Jeremiah 1:7-10

C. The Divine Assurance Jeremiah 1:7-10

When called of God Moses brought forth excuse after excuse; but Jeremiah only needed encouragement and reassurance. The Lord took steps to give that timid and hesitant young prophet the encouragement he needed. The assurance in these verses is fourfold: assurance of (1) direction, (2) deliverance, (3) power, and (4) authority.

1. Assurance of divine direction (Jeremiah 1:7)

The divine assurance begins not with promises of assistance but with a gentle rebuke and a reaffirmation of His will. Do not say, I am only a youth. God is telling Jeremiah that his focus is wrong. Jeremiah had been looking at himself, whereas he should have had his focus on obedience to God. The emphasis throughout these verses is on the divine I and not the weak human you: I send you. I have commanded you. I am with you. I have placed My words in your mouth. I have made you an overseer. Thoughts of self are altogether out of place in one who has received a divine commission. It was Jeremiah's duty simply to obey the instructions of his Sovereign. The objections raised by Jeremiah are beside the point. Often men try to set feeble excuses against the plain call of God. They imagine that they are being modest. They plead a lack of qualification or strength or ability when in fact they may be doubting and mistrusting the power of God to provide for His own work.

Jeremiah's focus needed to be lifted from self to God (Jeremiah 1:7). He need not worry about where he will go or what he shall say. The Lord will direct his ways and his words. All Jeremiah needs to do is follow the leading of the Lord. He is to go where God sends him and speak what God commands him. The verbs go and speak in Jeremiah 1:7 are not imperatives but imperfects in Hebrew and for this reason most translators render them in English as futures. But the imperfect sometimes has imperative force and in the present context an imperative seems to fit best. After all God's wills are in reality musts. When God is directing a ministry He will provide both the place and the power for service.[110] God in effect is saying here, Where you will go and what you will say is My business. A great burden lifted off the shoulders of the young priest when he heard these reassuring imperatives.

[110] Hall, op. cit., p. 186.

The limits of Jeremiah's preaching are clearly defined. He is to preach what God commands. He is not called to propagate the philosophies of men or to concoct and say what is clever and interesting and amusing. Jeremiah was called to preach the word! The greatest temptation that any preacher faces is that of identifying his own desires, interests and opinions with those of God. If every preacher would make his preaching as broad and as narrow as the expressed commandments of God he would avoid this pitfall.

2. Assurance of divine deliverance (Jeremiah 1:8)

The Lord saw within the heart of Jeremiah a fear of those to whom he was sent. Jeremiah had not said he was afraid but the Lord saw the fear in his heart. Sinful men never had welcomed a message of judgment and condemnation, and there was strong possibility of reprisal. Do not be afraid of them, the Lord says to his prophet, for I am with you. The Hebrew reverses the order and has it with you am I. What words of comfort. God spoke these words to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:12), Joshua at Jordan (Joshua 1:15) and Jacob at Bethel (Genesis 28:15). They are reminiscent of the parting words of Jesus: Lo I am with you always (Matthew 28:20). The major point of emphasis here is that God will be available to his prophet. But implicit in these words is a warning that the Lord will be near him to mark his words and deeds.

God promises to deliver Jeremiah. Deliver him, but from what? From hardship? From trial? From discouragement? From slander and attack? Hardly! The promise is not that Jeremiah will be free from danger but that God will be his Deliverer. It is not that Jeremiah would remain unhurt physically, mentally, emotionally throughout his ministry. It is rather that God will deliver him from destruction at the hands of his enemies. He will not be delivered from trial but will be enabled to pass through trial.

3. Assurance of divine power (Jeremiah 1:9)

Jeremiah declares that after the assurance of divine direction and deliverance the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. It is obvious that this is not purely metaphorical (as in Psalms 51:15); it represents a real experience on the part of the prophet. This experience however must have been a visionary one analogous to that which Isaiah experienced at the beginning of his ministry. But why did God touch the lips of the prophet? In Isaiah the touching of the lips was for purification; here, for communication. The hand is the symbol of making and doing. The act symbolized the fact that God was taking over his mouth, remaking it. Henceforth Jeremiah would speak with the tongue (authority) of God.

4. Assurance of divine authority (Jeremiah 1:10)

The divine summons closes with assurance that Jeremiah will have divine authority. God declares I have made you an overseer over the nations and kingdoms, i.e., the officer who puts God's plan into operation. His ministry will have both a negative and a positive emphasis. Four verbs describe the negative work that the prophet must perform: (1) to uproot like a noxious weed; (2) to tear down; (3) to destroy; and (4) to raze or overthrow. Of course the prophet himself would not have the power to do these things; but it would be his mission to announce what God was about to do. Jeremiah fulfills this part of his commission by preaching divine judgment upon the nations of his day. Old sinful Judah must be destroyed. So too must the foreign nations which have proudly lifted up themselves against their Creator be uprooted.
But Jeremiah is not merely a prophet of destruction; he is also a prophet of construction. Two infinitives describe the positive aspect of his ministry: (1) to build, and (2) to plant. Beyond the tumult of war and destruction Jeremiah was permitted to see the dawn of a new day. In the assessment of the ministry of Jeremiah the emphasis is on the negative. Four verbs are used to describe the destructive side of his ministry while only two verbs are used to describe the constructive aspect. Furthermore the negative elements are listed before the positive. As one reads through the Book of Jeremiah it is true that threatening is much more in the foreground and promise in the background. Yet somehow one gets the impression that the ultimate purpose of this prophet is to pave the way for that new day, that new beginning. The old must be swept away in order that the new can be inaugurated. In the words of Jensen:
Jeremiah was to pluck up dead ritual and plant living worship, pluck Up vile ways and plant straight paths, pluck up degenerate hearts and plant new hearts of a new covenant.[111]

[111] Irving Jensen, Jeremiah, Prophet of Judgment (Chicago: Moody press, 1966), p. 20.