The Book of the Prophet JEREMIAH Chapter 1 "Introduction of Jeremiah the Prophet, His Call and Commission." This Bible
Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription/ location is provided by http://www.theseason.org In the Hebrew tongue, "Jeremiah" means "whom Yahoveh raises up, or launches forth." Jeremiah was hand picked by our Heavenly Father. God does launch people forth, when He is in control. God wishes to use Jeremiah, as it is discussed in this first chapter of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was about twenty one years old, and his prophetic utterances take place over a forty one year period of time. It is important to know Jeremiah, for He was the prophet that prophesied to the king of Babylon, when the House of Judah went into the captivity. The ten tribes of the "House of Israel" to the north, had been already taken into captivity by the Assyrians, but here we have the Babylonian captivity, and it is important because it is a type of another "king of Babylon" that is coming very soon in this end generation. Just as sure as this captivity took place, as it is written, this one that will take place before us in these latter days will also take place. Jeremiah is a type of those utterances by our Father of the events that will transpire just before the endtime captivity takes place. It lets us know what those serving God will have to contend with. God assures us, as well as He assured Jeremiah, that He will always take care of us, and lead us to where we ought to be. As long as we keep our faith, and don't sway from it, God will move us to wherever He wants each of us. Lets hope each of us can find ourselves within this book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1:1 "The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:" Jeremiah was the son of a priest family. "Anathoth" in the Hebrew means "in the answer to my prayer." Jeremiah 1:2 "To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign." Jeremiah 1:3 "It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month." This identifies the dates the the time of the captivity would take place. This is identifying the time and years that will preceed the taking over of Judah by the king of Babylon. What happened in these years are a type of the activities that shall take place just prior to the coming of Antichrist, and his one world system. We should be able to identify with this, as we are living in that time now, just prior to the arrival of the king of Bablyon of the end times. If you are familiar with history, you know that two kings are left out here. Those Kings that are missing are Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin. Why is this? The book of Jeremiah is dated by the kingship of Jehoiakim. We see that the book of Ezekiel was dated by the kingship of Jehoiachin. What is important about this, is that Jehoiachin only had a three month reign. So we see that Jeremiah is twenty one years old, and he is about to be approached by the living God, for a special commission. Jeremiah is going to say to God, "I am not qualified for this." Jeremiah's statement did not mean that he had not been taught the scrolls of the former prophets, for Jeremiah was well trained in that. It was customary that being the son of a priest, he had studied long and hard from the time he was a small boy, up until his age of twenty one years. So when God touches him and sends him forth, know that Jeremiah has already done his homework. Many times people feel that if God touches them, and that they are to go forth, even without the proper training. They think that God will place the Word in them when they have not done their studing; however God doesn't work that way. Though Jeremiah is very young, he knows the Scripture. Jeremiah 1:4 "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying," God Himself is speaking to this young fellow Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed thee in the belly I know thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Before Jeremiah was even concieved within his mothers womb, God is telling Jeremiah that He knew him, and before Jeremiah was born, God sanctified him, which is to set Jeremiah apart for God's mission. God ordained Jeremiah as a prophet, not only to Judah, by to the nations also. When we see the word "Nations" it is directed to the Gentile nations also. Jeremiah was a prophet to all nations. In this final generation, this is amplified into the fact of the kings and queens that serve their people in the service of the living God. Think on that phrase, "Before I formed thee in the belly I know thee." To understand this phrase, you have to understand the three earth ages, as it is taught in II Peter 3, that there was an earth age before this present one, that this earth is millions of years old. The manuscripts, even from this King James declare it, and Jeremiah will take us to that first earth age in the fourth chapter. God foreknew Jeremiah, and knew that he was qualified to do the task that Jeremiah is about to be commissioned to do. Jeremiah had earned the right to fulfill that position, even in the first earth age. It is to bad that Christianity has so few scholars that their followers can be taken into a clear understand of God's Word. Most Christians today are on about a fourth grade level, as far as the Scriptures are concerned. The understanding of the first earth age requires that you dig into the languages of the Scripture. The Christians of today are limited to the short span of six thousand years, from Adam's time, and in their thinking they are completely ignorant of all time prior to then. We can go out in the country side and witness the eons of years of time prior to then. The Scriptures tell us of that time. In Job 40:15-19 God told us of the behemoth, or as we call it, the dinosaur, [which comes from the Greek meaning "deinos" terrible "sauros" lizard]. Job 40:15-19 "Behold the behemoth, which I made with thee; and eateth grass as an ox.." [15] "Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly." [16] "He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together." [17] "His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron." [18] "He is the chief of the ways of God: He That made him can make His sword to