Empowered by God for Ministry

Acting Immorally

In 1961, a Yale University psychologist named Stanley Milgram pondered the question, how come so many of the Nazi soldiers in World War 2 carried out commands that were so reprehensible. You see, we can reason that Hitler himself had an abhorent ideology that is best described as evil. Likewise many of the generals that rose up the ranks with him also shared this evil ideology. But what about the soldiers lower down the ranking. Didn’t they realise, that even if you believed the idea that you were a superior race, it is unconciousable to murder so many innocent people. And yet, that is exactly what happened.

So Stanley Milgram, this Yale university psychologist devised an interest experiment that became known as the Milgram experiment. The test was how far people would go in obeying orders, even when they know what they are doing is wrong.

The experiment involved participants believing that they were trialing a new teaching technicque but they got to be the administrator of the teaching technique. They were led to believe they were teaching a person in a hidden room but they could communicate via a radio system. The participant then asked the person in the other room a series of questions. Each time they got an answer wrong, they would have to press a button that administered a shock to the person. Each time the person got another answer wrong, the size of the shock was to be increased. It got to the point where the person in the other room was in so much pain that they would start to black out. The participant knew it was wrong, but because they were told to keep going, throughout the experiment, most people did keep going. Now, you might have guessed, the person in the other room was an actor, but the participants believed them to be real.

The outcome of the experiment, people will more often than not go along with immoral behaviour if they are told to by someone they deem to be in authority.

I think we all like to think that we would stand up when we see something wrong, and some people do, but all to often we just go along with it.

Now it’s an interesting observation when we look at the world around us. We can often ask the question, how has our society got to the point that it has? So many bad behaviours get a free pass because people don’t feel that they can stand up against the system.

We might feel the outrage, but what can I do? Who am I to make a difference?

627 BC

Well, let me take you back in time - all the way back to 627 BC.

Now, that’s probably not a date you are particularly familiar with. It’s 75 years after the the Northern Kingdom has been taken into exile. The people living in 627 BC would have heard the stories of this kingdom in the north. The one that had split centuries before shortly aftre the time of King Solomon. But in 627 BC, almost no one alive would remember that time when the absolute powerhouse of Assyria had come and wiped them away.

But what was still in living memory, was the way in which King Manasseh had completely submitted to this powerhouse of Assyria. This included setting up worship practices that honoured the Assyrian gods. Not surprisingly, given what I just told you about Milgram’s experiment, the people for the most part go along with this worship of false gods.

But King Manasseh had died some 15 years prior to date I’ve taken you to. We get another king who only has a short 2 year reign, before an eight year old boy by the name of Josiah is crowned king.

Josiah ends up being a good king. Being only eight ends up being an advantage, because he finds himself surrounded by good advisors, and good changes are made.

Some of these changes start to be made only two years before this date of 627 BC.

So why have I taken you to 627 BC?

Well, two very significant things happen in this year. One which would have had relatively speaking immediate ramifications around this part of the world. The other, that would have been less obvious to many of the people at the time, but much greater and longer lasting significance, particularly in a spiritual sense.

Ashurbanipal dies

So the first event of 627 BC is that King Ashurbanipal of Assyria dies. You see, he is the last of the really powerful kings of Assyria. It’s not completely the end of Assyria, but it is beggining of the end of them being the powerhouse. A transition of power is in place. 627 BC is going to mark a very significant shift in the power structure of the Ancient Near East.

Jeremiah is called

The other major event, is that Jeremiah is called by God.

This event might not have made the same kind of impact on the geopolitics of the area, but it’s God’s way of entering himself so that he has a voice in this point of change.

You see, it was an important time for Israel. Israel was trying to figure out where they fit in the scheme of things. Up to this point, while Assyria were still dominant, the question always lingered: do we submit? Or do we rebel?

This question is going to remain as a new super power is about to rise - but we’ll explore this idea throughout the series.

