And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;
and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;
I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.
But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child:
for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go,
and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak.
Be not afraid because of them;
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth;
and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth:
see, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
and to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou?
And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree.
Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen:
for I watch over My word to perform it.And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou?
And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is from the north.
Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north evil shall break forth
upon all the inhabitants of the land.For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord;
and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne
at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem,
and against all the walls thereof round about,
and against all the cities of Judah.
And I will utter My judgments against them touching all their wickedness,
whereby they have forsaken Me,
and have burned incense unto other gods,
and worshipped the works of their own hands.Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise,
and speak unto them all that I command thee:
be not dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them.
For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city,
and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land,
against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof,
against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee:
for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.
Jeremiah prophesied about six hundred years before Christ. He prophesied during the closing period of the nation of Judah.
God, in His mercy, at the very last moment, as it were, raised up a good king—a very good king—in the person of Josiah. The Bible says Josiah sought the Lord, the God of his father David, and he walked according to the will of the Lord, without turning to the right or to the left.
Josiah was the grandson of that most notorious king, Manasseh, and he was the son of another wicked king, Amon. Yet, in God’s great mercy, God raised up this young lad. When he ascended to the throne of Judah, he was only eight years old.
But in his eighth year—that is, when he was fifteen or sixteen—he began to seek the Lord with all his heart. In his twelfth year, when he was twenty, he began to purge the land of all the abominations and idols in the land of Judah.
And in his eighteenth year, he cleansed the temple and found the book of the law. Amazing: a lad of eight years old, with such a wicked background, and yet in God’s mercy, when he was only in his teens, he began to seek the Lord with all his heart. Through him, a great reform came to the nation of Judah.
At the same time, God laid His hand upon another young man, and that young man’s name was Jeremiah. Jeremiah began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of King Josiah—that is to say, just one year after Josiah began to cleanse the land of abominations.
In God’s ordering, God raised up a young man as king, and by his authority he began a religious reform in the land. The king was able to give commands. The king was able to bring in reform by his authority. The king was able to cleanse the land of idols, and the people followed the king.
But that was all that the king was able to do. He could not reach the hearts of the people.
So, at the same time, God raised up another young man, probably in his early twenties. With the vision and revelation he received from the Lord, he was able to penetrate into the very hearts of the children of Israel—the children of Judah. Both the king, the priests, and the people were called to return in sincerity.
The reform at that time was very real, so far as the king was concerned; it was from his heart. But the people only followed outwardly. Their hearts were so hardened that, even though outwardly everything was cleansed, inwardly they still remained hardened against the Lord.
So God raised up this young man to do the inward work: to call the people to a heartfelt return to God. Otherwise, the nation was doomed.
Unfortunately, even after his long years of faithful prophecy—Jeremiah began in his early twenties and prophesied for about fifty years—the people would not listen. He died an old man, and tradition tells us that he was stoned to death by his own people because they did not want to listen to his prophecy.
After long years of prophecy, the people were not changed. The faithfulness of King Josiah was only able to spare him from seeing the end of the nation. God postponed His judgment over the nation. God took Josiah away so that he would not see it with his own eyes. But even his reform could not save the nation from destruction.
Brothers and sisters, there is a great lesson for us today. God is looking for something that is real, from the heart. He is not satisfied with anything that is merely an appearance.
By the authority of the king, a reform might be brought in, but it was only outwardly true. God was looking for that which is real in the heart. Unless our heart—unless our heart—turns back to the Lord, judgment is inevitable.
The very name Jeremiah means, “The Lord is exalted.” Now think of it: his very name means, “The Lord is exalted.” His whole life was to exalt the Lord.
When the name of the Lord was despised and rejected by the people, here was a man whose very name declared, “The Lord is exalted.”
It is very striking to find that in the book of Jeremiah, the name of the Lord is used over seven hundred times. He mentioned the name of the Lord all the time. It was not a popular thing to do at that time, because the people despised the Lord.
