The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Jeremiah 1.1-3
Let’s just have a word of prayer. We’re going to turn to the first Book of Jeremiah. You want to open your Bibles at Jeremiah chapter 1 and we’ll study this word.
Lord we do thank you for your Word. We thank you for the truth of your word and, as we see the darkness coming on the earth, we thank you that in your Word there is the light of the Gospel, the light of good news through Jesus Christ. And we just pray you guide me as I share from this passage now. May your Word go out and accomplish your purposes, in Jesus’ Name, amen. Amen.
I actually found out recently that I preached this message about 10 years ago. I think that, probably, you’ve forgotten it. And, as I read through my notes which I thought were pretty much in line with what I’ve just said, I thought I would do this talk again.
So, Jeremiah chapter 1. We’ll read the whole chapter:
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
5 “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.”6 Then said I:
“Ah, Lord God!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”7 But the Lord said to me:
“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of their faces,
For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord.9 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me:
“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To root out and to pull down,
To destroy and to throw down,
To build and to plant.”11 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”
And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”
12 Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”
13 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?”
And I said, “I see a boiling pot, and it is facing away from the north.”
14 Then the Lord said to me:
“Out of the north calamity shall break forth
On all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For behold, I am calling
All the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says the Lord;
“They shall come and each one set his throne
At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem,
Against all its walls all around,
And against all the cities of Judah.
16 I will utter My judgments
Against them concerning all their wickedness,
Because they have forsaken Me,
Burned incense to other gods,
And worshiped the works of their own hands.17 “Therefore prepare yourself and arise,
And speak to them all that I command you.
Do not be dismayed before their faces,
Lest I dismay you before them.
18 For behold, I have made you this day
A fortified city and an iron pillar,
And bronze walls against the whole land—
Against the kings of Judah,
Against its princes,
Against its priests,
And against the people of the land.
19 They will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you.
For I am with you,” says the Lord, “to deliver you.”
Praise the Lord! May the Lord give His Blessing to the reading of His Word.
Jeremiah the prophet was ‘the weeping prophet’. They called him that because he preached a message to his generation concerning the coming judgment which was going to come upon Judah when the Babylonians would come and destroy the temple in Jerusalem and take away the Jewish people captive into Babylon. He had a pretty hard message to give to them and this chapter really introduces that subject.
He’s speaking about a time when the kingdoms of the North are going to come and make their entrance at the gates of Jerusalem which refers to the Babylonian captivity which would come some 40 years after he started his ministry.
Let’s have a look at this passage and see what it tells us about Jeremiah, and about what he had to say.
It says he came from Anathoth, which was a small town just about 3 miles north of Jerusalem. uh you could actually see the walls of Jerusalem from Anathoth and, according to Joshua chapter 21, it was a Priestly city where the priests were set up as a place to be based from.
Jeremiah was probably born into a godly family which was training to be priests and so he had some good instruction. In his youth, he had a Word which came to him: it says, to whom the Word of the Lord came, and this tells us that the sign of a prophet is someone to whom the Word of the Lord comes.
A prophet does not just give you his ideas, he’s giving you the ideas or the message which has come directly from the Lord.
13 Thus to the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), Libnah with its common-land, 14 Jattir with its common-land, Eshtemoa with its common-land, 15 Holon with its common-land, Debir with its common-land, 16 Ain with its common-land, Juttah with its common-land, and Beth Shemesh with its common-land: nine cities from those two tribes; 17 and from the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its common-land, Geba with its common-land, 18 Anathoth with its common-land, and Almon with its common-land: four cities. 19 All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their common-lands.
If you read the prophets נְבִיאִים [nǝbîʾîm] /nəviˈiːm, nəˈviːɪm/ or ‘spokespersons’ of Israel, you’ll find that, very often, you have the phrase ‘Thus says the Lord‘, so they’re not just speaking out of the top of their heads, they’re talking about something which God, God himself has given to them.
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It follows then that, if God has spoken to them, He has to be saying something pretty important and that it is something which should be taken note of. This prophecy, like all inspired-Word of scripture, is both the Word of God and also the word of man.
It gives you something of the prophet’s own personality and it tells us also something about when God uses he doesn’t just obliterate us and just make us into little clones who are just speaking God’s Word, He uses us as people whom He has made.
So, we have a lot of Jeremiah’s personality coming through in this book.
Jeremiah speaks sometimes of his great distress at the rejection which he experiences, at the feelings of loneliness and being without friends, without any support. He, sometimes, even complains to God about what’s happened him so that we can read about his own feelings as well. Yet, at the same time, his word is the divinely inspired and infallible Word of God brought through humans, through the personality of a human to the world.
Jeremiah became discouraged. He sank into a quagmire where many believers seem to get stuck when they think their efforts are not making a difference and time is diminishing. Jeremiah was emotionally spent, even to the point of doubting God (Jeremiah 15:18), but God was not done with him. Jeremiah 15:19 records a lesson for each believer to remember in those times when he feels alone, useless, and discouraged and whose faith is wavering: “Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.’” God was saying to Jeremiah, come back to Me, and I will restore to you the joy of your salvation. These are similar to the words penned by David when he repented of his sin with Bathsheba (Psalm 51:12).
Who was Jeremiah in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org
If you look at 2 Peter 1.21, it says,
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Or, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you have this idea that the prophets were being moved or were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was speaking to them and they were giving out God’s message, but they were also they were people, they were real people who had this message and it had an impact on their lives.