Born With a Purpose
“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. 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.” Jeremiah 1:5-7
Just prior to God’s call to Jeremiah to be His prophet to Judah, God talked with him either in an audible voice, a voice spoken through his spirit, or a message delivered by a priest. We don’t know Jeremiah’s age, but speculate he was a young man, maybe in his twenties. He began prophesying in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah over the southern kingdom of Judah. God called him to warn Judah that destruction was coming unless they repented of their idolatry and returned to Him. Jeremiah’s task was not an easy one.
To those who promote the killing of the unborn, God has given irrefutable proof that all lives matter, even those still in the womb. God told Jeremiah that he was given a purpose in life even before he was conceived by his mother and father. While he may or may not have been planned by his parents, God had planned for Jeremiah to help fulfill God’s plan for mankind. God sanctified, that is, set him apart for the office of a prophet, while he was still being formed in the womb. He was only a tiny speck, the tiny speck that many claim is not really a life, when God began to plan Jeremiah’s future. He was to prophesy not only among the Jews, but also among the nations of the known world at that time. I believe that God has a purpose for every person who has ever been born, even those who were aborted, but many never fulfill their God-given purpose because they have not submitted to God’s will for their lives, or they were destroyed before they were born. The rejection of God by unbelievers does not thwart His plans and purposes. In the book of Esther, Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, told her that should she refuse to come to the aid of her fellow Jews, God would find someone else (Esther 4:14). Whomever God calls for His work on earth, He equips with whatever is required to engage in the mission.
When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, he did what a large majority of people do–he came up with an excuse as to why he was not qualified or able to take on such a monumental task. His excuse? He said that he was too young, a mere child called to do what he believed only an older and mature adult could do, one who had been walking with the LORD for many more years than himself. A humble person never feels qualified to do the important work that God asks him or her to do, and they are right. God is the One who calls and qualifies His servants to do what He requires. When God called Moses to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt, Moses used his speech impediment as an excuse, but God told him that was no problem because his brother Aaron would be his spokesman (Exodus 4:10-17). So much for excuses. Moses didn’t have one and neither did Jeremiah.
The need for warning the people of Judah was urgent, thus God prepared Jeremiah instantaneously by touching his mouth with His mighty hand, delivering the words that God would speak to the people through the voice of Jeremiah. A true prophet cannot prophesy unless God gives him the words to speak. We do not have prophets today like the prophets of the Old Testament because we have the word of God reminding us of the past, describing our present, and outlining the future. All prophesy that is needful for us is written down on the pages of God’s word. It is true that some contain types and symbols which make them difficult to discern, but those who are diligent in their study of scripture and who depend upon the Holy Spirit to guide them, will have more understanding of scripture than those who quickly and casually read over a passage without digging into its meaning and relevancy.
To the known world at that time, Jeremiah was a “nobody”. He was known to King Josiah, but apart from the book that he wrote, Jeremiah is only mentioned in II Chronicles 35:25 as one who lamented Josiah’s death. It is assumed that he worked with Josiah to rid the land of idolatry and did minister as prophet during the last five years of Josiah’s reign. The thing to note here is that Jeremiah, a priest unknown to the world, would be set as a prophet and spokesman of God over the nations and kingdoms to “root out”, “pull down”, “destroy and to throw down” all idolatry of every kind and then to “build and to plant” the nations into the honor and worship of God and to substitute righteousness for evil. It must have seemed like an impossible task which lay ahead of Jeremiah, an ordinary man who had been living a relatively obscure life, but, as we know, nothing is impossible with God (Matthew 19:26).