Jeremiah 1
COMMENTARY:
: 5 Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations. (5030 “prophet” [nabiy] means spokesman, speaker, false prophet, heathen prophet, one who proclaims a message of a deity or messenger.)
DEVOTION: Those who are speaking servants of the LORD are called and gifted of HIM to present a message to the people of God. There have been many false prophets in the past and at present.
The Bible gives specific guidelines for those who think they are prophets and those who are listening to them. In Deuteronomy 13: 1- 5, we find these guidelines. The number one guideline is if a prophet says something is going to happen according to God then it must happen. If it doesn’t happen the person is a false prophet and should not be listened to in the future.
The problem is that the church is looking for someone to lead them and many don’t know the guidelines and they end up following someone who says they have a word from God and it isn’t true. There are many false cults started by men and women who state that they have heard a word from the LORD and people start following but don’t stop when they are proved wrong. A true prophet has to be one hundred percent accurate all the time or they are false prophets. Don’t listen to them a second time when they predict things that don’t happen.
Why is this so important? The main reason is that it makes Christianity look foolish. It tells the world we are ready to follow anyone who says they have a word from the LORD. We need to be like the church of old and check out anyone who claims to have special messages from the LORD. Most of them are false prophets. The creditability of Christianity is at stake.
Jeremiah was called of God from the womb. God knew him before he was completely formed in the womb. Is it wrong to kill a baby in the womb? YES!! Many have been called from the womb which includes the prophet, John the Baptist.
CHALLENGE: Watch out for false prophets. Check out what you are listening to and reading with the Word of God. Know the Word of God better than any other author or book.
: 7 But the LORD said to me, Say not, I am a child: for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you, you shall speak. (6680 “command” [tsavah] means to give an order, instruct, to charge someone do something, to appoint, lay charge, or commission.)
DEVOTION: When the LORD speaks to us we are suppose to listen. Here HE is speaking to Jeremiah and giving him a commission to go to the children of Israel and tell them what HE told him to say to them.
It is not easy being the voice of God to a rebellious people. At this time the children of Israel were doing their own thing without consulting the LORD. They were going the wrong way and needed to be put back on the right path of following the LORD instead of doing whatever they wanted.
This is true today as well. We have a tendency, even as believers, to do our own thing regarding our service to the LORD. That is not what the LORD wants us to do. HE wants us to listen to HIS instructions and then share what HE has told us with others.
We are to be the messengers to the LORD to our world. That doesn’t mean we are to be a prophet like Jeremiah but we are to reach our world which includes our family and friends with the good news of salvation and what it means to serve the LORD.
Some will listen but others will not. This happened to Jeremiah and all the people that were called of God to serve HIM.
We are to speak the truth in love to those the LORD puts in our path. We are not to be judgmental on our own but just allow the LORD to speak through us to those we love and to those who are around us that will listen.
God is still commanding HIS children to speak for HIM in our world. It has not been easy as our world is moving further and further away from HIM. Even those who claim to be believers are doing things that the LORD doesn’t approve of yet they don’t want to hear from us that they are doing wrong.
CHALLENGE: Our responsibility is to speak the truth in love to those we love. We have to do it lovingly and with much prayer. Change comes from the LORD not from us.
: 8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD. (5337 “deliver” [natsal] means rescue, defend, recover, save, pluck, take away, or take out.)
DEVOTION: A prophet is to “change the present” according to Warren Wiersbe. A priest was one who conserved the past.
The time period of this book is explained as the end of the kingdom of Judah. Babylon was going to invade. Josiah was a good king. Those that followed were not as good.
Jeremiah was one of God’s servants in the womb of his mother. He was sanctified there. He was ordained there. Others have been called of God from the womb. John the Baptist was called from his mother’s womb. Remember the foreknowledge and omniscience of God covers before God created the world. The fact that time has no influence on God is real. HE knows the past, present and future of every individual and nation. HE is sovereign.
This chapter is the call of Jeremiah to a prophetic ministry to the people of Judah. Once the LORD began talking to Jeremiah, he gave excuses on why he didn’t fit into this ministry. The LORD answered all his objections. Moses was another one who tried to use excuses when the LORD called him to serve.
One of the excuses is found in this verse. He was afraid of their faces or their actions toward his ministry. The LORD promised to be with him through the difficult times. HE promised to rescue him from all of the traps the children of Judah would send his way.
Too often we can think of all kinds of excuses for not serving the LORD. HE has given each one of us a gift. HE wants each one of us to reach our world for HIM.
We need more prophets today that want to change the present. Our present situation does not look good but the LORD is still sovereign and can change our world.
We are not to sit, soak and sour in the pews of our churches. We need to be on the battle lines. Revival can happen. It must start with us. NO EXCUSES!!!
Ask the LORD for your assignment and put it into action in your life. Too often we baby ourselves into thinking that we should let someone else with more talent do it. That is just an excuse.
Serving the LORD is WORK. We carry with us from our old life the characteristics of laziness and selfishness. We would rather have others do it. Moses used that excuse. Jeremiah was trying to use the same excuse. All Christians at one time or another are trying to use the same excuse.
CHALLENGE: Stop using excuses and reach the world for the LORD. All Christians are to be soul winners. We all have a message from the LORD.
: 17 You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you; be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you before them. (2865 “confound” [chathath] means filled with terror, disheartened, to cause fear in, be dismayed, to be broken or to be put to shame.)
DEVOTION: The LORD didn’t give Jeremiah a choice. HE told him that if he didn’t do the preaching, that he would bring HE would bring shame on him and if he did preach the message the LORD gave him the people would not look at him in a friendly way.
God was giving HIS servant that HE had prepared before he was even born a mission that would not please the people around him. The message was one of judgment because of the sins of the people.
No one wants to hear that they are sinners and that God is going to judge them because of their disobedience to HIS commands. Most people just want to hear a message about how well they are doing. They want to be complimented even when they are sinning. They want everyone to just let them live their lives the way they want to live it and not have any other human being tell them that they are wrong and sinful.
This was true in the day of Jeremiah and it is true today as well. Many people will attend a church that tells them that they are OK with God in whatever they are doing. They like hearing that they are good people. They like to be entertained when they go to church and come away feeling good about themselves. They have done their part by attending church.
This is not the message Jeremiah was to preach or the message that we are to preach today. We are to give God’s message even when it means that people will not like us. We are to give God’s message because we want to be obedient to the LORD. We are to just say the words the Holy Spirit gives us to say that are in complete agreement with the Word of God spoken throughout the Bible.
God’s standard has not changed. HE demands holiness in HIS people. The children of Israel were not living a holy life and thought that God would not notice. Our world is full of people who think the same thoughts as the children of Israel thought back then.
CHALLENGE: Are our thoughts in agreement with God? Are we willing to be HIS representative to the world and give the message HE has sent us to give? Every believer is an ambassador sent by God to his world of friends and family. It is not the pastor’s job alone.
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