“The Broken Covenant”

Scripture: Jeremiah 11:1-14

Jeremiah was called to lead the people back into the arms of Almighty God. They had strayed a long way from Jehovah’s grace, but apparently they either didn’t understand that they had wandered so far, or remember where they were supposed to be, or even if they did know, how to get back to the Lord! As far as they were concerned, they were doing nothing out of the ordinary, and were perfectly right in their worship of these other gods.

But the truth is that their new gods were impotent - they weren’t giving them anything, let alone good things! Their Jehovah God had delivered on every promise that he had ever made, but the nations felt that it just wasn’t enough. They wanted more, and looked to helpless, false gods to fulfill their earthly desires.

Jehovah had established a covenant – an unbreakable agreement - with the people, and yet, they acted as though they could change the terms of that covenantal relationship. Unfortunately for them, they could not, and their lives had become nothing short of a disgrace and an insult to their God.

We are all weak and imperfect creatures, and after all this time, we still struggle with that God-given covenant. The relationship is simple, and yet, we fail to keep it throughout the entirety of this life. So what is this covenant, and how are we failing to honor it?

Read Jeremiah 11:1-5

So what does the covenant say? In Leviticus 26:9-12, we discover what the covenant is all about. At first glance, it would appear that the covenant is completely upon the Lord, and that it is his choice to deliver not only goodness, but excessive goodness – at least until we get to the very end of verse 12. “I will … be your God, and you will be my people.” You will be my people! Many think that this is also part of God’s responsibility, but the truth is that is ours.
The covenant describes a relationship between us and the Lord, and because our understanding and abilities are so limited, God has set the parameters for us. In essence, it means that he will be ours, and we will be his, and that he will help us by showing us what it means to be his.

So what does it mean?

In John 10:1-5, Jesus sets the stage for his proclamation “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:14). In verse 4, we read “… he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” The Lord takes the lead in our lives, clearing the way, ensuring that obstacles and threats against us are neutralized. He leads his people to goodness and nourishment and a rewarding life. But just because Jesus leads, it doesn’t mean that all of the people will follow. The passage says that “his sheep” will follow, and they are defined as those who hear and know and follow the Lord’s voice. That means that they do as the “Good Shepherd” instructs, and not by their own desires!

God’s promise that “… you will be my people” isn’t some generic carte blanche statement – it means that the people of earth are called to follow the Lord’s commandments – not just a couple of them, but all! And those who follow do so because they know the Voice that is calling them, and, because we recognize the Voice of God, we are expected to live within God’s will. That means that we don’t get to jump in and out of his way, that we aren’t to try to walk with one foot in and the other one out, that we are never be “fence straddlers” who try to live in two separate ways at the same time. And when we are the “People of God”, whether that definition is for Israel and Judah of 700 BC, or the Christian Church of 2016 AD, we are to follow the lead of our Almighty God, and no one else.

The prophet Jeremiah was given very specific words in this regard – “Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God” (v.4). Not once in a while, not just in those things that we like, not when it’s convenient, and definitely not in the things that “other gods” demand. “Obey me!” the Lord says, for that is the responsibility of the people who wish to be the Lord’s own.

But isn’t there a lot of conflict and disagreement in the Lord’s commandments? The Old Testament seems to say one thing, but the gospels reveal a lot of differences when it comes to Jesus’ teachings. Which ones do we follow? How do we know?

Read Jeremiah 11:6-8

I like to group the commandments into two categories – ritualistic and moralistic. That may be a bit simplistic, but for this example, it will work. Consider the Ten Commandments for a moment (Exodus 20:1-17).
The first 4 are how we are to show respect to God, or the ritual that God has set up for us. We are to have only one God, we are to have no idols or images for our worship, we are to give honor to the name of God and to never demean that name, and we are to keep one day each week as a day of worship and refreshing in the Lord.
The last 6 are how we are to relate to other people – in other words, it establishes our moral “compass”. We are to show honor to our parents – not to love the things they do, but to respect their position in our lives. We are not to take the life of another person for our own personal gain. We must show honor to the sanctity of marriage, and to refrain from all other sexual activity. Do not steal that which belongs to another, or tell falsehoods against them, either in a court of law or in casual conversations (some call this gossip!), and we are to be satisfied with what the Lord brings to our lives, and to not have any desire for what others may have.

