Chapter One
The Reluctant Prophet
(Jeremiah 1)
For a people to boast in the glory of the past, and to deny the secret that made the past, is to perish.1
—G. CAMPBELL MORGAN
Jeremiah was perhaps twenty years old when God’s call came to him in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign (626 BC). Why did he hesitate to accept God’s call? Let me suggest some reasons.
THE TASK WAS DEMANDING (v. 1)
Jeremiah’s father Hilkiah was a priest2 as was his father before him, and young Jeremiah was also expected to serve at the altar. He may even have been at the age when he would have stepped into his place of ministry when God called him to be a prophet.
Since serving as a prophet was much more demanding than serving as a priest, it’s no wonder Jeremiah demurred. If I had my choice, I’d take the priesthood! For one thing, a priest’s duties were predictable. Just about everything he had to do was written down in the law. Thus, all the priest had to do was follow instructions.3 Day after day, there were sacrifices to offer, lepers to examine, unclean people to exclude from the camp, cleansed people to reinstate, official ceremonies to observe, a sanctuary to care for, and the law to teach. No wonder some of the priests said, “Oh, what a weariness!” (Mal. 1:13 NKJV).
The ministry of a prophet, however, was quite another matter, because you never knew from one day to the next what the Lord would call you to say or do. The priest worked primarily to preserve the past by protecting and maintaining the sanctuary ministry, but the prophet labored to change the present so the nation would have a future. When the prophet saw the people going in the wrong direction, he sought to call them back to the right path.
Priests dealt with externals such as determining ritual uncleanness and offering various sacrifices that could never touch the hearts of the people (Heb. 10:1–18), but the prophet tried to reach and change hearts. At least sixty-six times the word heart is found in the book of Jeremiah, for he is preeminently the prophet of the heart.
Priests didn’t preach to the crowds very much but ministered primarily to individuals with various ritual needs. Prophets, on the other hand, addressed whole nations, and usually the people they addressed didn’t want to hear the message. Priests belonged to a special tribe and therefore had authority and respect, but a prophet could come from any tribe and had to prove his divine call. Priests were supported from the sacrifices and offerings of the people, but prophets had no guaranteed income.
Jeremiah would have had a much easier time serving as priest. Therefore, it’s no wonder his first response was to question God’s call. Offering sacrifices was one thing, but preaching the Word to hard-hearted people was quite something else. When you read his book, you will see a number of pictures of his ministry that reveal how demanding it was to serve the Lord as a faithful prophet. In his ministry, Jeremiah had to be
• a destroyer and a builder (1:9–10)
• a pillar and a wall (1:17–18)
• a watchman (6:17)
• a tester of metals (6:27–30)
• a physician (8:11, 21–22)
• a sacrificial lamb (11:19)
• a long-distance runner (12:5)
• a shepherd (13:17, 20; 17:16 NIV)
• a troublemaker (15:10, 15–17)
• a pillar and a wall (1:17–18)
• a watchman (6:17)
• a tester of metals (6:27–30)
• a physician (8:11, 21–22)
• a sacrificial lamb (11:19)
• a long-distance runner (12:5)
• a shepherd (13:17, 20; 17:16 NIV)
• a troublemaker (15:10, 15–17)
Does this sound like an easy task?
THE TIMES WERE DIFFICULT (vv. 2–3; 2 KINGS 21—25; 2 CHRON. 33—36)
I suppose there never is a time when serving God is easy, but some periods in history are especially difficult for spiritual ministry, and Jeremiah lived in such an era. Consider what the history of Judah was like during Jeremiah’s lifetime.
Rebellion instead of obedience. To begin with, Jeremiah was born during the reign of King Manasseh, the most evil man who ever reigned over the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 21:1–18). The son of godly Hezekiah,4 Manasseh came to the throne when only twelve years old, and the officials around him easily influenced him toward idolatry. “Manasseh seduced them [the people of Judah] to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel” (v. 9 NKJV). When Manasseh died, his evil son Amon continued his father’s evil practices.
Thus, Jeremiah grew up in Anathoth5 at a time when idolatry flourished in Judah, children were offered in sacrifice to idols, the law of Moses was disregarded and disobeyed, and it looked as though there was no hope for the nation. Godly priests were not greatly appreciated.
Reformation instead of repentance. In 639 BC, some of Amon’s servants assassinated him. Josiah his son became king, reigning until his untimely death in 609. Josiah was quite young when he began to reign, but he had godly counselors like Hilkiah, and thus he sought the Lord. In the twelfth year of his reign, he began to purge the land of idolatry; six years later, he commanded the priests and workers to repair and cleanse the temple. It was during that time that Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law in the temple and had it read to the king. This document may have been the entire five books of Moses or just the book of Deuteronomy.
When the king heard the law of God read, he was deeply moved. He tore his robes and sent to Huldah the prophetess for instructions from the Lord (2 Kings 22). Her message was that the people had forsaken God and therefore judgment was coming, but because of Josiah’s sincere repentance, judgment would not come during his reign.
Josiah didn’t wait for the temple repairs to be completed before calling the whole nation to repentance. He made a covenant with the Lord and led the people in renouncing idolatry and returning to the law of the Lord. Unfortunately, the obedience of many of the people was only a surface thing. Unlike the king, they displayed no true repentance. Jeremiah knew this and boldly announced God’s message: “Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense” (Jer. 3:10 NKJV).
Josiah led the nation in a reformation but not in a heart-changing revival. The idols were removed, the temple was repaired, and the worship of Jehovah was restored, but the people had not turned to the Lord with their whole heart and soul.
Politics instead of principle. No sooner did Josiah die on the battlefield6 and his son become king than the nation quickly returned to idolatry under the rule of Jehoahaz. But Pharaoh Necho removed Jehoahaz from the throne, exiled him to Egypt where he died, and placed his brother Eliakim on the throne, giving him the name Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim, however, was no better than his brother and “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done” (2 Kings 23:37). He taxed the people heavily in order to pay tribute to Egypt, and then he agreed to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. After Jehoiakim reneged on that promise, Nebuchadnezzar took him prisoner to Babylon and took the temple vessels with him (597 BC).
Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin reigned only three months; then his uncle Mattaniah, Josiah’s third son (1 Chron. 3:15), was made king and renamed Zedekiah. Zedekiah was the last king of Judah, a weak, vacillating man who feared his officials more than he feared the Lord (Jer. 38:19).7 “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord” (2 Chron. 36:12). Zedekiah would ask Jeremiah for help while at the same time courting ambassadors from neighboring nations and plotting rebellion against Babylon. He allowed his princes to persecute and even imprison Jeremiah, though he himself had secret meetings with the prophet as if he were seeking God’s will.
It’s easy for political leaders to invite religious leaders in for consultation and then do exactly what they’d already planned to do. Today, it’s good public relations to give people the impression that “religion” is important, but talking to a popular preacher isn’t the same as humbling yourself before God.
Jeremiah preached to the nation for forty years, giving them God’s promises and warnings; yet he lived to see Jerusalem and his beloved temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s army and his people taken captive to Babylon. Jeremiah ministered in turbulent times and yet remained faithful to the Lord. He exposed the futile foreign policy of the rulers, pleading with them to turn to the Lord with all their hearts and trust...