SS02-05-06.

STUDY THEME: SERVING ON PURPOSE. 2-05-06

“STARTING NOW!” JEREMIAH 1: 1-19.

JEREMIAH 1: 1-3, 4-10, 11-16, 17-19.

PLEASE OPEN YOU BIBLE TO JEREMIAH 1.

Since we will be studying the Prophecy of Jeremiah during the month of February, it may be well that we gain some information concerning “the Weeping Prophet.” Look at vs. 1.

1. TEACHER READ JEREMIAH 1: 1-3.

Verses 1-3 serve as an introduction to the entire Book of Jeremiah. They provide general information concerning the life and times of the prophet. His father Hilkiah was not the Hilkiah who discovered the book of the law in the temple. Jeremiah’s father was a priest living in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.

Benjamin was one of Israel’s smaller tribes. Saul, Israel’s first king, was from the tribe of Benjamin, as was the apostle Paul. We know nothing more about Jeremiah’s father, but we may assume that Hilkiah was one of the few godly priests of the time who raised his son in the ways of the Lord. This lesson today focuses on the manner in which God calls and equips those whom He calls for service.

The Life Impact is to help us grow in faithful service to God by recognizing that God has called us to serve Him; and appreciating and thanking God for calling, equipping, and directing us to serve.

Studying this lesson has brought back warm memories of the manner in which God has directed my life. It would be interesting to hear how God brought each of you to meet your spouse, direct you to your life’s work, and how He equipped you to succeed in that calling.

Lets see how Jeremiah’s life was guided by Almighty God.

The first three verses of Jeremiah 1 introduce the book of Jeremiah by answering 3 important questions: (1) Who was Jeremiah? (2) What was his mission? (3) When did he serve?

Jeremiah lived among the priests at Anathoth, a village about 3 ½ miles N.E. of Jerusalem in the territory of Benjamin. Anathoth was a city Joshua had given to the Levites in Joshua 21:18. From Anathoth Jeremiah could see Jerusalem and could walk to the city in about an hour.

Although many priests lived in Anathoth, as far as we know Jeremiah never became a priest, but he often criticized these priest who were exiled to Anathoth because they opposed Solomon in 1 Kings 3: 26-27 as successor to King David. Jeremiah had first-hand knowledge of Judah’s rich religion and theological heritage because of his association with the priests in Anathoth.

2. PLEASE READ JEREMIAH 1: 4-10.

Vs. 4-10 is an autobiographical section in which Jeremiah related how he came to discover his destiny. Of the 242 times the expression “the word of the Lord” occurs in the O.T. 225 times it is a technical phrase for a verbal prophetic revelation. God spoke to Jeremiah and that happening made him God’s prophet.

God’s call came in the thirteenth year of Josiah, king of Judah. This was 627 B.C. Jeremiah did not choose to be a prophet; God chose Jeremiah to be a prophet. God’s call came 5 years before Jeremiah began his religious reform.

Jeremiah had no family. God forbade him to marry, so he spent his adult life alone. He had few friends because people did not like his message from God, and took out their bad feelings on Jeremiah.

Vs. 5 is the prophetic utterance God delivered personally to Jeremiah. God revealed to Jeremiah his destiny. That destiny was to be a prophet to the nations. The word prophet is from a Hebrew word that means “one who is called to speak. Jeremiah’s destiny was to speak for God.

Note that the verbs in vs. 5 have as their subject I meaning God. God is pictured in this vs. as acting sovereigntly in Jeremiah’s life. Before Jeremiah was formed in his mother’s womb, God chose him for service. God set Jeremiah apart before he was born and appointed him as a prophet.

This teaches the same truth as Psalm 139: 13 “For it was You who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Both of these passages provide biblical support for the sanctity of human life even before birth.