In some cases, these ritual and moral commandments are fairly vague, so Jewish leadership – from Moses, down through the years to the Pharisees and Sadducees – tried to set guidelines for what God’s laws really meant. Unfortunately, in their desire to clarify and spell out how we keep God’s ways alive in our life, they made life so restrictive that the law began to take on a whole new meaning. The Law of God was, in many instances, corrupted by the Law of Moses.
So how do we know the difference? We test everything against the words of Jesus. If his words contradict the Old Testament writings, then we follow his call. If they seem to reinforce the law, then we follow that way. Again, this may seem a bit too one-dimensional to you, but it will at least set us on the right course. Understanding and application will certainly require study and concentration on our part, but if we are truly committed to obeying the word of the Lord, this approach should help.

Jeremiah writes “They followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts.” This isn’t just a judgment against the people of Jeremiah’s day – this stubbornness has been in play from Israel’s wilderness years, to the worldly character of today’s society, and will continue until the day that Jesus returns to set it all straight! It isn’t easy! But it’s worthy!
Isaiah 55:9 – “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The Lord calls us to take the high road in life.

Read Jeremiah 11:9-14

The people had ignored the “high road”, and instead chose the lowest road possible! The covenant wasn’t just broken – it was in shambles! The prophet lets the people know in no uncertain terms that because of their unfaithful lives, the Lord God Jehovah would soon allow catastrophe to rain down on the nation. He even encourages them to try to get their “new” gods to help them out, knowing full well that these dead gods, made of stone and wood, never can and never will help. The only solution for the godlessness of Israel and Judah was to be set aside in captivity until their lives had been cleansed.

Does that mean that the only chance of salvation for us is to be set aside, too? Of course not – since Jeremiah’s day, God has taken the punishment and the cleansing – the setting aside – out of our hands and into his own. Jesus took the death penalty that was rightly ours, he took the separation from God away from us and carried it with him to Calvary. He buried our sin and faithlessness in the tomb, and left it there when he rose to new life. Jesus – Emmanuel – God with us – has healed the covenant that humanity has broken, and by his grace, has allowed us to be restored to the Father by faith and forgiveness in Him.

Jeremiah was told not to pray for the people of Israel and Judah because the Lord God would not listen. But today, the Lord has turned it back to himself, and since there is nothing that we can do about it, Jesus has made it right again, and he prays for us (John 17). The problem, though, is that we are still called to “Obey” him! And when we adhere to the command of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and begin to truly and fully love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and strength, and that includes his word, we will find that we are finally on the right path once again.

Israel and Judah didn’t have Jesus – they only had the Law to save them, and they failed in their attempts to follow it. But we have Jesus, we have his example, we have his way, and that will never fail us. Jesus is the New Covenant of God (Hebrews 8:6-13) – give him your life, and trust in him alone.

“The Failure in Conviction”

Scripture: Jeremiah 7:1-11

Today, we continue in our study of Jeremiah’s call to proclaim the word of God to the people of Judah. Last week, we saw how the people had stopped trusting in the Lord, even though they had received so much from him. The prophet had pointed out all that Yahweh had given during their time in the wilderness, as well as his gift of a land that was already producing fruit and crops and livestock when they arrived. But for some reason, the people had either forgotten about all that the Lord had done for them, or they just decided to ignore the fact that it all had come from their Lord God..

The words of Jeremiah and the other prophets seemed to make no difference whatsoever in their lives, but they never gave up trying. In today’s text, we will consider a portion of a sermon that the prophet preached while standing at the entrance to the temple, and his focus will be on their failure in faith and the effect that it has on the depth of their worship. It is a message that all of us need to consider – when we come to the Lord’s house, what do we bring with us? Is it truly a love for our God Almighty, or is it a shallow, half-hearted offering that gives little, if any, meaning to our words of praise?

Let’s see what the prophet has to say to the people as they venture into temple to offer their hearts to the great God Jehovah.

