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Last updated on
Jan. 14, 2004
Jeremiah's Call
Delivered February 1, 2004
by Pastor Werner De Jong
Text: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Main Idea: Like Jeremiah God calls us into his service. To be called means that we are known, equipped and empowered to do God's will.
Purpose: To encourage the listeners that God knows, calls, equips and empowers them for service. To challenge the listeners to rely upon God, and not themselves, as they fulfill their call.
Introduction: Jeremiah was only a youth when it happened. It came suddenly and unexpectedly, like a flash flood surging along a dry riverbed. Its great force momentarily caught him off balance, and threw him into a state of turmoil. Eventually he regained his equilibrium, but his life would never again be the same. For "it" was the voice of God, and it spoke to him, directly, unmediated, and it pierced him through and through. The voice said, "Jeremiah, I know you," and immediately Jeremiah knew, for the first time, what it felt like to be known. His youthful soul was laid bare before the voice, stripped naked, and Jeremiah knew the terrifying reality of having no place to hide, no secrets he could keep from the voice, no vulnerabilities or weaknesses that he could mask. He was exposed to the eye of the Eternal, pinned down before the all-penetrating gaze, unable to move before the roving eye that missed nothing, drowning in the sea of holy light that flooded his inner being. All Jeremiah could do was quake with fear and unspeakable dread. But then the voice spoke again: "I have always known you," it continued. "And I have a purpose for you; I am setting you apart, I am calling you to be a prophet, a prophet to the nations."
Instinctively Jeremiah knew that the voice belonged to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Even though he was still young, he knew. He knew because he came from a family of priests, the priests who were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin. Jeremiah's father was a priest, and his father before him. As a male Jeremiah too was enrolled in training for the priesthood. He was too young yet to officiate in the sanctuary at Anathoth, but he had already received much instruction and preparation for the task. He knew which objects in the sanctuary were sacred, and which were profane. He knew the rituals of cleansing and sacrifice. He knew the holy days and festivals of the Jewish people. But none of his training had prepared him for this, none of it had given him any confidence to hear the voice or stand before the gaze of the living God.
Yet Jeremiah knew he must answer. Even though he was only a lad, he knew he could not play games or trifle with the One who overshadowed him. But who was he to speak on behalf of this God, how could he possibly command the respect and elicit the response of kings and nobles and counsellors, not only of Israel, but of even mightier nations? But answer he must, so finally he managed to stammer, "Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy!" But the voice wouldn't accept this excuse, and it answered him: "Do not say, ‘I am only a boy,' for you shall go where I send you, and you shall speak whatever I tell you. I will give you words of judgment, messages of doom and destruction, which will bring nations and kingdoms to ruin. I will make your words powerful and effective, like a battering ram which smashes down a city's wall of defence. Yet I will also give you words of hope and assurance, messages of renewal and rebirth, words which you must plant like seeds in the soil, words which will for a while lie dormant as they await the life-giving spring rains that I myself will send. And Jeremiah, do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, for I am with you to deliver you." Thus began the 40-year career of Jeremiah the prophet.
Called by God: His call to be a prophet was certainly an intriguing one. We can learn a lot from it with respect to our own purpose in life. For God also calls each of us to live for him; our call may or may not be as specific as that of Jeremiah, but we are certainly all called to a lifelong commitment to follow and obey the voice of God, especially in its fullest expression in Jesus our Lord. Jesus himself said, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it" (Mt. 16:24-25).
Just like Jeremiah, the call of Jesus may leave us feeling inadequate and afraid. If we don't take the call seriously it of course won't have this effect at all. It is possible to pay lip service to God's call upon us, and then never to listen seriously to the hopes that God has for our lives. It is possible to name Jesus as Lord, but then to live in such a way that we never seriously seek to obey his will. As Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Mt. 7:21). But if the reality of what it means to follow Jesus to the cross is allowed to sink deep into our beings, and if we allow space to listen to the challenging voice of God deep within, then like Jeremiah we too will likely experience a storm raging within, for God's call will shake us to our very foundations. It will challenge our perception of reality. It will ask us to do things we never thought we could do. And then, with Jeremiah, we will likely voice our objection: "Oh God, how can I possibly fulfill what you ask of me? You are calling me to something so much greater than I am, your challenge is beyond my ability, for I am weak and inadequate. God, are you sure you are talking to the right person?"
