(Jer 1:6-10) Jeremiah's objection and God's response to the

objection.

Then said I: "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth." 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. Do not be afraid of
their faces, for I am with you to deliver you," says the Lord. 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. 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."

a. Ah, Lord God! This translates an expression of deep feeling, though the
sense is hard to relate in English.

b. Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth: Jeremiah was probably

anywhere from 17 to 20 years old at this time. Apparently, he felt that
his youth prevented him from being a good or authoritative messenger of
God's word.
i. "Unlike Moses, whose protestations of inadequacy rang a little hollow,
Jeremiah really was young, it seems, and inexperienced." (Kidner)

c. Do not say, "I am a youth": Though Jeremiah's protest was true, it

was irrelevant – and God did not want to hear it, nor did He want Jeremiah to
say it. God insists on His right to call young people and to use them if they will
listen to His call and answer it.

i. Do not say, "I am a youth" because God used David when he was
a young man. As a young man David served his father faithfully in
the shepherd's field, killed a lion and a bear protecting the flock,
killed Goliath, served King Saul and was a commander in the Israeli
army.

ii. Do not say, "I am a youth" because God filled John the Baptist
with the Holy Spirit in the womb (Luke 1:15). You aren't too young to
be filled mightily with the Spirit of God.

iii. Do not say, "I am a youth" because God used Timothy as a young
man, and through the Apostle Paul told him, Let no one despise your
youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in
spirit, in faith, in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12)
 iii. Do not say, "I am a youth" because God used Hudson Taylor as a
young man. When he was 17 years old he dared to seek God, and
totally surrendered himself to God's will. Almost immediately he felt
a distinct impression that God wanted him to be a missionary to
China, and he began to prepare for the mission field by living the
kind of life by faith he wanted to live on the mission field, and living it
right there in England. By the time he was 22 he first arrived in
Shanghai.

iv. Do not say, "I am a youth" because God used J. Edwin Orr as
young man. Born and raised in Belfast Ireland, at 21 years of age he
left a good paying job in the middle of the Great Depression to tour
around Great Britain on his bicycle and tell any who would listen
about revival. He trusted God to provide for both him and his
widowed mother, and God came through gloriously – it was 10,000
miles of miracle through Great Britain. He wrote a popular book
about his adventures in faith – so popular that some youth groups
banned the book – they were afraid that their youth might take off on
their own bikes without really being called by God.

d. For you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command
you, you shall speak: God spoke with both encouragement and persuasion to
Jeremiah. He protested that he couldn't go because of his youth but God simply
said, "you shall go."

i. Later, Jeremiah remembered his initial reluctance: Nor have I desired the
woeful day; You know what came out of my lips; it was right there before
You. (Jeremiah 17:16)
ii. Though reluctant, Jeremiah couldn't hold back: Then I said, "I will not
make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name." But His word was
in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it
back, and I could not. (Jeremiah 20:9)

e. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you: Jeremiah
had two reasons to be afraid. First, he was young. Second, his message was
hard to hear. But the presence of God with him was greater than those two
reasons.
i. "His reluctance may have been based on feelings of personal inadequacy
when confronted with the almost hopeless task of recalling apostate Judah
 to a state of true repentance. To make matters worse, at an early stage in
his ministry he was forbidden to marry (Jer 16:1-4), and the ominous
reasons given made more clear than ever the fact that Judah stood under
divine judgment." (Harrison)
ii. "He shrank from his work again and again; he suffered intensely, not
merely from the persecution of his foes, but in his own soul, in it fellowship
with God and with his nation; he needed very special Divine sustenance."
(Morgan)

iii. I am with you: "I will not only send thee as other kings do their
ambassadors, but I will go with thee." (Poole)

f. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth: In his vision,
Jeremiah saw the Lord touch him in this personal way. As God touched the
mouth of Isaiah at his call to the office of prophet, He also touched the mouth of
Jeremiah (though in a different way).

g. 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: As a young man, Jeremiah was an unlikely candidate for such a ministry.
Yet God knew that Jeremiah had the personality and character to fulfill this call
as the years went on.
i. "Jeremiah's commission set the pattern of his calling, with its four verbs
of demolition and it two of renewal." (Kidner)

ii. “He did comparatively little of this constructive preaching and a great
deal of the destructive kind.” (Thompson)

iii. "As Isaiah speaks of the salvation of the Lord, Ezekiel of the glory of the
Lord, and Daniel of the kingdom of the Lord, so Jeremiah incessantly
proclaims the Lord's judgment." (Feinberg)

