Chapter 1 - Never the Same Again
We’ll take a couple of months to read through this book, one of the longest in the Bible. It’s 52 chapters and some of those chapters are lengthy. The book speaks of the changing of the world. A whole nation of people had come to think that they could pretty much count on things staying as they were. We know what happens when a whole nation of people thinks that. We might know that change comes to those who expect no change, but we don’t often think that we ourselves will live through historical upheaval. Until now.
Jeremiah Chapter 1 So much in here;
We are introduced to Jeremiah himself. He is a priest. We are told where he lives. Right away we can see that Jeremiah, though he is crucial in the book, is not the main character. The main character in the book is “the word of the Lord”. This word, we are told, came to Jeremiah during the reign of three kings in the nation of Judah. Then, verse three brings about the telling of a cataclysm. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah during the reign of these three kings, until the captivity of Jerusalem. That is the thing that no one would have expected, and it is pronounced here with certainty. There is no escaping it. The world is about to change.
At verse 4 the text moves to poetry. Allow yourself to feel this shift. Three verses of direct declaration and description, and then a turn to a poetic focus on Jeremiah and the “word of the Lord”. As you read the next 7 verses you can likely see the shift by how the words are laid out in your Bible. Here we have God calling Jeremiah. We already know, from the first three verses, that we are set in a time of tumult and loss. Now the focus moves to one person within that chaos and more specifically to the relationship of God to that one person. Hear the words, from God to Jeremiah; “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated (called) you,”
What else is there to know? God starts not with a declaration of historical events or with reference to kings and kingdoms, but with the promise and the assurance to Jeremiah that Jeremiah is KNOWN by God. You could take a moment there. What might it mean to hear that? In the chaos of our times and our days could you think about this for yourself and for others? We are each of us, known by God. Jeremiah is told that God knew him before he was formed. This is an astounding assurance. In the midst of chaos there is One simply saying, “I know” and “I know YOU”.
Jeremiah seems to get the seriousness of this right away. Often the first human reaction to divine call is resistance. Jeremiah resists citing his youth and his perceived lack of eloquence. He is questioning why God would choose someone like him. The next part of the interaction is telling as well. God tells Jeremiah not to be afraid of “them” because God will deliver Jeremiah. Next, God outlines the mission. It will be with words (the word of the Lord) from the mouth of Jeremiah that nations and kingdoms will be, “plucked up, broken down, destroyed, overthrown and then built and planted”. After this, two little visions, these are like preparatory trials for how Jeremiah will see and hear God’s word. An almond branch and a boiling pot. “Yes. You can see. Now listen and I will tell you.” God says to Jeremiah.
And then an assurance that is both a blessing and a kind of fearsome foretelling. “Jeremiah, I will make you strong. Do not be dismayed. I will make you like an iron pillar, like a bronze wall. The very kings of Judah and all of the officials and the priests will come against you, but I will be with you.”
Is that the kind of promise that you would like to hear? Maybe not. “God will be with you” sounds great on a lovely summer morning (like today), but when the promise includes “no matter what people do to you and no matter how powerful the opposition is” then we might begin to think, “well, what’s next then?”
Things are about to get interesting.