A closer look at these verbs is instructive for Christians who look at their lives in relation to serving God. God calls each of us to serve Him. The Hebrew verb chose is translated “knew” in other versions. The Hebrew word means more than just head knowledge. It means God knew what He wanted Jeremiah to do. Formed means that God shaped everything in Jeremiah’s experience toward him becoming His prophet.

To be set apart means to be designed or consecrated for a specific use. In Jeremiah’s case, that use was the ministry of a prophet. One who is appointed is one given a specific assignment for a particular task. Jeremiah’s task was to be a prophet, and his assignment was God’s spokesperson to the nations.

One implication from vs. 5 is that God has a specific purpose for each person. Each person needs to seek and then fulfill that purpose.

Even though God chose Jeremiah before he was even conceived, Jeremiah still had a free will. He exercised it when he protested against God’s call. Jeremiah exclaimed: Oh no, Lord God! Then he stated his reasons---he did not know how to speak and he was only a youth. At that time Jeremiah was about 19 years of age. Though from a priestly family, there is no record that he had ever served in a public capacity as a priest himself.

Both of Jeremiah’s excuses were due to his feelings of inadequacy, not willful rejection of God’s will. This kind of candor when speaking to God is characteristic of the O.T. It is especially seen in people like Moses, Gideon, Job, and Jeremiah. God was remarkably patient with honest expressions of feelings when they took the form of prayers to Him.

Jeremiah was born under the long and wicked reign of Manasseh, whose sins according to 2^nd Kings 21: 1-18 sealed the fate of Judah.

King Manasseh’s evil policies were continued by his son Amon; Amon was succeeded by his son Josiah, the last good king of Judah. Josiah made a valiant attempt to revive the faith of Judah and to turn them from their idolatry, but he met a tragic death while still a young man. Following Josiah’s death a series of evil kings came to the throne. Much of Jeremiah’s preaching was done during the reign of the evil Jehoiakim, an implacable enemy of the prophet Jeremiah.

God was asking Jeremiah to speak for him to the nations. Those nations proved to be large ones---such as Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt—and smaller ones---such as Moab, Edom, Damascus, Philistia, and Ammon. One can understand Jeremiah’s hesitation. Many hesitate at first to God’s call to serve Him. Jeremiah of course was thinking about speaking in public. Surveys show that public speaking is among the greatest fears many people have, and Jeremiah would usually be speaking to hostile crowds. This was one of many excuses Moses also gave when God called him in Exodus 4: 10.

A patient God answered Jeremiah’s objections to his satisfaction. God did not believe Jeremiah’s age or inexperience were reasons for rejecting His call to serve Him. God wanted Jeremiah’s availability, not his ability. Age was no barrier to Jeremiah’s doing God’s will

God assured Jeremiah that He would tell him every-one to whom he should prophesy and when to speak to each one. Also, God would tell Jeremiah what to speak to those to whom He was sent. God would equip Jeremiah for each and every one of his assignments. All Jeremiah needed to do was to listen to the Lord and do what He said. God would do the rest.

Being afraid to serve the Lord is the experience of many. Jeremiah’s reasons are familiar ones for those who have heard God’s call to service. He was young, inexperienced, untrained, unqualified, and he felt inadequate. He could have feared the people of the foreign nations to whom he would be sent. Most of the nations around Judah were enemies. But God instructed Jeremiah to fear no one.

The Lord’s reason for calling for such boldness in Jeremiah was based on His most gracious promise, not on Jeremiah’s abilities. The Lord said, “I will be with you to deliver you.” Whenever and to whomever God sent Jeremiah, God would be with him. No matter what situation he might get into, God would deliver him. His prophet would have His presence and His assistance wherever he went and at all times.

God’s call to Jeremiah illustrates the stages in a special call. First was the plan or intent of God to call a certain person. Then came the actual call. The third stage was the person’s response to the call. The last stage was God’s promise to be with the one called and to empower that person.

This promise was affirmed by the sentence: “This is the Lord’s declaration.” This sentence, which occurs here and in vs. 15 and 19, is the way the Holmon’s Bible renders the phrase “says the Lord” or “declares the Lord.”

