I still can’t really get past the opening verses of Jeremiah 1 and the underlying, or even underpinning, sense of the sovereignty of God. This is also revealed in the ‘spoiler alert’ that comes with the last words of 1:3 –” …until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month”. In fact that parallels with some words that come almost at the very end of this long book: “So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.” (52:27)
So, we know from the very beginning, from before the actual call of Jeremiah to his prophetic ministry, that calls to repentance and warnings of impending judgement are not going to have the desired effect, but that the people will not heed the message and will be taken into exile.
It’s not that the word of God has lost its power, or that Jeremiah will somehow fail in the task given to him, for God says in 1:12, “…I am watching over my words to perform it.” Just as God promised through Isaiah, “…so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11).
God’s preached word is not always intended to lead to repentance and revival; sometimes the divine intention is to confirm and seal unbelievers and the unrepentant in their sin.
And although Jeremiah, at this point in time, may not have known precisely what we already know, he does know that his ministry is going to be a painful struggle that will arouse much opposition (cp 1:19). Likewise, and even more explicitly, Isaiah is commissioned to preach the word of the LORD, knowing full well that the end result will not be mass revival but cities lying waster, houses without people and a desolate land, because the Lord is going to remove his people from the land (Isaiah 6:11-12).
Can you imagine a job description today for a Pastor or an evangelist which make it clear that, humanly speaking, you will see no fruit for your labours and experience only blood, sweat and tears? I am confident there wouldn’t be many, if any, takers. But such a result would still be success in God’s eyes.