There are other stories in the Old Testament of people who were called by God. First there is Moses. At the burning bush God sent him to Egypt and to Pharaoh in order to deliver the people of Israel from their bondage to slavery. But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" (Ex. 3:11). There is also Gideon. The angel of the Lord appeared to him under the oak at Ophrah and said, "The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior....Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian" (Judges 6:12, 14). But Gideon responded, "Sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family" (v. 15). And then there is Isaiah. In the year that King Uzziah died, God called him to be a prophet through a vision. But Isaiah's first words were this: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" (Is. 6:5). From the persistence of these feelings of inadequacy when one is called by God, we may even conclude that it is a sign, a verification, that one has indeed been called by the Holy One (cf. Gene Tucker, Preaching Through the Christian Year: C, p. 89). We need to rethink our feelings of inadequacy when we sense God calling us to something–rather than allowing them to discourage us from answering the call, they are probably the very sign we hope for that we are just the person God has in mind! God delights to use the humble to accomplish great things. It should be of some comfort to see just how human those whom we consider to be the great heroes of the Bible really are–like us, they were flooded by thoughts of their own inability.
But if we are ever to answer God's call, we need to rise above such feelings, even as they did. If we wallow in our sense of inadequacy, it will paralyse our obedient response. It is not that we won't at times continue to feel inadequate or afraid, but it is that we won't allow these feelings to control us. How can we do this? How can we rise above our self-doubts and our own objections to God's call? How can we find the courage to obey the voice of the Holy One? From Jeremiah's experience, we learn two important lessons, two ways in which God helped Jeremiah overcome his fear and sense of ineptitude.
Known by God: First of all, God taught Jeremiah the unforgettable lesson that he knew him: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations" (1:5). Initially, this was no comfort to Jeremiah at all. If anything, it was terrifying. To stand before one's Creator and know oneself as a created being, to know that the eye of the Creator sees everything–that is enough to strike fear into the heart of anyone.
We often spend so much energy projecting an image of ourselves that we want others to see. People sometimes talk about the fact that we as humans wear masks–we have a public face, maybe more than one, depending on whose company we are in, and we have a private face. We are very selective in how we reveal ourselves to others, for depending upon who they are we want them to think a certain way about us. As a minister I experience that very often. Before people know your vocation, they act one way. As soon as they find out who you are, they act another way.
In addition, for all of us, there are parts of our being that we will allow others to see, and there are parts of our being that we have never exposed to another living soul. There may be skeletons in our closet that we buried long ago, there may be spiders living there still, and we would be mortified if anyone ever opened that closet door. When God called Jeremiah, he told him that he knew him, he knew what was behind every door in every room in Jeremiah's heart. Jeremiah experienced the holy light of God exposing every nook and cranny, and Jeremiah knew that he was completely known. God knew his strengths, and God knew his weaknesses. God knew his acts of obedience, and God knew his sins.
Initially such knowledge unnerved Jeremiah. But at some point it must have become a source of hope and encouragement. In all likelihood Jeremiah didn't write down the account of his call until he had served as a prophet for many years, and he must have reflected again and again on the experience of being known. From his steadfast faithfulness and obedience to his call, it becomes evident that the knowledge that God knew him somehow became a source of comfort and strength rather than a hindrance. How is that possible? In just this way: Consider how marvellous it is to have someone know everything about you and still accept you. That is true love, that is a love that will never turn away and reject you because it has discovered something new or unseemly about you. There is no greater comfort than to be completely known and still accepted and loved, for such a love will never abandon you, for it already knows you at your worst.
Even as God knew Jeremiah, God knows us, completely, inside-out. And still God calls us. And still God loves us. But it also says this, that still God sees potential in us, potential that we may never have seen in ourselves. But God knows it is there, because God formed us. God put it there. God said to Jeremiah, "I know you, and I am calling you to be a prophet to the nations." Once Jeremiah got over his initial fright, imagine the wonder and marvel he must have experienced to think that the God who knew him considered him capable of such a challenge. Whenever you hear God calling you to anything, remember this: God is calling you because he first formed you and created you as just the right person for the challenge. Ultimately, when we learn to think about it in the right way, there is tremendous comfort in the knowledge that the God who calls us formed us and knows us.
Equipped and Empowered by God: Let's move on to our second point. It wasn't only the knowledge that he was known which enabled Jeremiah to rise about his feelings of inadequacy; it was also God's promise that he would equip and empower him.
