Jeremiah 1

Jeremiah was young when he was called “because I am a youth” (v. 6c) he said at his calling. He dates his calling very well by saying it is in the 13^th year of Josiah and narrowed it down to 37 years after the first year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 25:1 and 3). The first year of Nebuchadnezzar was the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer. 25:1). Jeremiah is precise in his dating. Nebuchadnezzar started to reign in 605 BCE and Jehoiakim in 609 BCE and 37 years before 605 in 629/28 BCE Jeremiah was called. It was the first time that the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 25:3). He said that the Lord spoke with him until the 11^th year of Zedekiah until the exile in the 5^th month in 586 BCE (v. 3). Jeremiah learned of the Foreknowledge of God in which God knew Jeremiah even before he started to form in his mother’s womb (v. 5) “before I formed you in the womb I knew you”. How does God form people in the womb today? Is bottle-babies human engineered or God directed? It seems as if the truth of the formation is not really in human engineering but in the formation by God along constraints of human engineering placed upon DNA and cells in a bottle. Even if the human manipulates, God is the one Who grows it. The young Jeremiah was caught by surprise (v. 6a-c). God will send him and God will speak for him (v. 7a-d). Protection is guaranteed from God (v. 8a-b). The Lord touched his mouth and Words jumped into it (v. 9). Jeremiah describes this as: “The Word of the Lord came to me” (v. 4). Ellen White says in 1SM: 17: “I take the Bible just as it is, as the Inspired Word”. That is how Jeremiah took it here and that is how we should as well in our times. Jeremiah was appointed to speak over nations and kings, to speak of plucking up and breaking down, of destruction and overthrowing, of building and planting (v. 10). Jeremiah was granted special authority here that is repeated later to John in Revelation 11:3-6. In Revelation it was the two witnesses, the Old and New Testaments that were given authority from 538-1798 and the Bible had special power during this period granted by God. Truth finds assistance from God. Jeremiah is asked what he is seeing and he said a rod of an almond tree (vv. 11-12). The almond tree blossoms in late January in Israel before there is any leaf on it. It is a signal that God takes care of His Word because even though the rod is uninteresting in color, suddenly it blossoms white with flowers while the whole world around it is leafless desolation. Then Jeremiah saw a boiling pot facing away from the north (v. 13). Evil was to break forth from the north (v. 14). Jeremiah is then given his agenda: From the north the Lord is going to bring families of the kingdoms against Jerusalem and Judean cities. They will put their thrones at the entrances. The reason is that the Lord will pronounce judgments or punishments for Judah and Jerusalem for their sins. They were wicked because they forsake the Lord (v. 16b); offered sacrifices to other gods than God (v. 16c); worshiped the works of their hands (v. 16d). Jeremiah was to gird up his loins and dress properly and arise and speak to whomever the Lord sends him to (v. 17). He does not need to fear them otherwise the Lord will make him appear afraid (v. 17b). Jeremiah is considered a fortified city that enters a battlefield for the Lord as spokesman. He is a strong military opponent against the kings, princes, priests and people of the land. It is against the whole society of Judah that Jeremiah is sent (v. 18). They will battle with Jeremiah but God will be his protection (v. 19).

Dear God

The zone of anyone called by God is a battlefield against the enemy of God. Help all missionaries and those sent by You for their special tasks and protect them. We pray. Amen.