approach unto him." [19] The dinosaurs are common today even to preschool children, and their bones are scattered all over the world, even though they did not live in the age that we now live in, this current flesh age of man. We know that there were many types of these dinosaurs that walked the earth eons of years ago. You just can't hide the evidence of all the bone that are collected on all the land masses of the earth. From this we can see how foolish these Christian teachers and pastors look to the rest of the world, when they try to tell them that this old world is only six thousand years old. They call the behemoth a hippopotamus, and hope that others will believe their assessment of this word relating to the hippopotamus, even though the tail of the hippo has no strength in it at all, and it is like a little twig. But as we read in Job 40:19; it states the behemoth "moveth his tail like a cedar;" This type of strength could only come from the dinosaur. We did have that first earth age, as recorded in Genesis 1:1, 2; where the earth became void, and without form at Satan's rebellion. Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." This word "was" in the Hebrew text should read "became", as is shown in Strong's Hebrew dictionary, "Without form" in the Hebrew text reads; "tohu va bohu", which means a complete waste. God created the earth perfect, as we read in Genesis 1:1, and then it became a complete waste. In Isaiah 45:18; "For thus saith the Lord That created the heavens; God Himself That formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: "I am the Lord; and there is none else." God did not create the earth void, but He created it to be inhabited. He did not create it "tohu va bohu" Satan rebelled, and one third of the souls followed him in that rebellion, and God brought a close to that first earth age, and brought about man himself in this earth age of the flesh. Each soul now comes from God, and enters the embryo in the womb, and is born innocent of that first earth age. This flesh body is formed in the womb from the elements of the earth that the mother consumes from food she eats and it is developed into its final form at birth. In the flesh body, man (woman) then has the free will to descide for itself whether it would love God or Satan. Man's body is made up from the clay of the earth, and upon death that physical body will decay right back into those elements that it came from. In the mother's womb, there is a clay vessel, that is made from the elements that came from the clay of the soul. Even in the meat we eat, comes from the greens that the animal ate that formed it's body. The body is an earthen vessel, but it is God that places the soul, the inner being into the child, and that is how God knew Jeremiah before Jeremiah was even placed in the womb of his mother. God said that he could trust Jeremiah, and I know that Jeremiah will follow me even in the flesh, and because of this Jeremiah is the one that I will place in the flesh in the embryo of the wife of Hilkiah. In Ephesians 1:4 God states that He has chosen us, His elect, before the foundations of this earth age. "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:" Don't let this throw you, that is what the Word of God says. That is why we should learn to check out all teaching in the Word of God. Jeremiah 1:6 "Then said I, "Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child." Jeremiah is answering God and telling Him that he is but a youth, for he is only twenty one years of age. Jeremiah is acknowledging that he did not have the experience that an experienced priest would have, nor the authority that others would listen to him. God knew Jeremiah from before he entered his mother's womb, and God knew that Jeremiah was the one chosen to witness to the nations. In the flesh we can only see the parameters of the flesh, from birth to death, however God knows what each soul or spiritual being is capable of doing. So it didn't matter the age of Jeremiah, God knew what the qualification of Jeremiah was. Jeremiah 1:7 "But the Lord said unto me, "Say not, `I am a child:' for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak." Here we have a prelude to what we are instructed to do in Mark 13:11; "But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost." Keep in mind that at twenty one, Jeremiah was already trained in the priesthood, and what Jeremiah would say, would be in accordance with the Scriptures that he already knew. That is also why we should also study to know what the Scriptures say, then when you are called up to give account of yourself, the Spirit of God will bring to remembrance that which you are to speak. God is assuring Jeremiah here, that he will be instructed to what he should speak, and those words will also come by the Holy Spirit of God. Jeremiah 1:8 "Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." It is important that you understand this verse, for it lays a foundation for the rest of the book of Jeremiah. God is telling Jeremiah that when you face them one on one, it doesn't matter who it is, an old man or even a king, don't you be afraid to face him one on one because I will be with you, and I will deliver you. We will see later in this book, where Jeremiah was thrown in a mud pit up to where all he could do is stretch to get his breath, and he was left there for hours. I wonder if Jeremiah's mind ever questioned God's ability to deliver him at that time? Have you ever been in that position of questioning God, when the outlook looked bleak for a situation that you were in? There are many times that we will read of in this book where Jeremiah could have questioned God, whether God was leading him or not, but Jeremiah just kept plowing ahead, facing one obstacle after another. When your road gets a little tough, and God places you in a situation that seems impassable, God will deliver you. When God places you in a place for His service, you are to do your best. Then when the task is over, He will pick you up, and take care of you. That is His promise to you. You can count on it. When God sends you, you may have hard times. Then somethimes those hard times are brought on by yourself, when you get a little sloppy and don't think things through, and use common sense in