Read Jeremiah 7:1-4

The prophet’s opening call – “Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah” would seem to imply that this is a festival time during which many would be coming to Jerusalem to make sacrifices at the temple. A prophet’s job was seldom focused on a very select and small group of people. He was to carry the Lord’s message to as many as he possibly could. So why not stand at the entrance to the house of God and speak out on the occasion of worship?

The truth is that this is the perfect place to share the Lord’s thoughts regarding the people’s debased sense of God! Did they really think that they could offer him a few token offerings two or three times a year, and the rest of the time give their allegiance to some dead and worthless god? Worship is supposed to be a time of expressing our joy at all that our Lord has done, and continues to do for us, and he should receive our complete and undivided loyalty! But if worship has become just a rote exercise, what good is it?

Jeremiah calls the people to change their ways. He is, in essence, reminding them that the Lord has called them to be caretakers of this land – HIS land – a land that he promised to Abraham and his faithful descendants. The covenant that God made with Israel was that he would free them, and lead them, and give them a marvelous land to live in. (Exodus 6:6-8) The Lord was even committed to living among the people so that they could know him intimately. (Exodus 29:45-46)

But hollow words of praise mean less than nothing to Almighty God. In truth, they are actually an insult. And the prophet tells the people in no uncertain terms, that unless their hearts begin to match the words they are speaking, that they will very shortly loose the promises and protection that their Lord God Jehovah has always provided. “Reform your ways … and I will let you live in this place.” The Lord is patient, but even God will eventually reach the point in which he can no longer tolerate our foolishness – not because he is fed up with us, but because we have repeatedly rejected his call to faithfulness and we need to receive his correction.

And correction will come – either by our submission to his ways, or by God’s holy intervention.

Read Jeremiah 7:5-8

They have been trusting in deceptive words. Now understand that it isn’t God who is being deceived! The people are deceiving themselves. Judah had deluded themselves into a false sense of security, and that is what sin always does to us – it makes us believe that everything is going well, and that there is no cause for concern. We misinterpret the Lord’s patient and loving attitude toward us as a sign that he has no objection to our flirtations with false gods! And that is a dangerous assumption on our part.
So God sends his messengers, like Jeremiah, to show us the errors of our ways. Judah had been oppressive of those who were helpless, instead of caring for their needs. Their concept of justice had become a self-serving tool for personal gain. They worshipped falsely, and had placed their dependency on the idols of earth. They had looked to the norms of earth instead of to the glory of God for guidance. Their lives had become a bold-faced lie, and unless they made some radical changes in their lives, the Lord Jehovah would make the changes for them.

Nearly 100 years earlier the prophet Micah had told the people that justice – Godly justice - was vital to their lives, that they were to not only offer mercy to others, but that they were to love sharing that mercy, and that humility was the far better way to live than in the arrogant and egotistical and sinful lives that had come to define them. (Micah 6:6-8)

They had betrayed the faith and conviction of their forefathers, and had set up their own brand of faithlessness.

How about us? Do the lives we live on Monday through Saturday reflect the words we speak on Sunday? Do our prayers and praises and testimonies have any depth to them? Is our Sunday worship just some obligatory offering that we make grudgingly to God, or does it become the basis for the rest of our week? If we are truly honest with ourselves, who do we more closely identify with – the people of Judah, or the prophet Jeremiah?

Read Jeremiah 7:9-11

False faith is far worse than no faith at all. It demonstrates a willful disregard for not only God’s commandments, but for his love and provision, and Judah was denying God at every turn. They cried out that God’s house was their temple, but their lives cried out otherwise. The claimed that because of the covenant that they had with God that nothing could harm them, even though they had irreparably damaged that same covenant. As far as the Lord was concerned, the temple was no longer a place where he wished to reside – it had become the fraudulent home of thieves.

Dire consequences were about to fall upon Judah, but they had no intention of ever listening. 600 years later, they were still living corrupt lives, and Jesus would also condemn them as thieves and robbers (Luke 19:45-46). But the people rejected the condemnation because they had been deceived. They thought that nothing would ever happen to either themselves or to their temple because God was with them.