In this phrase, the word declaration, which occurs 176 times in Jeremiah, is used of divine speaking: an utterance or an oracle from God. Its use emphasizes the origin and authority of what is said. God’s call to service is a divine call and an authoritative call. God would whisper His promise of His presence and help in His prophet’s ear many times during his 40 years of prophetic ministry! God makes that same promise to everyone today as they serve Him obediently. Such a promise keeps a servant of God going because it has the authority of God behind it.

God touched Jeremiah’s mouth with His hand. This was an assuring action of God to His prophet. Isaiah had a similar experience in Isa. 6: 6-7 with God when God called him to be a prophet, but for a different reason. With Isaiah the touch of the coals to his mouth symbolized God’s forgiveness and cleansing of his sins.

That cleansing also symbolized what God would do to Israel if they would confess and forsake their sins. In Jeremiah’s case, God’s touch symbolized that God had filled his mouth with His words or messages.

God described to Jeremiah the twofold ministry to which He sent him. The verb “sent” means “to appoint.” The word implies exercising authority and oversight over subordinates, in who the overseer seeks to cause a huge change. Jeremiah would exercise God’s authority over the nations and their kings. God’s servants do not do the work themselves: God does it through them.

Some of the prophecies God would deliver through Jeremiah were designed to uproot and teardown, to destroy and demolish. These were messages of judgment. Other messages would be used to build and plant. These were messages of hope and restoration. Serving God is serious business. The eternal destinies of people may depend on our willingness and faithfulness in God’s service.

This lesson is about recognizing and responding to God’s call. There are some calls that come to each believer. We are called in Rom 8:30 to salvation in Christ Jesus. We are called in Eph. 4: 1 to godly living. We are called in 1 Cor. 12 to serve Christ by exercising our spiritual gifts, as others use their gifts. All believers in Eph. 4: 12, not just church leaders, are ministers of the body of Christ.

This shows that there are two main kinds of calls to Christian service. One is the call to vocational service. The call to be a prophet was that kind of call. The other kind of call is the kind that comes to rank-and-file Christians. All calls do not come in the same way. Sometimes God uses other people to help us know and follow God’s plan for our life. Sometimes God calls us directly.

Just as Jeremiah asked questions about his adequacy to fulfill his calling, so do we sometimes offer excuses based on our feelings of inadequacy. Just as God reassured Jeremiah, so He assures us of His abiding presence and adequate help in doing what He wants us to do.

As these next verses are read try to remember vs. 4-10, which describe Jeremiah’s call.

God did not sugarcoat the difficulties Jeremiah would face in proclaiming God’s word in that turbulent age. Allied against him would be the kings of Judah…the princes…the priests…and the people of the land.

Later references show that the prophets also were among the implacable foes of Jeremiah. Who was on Jeremiah’s side? With the exception of his friend and secretary Baruch, Jeremiah had few who supported him---other than God.

3. PLEASE READ JEREMIAH 1: 11-16.

The expression the word of the Lord signals another prophetic utterance God delivered to Jeremiah. This utterance is in the format of a dialogue between God and Jeremiah, as was the first one in vs. 4-10. This utterance has two visions (vv. 11-12 and vv. 13-16.

In the first vision God began by asking Jeremiah: “What do you see? Jeremiah was in Anathoth, which was and is still known as a center for growing almonds. Jeremiah answered God’s question by saying that he saw a branch of an almond tree. The word almond means, “watching.” The tree was called the “Awake” tree, because of its early blooms that signaled the awakening of nature and spring.

“To have seen correctly,” means Jeremiah had understood what God wanted him to see and focus on. God often used a familiar sight or object as an analogy from which to draw a spiritual truth. Just as Jeremiah and the people of Anathoth watched the almond tree’s branches to see when spring was near, so God said: “I watch over my word to accomplish it.” The message of God’s word was as sure to come about, as spring was to come when the almond branch blossomed. This announcement was an encouragement to Jeremiah that everything God would ask Jeremiah to say would surely come to pass.

