Call to Commitment

 

Please have your own Bibles open to Jeremiah 3, in order to follow the text. We will not have the entire text written in this article...

Chapter 3

 The power of God unto salvation

 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly” (Mt.1:18-19). Joseph was faced with a major dilemma. Of course, he was completely ignorant of what God was doing and what part he would play in His plan. Anyone would be, if the Lord did not open his understanding. He is judging the circumstance according to the law, with only human, fleshly knowledge, and being a just man, he comes to the conclusion that he must break off his betrothal commitment to Mary. Because he was a compassionate, merciful man, he determined to do it privately and secretly. This was as far as the law could take him and it offered no real remedy to the situation.  

 The law was good, because it uncovered sin and pronounced judgment against it, but it was powerless to transform. On the other hand, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The Holy Spirit is always involved and it is His involvement, which actually causes the problem, according to human understanding. If there was ever a manifestation of the power of God unto salvation, it was in the womb of a virgin.

 In this third chapter, Israel is portrayed as an unfaithful wife, who should legally be put away by her Husband. It would have been totally righteous for God to reject her and never be involved with her again. However, the gospel comes from the heart of a loving, compassionate God and cries out, Return to Me. She will find mercy to deal with her many sins and grace to restore her to fellowship with her Lord. The gospel is revealed throughout the Old Testament and works powerfully to cleanse and transform the heart. His perfect righteousness will be satisfied at the cross. 

  

Chapter 2

 Israel’s youth

Not everything that happened to Israel up to this point was bad. As Moses poured out the Lord’s plagues upon Egypt, Israel enjoyed wonderful protection in Goshen. The first Passover was a profound, spiritual celebration, and on the next day in the middle of March, the 15^th of Abib, they left Egypt from Ramases. They departed before the eyes of the Egyptians, who were burying their firstborn. From a place called Hahiroth, they experienced a glorious, supernatural crossing of the Red Sea, followed by Miriam, tambourine in hand, leading the ladies in a joyous dance and song composed for the occasion. It was sung by all:

 I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously;

The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation;

This is my God and I will praise Him, my father´s God and I will exalt Him.

In the wilderness, they camped at Elim and were refreshed by twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. At the desert of Sinai, the people began to gather and eat manna, which the Lord provided for them. The manna had a pleasant taste, like wafers of honey, and a variety of uses. It could be ground or beaten with a mortar, baked in pans and made into cakes, boiled, or prepared with oil like pastry.

 They saw the might of the Lord, when they gained a military victory over the Amalekites. Spiritual forces were at work, as the army of Israel battled in Rephidim. Moses sat on top of the hill, Aaron and Hur supporting his hands, because Israel gained victory with the upraised hands of Moses. He built an altar there and called it Jehovahnissi…  The Lord is My Banner.

 Israel lived under the glory of God, manifested in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. The pillars led them, wherever they were to go. Besides, there was a glorious, life-or-death manifestation of God on Mt. Horeb or Sinai. The people purified themselves and met with the Lord at the base of the mountain. They heard the loud blast of God´s trumpet, felt the mountain quake, while Sinai smoked and thunder and lightnings filled the atmosphere. They received his incomparable law and covenanted, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do.” Civilized nations around the world have patterned their justice systems, according to this law. 

  

                  Chapter 1:7-19

 

Holy Spirit preparation

Please open your own Bibles. The entire text will not be included in these articles.

We can make a comparison between Samuel, to whom God spoke, launching his ministry, when he was only twelve-years-old, and a very young Jeremiah. “Samuel did not yet know the Lord” (1 S.3:7), and did not recognize His voice, so that God had to call to him three times, before he understood, through Eli, Who was speaking to him. Samuel knew his old superior and went to him, before he came to know God. To whom anyone resorts for answers determines his spiritual relationship. Anyone can judge his own life by Samuel’s example to see whether or not he has direct contact with God. Once Samuel had a genuine encounter with God, all that was expected of him was to deliver His word to Eli.

 It is obviously essential that the Lord’s servant must have personal knowledge of Him at the onset of his calling in life. We can see that, certainly, Jeremiah already knew God and, of course, God knew him, because he speaks freely with the Lord at the beginning of his book. God preordained him to be a prophet to the nations… to our nation and to every nation, through the inspired Book, which contains his writings (v.5).

Jeremiah’s person and ministry

In 1976, a well-known and appreciated 75-year-old preacher, named Vance Havner, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, publicly reminisced about his life’s calling. He said, in his heavy southern drawl, “I never knew the day when I did not feel called to preach.”  He preached for the first time at age 12. Charles Spurgeon was not much older, when he began to preach. The first time that he was invited to preach in London, some smiled at his country accent. They had no way of knowing that one day London would not have an auditorium big enough to attend the crowds that came to listen to him.

 All good commentators agree that Jeremiah was very young, when God called him into the prophetic office: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah spoke very literally, when he argued of his incompetence for the ministry, particularly because of his youth: "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth." Adam Clarke estimated that he was about 14-years-old.

 He was born a priest, therefore of the tribe of Levi, and came from a Benjamite town, called Anathoth. When Solomon was a new king, he deposed his high priest, Abiathar, banning him from Jerusalem and sent him to this town a few miles northeast of the great city (1 K.2:26-35). Abiathar came first to David in exile, having escaped the massacre of the priests in Nob (1 S.22:20). Jeremiah could have been a descendent of the disgraced high priest, although from the time of Joshua, Anathoth had been given as a residence for the priesthood (Josh.21:18), so already there were priests living there.

 There is no mention of a wife or family, but his father was Hilkiah. Possibly, he was the high priest, whose timely discovery of the Book of the Law in the neglected temple, ended King Josiah’s search for the true God, which began when he was 16 years old (2 K.22:8). It happened in the 18^th year of Josiah’s reign and brought revival to Judah.   

 A contemporary of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, was also a priest. However, a prophet, unlike a priest, is not born a prophet, but called by a God, who does as He pleases. It is His way to call the unlikely ones and we see that pattern throughout the Bible, particularly in Christ’s calling of His disciples.