h. See, I have this day set you: Jeremiah was definitely called, but he did not
fulfill his call in his first year – or his first ten years. His 40-year ministry had
several different phases, and taken together they fulfilled God's call.
i. The first period of Jeremiah's ministry took place under the protection of
the godly king Josiah, who took advantage of turmoil in the surrounding
superpowers (such as Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon) to reform the nation
and turn it back to the Lord. During this time, Jeremiah went on a preaching
tour through the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem (Jeremiah
11:6). Yet during this time the hearts of the people did not seem changed.
 He preached for 23 years but no one seemed to listen (Jeremiah 25:3). He
even faced many threats against his life (Jeremiah 11:19 and Jer 12:6).
ii. After King Josiah died, things got worse. Jeremiah read a scroll of his
collected prophecies to the new king Jehoiakim – and the king took the
scroll, cut it in pieces, and threw it in the fire (Jeremiah 36:22-23). In this
general period Jeremiah was chained and flogged (Jeremiah 20:2), and
survived a close brush with death (Jeremiah 26:10-11).
iii. His most difficult season was under another king, Zedekiah – who was
set on the throne by the Babylonians, but didn't continue to obey them.
Jeremiah brought a message from God that must have seemed like
madness to his generation. The message was that judgment through the
Babylonians was inevitable – and they must prepare for it and submit to it.
He wrote to those already exiled in Babylon, he told them to prepare for a
70 year exile and to have a peaceable attitude towards Babylon (Jeremiah
29:7, 10). He was regarded as a traitor and imprisoned (Jeremiah 37:11-
16).
3. (Jer 1:11-12) Jeremiah's first lesson in his training as a prophet.
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." Then the Lord said to
me, "You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word."

a. Jeremiah, what do you see? Jeremiah would receive a message to speak,

but before he could speak he had to see.
i. "Before you can make an impression upon another person's heart, you
must have an impression made upon your own soul. You must be able to
say, concerning the truth, 'I see it,' before you can speak it so that your
hearers also shall see it." (Spurgeon)

b. A branch of an almond tree: Jeremiah saw well. He not only understood

that it was a branch, but was observant enough to know that it was a branch of
an almond tree.
i. “Anathoth remains to this day a center for almond growing. The modern
visitor to the area in the very early spring is promised the memorable and
unforgettable sight of almond trees in bloom.” (Thompson)

ii. This was young Jeremiah's first lesson in prophetic observance, and the
lesson was simple. "We might have thought that, as a preparation for his
prophetical work, he would have seen mysterious wheels full of eyes, or
flaming seraphs and cherubs, or the wonderful creatures that were caused
to appear in the dreams of Ezekiel and the revelation to John. Instead of
this, Jeremiah simply sees 'a rod of an almond tree;' and, beloved friends,
 when you look into the Bible, you will see some very simple things there."
(Spurgeon)

iii. The significance of the branch of an almond tree was important in two
ways. First, the almond was well known as the first tree to bud in the
spring. This indicated that God was ready to quickly fulfill His word, just as
the almond tree seems ready to bud.
iv. Secondly, the Hebrew word for almond tree is close to and derived
from the Hebrew word for watchful, and this word is used in God's
response to Jeremiah. "These verses contain a play on words that is lost in
English but is vital for the force of the vision. The 'almond tree'
is saqed and God is 'watching' (soqed) over his word to fulfill it." (Feinberg)

4. (Jer 1:13-16) Jeremiah's second lesson in his training as a prophet.

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."
Then the Lord said to me: "Out of the north calamity shall break forth on all
the inhabitants of the land. 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. 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.

a. I see a boiling pot, and it is facing away from the north: The idea is of a
boiling cauldron that will tip over with its opening facing south. This is a vivid
picture of destruction and judgment pouring out upon Judah from the north (out
of the north calamity shall break forth on all the inhabitants of the land).
i. The old Puritan commentator John Trapp showed how wrong the
allegorical approach to Scripture can be, describing the interpretation of an
ancient writer named Gregory: "Gregory moraliseth the text thus: Man's
mind is this pot; that which from the north sets it on fire is the devil, by
inflaming it with evil lusts, and then he sets up his throne therein."

b. They shall come and each one set his throne at the entrance of the
gates of Jerusalem: Jeremiah prophetically saw foreign kings dominating a
subservient Jerusalem.
i. "As the gates of the cities were the ordinary places where justice was
administered, so the enemies of Jerusalem are here represented as
conquering the whole land, assuming the reigns of government, and laying
the whole country under their own laws; so that they Jews should no longer
 possess any political power: they should be wholly subjugated by their
enemies." (Clarke)
c. Because they have forsaken Me, burned incense to other gods, and
worshiped the works of their own hands: The main reason for the coming
judgment was Judah's chronic idolatry.
5. (Jer 1:17-19) God commands Jeremiah to be steadfast in the face of coming
opposition.
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.
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. They will fight
against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you," says
the Lord, "to deliver you."
a. Therefore prepare yourself and arise: Jeremiah properly saw and
understood the two visions. God felt he was ready to go forth (with additional
preparation) and to speak to them all that I command you.
b. Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them:
God gave Jeremiah the strength he needed – but he had to walk in it. If he did
not – if he allowed himself to be dismayed before their faces– then God
would dismay Jeremiah before those whom he feared.
c. For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar:
Certainly, Jeremiah didn't feel like a fortified city or an iron pillar. But God's
word was true, and Jeremiah needed to believe it and act upon it.
d. They will fight against you: This promise of God proved true, but so did the
other aspect to the promise. The enemies of Jeremiah did not prevail
against him, and he served God with distinction through great trials for 40
years.
i. "To this thin-skinned young man, his description of terms of battlements
and heavy metal might have seemed a wild exaggeration, but in fact it
proved an understatement. He would hold out against all comers for over
forty years, outdoing any fortress under siege." (Kidner)

©2014 David Guzik – No distribution beyond personal use without permission