Yet here was a man who stood against the tide, who stood against the current, uplifting the Lord. Not only did he mention His name, but his whole life was to exalt the Lord.
Was it costly? It was very costly. It cost Jeremiah everything. It cost Jeremiah not only his popularity, but he was persecuted time and again because of this.
The kings were against him. The priests were against him. The false prophets were against him. The people were against him. Everybody was against him. He was put into a dungeon, put into prison, and deprived of food.
It cost him everything. Yet, by the grace of God, this young man, after he was called, stood faithful to the Lord to the very end. He died an old man, a martyr for God.
Dear brothers and sisters, God is looking for people who can stand against the tide—the current of this world. It is costly. It seems as if you are raised up against everything, against everybody.
Just as in the book of Revelation, you find the name Antipas. We cannot find, in church history, a man by the name of Antipas, so perhaps it may be interpreted symbolically: anti-everybody, anti-everything.
Now, of course, God does not want us to be against people in a natural way. Many people in this world are naturally against everybody. They are not happy with the world, with society, with authority, or with anything; they are simply against anything and everything indiscriminately. Of course, this is not what it means.
But when the whole world is turning against God, then those who follow the Lord seem to be Antipas. It seems as if they are against everything and everybody. Why? Because they want to go along with the Lord.
It is very costly. But is He worth it? Is our Lord worthy of costing us everything? He certainly is.
Naturally—by that I mean, so far as Jeremiah’s disposition was concerned—if you read the book of Jeremiah, you will more or less see a picture of the man.
So far as his makeup was concerned, Jeremiah was not a courageous person. He was not a person with a dynamic personality. He did not have a strong will of his own. On the contrary, Jeremiah was a very soft, tender, sensitive, timid, and sympathetic kind of person.
When God called him, he said, “I cannot speak. I am but a youth, a child.” When the pressure became so great, you remember in the book of Jeremiah, he went to the Lord and said, “Lord, relieve me of my responsibility. I do not want to do such a job. I do not want to be against everybody. I like to be with everybody.”
He asked the Lord to relieve him of his responsibility. Oh, how he loved the nation of Judah. How he loved the people. He loved them very much. Yet because of their stubbornness against the Lord, he had to proclaim judgment upon the people whom he loved, and he did not like it.
How he sighed for the people. How he wept for the people. We know Jeremiah as the weeping prophet, not because he liked to weep, but because he could not help weeping. He loved the people so much. They would not listen to the word of the Lord; he had to proclaim judgment over them, and he wept for them.
If it could have been left to him, probably he would have tried simply to shut his mouth. He did not like to proclaim the judgment of the Lord over the people whom he loved so much. He would rather shut his mouth, be popular, and be sweet to everybody.
But when he tried to shut his mouth, there was, as it were, a fire burning in his bones, and he just could not help it. That was the kind of person Jeremiah was.
It was the Lord who apprehended that man, and there was no escape for him. By the grace of God, he was willing to cooperate. He was willing to obey against his own nature, as it were—against his own disposition and against his own desire. He was willing to yield to the Lord against his own self.
And in that man, God found a prophet.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is not our natural makeup, it is not our temperament, it is not what we are. God is able to use all kinds of dispositions. God is able to use all kinds of people. It does not depend upon us at all; it is up to the Lord.
But the question is this: in spite of what we are, are we willing to yield to the Lord even against our own self? If so, then God is able to use us. However timid we may be, or however brave we may be, it does not make any difference. The Lord is able.
This morning, we would like to consider a little concerning the call of Jeremiah and his condition.
The call of God came to Jeremiah:
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;
and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;
I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.
You will find in the call of Jeremiah three things. Number one, God said, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.” The foreknowledge of God.
Our calling depends on the foreknowledge of God. God is sovereign. Our calling does not depend upon us. Why? Because before we were formed in the belly of our mother’s womb, God said, “I knew you.” Therefore, it cannot depend upon us, because we were not there. It is the foreknowledge of God.