God made a similar promise to Isaiah in Isa. 55: ll. What assurance did this give to believers as they share, teach, preach, write, sing, and give out God’s Word in any and every way possible! God stands behind His Word to accomplish what He declares.

The second vision God gave to Jeremiah begins in vs. 13. The vision of the boiling pot revealed to Jeremiah that God was about to send judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah. Jeremiah introduced this second vision with the same prophetic formula---the word of the Lord came to me. God again asked him, “What do you see?”

A boiling pot was a large pot that might have been used for cooking, or for washing clothes. I can remember my mother using a large, black wash pot for washing clothes.

In his vision, Jeremiah saw a fire blazing under the pot, fanned by the wind, that made the water boil.

The pot was tipped from the northern side, and the boiling water was about to spill out toward the south. Jerusalem and Judah were south of where the pot was located and were in the path of the boiling water.

God explained the meaning of the vision of the boiling pot. It spelled disaster for Jerusalem and Judah. That disaster would come from the north and would inundate all who lived in its path. God did not reveal from which nation that disaster would come. Philistia, Syria, and Assyria were three nations to the north of Judah. However Babylon proved to be the instrument of disaster upon Judah.

Though Babylon was to the east of Judah, the army had to travel north to Syria along the Euphrates River and then south to Judah to keep from crossing the Arabian Desert.

God declared that He would be behind the gathering of the forces soon to invade Judah. He revealed that He was about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north to come upon Judah as His instrument of judgment on His people. Second Kings 24-25 contains the record of Babylon’s conquest of Judah. By the time Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 587 B.C. Babylon had conquered Assyria and Egypt and become the superpower over all the nations under their rule. Soldiers from many former nations probably were conscripted to make up Babylon’s mighty army.

The Lord described to Jeremiah how the disaster would take place. When the invading army attacked, each king would set up his throne at the entrance to Jerusalem’s gates. The figure of speech of a king setting up his throne at the gates of a city could mean several things. Some believe God was picturing each town or city surrounded by the enemy and under siege. Others believe the Lord was picturing each city being conquered by the enemy. Since the city gate was the meeting place for city officials to make decisions, many believe this prophecy refers to the judgment that God would bring on His people through the invading Babylonian army.

All the…cities of Judah would share in the same judgment. The Lord specifically stated that Jerusalem would be one of those places to experience God’s judgment. Just as the Northern Kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrians in 722 B.C. under the judgment of God, the Southern Kingdom of Judah would fall to the Babylonians in 587 B.C. under God’s judgment.

The Lord explained to Jeremiah the reason for His judgments against Jerusalem and Judah. He was going to judge Judah because of all the evil they had done. The specific evils He pointed out were that Judah abandoned Him and thus broke His covenant with them. Then they worshiped other gods by burning incense to them. Those other gods were idols they had made with their own hands. Jeremiah l0: 1-10 offers a description of how God’s people cut down trees, chiseled out a figure of some kind, decorated it with silver and gold, nailed it up so it wouldn’t totter, and then bowed down before it as their god. To move it from place to place, they had to carry it, for it couldn’t walk.

The people of Judah were supposed to be God’s special people, but idolatry had a strangle hold on the leaders and people. They had sinned away their days of grace. The end was near.

Serving God is allowing God to work through us to meet the needs of people like this. God can make them His children and grow them in Christ-likeness. But He needs us to be His instruments by serving Him according to His will for our lives.

Most every task in a church is essential to the overall ministry of the church to worship God, proclaim His Word, educate people in the teachings of Scripture, and minister to people’s needs. If we will serve Him, He will equip us to be effective.