This morning, our concern is looking at this call that occurred in the year 627 BC.

It’s the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign - the king who started his reign as a boy, but now it’s the time of another young person to take their place.

The Call

Well, let’s dive into this first chapter.

The first three verses provide some background information.

We’re told that Jeremiah is one of the priests at Anathoth. Anathoth is a town not too far from Jerusalem, and it was a town designated for priests. So when it says he is one of the priests, you could perhaps read that as saying he was from a priestly family.

It’s verse 2 that helps us place this event in the year 627 BC as I’ve just been discussing.

Verse 3 is almost like a spoiler. It actually gives the ending away before we get there. That is, this kingdom is going to end up in exile. For those who are into dates, the exile is going to come in the year 587 BC, in other words, 40 years after the call that we’re just about to look at.

And so in verse 4, the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”

There’s something so beautiful about this. There’s an intimacy about it.

It starts with a foreknowledge. Something that precedes conception. The intimacy started before conception.

To know someone is so much more than just knowing their name. It’s more than just knowing some things about the person. To know someone is to have a deep connection with that person.

God has this deep intimate connection, and has had as much since before birth.

But the call of Jeremiah goes on...

“...before you were born I set you apart;”

Again, that same foreknowledge is there. This time it’s even more than an intimate knowledge. He’s been set apart. He’s been acknowledged as different. This is a consecration. An acknowledgement that he is different.

The third line of the call in verse 5 then says “I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”

This is what Jeremiah has been set apart to do. He is going to be a prophet.

Now, let me just give a quick word about the role of a prophet.

Often when we think of the word prophecy, we think about the aspect of the prophet predicting the future. This can be part of the role of a prophet. However, I would argue that it’s actually not the main role of the prophet.

A prophets role is to speak God’s word into a situation. As we go through Jeremiah, we will see some prophecies about times that will come after Jeremiah, but there’s going to be a whole lot a judgement… there’s going to be quite a bit of advice about what they should do, and there will also be some explaining why things are as they are.

This is what Jeremiah is being set apart to do.

But did you also notice that he’s going to be a prophet to the nations (and that is plural there).

He’s going to speak the word of God, not just to Judah, but to the nations around him as well.

Our call

Right, well before we move on, it’s worthwhile giving some consideration about how much we can apply verse 5 to ourselves. The first thing we need to recognise is that this call is a very specific call to Jeremiah. He is the one to be a prophet to the nations. I think that God can potentially still call people as prophets to the nations, but let’s be real, the scope of our calling is not likely to be that large.

But that being said, there is something applicable to this calling that we can take for ourselves.

Before you were formed in the womb, God knew you.

That was true for Jeremiah, and it’s true for you.

If you are a believer, it is also true that before you were born, God has set you apart.

When you accepted Jesus, a transformation began in you. A transformation that does set you apart from others. But remember, this is not about you being better than other because of anything you have done. It’s about you having a righteousness that is not your own, but that of Jesus that has been given to you.

And you’ve been set aside for a task. You’ve been set aside to live a Christ-honouring life where ever God has placed you.

You might not have been appointed as a prophet to the nations like Jeremiah was, but you have been appointed by God to speak words of truth. You have been appointed to be Christs hands and feet in this world. You have been given gifts and talents, and God wants you to use them for his glory.

The excuse

But let’s come back to Jeremiah’s call, because we’re about to see him try to make excuses for why he can’t do it.

“I do not know how to speak”

“I’m too young”

It’s very remincisent of when Moses was called by God for a specific task. Moses also complained about his lack of ability to speak well. Moses might not have been too young, he was 80 at the time of his calling, so he probably would have used the excuse of being too old.

But what does God say - I am with you.

This is really the answer to any excuse we might offer. If God is with us, then what legitimate excuse could we possibly offer?

God tells Jeremiah, I’ll give you the words you need. I will give you everything you need.

We so desperately need to hear this.

