Recently, I've been doing a good deal of meditating and study on the Hebrew prophets of old, namely Jeremiah, one of my favorites. I've continued my pursuit in the wake of a full summer in the U.S. where I shared in various forums regarding this great prophet and his message, a message I might add that is as fresh for us today as it is urgent. I believe in the next few columns of The GREENSide I'll share a few pertinent words from the Prophet for us all today...
One is hard-pressed to find another more vilified, abused and ridiculed man in all of Hebrew history than the prophet Jeremiah. Born sometime around mid-7th century BC in the village Anathoth, of the tribe of Benjamin, son of a priest named Hilkiah, Jeremiah couldn't have been born in a more volatile time in all of Hebrew history; his country Israel was divided politically, was spiritually destitute and carried on in fear of conquest from the surrounding nations. Sounds a bit like the 21st century doesn't it? Actually, truth be told, by the time of Jeremiah's birth, the northern ten tribes of his country's twelve had already succumbed to the conquests of the powerful Assyrian empire, King Hoshea's northern kingdom rule coming to a tragic end in year 722 BC
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after almost twenty years of brutal warfare [2 Kings 17:3-6; 18:11,12 (NOTE: Benjamin, the tribe wence came Jeremiah was probably the other tribe of the southern kingdom, Judah being certain. The tribe Simeon, probably geographically the most southern, really didn't comprise much more than a-dozen-and-a-half cities and probably preferred association with the ten northern tribes known as Israel, rather than the southern Kingdom of Judah)]. Nevertheless, even after having witnessed the fall of the northern kingdom to the Assyrian empire, as well as sensing potential conquest at hand from a new emerging empire hailing from Babylon, the southern kingdom continued to spite God in how they lived and worshipped, thumbing their noses at His call to them to repent toward a deeper relationship with God, and seeking to work out their own measure of deliverance in ways they deemed correct. This was the world of Jeremiah... fear, superficial spirituality and self-confidence amidst a pervasive nihilism. Sound familiar?
All this Israelite indifference to God and His Word, as well as their blatant disobedience came crashing down upon them around the year 605BC, when Nebuchadnezzar, soon-to-be emperor of Babylon, having met and soundly defeated the mighty Egyptian army at the 'Battle of Carchemish' that same year and chasing them back through Israel, leads his troops in the sacking of Jerusalem, deporting some of the chief leaders of Judah back to Babylon. Known as the First Deportation which initiated a very gloomy 70-year exilic period in Israel's history, a young-up-and-coming prophet named Daniel was one of those deported and assigned to the emperor's court, a story worth reading in its own right (clic here). Eight to ten years later, around 597BC Nebuchadnezzar again returned to Jerusalem to subjugate it, this time sequestering the prophet Ezekiel, together with 10,000 others to Babylon in what is known as the Second Deportation (Ezekiel will minister to the exiles in Babylon throughout this period). At that time he placed Mattaniah, a.k.a. Zedekiah on the Judean throne. The final blow to the southern kingdom which essentially terminated any vestiges of future Jewish kingdom-rule occurred in the fifth month of 586BC when Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem for the third and final time, razing the temple and city to the ground, burning walls and gates beyond recognition [Jews commemorate this as Tisha B'Av (the 9th of Av]. It's the final act of prophetic warning; God will have His way.
Jeremiah grew up and lived through this dark history, probably beginning his ministry at the ripe, young age of twenty. He ministered in the power of Almighty Yahweh for some forty years, all of which spanned the reigns of the five kings of the southern kingdom right up to the end... Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. He seemed to have cared little for what might incur him in his zealous declaration of God's prophetic word to His beloved people. Neither king nor self-declared prophet, both of which hurled insult and injury upon him throughout his ministry would dissuade him from what he knew God was calling him to be and do. Truth had to be spoken; he resolved himself to remain faithful to proclaim it whether by life or by death. Oh, how we need such voices today! Where can we find those ready to stand up to kings and princes, to senators and presidents alike? It seems to me we are in desperate need of such voices today. Will we hear them when God sends them? And when heard will we take their message to heart?
It's in this historical backdrop that the Word of Yahweh first comes to Jeremiah...