Our calling is traced back to the foreknowledge of God. That is the reason why the Lord said, “Even before the foundation of the world.” Even before the foundation of the world, before we were formed in the belly, before there was any trace of us, God, in His foreknowledge, knew us.
Now that is wonderful. God is omniscient. He knows everything. With God, there is no past and there is no future. The knowledge of God is always present. He sees it all. Whatever is going to happen is already with Him. That is His foreknowledge.
Therefore, you remember Psalm 139. When the psalmist speaks of the foreknowledge of God—the wonderful knowledge and power of God—he says:
I will give thanks unto Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
wonderful are Thy works;
and that my soul knoweth right well.
My frame was not hidden from Thee,
when I was made in secret,
and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance;
and in Thy book they were all written,
even the days that were ordained for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
The foreknowledge of God. Now, brothers and sisters, of course we do not have that knowledge. We have hindsight, but no foresight. We have to wait until things happen, and then we look back and begin to understand a little bit. But God has that foresight. He has that foreknowledge.
According to His foreknowledge, He has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son. As He has foreknown us, He has called us.
So, brothers and sisters, let us be very thankful to the Lord that we are called—not because we are better than anybody else, nor worse. It does not depend on us at all. It is based on the foreknowledge of God.
The second point in Jeremiah is this: not only did God say, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,” but also, “Before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.”
God not only foreknew us, but God set us apart for Himself even before we were born. Do you know, brothers and sisters, that you have been set apart? For what? For whom? For God—even before you came out of your mother’s womb.
We know that some people, before they are born, are offered to the Lord by their parents, just like Samuel. Before Samuel was born, you remember Hannah made a vow that if God would give her a male child, then after he was born, he would be presented to the temple to serve God.
But Samuel was not a special case. As a matter of fact, even if our parents had not presented us to God before we were born, God has already done it. Before we came out of our mother’s womb, God had already set us apart and hallowed us.
We have no right to live for ourselves, because God has already set us apart for Himself. He knew us. He hallowed us even before we were born. We are all set apart.
Just like Paul: you remember Paul said in Galatians 1:15 that when he was in his mother’s womb, God had set him apart. Of course, he did not know that. For a number of years, he was ignorant of it. He was going on his own way, seeking after his own purpose. He thought he was doing a great work for God.
Until God met him on the road to Damascus, it began to open up to him that, actually, before he was born, God had already set him apart for God’s purpose, not for his own purpose. That is comforting to know.
Number three: “I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.” God foreknew us, God set us apart, and God appointed us. Everything is by appointment.
We do not choose where or how to serve God. God appoints to each one of us that particular place where we should serve our God. It is all by divine appointment. There is nothing that you can choose or select for yourself. Everything is by divine appointment.
Now, of course, it is not true that everyone is appointed to be a prophet. In the body of Christ there are many members, and all these members ought to function accordingly. Therefore, you find that God has appointed every one of us a place in His body.
According to that divine appointment, we are given divine gifts—spiritual gifts—that we may function and fulfill that appointment.
Brothers and sisters, remember one thing: we are not here by accident. God foreknew us. We are not here for ourselves. He has set us apart. We are not here merely wandering, drifting, wasting our time, or trying to put our hands on different things. No, we are here by appointment.
God has appointed us. God has appointed a special work for us to realize and fulfill. We are all here by divine appointment. Some may be appointed as prophets; others may be appointed as helpers; others may be appointed to sympathize with people.
You find in Romans 12 many, many appointments in the body of Christ, and we need to learn how to be faithful exactly where God has appointed us.
There is no place for striving. Why? Because everything is appointed. Whatever your appointment may be, remember that it is a divine appointment.
Its importance does not rest in the work itself; it rests in the One who calls and appoints. That is what makes the appointment important. Even if one is appointed to be a porter, guarding the door, as in the temple, it is a divine appointment. You will find that it is the most important work, so far as that person is concerned.
By divine appointment, these three things are included in the calling.
How did Jeremiah respond to that calling?
Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.