the simplicity that Christ taught. The first eight verses of this chapter could throw many Christians into a tail spin. Yet is becomes so simple when you understand the three ages of the Scriptures. Jeremiah 1:9 "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." God himself touched that clay vessel of Jeremiah's body, and the input had already been placed in the mind of Jeremiah in his schooling, that when God touched him with His Spirit then the very chapters and words that were stored in Jeremiah's memory would come together. Those thoughts of clarity, and the entire Scripture would be clear and easily understood to Jeremiah, to be the common sense of our Heavenly Father. Our Father is natural, and His words are naturally understood, because He created that which is natural. So God touched Jeremiah in his early age, and made him the clay that was pliable, or in other words, not set in the traditions of even a priesthood, that God could mold him whereby he would serve the living God. Jeremiah 1:10 "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." This is the commission that God gave to Jeremiah. This deals with what is about to happen with the captivity of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, the remnant of the House of Israel after the Syrians scattered them. It deals with the Medes and Persians, and all the governments involved all the way through the book of Daniel, with the king of Babylon. God appointed Jeremiah as the tool that He would use, over the nations to even destroy them at the right time. God choses those whom He will, to really be in charge, not presidents and kings, but God servants that He places out in fromt to lead the way. Anytime God uses you, you and God make a majority. It isn't man that controls, but our Heavenly Father is in control of everything. He controls all things and happenings both on this planet and in the universe. So we will see that God will take Jeremiah and accomplish that which will happen. Seed planting is a mighty thing. It is from the seed comes the mighty oak, and the entire forest. What is involved is time, and the Spirit of God working on that seed to make it come to life, and multiply. Next time you plant the seed of God's Word, turn it over to the Spirit of God and He will make it come to life. Our responsibility is to plant the seed, the rest is for the Spirit of God to do. So don't marvel that God told Jeremiah that he would be used to be set over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy, and to throw down, and build, and to plant. Judah whould be destroyed and taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and Daniel would become next in command under king Nebuchadnezzar. We see that God's people are in control, because our Heavenly Father is in control. Don't be afraid to face the world face to face, when God has promised that He will deliver you in all things. Don't also let the petty things of this life interfere with your service to the living God. That is, become a worry to you. Jeremiah 1:11 "Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, "Jeremiah, what seest thou?" And I said, "I see a rod and an almond tree." The "rod and an almond tree" is a "branch or staff of an almond tree." Jeremiah 1:12 "Then said the Lord unto me, "thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it." Why would the branch of the almond tree signafiy anything? Because the almond tree is like the rooster to the chicken world, it wakes up first. It comes to life first, and that is what the almond tree is also, it buds first, and comes to life at the first sign of spring. Its blossoms come to life in beauty on its branches first. The almond tree is the earily riser. This is directed to the earily risers, the watchmen that are not found asleep, when the signs of the times come forth. God said, I am preparing my Word, and I will use those watchmen, and you have seen well. That is what God is signifying here. This applies to us today also. Are you catching on that things are not right in this world, and that something is going on? The signs are all around us, and the earily risers, and watchmen know the signs of the times. There is something wrong today, and prophecy is rapidly coming to pass, and if you can see and understand them, then you are an almond tree, just as God called Jeremiah. To be an almond tree is to be an earily riser to the truth. That truth is the Word of God, and it is up to you to check it out for yourself to see that the man teaching is teaching it rightly. You have to check it out in the languages [Hebrew and Greek], and until then, you don't really know if it is the truth. That is why we must acquire the tools of study. The start is the Strongs Concordance, numbered with the Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Check it out and don't be misinformed. Wisdom is the ability to take the Word of God, and simplify it to where those with ears to hear, will hear and understand in the simplicity that God gives it. Jeremiah 1:13 "And the word of the Lord came unto me that second time, saying, "What seest thou?" And I said, "I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north." This "seething pot" is a large pot, where many people are involved with the preparation, and the taking of the contents that are within. It is pertaining to a large group of people. What is going to happen, is to the north. We know from Ezekiel 38 and 39 that it is Esau and his offspring that will be seething. That seething is a war, and trouble. Keep in mind that prophecy is not history, there may even be two or three historical events that make it seem history, but this is only a type to let us know what it is to be like in those events of the prophecy. What happened in Daniel's day, though it did happen following this prophecy, it was only a type of what would take place in this end generation. We are suppose to learn from those events. So we see a boiling pot, on a low heat, just ready to turn up the heat. Jeremiah 1:14 "Then the Lord said unto me, "Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land." God is warning Jeremiah that the evil in the north is coming. The king of Babylon always desires the side of the north, because on Mount Zion, as Isaiah 14 the throne of God will sit on the