God’s words of doom for Egypt, Assyria, Edom, and even Babylon. 

 Judah should have listened when Jeremiah preached, but they did not. Thus the kingdom and the capital city fell to a conquering army.  The people suffered death, displacement, and deportation. Those who survived to live in exile and slavery in Babylon could hear Jeremiah’s words again because there was a Babylonian scroll of his preaching. The difference was that now they were a chastened audience. They could reconsider what he said, think again about the failure of their alliances and devotions, and worry now how they would approach God who punished them for their self-serving idolatry.   

 As we read Jeremiah today, we are a different audience. God’s word as given to Jeremiah still lives for us today as long as we do not cherry-pick the promises and ignore the warnings. Put the warnings on your wall, along with the promises. We still have a chance if we hear and act on God’s warnings about following idols and ideologies that are built on greed and pride. We must name our sins and not try to revise history to pretend that we have been great. We must seek forgiveness for our acts of abuse and oppression. We must change our ways so that we reflect God’s love, mercy, and righteousness. Can we turn from the path that we are on and become obedient again only to God? Maybe. We’ll see.