Jeremiah 1:4-8

Jeremiah writes that God said to him: "Go to everyone I send you to. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to protect you."

Jeremiah was a descendant of the priest Abiathar, who was banished by Solomon to Anathoth because he sided with Adonijah, Solomon's elder brother, in the struggle to succeed King David. (1 Kings 2:26-27) It is significant that Jeremiah begins his prophecy by identifying himself with this line of banished priests, especially as he will take to task the priests in power in Jerusalem. He speaks for those who have suffered unjustly against the powerful elite that is now leading the people of God to ruin. Jeremiah says he received his call in the thirteenth year of the reign in Judah of King Josiah, which would be 627 BCE. The "word of the LORD" comes to Jeremiah, as it came to all the writing prophets, with a command to speak for God to the people of Israel. The LORD tells Jeremiah that his calling was conceived even before Jeremiah was formed in the womb and that Jeremiah is being appointed to be "a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:4)

This will prove dangerous. We read in Jeremiah 20:1-3 that the high priest had Jeremiah arrested, beaten and put in stocks near the Benjamin Gate of the temple, because of Jeremiah's prophecy against the ruling elite of the holy city. Jeremiah may have felt abandoned by God, but he remained true to the calling he had received to announce the judgment of God and the restoration of Israel with a new covenant. Therefore, Jeremiah is remembered as a witness to the God of the old and the new covenants, whose purpose will be fulfilled through events full of terror and suffering.

Grace and peace...Bob