When Jeremiah raised his objection to God's call, God's first words seemed rather harsh: "Do not say I am only a boy; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you" (1:7). Clearly when God calls, God expects obedience. God isn't interested in hearing our excuses. But that doesn't mean that God leaves us to work out our call on our own. For as he said to Jeremiah: "Don't be afraid, for I am with you." In other words, I am not reneging my call, but I do promise to be with you to help you to fulfill it. That is the same thing Jesus says to us as his disciples: "Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Mt. 28:20).
Jesus said that after he commissioned his disciples to go and make more disciples. It is important to recognize that the promise was given in the context of their call to mission. The promise of God's presence is for those who take his call seriously. In our text from Jeremiah, the giving of God's promise is also closely associated with his commissioning. For immediately after God promised to be with Jeremiah, Jeremiah writes this: "Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, ‘Now I have put my words in your mouth.'" Once again, the promise of help goes hand in hand with the call to service.
Thus God equipped Jeremiah with the tools of his trade–words. What Jeremiah needed, God provided. Jeremiah wasn't a carpenter, so he didn't need hammer and nails. He wasn't a farmer, so he didn't a horse and plow. But he was called and commissioned to be a prophet, so God gave him words. Then God added the further reassurance that his touch would enable Jeremiah to speak not just any words, but words of real power: "See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."
In all of this we encounter a tremendous principle with respect to God's call: God never sends a messenger without putting words in his or her mouth; God never commissions one to service without qualifying one for the task; God does not call any people without first equipping and empowering them. God will certainly challenge us, but God will also provide all that is needed to meet the challenge. All of that is evident in Jeremiah's call. But unless you think this may be a one-of-a-kind type of situation, that Jeremiah was special and it couldn't possibly apply to someone like you or I, remember that the New Testament elaborates greatly on this truth, when it tells us that God has given to all believers the gift of his own Holy Spirit to equip and empower us. The Holy Spirit gives each of us unique gifts and abilities to use in God's service. The Holy Spirit fills us with strength and courage to go forward in Jesus' name. The apostle Paul makes this very point to another young man called to a challenging ministry, his friend Timothy, saying: "God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline" (2 Tim. 1:7). God gives to all of us the authority and the strength to be what he calls us to be, and to do what he calls us to do.
Application: For our part, God asks that we place our faith in his promises. He asks us to believe that he will be with us, and that he will equip and empower us. This week I met with my spiritual director. She is a sixty year old woman with a lot of practical wisdom. I mentioned to her a person I wanted to reach out to, and told her the questions I was having as to whether or not I had anything to offer to help this individual. And she said, "Why do you think it depends on you? Could it not be that God is simply calling you to approach this person and make yourself available, and to trust that if you are the one to help, God will work through you?" I found immediate relief in those words, especially as I recognized that they rang so true to the truth of the Bible. When God calls us, we don't need to worry about whether or not we have what it takes. Quite frankly, by ourselves we probably don't! But if God is calling us, then he either has given or will give us what it takes. Ultimately the story of Jeremiah's call teaches us to recognize that our reliance must be upon God, and not upon ourselves. There is great relief in that, in the recognition that our responsibility is simply to answer God's call, and to trust that God will give us the words to speak, or the ability to listen, or whatever else is necessary to be of use when God asks it. As we said earlier, God delights to use the humble to accomplish his purposes. That reminds me of the text Muriel Bechtel preached on for my ordination, 2 Cor. 4:7: "But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us." It may not be easy, but those who have learned to place no confidence in their flesh, and full confidence in God, will find that God is able and even delights to work through their weaknesses and frailties to accomplish great things.
Conclusion: In conclusion let us remember that God has called all of us into his service. God calls us all to a lifelong commitment to follow and obey Jesus. You may feel inadequate or afraid to answer God's summons, but don't let that worry you–that seems to be a prerequisite, it is a sign that you are just the one God has in mind! For God likes to challenge us with calls that are greater than we are, for when we are stretched, we grow. And when we accomplish anything, we realize that it was due to the enabling of God, and we will give him the glory. So don't let a small thing like feelings of inadequacy or discomfort keep you from obeying the will of God, for God will call you out of your comfort zone, and that's par for the course. But be assured that God will also provide everything you need to do his will. He is our great Creator, he formed us and he knows us through and through, and still he calls us, and still he says, "You are just the person I have in mind." So let us embrace the challenge of faith, and let us believe that we have been equipped and empowered, for that is the holy truth according to God's Word. Let us close with Paul's well-known benediction: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.