How they could possibly think that they were getting away with defiling God’s Holy Name is beyond me! Did they think that the Lord didn’t know? Had they forgotten that the Lord knows everything, and that nothing slips by him?

The temple and the people’s faith had become useless in God’s eyes, and radical changes were about to occur to both. Neither one would have the Lord’s blessing any longer – the temple would be destroyed and the people would be taken off into captivity by Babylon. That’s what happens when God’s people lose both their perspective and their conviction. His love for the people will always survive, but his provision will not. And as much as stepping back from the nation would break the Lord’s heart, it would have hurt even more to allow them to continue in their apostasy.

That’s what comes of complacency in faith. The Lord will send messenger after messenger, with warning upon warning, and if hearts still don’t change, the Lord will do the changing for us. Conviction, which is what our change of heart is all about, is an interesting word, in that in a secular context it means that a verdict of guilty has been handed down by a court of law, and that punishment will soon begin. In faith, conviction is a positive term, for it is a sign that we have admitted our sin, and by our confession of guilt, and repentance for our sin, forgiveness becomes ours. The difference in these two concepts is that in the secular sense, punishment is ours to endure, while in a Godly sense, Jesus Christ has already accepted and endured the penalty that is rightfully ours.

Complacency in faith results in the penalty being moved out of Christ’s hands and into our own. And that can never a good thing. We need to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8) The prophet Micah had it right centuries ago, but the people of this world still don’t get it.

Share the prophet’s warnings with all who you meet, and some may actually accept the word, and discover the blessing that “conviction” can bring.

“The Failure in Trust”

Scripture: Jeremiah 2:4-9; 13; 16

Last week, we read that Jeremiah acknowledged that the word for his life came directly from the Lord God Jehovah, and not by his own volition – and not once, but three times. Throughout this book, we will see over and over again, that God is the author of all that the prophet would say and do. The task of calling Israel to account for their failure in faith was not Jeremiah’s idea – it was God’s! And when the Lord calls, he also enables.
Jeremiah had been given a divine appointment, as do all who accept the Lord’s word for their lives. We know that he was very young when the word came, but we have no indication as to when his ministry actually began. And that can be equally true for our own lives. God begins preparing us for his task long before our effort ever begins. But when it finally happens, there is no turning back and there is no modifying the message that we are given. Jeremiah would be given a difficult word to carry, and he never denied the call that he had received. And the first message that Israel had to hear was that they had lost their trust in their Lord.

As we read through Exodus and Numbers, we discover a number of instances when Israel struggled with this “trust” issue, and say that they would rather return to Egypt than to continue on this terrible journey to “who knows where”! (Exodus 14:11-12; Exodus 32:1-4; Numbers 11:4-9) But when life began running downhill, the Lord, through Moses, was able to bring them back to, at least some semblance, of faith in him. But now, even though times were getting very bad for the people, and even though the Lord continues to send prophet after prophet with message after message for them, they refuse to listen. But the Lord would continue to call his people home.

Read Jeremiah 2:4-7

These verses read as an indictment against Israel. They certainly don’t contain any judgement, but the overriding theme is that the Lord God is not happy. The nation is guilty of breaking the Divine covenant. (Genesis 17:3-8; Exodus 6:5-8; etc.) Now, some folks, even some today, can’t quite see that this is a serious matter – after all, we were given the gift of “free will”, and if Israel, or we for that matter, choose to do things our own way, isn’t that God’s fault? After all, he gave us the right to choose, didn’t he?

