Jer 1: The Eternal Word Becomes the Indwelling Word

I. Introduction

Home Reference Jer 1.

Setting: Covered in the previous two studies.

Structure:

Vs 1-3: Historical/geographical setting.

Vs. 4-10: Ordination

Vs 11-19: Foundational Visions and Theme.

II. Body

Historical/Geographical Setting (Vs 1-3)

Much has already been covered previously.

The phrase “The Word of the Lord” (vs2, 4, 11, 13).

Occurs 256x in the ESV.

53x in Jer.

20% of occurances in 5.6% of the Bible.

Jeremiah, as a priest-prophet was very focused on receiving and delivering the Word of the Lord accurately.

He began to prophecy in 627 BC, Five years before Josiah’s reforms began.

We do not have any recorded prophecies from that period of time, although we know that Jeremiah had already been ordained to the task.

Jeremiah is from a priestly family in a priestly town. He is likely descended from Abiathar (1 King 2:26-27).

A rejected family, a message of rejection.

His father shares the same name as the priest who would find the book of the law during Josiah’s renovation of the temple (2 Kings 22:8). Same?

Jeremiah’s Call and Ordination (vs 4-10)

Before I formed H: yoser.

Verbal form of the noun “Potter.”

Genesis 2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

The idea of a potter is a major theme in Jeremiah 18-19. We will study it independently soon, but it forecast here in the verb for creation which Jeremiah implies.

Jeremiah 18:1–4 “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.”

…I knew you

H: yadda. Intimate personal knowledge, not factual knowledge. 1/5 times used in OT it refers to sexual intimacy.

This isn’t “I knew you would be there” or “I saw you from a long time ago.”

I had an intimate relationship with you before you existed. God’s relationship is already existent for Jeremiah to live into.

Calling from the womb is not an unknown motif, but this same phrase occurs in several critical places:

David: Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

Cyrus in Isaiah 49:4–6 “But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.” And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him— for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.””

JTB in Luke 1:15 “for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.”

Paul Galatians 1:15 “But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,”

“Predestination is the underlying assumption of any great Christian pioneer. He who is destined for such a work must have a full conviction that God is acting directly, immediately, consciously, and therefore with irresistible power, upon him and through him.… He who is not predestined, who does not declare, who does not believe himself predestined as the author of a great religious movement, he in whom God is not manifestly, sensibly, avowedly working out his pre-established designs, will never be saint or reformer”

before you were born. Lit: you were driven out of the womb.

A very common verb, “to leave or be driven away.” Only time ever used for birth.

The same verb that Jeremiah will use to describe being taken captive 67x in the book.

I consecrated you. I appointed you...

Two verbs both used several times of articles for the worship of God in the temple/tabernacle.

Consecrated: set aside for a purpose.

Appointed: placed in a sacred role or location.

Jeremiah was removed from the “normal” or “common” and set into a unique category.

Several commentators saw in this a parallel to the doctrine of predestination to salvation: removed from the common by an act of God’s volition before anything has been done, for good or evil, to merit it, and placed in a position of grace (Rom 9).

a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah was a prophet first to Judah, but the last part of his book records mostly God’s judgment against gentile nations.

Abortion today happens because of the lie that people believe that a baby is just a “mass of cells.” This verse is a confident declaration on the lips of the Word of God, Jesus, that not only are babies real people, but they are predestined for certain tasks in life already in the womb.

Tertullian, c. 200 AD: The embryo therefore becomes a human being in the womb from the moment that its form is completed. The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the one who shall cause an abortion, inasmuch as there exists already the rudiment of a human being that has imputed to it even now the condition of life and death, since it is already liable to the issues of both, although, by living still in the mother, it for the most part shares its own state with the mother

He references Exodus 21:22–25 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”

Verses 6-10 are an exchange between Jeremiah and God where he demurs from his calling based on his inexperience. This comes with two lines of evidence.

Vs 6

He is not a skilled orator.

He is a youth. H: na’ar, one who is dependent upon others. Infants—>Teenagers or even servants.

The Lord’s reply in vs 7-10 answers both objections.

Jeremiah will shift his reliance from his parents to his God. He will go and do what he is commanded.

The words will be be commanded (vs 7) and actually put in his mouth (vs 9).

The touching of the mouth of Jer (vs 9) is reminiscent of Isaiah 6:6–7 “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.””

Fulfillment (partial) of Deuteronomy 18:18 “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”

Psalm 51:15 “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.”

The final verse of this section is the theme statement of Jeremiah’s ministry (vs 10).

Six infinitive verbs taken from agricultural and building trades, what the common people will understand.

Four destructive verbs.

Two restorative verbs.

Jeremiah’s ministry is much more heavily placed in the vein of judgment and destruction.

Only 3 “gentle” chapters out of 52.

8 repititions in the book, here’s a sample:

Jeremiah 18:7–9 “If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it,”

Jeremiah 31:27–28 ““Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord.”

Jeremiah 45:3–5 “You said, ‘Woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.’ Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land. And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.””

Where We See Jesus

“The Word of the Lord came to me, saying...” (vs 4, 11, 13, 2:1).

The grammar demands that the Word is a thing that talks, not that the Word is what is spoken.

Used 14x in the Bible, 11x in Jeremiah.

Others (1x to David, 1x to Ezek, 1x to Zech).

The Word does not merely convey or contain a message, it speaks.

The Word is a person in Jeremiah’s testimony.

Jeremiah replies to “the Word” as “Lord God.” See vs 6.

The identification of the speaker oscillates between “The Word of the Lord” and “The Lord,” in vs 6-14.

The Word and the Lord are one.

John 1:1–3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Revelation 19:11–16 “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Hebrews 1:1–2 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

Jeremiah’s future and calling were not determined at the time of his conception, which is the point of arguing for the sanctity of human life from this passage.

Jeremiah's future and calling were determined before his conception, rooted in Deut 18:18.

Much more so, Christ’s future and calling as Savior were rooted before creation.

Rev 13:7-8 NLT And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. 8 And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.

III. Conclusion/Application

It isn’t wrong to use Jer 1:5 to argue for the sanctity of Life, but it’s greater purpose should be to point us to Christ.

Understand that Jesus has been speaking to His people long before He was born in a manger.

Christ has sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts as well, and He has promised to be the Word of God dwelling in us, so that the words of God will come out of us.

Matthew 10:19 “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.”

Acts 2:4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Acts 4:31 “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”