Our calling might be quite different, yet we need to know that God is always with us. He gives us what we need. If he has a specific task for us, we can be assured that we will be equipped.

Now, I will recognise, that in the moment, it can sometimes feel that God let’s us down in this apartment. It can feel that he doesn’t give us what we need and that we are completely lacking. But can I suggest that actually, this is usually the devil telling us lies. The lie highlights the negatives and downplays what is actually happening. It’s why we need to be reflective and look back and see how God actually does always come through. It might not always be in the way we expect, but it is always good.

If God has called you for a task, you do not have any legitimate exucse for not doing it. God will equip you.

Jeremiah’s vision

In verse 11, the Lord then invites Jeremiah to tell him what he sees.

The first thing Jeremiah says, is that he sees an almond tree.

Now, I don’t always look at the Hebrew word, but on this occasion, it is very interesting.

You see, the Hebrew word for almond tree is saqed.

The Lord than says, “you have seen correctly, for I am watching”

The Hebrew word for watching is soqed.

In other words, the word for almond tree, and the word for watching, is almost the same word with only one vowel different. So, he’s saying, when you see saqed, remember soqed.

There needs to be a careful observation that what God says will happen, will actually happen.

Boiling pot

But a second vision comes. This time a boiling pot is being tipped out from the north.

Now, Assyria had been based in the north. As I explained earlier, 627 BC, the date of this calling also coincides with the for major step in Assyria’s decline. Babylon, who is to be the next super power, is actually going to lay to the East, but this is not an error in the Bible. You see, in one regard, the enemy from the north can be seen as symbolic, a kind of code that would have been readily understood at the time. In a more literal understanding, the north still fits in that even though they are in the south, the road they would take to get there would still see them coming from the north.

But perhaps the thing we should be spending more time thinking about, is the fact that it is God that is summoning this enemy. Just look at verse 15.

The Lord’s going to summon them, and they’re going to come and set themselves up in Jerusalem.

They are going to come, but this will not be the end of Israel.

Jeremiah is to say to them whatever God commands him to say.

Facing our world

Well, before I come to a close, I just want to spend a little time thinking about what it means standing up to our world today.

You see, while there is a very specific time and place to the situation we see Jeremiah being called to, and we have to be careful not to make it too much the same, yet there is something a little similar to our situation.

We find ourselves in a world that embraces wickedness. But more than that, if we’re honest, we are the wicked ones.

We are the ones, like in Milgram’s experiment, that though we think of ourselves as the good and decent ones, we end up doing things we thought we never would.

This will be the message that will become very clear in Jeremiah’s prophecies. While we get so caught up in the various people and groups that stand against Christianity - our enemies if you will, we lose sight of the fact that so often, we’re our own worst enemy.

We fail to see that we’ve followed the world into wickedness, not because they’ve forced us, but because we’ve gone willingly.

You see, we talk about how we can stand up against this world that appears to be coming less Christian, but perhaps the question should be, how do we stand up against our own selfishness?

We fight because things are unfair, but by that we really mean things are not going the way our selfish desires want them to go.

I talked before about the special calling that we receive. What if we actually see our primary calling as not standing against the world, but standing against our selfish desires?

Jeremaih had to humble his own people before he could look at a bright future.

We need to humble ourselves before we can start thinking about a bright future for ourselves.

It’s not easy to humble ourselves - in fact, this is where we start making excuses.

It’s not that we’re not being humble - we argue to ourselves, it’s that people really are against us.

But let Go deal with those others. Start with yourself.

Conclusion

I’m look forward to this journey that we’re going to have through the book of Jeremiah.

It’s not always going to be easy. Because Jeremiah’s prophecy is going to force us to reflect deeply on how we’ve been living.

We’re going to have to break ourselves down before we can build ourselves back up and see a beautiful future.

There is a beautiful ending to all of this. God will bring it all together, but not before he tears down.

So let’s go on this journey together.

Let me pray...