Jeremiah and the Word That Holds Us Fast
Fear, faith, and the promise that fortifies us for whatever lies ahead.
The prophet Jeremiah is one of the most compelling characters in Scripture, a fact that’s apparent just from the opening verses of his massive canonical oracle:
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 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. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. (Jer. 1:1–3)
Although it might not seem like much, this opening foray is laden with insights that help us understand Jeremiah the man and the world in which he existed.
As the son of Hilkiah, we can infer that Jeremiah was raised with a deep familiarity with the Word of God. After all, Hilkiah was the high priest in Judah who blew the dust off the long-lost Book of the Law in a supply closet in the Temple (2 Chron. 34:14–19). Once this scroll was rediscovered and read to the king, it incited a nationwide reform movement, helmed by none other than King Josiah. Even though he was only a boy when he ascended to the throne (2 Chron. 34:1), Josiah’s Yahwistic reforms infused the southern kingdom with its most verdant rays of hope since the Solomonic period, which is saying something, since both Josiah’s dad and granddad were among the worst monarchs Judah ever witnessed. Amon and Mannaseh, respectively, further plunged the kingdom of promise into ruin, rebellion, and decay. But through the efforts of a boy-king and the promptings of Hilkiah, the fires of revival spread throughout the realm.
Fascinatingly, we might imagine Jeremiah off ot the side, taking all of this in. He was there to observe what God’s Word can do — and does — in the hearts of those who believe. He was also there, however, to witness the shriveling of this Word in the hearts of those same people. The same citizens who were stirred to repentance and renewal under Josiah were just as quick to renounce all that under his successor, King Jehoiakim, whose reign was marked by political instability, rapid moral decline, and spiritual decay. Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, soon after him, were good-for-nothing kings who effectively put all of Josiah’s reforms into reverse. Whatever positive momentum might have been enjoyed and experienced was all but dissolved. This is just to say that Jeremiah was a prophet who had seen it all.
Jeremiah, whose name means “the one whom Jehovah has appointed,” had seen the glorious heights of what God’s Word is capable of and also the debilitating effects that ensue whenever that Word is ignored. His nearly forty-year ministry, which spans the last five kings of Judah, three of whom are mentioned in the opening verses, was backdropped by revival, reform, decadence, and corruption, culminating in exile. He was there for it all. And, more to the point, it was into all this turmoil that God himself called Jeremiah to proclaim his words. “All to whom I send you, you shall go,” the Lord tells him, “and whatever I command you, you shall speak” (Jer. 1:7). “It was into that collapsing and collapsed world,” Christopher J. H. Wright comments, “that Jeremiah was called to speak the words that God would put in his mouth, to weep the tears that flowed from God’s own heart, and to bring the gospel of the inexplicable grace and love with which God would create a very different future.”1
This, as you might imagine, wasn’t an overly popular or enviable assignment. Jeremiah’s task wasn’t going to do him any favors or make him any friends. In fact, throughout the course of his ministry, he faces a kaleidoscope of hardships, many of which come at the hands of his friends and comrades. The Bible’s so-called “Weeping Prophet” earned that moniker for good reason. He was openly derided, accused of treason, and labeled a liar; he was rejected, ridiculed, mocked, and beaten. I’d be inconsolable too if God told me that those to whom I’d be preaching would want to get into fights with me all the time (Jer. 1:19). Jeremiah’s call to ministry is nothing if not grueling; so what enabled him to go through with it?
The first chapter of Jeremiah’s prophecy essentially serves as a retrospective on the precise moment when the word of the Lord came to him (Jer. 1:4). This, to be sure, was a moment that seared into Jeremiah’s memory, so much so that even decades later, living in Egyptian exile, he could still remember the exact day and spot where it took place. In that way, even though he was far from his home, which had been reduced to embers and ash, the hour of God’s calling imbued him with a sense of purpose, the gist of which can be found in one verse:
But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. (Jer. 1:17)
With striking simplicity, the Lord tells his young prophet to roll up his sleeves and get to work. Although the mission in front of him was daunting and arduous, God had appointed him “for such a time as this.”2 What’s more, God assures him that, however dismayed he might feel, God was making him into “a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls” (Jer. 1:18). God, in other words, was making his faith into an adamantine faith, which would be able to withstand the onslaught of disaster, devastation, and despair that was looming. Neither Jeremiah’s calling nor his confidence in that calling, therefore, had anything to do with him or what he possessed. Rather, it had everything to do with the Lord, who was bracing him for what lay ahead.
Despite how inconvenient, uncomfortable, and distressing the task ahead might have seemed, Jeremiah was invited by God himself to take refuge in the security of God’s promise, which assured him of God’s persistent presence. “Do not be afraid of them,” the Lord says to him, “for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord” (Jer. 1:8). “They will fight against you,” Yahweh concludes, “but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you” (Jer. 1:19). It is not accident, of course, that Jeremiah’s calling bookended by the most prevalent promise in all of Scripture. God knows us. He knows how timid and fragile our hearts are, how easily we lose our nerve. This is why he peppers his Word with the most simple, albeit profound, promise: don’t be afraid.
To Father Abraham, who was faced with an unknown future, he said, “Fear not” (Gen. 15:1).
To Isaac, the son of promise, dwelling in an unknown land, he said, “Fear not, for I am with you” (Gen. 26:24).
To the Israelites, newly freed yet trapped and terrified at the edge of the Red Sea, with Egyptian chariots barreling down on them, he said, “Fear not, stand firm” (Exod. 14:13).
To Joshua, who was tasked with filling the enormous shoes of Moses, he said, “Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you” (Josh. 1:9).
To Gideon, weary and trembling over the plight of God’s people, he said, “Do not fear” (Judg. 6:23).
To the Virgin Mary, stunned and speechless at the news that the baby growing inside her was none other than the Son of God, he said through the angel Gabriel, “Do not be afraid” (Luke 1:30).
To outcast shepherds, scared spitless by a host of angels filling the midnight sky, he said, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10).
To the disciples, fearing for their lives on the raging seas of Galilee, he said, “It is I. Do not be afraid” (Matt. 14:27).
To the women at the tomb, filled with dread over their dead Teacher, he said, “Do not be afraid” (Matt. 28:10).
To John, weary, tired, and overwhelmed, he said, “Fear not, I am the first and the last” (Rev. 1:17).
The point is that wherever God’s calling may take you and whatever it may look like, this Word of Promise remains just as true for you as it was for Jeremiah. We can take refuge in this promise, since the Son of God has already fulfilled it for us. The Christ of God is none other than Immanuel, God with us, the embodiment of all of God’s promises to us and for us.3 No matter how daunting the task is in front of us, no matter where you are or what you’re stepping into, the Word of God’s promise holds fast. “I am with you always,” he assures us, “even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). God’s words to Jeremiah are, therefore, his words to us as well. “The almighty fortress that protected Jeremiah throughout the most perilous ministry of them all,” Steve Kruschel writes, “stands fast around you, too.”4 He is watching over you, my friend, just as he watches over his Word (Jer. 1:11–12), to ensure that all things come to pass just as he intended them to.
Grace and peace to you.
Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Jeremiah: Against Wind and Tide, The Bible Speaks Today, edited by J. A. Motyer (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 22.
Esther 4:14.
Matt. 1:23; Isa. 7:14; 2 Cor. 1:20.
Steve Kruschel, The Pastoral Prophet: Meditations on the Book of Jeremiah (Irvine, CA: 1517 Publishing, 2019), 17.