north side of Mount Zion, and that is God's place, and Satan wants that which is God's. In the chapters of Ezekiel thirty eight and thirty nine we have the entire story of the last battles of this earth age, the battle of Armageddon, and Hamon-gog, that final war of this earth age. Those battles are what this seething pot is ultimately simulating. Jeremiah 1:15 "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." To understand this, it is important that you understand that this is the judgment gate. Thrones means the leadership of all the nations that will appear, to bring judgment on them from a world system. We have see in our generation many times that this one world system has brought judgment on another, that is described in this verse. We say it in Africa, in Iraq, in Bosnia, and elsewhere, which is not part of the action from the north, but is part of the seething in the pot leading to that last action from Esau, or Russia and her allies. Jeremiah 1:16 "And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands." This is God speaking. We see here God's judgment on the whole world. The qualification of having God's judgment upon them, is their having worshipped other gods, and the works of their own hands. In the Book of Revleation, the king of the north is the false messiah, the "instead of Christ", also called the Antichrist. Those that will turn to the "instead of Christ", the false Messiah, turn away from God. When they turn to Satan the false Messiah, God will hurt them back. They will do this in ignorance because they are deceived, because they have not studied the Word of God. The prophecies set forth the examples that even a child can understand, and they happened that way the first time, and they will also happen again in the time of the end that we are in now. The only difference are the character that are described in the book of Revelation. The elect of God looks foreward to those days, for they know exactly what will take place today. Today most churches are built by the hands of men to be very beautiful, and they become a symbol of God. Christians today have come to worship their church structures, and the ornaments within them, more then they worship God. The traditions that they follow are foreign to the Word of God, that is to say to the actual way of worship, or things of importance that should be taught in His House. God is against that, and when He is against something, it will fall. Jeremiah 1:17 "Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them." God is now speaking again personally to Jeremiah. God is telling Jeremiah to get up and get ready to leave, and to speak every word that He will command Jeremiah to speak. God is telling Jeremiah not to be afraid of them when he stand before them, or lest God will make a fool of you in front of them. There simply are no giants anymore, for God has appointed His people over all of them. Especially those of God's elect, who are in charge of bringing forth the true message of God's Word. Remember back in verse ten, where God placed Jeremiah over all nations and kings, and over everything. God told him to girt up thy loins, which is to take up your loose skirt, which they wore in those days, and get ready to get moving fast to get the job done. God told Jeremiah to get ready for the battle that He had for him. That applies to us also today. Our battle today is to get ready to do battle with Satan, that Antichrist, which will come prior to the coming of Messiah. However that battle is a spiritual warfare, not with guns and tanks, but with Words and spiritual concepts. The battlefield that this warfare will take place on, is in your mind. Are you ready for that spiritual battle? Jeremiah 1:18 "For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen 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." God caused Jeremiah to become as a defenced city, because God is the wall that is built around Jeremiah. The "iron pillar" is a pillar in a building that can't be shaken. Jeremiah is strong as brazen walls that will stand against all of the land, the kings, the establishment, the religious community, and even the people of the land. This sounds like God is starting to meddle in the traditions of men, and their church systems, that are supported by the whole priestly system, and God is saying that He is against all of it. There is nothing wrong with praising God, and there is nothing wrong with looking fine and attractive, but traditions are not God's way. If you make no difference in a group around you, when you are suppose to represent God, then you are salt that has lost it's savor. Jeremiah is against the priests that teach falsely, against the people of the land that accept those evil false traditions. Jeremiah 1:19 "And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee." God is telling Jeremiah that you can count on those people being against you. When you go against their traditions, and upset their cozy agreements with the evil world systems, those religious leaders will lead the people to rise against you. God is promising Jeremiah, as we also have the commitment that those priest, that religious system, and the people that follow that evil way, shall not prevail against you. It is interesting that God used the word "against" seven times in the last two verses. God expects, both at the time of this writing and even now, His people to be against that which is wrong. We are to be against the deception that is around us, against the priest that teach falsely, and against the entire religious order that is preparing the people for the great deception. It is not up to the prophet to destroy the priest, the system or the people, that is up to God; However, we are to use that part of our body that Jeremiah was to use. God touched Jeremiah's mouth, "Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth" [verse 9], to let it be known. God is with us, and we simply cannot be defeated, when He is with us. Times may get tough, but God will use those trials to make you ready for the other battles that will come. When you become learned in His Word, He will make you skilled in it, and then you are ready to be used, and blessed by God.
Home .~ Plough .~ Seeds .~ Vine .~ Potter .~ Seasons .~ Sonshine .~ Rain .~ Field |