4. PLEASE READ JEREMIAH 1: 17-19.

The various translations of the Hebrew translated here as "Now, get ready" give a clearer picture of God’s first command in this verse. One translation has “Brace yourself,” suggesting that God was alerting Jeremiah to something he would face. Another says, “Get yourself ready,” telling him to prepare himself to begin his service now.

Several translations have “gird up your loins.” This figure of speech comes from the practice of pulling up their ankle-length outer clothing enough to allow their feet and legs to move more freely and tucking that clothing under their belts. God was saying it was time to go to work. We say, “Roll up your sleeves and get busy.”

God’s next word to Jeremiah was to stand up and tell those to whom God would send Jeremiah everything that He commanded Jeremiah to say. Jeremiah had said he didn’t’ know how to speak. God’s charge to him in vs. 17 seems to suggest that the way to speak is to stand up before those to whom God sends you, open your mouth, and relay to them what God tells you to say to them. That is why many prophets in the O.T. would preface a prophecy with the words, “Thus says the Lord.” Their messages were God’s messages through them.

God said to Jeremiah that the time had come to begin his ministry. God had been patient with him, but there was a limit.

The Lord warned Jeremiah against being intimidated by those to whom he would be sent. To be intimidated means to be dismayed, “terrified,” or “let your spirit break.” This statement might relate to Jeremiah’s feeling that he was only a youth who was he to speak to the heads of nations or governments or religions.

If Jeremiah did give in to intimidation, God said that He would cause him to cower before them. The Lord would not sustain him or embolden him. Rather, He would take away any restraint against intimidation and let it run its course. Jeremiah could have all the courage that God could give if he wanted it and trusted God for it.

When would God begin to enable Jeremiah to be His prophet? That answer is implied in the word today. Notice the tense of the verb has made. One would expect a future tense, but the text has a perfect tense that means the action has already been done for all practical purposes.

God was telling Jeremiah that He already had made him a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against all of Judah. Whereas Judah’s enemies would surround and breach Judah’s walls, Jeremiah’s enemies would surround him but not conquer him.

The Lord had already made him to be like an impregnable city. He was as strong as an iron pillar and as resistant to his enemies as bronze walls. From God’s perspective, these actions had already been done. Jeremiah heard them as promises and would find them to be factual as he faced his enemies.

What enemies would Jeremiah face? The Lord said he would stand against the whole land. This included the five kings of Judah. Jeremiah served during the reigns of Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, and under the governor Gedaliah.

As God’s prophet, Jeremiah would encounter the opposition of other officials in Jerusalem, the priests, and the population in general. No wonder he would be tempted to be intimidated.

These enemies would fight against God’s prophet, but they would never prevail over him. The reason? God was with Jeremiah and would rescue him when they came against him.

In vs. 19 God told Jeremiah that his own people would fight against him. He was assured, however, that they would not be victorious.

Judah was subject to judgment and danger because they would not obey the Lord. Jeremiah was in a place of blessing and safety because he obeyed the Lord. There is no safer place than in the center of God’s will. God does not promise to keep us away from enemies, but he does promise us victory over them. Neither does God promise his servants a bed of roses, but He does promise to enable us to endure and overcome the thorns.

This challenge ends like that in vs. 8 and 15: This is the Lord’s declaration. That statement is like the Holy Spirit putting an official stamp of authenticity and authority on what has just been said. Concerning everything in this chapter about God’s call to service, God wanted Jeremiah to know that God said it, that settled it, and Jeremiah was to believe it and begin acting immediately upon it. Jeremiah served faithfully for 40 years.

The Lord will help us face every person and every situation to which he sends us. God’s servants will experience opposition, but God will always be with them. The victory, let us always remember, will be God’s, no ours. God calls, God equips, and God gives the victory. Then to God be the praise and the glory.

NEXT SUNDAY WE FIND THAT WE MUST PAY A PRICE TO SERVE GOD. ARE WE WILLING TO PAY A PRICE TO SERVE FAITHFULLY? A.V. DAUGHERTY

altav@swbell.net http://www.theweeks.org/av/