DAY 297

GOD’S CALL…IT CAN BE HARD

Jeremiah 1 & 2 and 1 Timothy 3

Today we begin Jeremiah, another one of the great prophets of Israel. Before we launch into the text let’s try and get some bearings:

·         Both Isaiah and Jeremiah were prophets for the country of Judah, the southern of the two kingdoms.

·         Isaiah prophesized from 740-700 B.C. and maybe to 680 B.C.

·         Jeremiah prophesized from 627 B.C. to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

·         Isaiah prophesized a message of both warning, even judgment to the nation as its viability hung in the balance, and comfort in the Messianic hope.

·         Jeremiah, as we will read, also prophesized a message of judgment. Yet he is 100 years closer to the destruction of Jerusalem and its great Temple. Jeremiah risks his life pleading with the Jewish kings…and he will travel with the people as they are dragged to exile in Babylonia. I think you will get a picture of a man totally dedicated to his God and to his people and what is best for them.

The first two chapters of Jeremiah contain “God’s call to him” and then onto to his first message the people.

In 1:1-3 we are provided the time: during the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah.

·         Josiah we can read about in 2 Kings 22 and 23 – he started when he was 8 years old. During his reign Jeremiah’s father, Hilkiah, finds the Book of the Law, and Josiah launches reforms—Josiah was a good king.

·         Jehoiakim we can read about at the end of 2 Kings 23 and 24. He was older, 25 years old, when he began to reign. He reigned 11 years and “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”

·         Then there was another king (Jehoiachin) who reigned for about three months and then Jerusalem fell. He is not discussed in Jeremiah, his uncle Mattaniah was made “king” (under Babylonian rule) and Mattaniah’s name was changed to Zedekiah.

·         I know that is a lot of information and you have read it before, but it helps me to get my bearings.

In 1:4-10 we see God’s call to Jeremiah and Jeremiah’s resistance. Jeremiah says “I do not know how to speak.” A natural reaction; when God asks any of us to do something our first reaction is, “Wait a minute, was that God, or something else? It probably was not God, why would God ask me!” And yet God responds and “touched my mouth” says Jeremiah.

In 1:11-17 we see God giving Jeremiah visions and asking him what he is seeing. God is giving Jeremiah confidence that he is really seeing what God intends while He shows Jeremiah that trouble is coming from the north. Then in 1:18-19 God says to Jeremiah that He will make Jeremiah like a “fortified city” and that even though people are not happy with what Jeremiah is saying, that God will protect him.

In chapter 2 we move into a long discourse, God is speaking through Jeremiah and He is recounting all that He, God, has done—and yet the people have forsaken Him. At one point He asks them, “What other nations have changed their gods…” v.11. It is as if God is saying, “I cannot believe you left me, nations don’t abandon their gods, but you have abandoned me—I did not abandon you.” He also “calls them out” because they have gone after the god Baal. This is the god that required child sacrifice.

In the midst of this long discourse covering large periods of time we get a glimpse into Josiah's time. While Josiah was a good king he was not perfect. It appears he was going to make an alliance with Egypt and in the end it is the king of Egypt that kills him—the may be alluded to in 2:18 and God’s view of that alliance.

The message goes on and I imagine that Jeremiah might have been anxious to challenge the people. He will be doing this a lot; it will not be easy. Yet God will guard and protect him.

For me there is a great parallel in the New Testament lesson. While Jeremiah is speaking of kings and the plight of a nation, in Timothy it is much more personal as this time God is speaking to “overseers” (you might say bishops or priests) and deacons. It all comes down to the people God calls, and whether or not they seek to serve God. The kings of Israel and Judah were to serve God, today priests, deacons…in fact all followers of Jesus…are called to serve God…may we do so faithfully.