All this Israelite indifference to God and His Word, as well as their blatant disobedience came crashing down upon them around the year 605BC, when Nebuchadnezzar, soon-to-be emperor of Babylon, having met and soundly defeated the mighty Egyptian army at the 'Battle of Carchemish' that same year and chasing them back through Israel, leads his troops in the sacking of Jerusalem, deporting some of the chief leaders of Judah back to Babylon. Known as the First Deportation which initiated a very gloomy 70-year exilic period in Israel's history, a young-up-and-coming prophet named Daniel was one of those deported and assigned to the emperor's court, a story worth reading in its own right (clic here). Eight to ten years later, around 597BC Nebuchadnezzar again returned to Jerusalem to subjugate it, this time sequestering the prophet Ezekiel, together with 10,000 others to Babylon in what is known as the Second Deportation (Ezekiel will minister to the exiles in Babylon throughout this period). At that time he placed Mattaniah, a.k.a. Zedekiah on the Judean throne. The final blow to the southern kingdom which essentially terminated any vestiges of future Jewish kingdom-rule occurred in the fifth month of 586BC when Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem for the third and final time, razing the temple and city to the ground, burning walls and gates beyond recognition [Jews commemorate this as Tisha B'Av (the 9th of Av]. It's the final act of prophetic warning; God will have His way.
Jeremiah grew up and lived through this dark history, probably beginning his ministry at the ripe, young age of twenty. He ministered in the power of Almighty Yahweh for some forty years, all of which spanned the reigns of the five kings of the southern kingdom right up to the end... Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. He seemed to have cared little for what might incur him in his zealous declaration of God's prophetic word to His beloved people. Neither king nor self-declared prophet, both of which hurled insult and injury upon him throughout his ministry would dissuade him from what he knew God was calling him to be and do. Truth had to be spoken; he resolved himself to remain faithful to proclaim it whether by life or by death. Oh, how we need such voices today! Where can we find those ready to stand up to kings and princes, to senators and presidents alike? It seems to me we are in desperate need of such voices today. Will we hear them when God sends them? And when heard will we take their message to heart?
It's in this historical backdrop that the Word of Yahweh first comes to Jeremiah...
The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.
The word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah,
and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah,
down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah,
when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
“Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
But the LORD said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me,
“I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms
to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
Jeremiah 1:1-10
The word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah,
and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah,
down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah,
when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
“Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
But the LORD said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me,
“I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms
to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
Jeremiah 1:1-10
This opening dialogue between the prophet and God is both rich and powerful. God, in His great Sovereignty has 'called' Jeremiah to the nations from before ad infinitum. Let there be no doubt that anyone bent on terminating a conceived human being, simply does not understand the grand purposes and plan of the ages that God has for this world. How many prophets have been lost by a senseless killing of the unborn? How many 'called ones' will ever hear God's voice in the flesh? We the living are the losers at their loss.
Jeremiah's 'call' is not just any 'call' but a 'call' to something beyond the scope of even his suffering countryman; a 'mission-call' to the world that encompasses nations, empires, peoples and kingdoms. Was this twenty-year-old- something being pressed to do something he could never essentially accomplish, had he even had modern convention? He certainly thought he was incapable of the task,
Jeremiah's 'call' is not just any 'call' but a 'call' to something beyond the scope of even his suffering countryman; a 'mission-call' to the world that encompasses nations, empires, peoples and kingdoms. Was this twenty-year-old- something being pressed to do something he could never essentially accomplish, had he even had modern convention? He certainly thought he was incapable of the task,
“Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
"I'm inexperienced and incapable," he surmised. At least he was honest and cultured enough to address The One and Only appropriately... lessons worth challenging the new generations to heed.
