Year 9, Day 54: Jeremiah 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today begins another major prophet.  Jeremiah deals with the same overarching issue with which Isaiah dealt.  The Hebrew people are falling away from God and judgment is coming.  Unlike Isaiah, whose writing spanned the fall of both kingdoms and even looked into restoration, Jeremiah will have a narrower focus.  Jeremiah tends to look at Jerusalem specifically, occasionally speaking to Judah generically, and deals more with the specifics of rebellion.

Unlike Isaiah, who gives us prophecy for several chapters before we hear his call, the call of Jeremiah begins this book.  It is the first thing we hear about after his introduction.  What makes the call of Jeremiah neat is that we can hear God’s plan for Jeremiah from the very beginning.  God intended Jeremiah to be a voice into the world.

It’s also neat to realize what isn’t said.  The book doesn’t talk about all the mistakes Jeremiah made along the way.  It doesn’t talk about the many things Jeremiah tried and did trying to figure himself out.  It doesn’t speak about his sinfulness, which we know had to be present, or his greatness, which we know shouldn’t be the focus anyways.  What we hear is God’s plan to use an imperfect human without focusing on the imperfection at all.  God is willing to use us, warts and all, if we are willing to listen.

We do hear about Jeremiah’s doubt, though.  His sinfulness is irrelevant to God’s ability to use him, but his internal doubt is important.  His sin cannot stop God, but Jeremiah’s doubt could stop Jeremiah from listening to God.  So often we get hung up on our past, our mistakes, our bad choices, and our sin.  God has dealt with our sin.  Our greatest threat to God working through us is our internal doubt and how easily we can convince ourselves that we cannot succeed.

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