I have just started doing some devotional reading of, and reflection on, Jeremiah, a Bible book of which I have to confess I am woefully ignorant. As I find it helpful for my own discipline and focus to make notes of what I read and learn, I thought I would share some of them here and will probably post some jottings most days. These will not form a detailed commentary but just highlight what I have gleaned and learned along the way.
In the opening chapter of Jeremiah, nothing could be clearer than the note of divine commissioning and authority.
The Lord’s call was on Jeremiah’s life even before he was born (1:5 “…..I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet”)
Jeremiah is a man under authority (1:7 “…to all to whom I send you…whatever I command you”)
The prophet’s words are not and will not be his own (1:2-4 “…the word of the LORD came….it came also….the word of the LORD came”; 1:9 “…I have put my words in your mouth”; 1:11 “And the word of the LORD came to me”; 1:13 “The word of the LORD came to me a second time”; 1:17 “…say to them everything that I command you”)
God’s servant is guaranteed opposition, even from God’s own people, even from the kings and religious leaders (1:19), but he is also promised protection (1:19)
The servant of God, whoever he or she may be and whatever ministry he or she is involved in, is not a volunteer, they are a willing conscript.
Too many people go into ministry today without a strong sense of God’s call and it always ends in disaster – for the person and their family, or perhaps for the church to which they go. Without a strong sense of God’s call, the volunteer will drop out and walk away at the first sign of trouble, and trouble, as with Jeremiah, is not a possibility but a guaranteed certainty.
I thank God for the clear call of God into ministry that I had back in 1972 and it’s because of that – and only because of that – that I am still active in ministry 53 years later. Soli deo gloria.