The problem is that the covenant was offered, and Israel accepted God’s good graces, which included freedom from Egyptian oppression, and the gift of the land that had been promised to Abraham, and sustenance during the wilderness years, and protection from enemies, and the joy of knowing the intimate love of the great Jehovah! They took all that God had offered, but were unwilling to give the one thing that the Lord had asked of them – that they would trust in his word, and would only worship him, and would set all other gods and idols aside. (Exodus 20:1-17)
The Lord asks rhetorically what he could have possibly done to break their trust. Obviously, the answer is “nothing”! And the Lord begins to recount all the ways that the people had denied him – this is the indictment that is being brought against Israel. As a matter of fact, this is the same indictment that stands against all who claim to be the people of God, and yet refuse to accept his word as the right and perfect way to live.
Just as in a secular court of law, the charges are read, the defendant is allowed an opportunity to hear them, and to either accept them, or reject them. But in the case of God’s court, there is no defense, no rebuttal, no questioning or cross examination, and no jury. God’s understanding of the situation is complete, perfect, and incontestable, and there is no one who can offer, or deny, or modify, or even explain, the charges. (Zechariah 3:1-9)

So what are the charges being leveled against Israel?
1. Instead of following the lead of their one, holy, and eternal God, they have created their own gods that are based in human understanding. The Lord tells Jeremiah that not only are these earthly gods worthless, they also make all who worship them just as worthless.

So where is our allegiance? Is it in the one true and almighty God who created us in his image, or is it in the gods of earth that we have created in our image? Do we worship the gods of financial wealth, or of secular power, or of sexual attraction, or of personal prestige, or any of the other earthly allures that call us away from the love of our Holy God?

2. Do we seek to live in the presence of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the redemptive gift of the living God of Calvary, and in the guidance of the Spiritual Advocate sent in the promise of Jesus Christ? Do we place our trust in the God of provision and protection? Do we worship this one God, or do we look to other, multiple, uncaring, insensitive, unresponsive gods?

Worshiping and trusting in the one worthy God will bring his worthiness to our lives. But when we place our hope in the incapable gods of earth, their worthlessness becomes our failure and condemnation.

3. Do we honor the many blessings that God grants, such as the opportunity to act in a ministry that resides in his Name, to offer others the gifts that God has given us, to claim the name that is above all names as our own? Or do we attempt to offer all that we have been given in the name of some other, weak, ineffective, dead god?

When we misuse or misrepresent the gifts that we have been entrusted with, we will, very soon, discover that in our corruption of the heavenly gifts, we will also lose the strength and blessing that comes with them.

Read Jeremiah 2:8-9

This last indictment is against the priesthood – the very ones who have been charged with the keeping of the faith and instruction for the people. Priests had been designated as the intercessors between the people and God, and when they failed in their responsibilities, it had a great impact on those who were in their charge. In James 3:1, we are told that the accountability assigned to teachers, as well as to others who lead the people in God’s truth, brings with it a great obligation to be true to the word of God. This includes pastors, priests and preachers, Bible study leaders, Sunday School teachers, administrators – in essence, all who can influence the faith and example that others are called to follow.
James then tells us that the expectations of these “teachers” will be much greater, and that they will be judged more strictly. Those who have authority must use that power wisely and in harmony with the word of God. And when we don’t, the effect isn’t only on our own lives, but on that of many others. In Matthew 18:6-7, Jesus says that causing others to sin will bring about dire consequences for the “teacher”.

We are to trust the Lord, and not depend on our own understanding.
(Proverbs 3:5-6)

Israel had failed the Lord in just about every way conceivable, and no matter how many messengers were sent to them, they continued to refuse the correction.
How about us - do we trust the Lord any better than these people did?

Read Jeremiah 2:13;16

The prophet is given 2 general examples of the sins that Israel has been living within. The first is that they have rejected the “spring of living water”, which represents the grace and mercy of God that has been offered to the nation. The term Living water is comparable to an artesian well that flows constantly without the benefit of any outside means. It is always fresh, always nourishing, while the water held in a cistern can easily become stagnant and tainted, and if the cistern is not built tightly, it will leak, and will lose all the water that has been stored there.

Living water has no need of storage – it flows constantly, providing life giving refreshment whenever and wherever it goes. That is God at work in our lives.

The second sin isn’t quite as obvious. Memphis and Tahpanhes are believed to be major cities in Egypt where it is possible that negotiations were held between Israel and the Egyptians. The Lord wanted the people to be allied with him, and to leave the relationships with other nations alone. Alliances with other nations were nothing but trouble, but the people didn’t seem to learn that lesson very well.