God rebukes Jeremiah's lack of faith, and then proceeds to share promises to the young man couched in prophetic tone; promises of how God will protect and rescue, even in light of the fears that are certain to come when kings and self-declared prophets raise their hand in opposition. But God has 'chosen' and 'decided' and will 'deliver'; the prophet is not to fret. And then with an awe-inspiring gesture of tender love and compassion, God touched his lips and put His word upon them. How this happened, one can only speculate; why it happened, well, I can say it probably was this memory alone that enabled Jeremiah to stand true to his 'call' to break down and destroy nations and kingdoms. And thus the importance of a 'call' from God. I suppose one could summarize Jeremiah's 'call' in this way:
1. God takes the divine initiative (vs. 5)
2. Man puts up resistance giving excuses (vs. 6)
3. God rebukes and then reassures (vs. 7)
4. God demonstrates His commissioning with a physical act (vs. 9a)
5. God fully discloses the content of His commission (vss. 9b-10)
For me the fascination of Jeremiah's 'call to ministry' is not only the process by which God called him, as instructive as that is for us today, but the 'final word' as coming from God as to what one is called to be and do for God. How could ONE young man bring down nations and kingdoms, to then be used to plant and build up again? God used four salient word pictures, negative in their scope, to speak of the power vested in Jeremiah; he will 'uproot', 'tear down', 'destroy' and 'overthrow'. Then upon the smoldering, heaping rubble God promises to use this one man to 'build' and to 'plant' again. Where's the 'niceness' of God in this 2 -to- 1 punch for the kingdoms and nations of the world? And how will this even happen through the ministry of ONE solitary man? This speaks to me of two things: the power of God's Word and the immeasurable potential and authority God vests in His chosen ones. Certainly God's Only Begotten Son Jesus the Messiah comes to mind. Nevertheless, we take away from this that God's Word is final, it's sure; it will accomplish much, much more than any one of us might think. And the man Jeremiah? Young at heart, but with God's bestowed supernatural power and authority will accomplish things beyond imagination. I thought of this prophet's far reaching ministry-impact these last two weeks on the northern coast of La Guajira, Colombia as I shared his thoughts and lessons for workers of the vineyard, words that still, many hundreds of years later are still fulfilling their worth in the ebb-n-flow of falling nations and rising kingdoms. Let there be no doubt, God's 'call' on Jeremiah and his faithfulness to that 'call' has produced far more fruit over the many generations since than any of us could ever hope to know this side of heaven.
God rebukes Jeremiah's lack of faith, and then proceeds to share promises to the young man couched in prophetic tone; promises of how God will protect and rescue, even in light of the fears that are certain to come when kings and self-declared prophets raise their hand in opposition. But God has 'chosen' and 'decided' and will 'deliver'; the prophet is not to fret. And then with an awe-inspiring gesture of tender love and compassion, God touched his lips and put His word upon them. How this happened, one can only speculate; why it happened, well, I can say it probably was this memory alone that enabled Jeremiah to stand true to his 'call' to break down and destroy nations and kingdoms. And thus the importance of a 'call' from God. I suppose one could summarize Jeremiah's 'call' in this way:
1. God takes the divine initiative (vs. 5)
2. Man puts up resistance giving excuses (vs. 6)
3. God rebukes and then reassures (vs. 7)
4. God demonstrates His commissioning with a physical act (vs. 9a)
5. God fully discloses the content of His commission (vss. 9b-10)
For me the fascination of Jeremiah's 'call to ministry' is not only the process by which God called him, as instructive as that is for us today, but the 'final word' as coming from God as to what one is called to be and do for God. How could ONE young man bring down nations and kingdoms, to then be used to plant and build up again? God used four salient word pictures, negative in their scope, to speak of the power vested in Jeremiah; he will 'uproot', 'tear down', 'destroy' and 'overthrow'. Then upon the smoldering, heaping rubble God promises to use this one man to 'build' and to 'plant' again. Where's the 'niceness' of God in this 2 -to- 1 punch for the kingdoms and nations of the world? And how will this even happen through the ministry of ONE solitary man? This speaks to me of two things: the power of God's Word and the immeasurable potential and authority God vests in His chosen ones. Certainly God's Only Begotten Son Jesus the Messiah comes to mind. Nevertheless, we take away from this that God's Word is final, it's sure; it will accomplish much, much more than any one of us might think. And the man Jeremiah? Young at heart, but with God's bestowed supernatural power and authority will accomplish things beyond imagination. I thought of this prophet's far reaching ministry-impact these last two weeks on the northern coast of La Guajira, Colombia as I shared his thoughts and lessons for workers of the vineyard, words that still, many hundreds of years later are still fulfilling their worth in the ebb-n-flow of falling nations and rising kingdoms. Let there be no doubt, God's 'call' on Jeremiah and his faithfulness to that 'call' has produced far more fruit over the many generations since than any of us could ever hope to know this side of heaven.
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