When the calling came to Jeremiah, Jeremiah said, “O Lord, I cannot speak. You appoint me to be a prophet, and a prophet is a spokesman. A prophet is a mouthpiece of God. I have to speak, but I cannot speak. Why? Because I am a child.” In other words, “I know very little. I know nothing. If I know nothing, how can I speak?”
Now remember, Jeremiah was not withdrawing from the Lord. There was a spirit of humility in that confession.
Naturally, a young man in his twenties knows everything—or thinks he knows everything. If you appoint him to be a prophet, he would like to be that prophet because he can speak. That would be the natural thing for a young man.
If the Lord said, “I am going to make you a prophet,” he would jump into it: “Yes, I am a prophet. I am eloquent. I am knowledgeable. I know a lot. Surely I can do something for You.” Probably that would be the natural reaction of a young man.
But here was a young man whom God had dealt with secretly. He was different from other young men. He knew himself. The cross must have dealt in his life. He said, “I cannot speak. I do not know how to speak. I am just a child.”
The childlike spirit is that which God can use. Brothers and sisters, if we think we can speak, if we think we know everything, we are eliminated.
But if there is a childlike spirit within you, how can that childlike spirit come to a person except by the working of the cross? Without the working of the cross in our life, we cannot be childlike. We can be childish, but not childlike.
Childishness is natural; it is of the flesh. Childlikeness is supernatural; it is of the Spirit. It can only come through the dealing of the cross inwardly and subjectively. We begin to know ourselves: that we are just nothing, nobody; we know nothing; we are but a child.
Dear brothers and sisters, that is the spirit that God can use.
In this instance, Jeremiah was responding like Mary, the mother of Jesus. You remember when the angel brought the news to Mary that she would give birth to the holy Child, Mary said, “How can this be, seeing I know not a man?” Not because of unbelief—no. She only wondered, because in herself there was no possibility.
So the angel said, “The Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High, will overshadow thee.” After she heard that, she said, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord.” That was Jeremiah’s spirit—the same spirit.
It was not like Moses. You remember when Moses was in the wilderness, eighty years old, and God said, “I am going to send you to Egypt.” He said, “No, not me. I am finished. I cannot speak. Send somebody else.” God was angry with him. Why? Because in the case of Moses, he withdrew from that calling.
Nor was it like the priest Zechariah. He did not believe what the angel told him: that his wife would give birth to John. Because of that, his mouth was shut.
But here you find Jeremiah responding with humility: “Lord, ah, Lord, You choose me? Of all the people, You choose me to be a prophet? I am not worthy. I am unfit. I cannot do it by myself. I am but a child.”
So the Lord said:
Say not, I am a child:
for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go,
and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak.
Be not afraid because of them;
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
The Lord said, “I am with you. I will put My words in your mouth. You just obey, and go to whomever I send you, and say whatever I put in your mouth. Just be obedient. That is all that is required.”
Dear brothers and sisters, is that not true? All that is required of us is humility and obedience. That is all, because He does the work.
You do not need to figure out where to go, whom to talk to, or what to say. He is responsible for that, because you are sent by Him. You are but a messenger; you are not the master. The responsibility is His. All that is required of you is to be humble and to be obedient.
That is all that is required.
So, dear brothers and sisters, thank God. In a very real but broad sense, we are all called.
We are called by the foreknowledge of God. We are set apart by God. We are all divinely appointed to fulfill our function in the body of Christ.
If anyone thinks he can do it, he cannot. But if we humble ourselves before the Lord and know that we cannot, then He will do it through us. All that is required of us is to be obedient.
O heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou art looking for people who can stand up for Thee in days of rebellion against Thyself. Lord, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast called us to be such.
It does not depend upon us, nor on our power, for Thou hast foreknown us, Thou hast set us apart, and Thou hast appointed us in the body of Christ, that we may fulfill our function, honor Thee, and exalt Thee.
Lord, we acknowledge that we are but children. In ourselves there is no strength, but our strength is in Thee. We offer ourselves to Thee and ask that Thou wilt keep us humble and make us obedient, that Thy work may be done and Thy name may be exalted.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.