Israel had completely turned away from God and his ways. They had looked to other nations for help instead of trusting in the power of their Almighty God. They had chosen to make their own imperfect way in the world instead of following the perfect and righteous way that their Lord had prepared for them. They took the best that the God of heaven would give them, and offered their thanks and loyalty to the gods of earth.

Israel hadn’t just committed a sin or two – they had completely disregarded all that the Lord had done for them, and had broken the covenant that had existed between them and Jehovah God for over a thousand years. And the child Jeremiah was the one chosen to bring this truth to light in the lives of the people Israel. There was no message, or even an insinuation, of hope for the nation – only an indictment of gigantic proportions. If the people wouldn’t repent and turn away from their arrogant ways, a corrective action, initiated and carried out by God Himself, would be necessary. And it wouldn’t be pleasant.

And all it would take on the part of Israel, and of us, to avoid this calamity is to trust the Lord and his ways once again. But the words of the prophet must be heard loud and clear first, and trusted without hesitation.

Can you hear? Do you trust?

“The Call and the Authority”

Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-19

For the past month and a half, we’ve been considering what deep faith did to encourage and strengthen a number of people in scripture, and what it can do for us in our times of trial. Today, we begin a look at the specifics of faith in both the life of a prophet and its absence in the life of a people. Judah had been moving in the same direction as Israel did, and their destiny would soon mimic that of their brothers and sisters to the north. The Lord had sent messenger after messenger to warn the people that their sinful lives were going to lead them into deep trouble, but the allure of worldly ways seemed to be stronger than the desire to follow God’s word.

Jeremiah had been called to bring the Lord’s most recent plea for the people of Judah to return to his grace. But the prophet might as well have been shouting into the wind, for all the good it would do. That’s the plight of a man or woman of God – faithful obedience has little to do with gaining success in our endeavors.

In 1974, Senator Mark Hatfield was touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visited the "House of Dying." He saw sick children were being cared for, and the dispensary, where the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention. Watching Mother Teresa minister to these people, feeding and nursing those left by others to die, Hatfield was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the suffering she and her co-workers face daily.

"How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?" He asked.

Mother Teresa replied, "My dear Senator, I am not called to be successful, I am called to be faithful."
- From SermonIllustrator.org/I am called to be faithful

The greatest prophetic orator can deliver the perfect words from God, and the bottom line is that the recipients still get to choose whether they will act on those words or not. Jeremiah, the son of a priest, would do as his Lord told him, and yet, the words would constantly fall on deaf ears - he would be chastised, he would suffer, he would go into captivity, and through it all, his faith never failed.
Today, we consider the timing of God’s call on his life, the message that he would be given for the people of Judah, and the divine authority to act on the Lord’s behalf.
Read Jeremiah 1:4-8

The Lord’s plan and call on our lives is never some spontaneous exhortation. It was put in motion long before we ever existed, and is closely tied to all that God does – either in his own miraculous ways, or through the lives of other people. And the uncomfortable truth is that every one of us is part of his plan and has an important part in it, whether we realize it and like it or not! Jeremiah’s call to prophetic ministry would remain on him for about 40 years, and his message is as important today as it was 2,500 years ago.

Jeremiah was confident in his call, and our passage for today begins “The word of the Lord came to me.” Of course, many false prophets have used those very same words, but the test of accuracy is whether the message that is being delivered is compatible with God’s nature. If the prophet’s words don’t reflect the divine character, then they can’t be from God, regardless of what the messenger proclaims.
Another indication of this call to Jeremiah is found in Deuteronomy 18:17-20, in which God tells Moses that another prophet, who is very much like him, will be raised up, that he will put his own words into his mouth, and that the man will be faithful to the call on his life. Jeremiah’s call had been prophesized over 500 years before he was ever born.

The situation and ability of the prophet is also irrelative in the earthly sense. Jeremiah was called when he was just a boy, and he himself had some grave doubts about his ability to serve Yahweh in this way, but the only limitation that God ever has is when we say “no” to him. The plan for this boy had been in place and had been at work long before he was even conceived, and if this was the time that God had ordained for him, it was the right and perfect time for the lad to begin ministry. The Lord tells him not to worry about who he is and what he can, or cannot, do – just do exactly what I tell you, go to the places and the people who I send you to, and don’t fear anything that might come against you.

God not only calls us to service in his name, but he also enables us, and ensures that we can complete the task that is set before us. We don’t get to choose the timing, we don’t get to decide when and where to deliver it, and we definitely don’t get to decide what the message will be. We simply follow in a way that I like to think of as “the ministry of showing up”! We follow the Lord’s lead to wherever he decides, speaking the words he gives us, to the people he chooses, and work very hard not to interject our own thoughts and ways into his plan.

Read Jeremiah 1:9-14

The Lord gives the boy some additional detail on how far his efforts will be carried – that his ministry will be over “nations and kingdoms” and not just over the kingdom of Judah, and, apparently, would also not be limited by the years. Jeremiah’s prophecies would extend far beyond his own life, and their truth and poignancy will continue long past even our lifetimes. They would also not only “tear down and destroy” evil, but they would also serve to build up the righteous. This “child” must have been shaking in his boots! “God is going to do all this through me?”

Then he is given two visions that would also confirm his calling. The first is a vision of an almond branch. It isn’t the branch itself that holds significance – it is shown so that Jeremiah will know that this is the Lord who is speaking to him. It is very similar to the code letters and numbers that we have to enter correctly into our computer when updating software or confirming our identity. It lets the system know that we are who we are supposed to be and that we have the right to be doing what we are doing. In Jeremiah’s case, he correctly identifies the object in the vision which confirms that the Lord’s word is within him and that he will carry out the mission as God has created it.
The second vision is both a secondary confirmation as well as a prophetic message. He correctly identifies the object as a boiling pot that is leaning toward the south. Boiling liquids are generally very harmful to living organisms, and in particular to humans, and is also a means of sterilization. In this case, it means that God will be destroying the sin of Judah and will be purifying the lives of the people. God tells the prophet that destruction will be coming against Judah from a power out of the north, which in all likelihood, signifies Babylon. It is one more confirmation of the message that this boy will be taking to the people of Judah.

Read Jeremiah 1:15-19

This power out the north will gain control over Jerusalem and the lives of all the people in the nation. And why must this happen? Because the nation and its people have turned away from God and his ways, and have begun to put their loyalty and worship in the false gods of the surrounding lands. And because of that, the Lord will be removing his protection from them.

But the power of God will not be taken from Jeremiah. He is told to trust the Lord, to do exactly what he is told to do, and to never fear those who will come against the words he speaks. Neither the leaders of Judah – both secular and religious – nor the people themselves will have any power or authority over the prophet. God will be the strength and protection and word that will sustain him throughout his ministry.

The Lord wants all people to “stand up” and pay attention to what he has to say. This expectation isn’t just for the prophet – it is for all who would profess faith in the Lord God Almighty. Stand Up means that we are to get ready to serve. It isn’t a time to relax or take a nap. It isn’t a time to study and discuss. It isn’t a time to ponder alternatives or to develop our own plan of action. We Stand Up to do God’s will and not our own.
We need to pay attention to the instructions that God has for each of us. Just as Jeremiah confirmed and affirmed the two visions that the Lord gave him, we, too, must acknowledge the signs and words that God gives us. When I was growing up, I remember more times than one, when my mother would make me repeat the instructions that she had given me. You lose every right to claim that “I didn’t know!” or “You never told me!” when you have actually said the words yourself! God wants to be sure that we understand his call on our lives, as well as his promise to lead us as we go out to serve in his name.

The overriding message of Jeremiah’s story is that God can and will use anyone, at any time, in any way, and for the most unusual or unexpected purposes, that any of us can possibly imagine. And when “the word of the Lord comes to us”, it isn’t something to fear or to hesitate over – we just “stand up”, get ready to follow the Lord’s will, claim the authority that the word of God carries with it, and prepare to be amazed at what our glorious Lord can do, even with the likes of you and me!

Next week, we begin to see the necessity of God’s message to the people.
Praise the Lord, for he is truly good, and can do all things through the lives of his faithful! (Philippians 4:13)