When you study the Old Testament prophets, you discover that three strands of truth wove their messages together: (1) past sin: the nation has disobeyed God’s law; (2) present responsibility: the people must repent or God will send judgment; and (3) future hope: the Lord will come one day and establish His glorious kingdom.
The Lord didn’t give Jeremiah a joyful message of deliverance to announce, but rather a tragic message of judgment. So dangerous was this message that people hearing it called Jeremiah a traitor. He would be misunderstood, persecuted, arrested, and imprisoned—and more than once, his life was in danger. The nation didn’t want to hear the truth, but Jeremiah told them plainly that they were defying the Lord, disobeying the law, and destined for judgment.
God gave Jeremiah three promises to prepare him for this dangerous mission. Two of the promises were in visions.
The almond tree: God’s Word will be fulfilled (vv. 11–12). In the Holy Land, the almond tree blossoms in January and gives the first indication that spring is coming. The Hebrew word for almond tree is saqed; while the word for “watch” or “be awake” is soqed. The Lord used this play on words to impress Jeremiah with the fact that He is ever awake to watch over His Word and fulfill it.
Like a husband or wife breaking the marriage vows, the sinful nation had turned from the covenant they had made with the Lord, and now they were giving their love and loyalty to pagan idols. But that covenant would stand, for the Lord had not forgotten it. He had promised to bless them if they obeyed and chasten them if they disobeyed, and He was “watching to see that [His] word is fulfilled” (Jer. 1: niv; see Lev. 26; Deut. 28). God had spoken to the nation through the earlier prophets, but the rulers and people wouldn’t listen. Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, namely every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.” Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. (2 Kings 17:13–15 nkjv)
The boiling pot: God’s wrath is coming (vv. 13–16). The nations in the East were often in conflict, each trying to gain supremacy. First the Jewish rulers would turn to Egypt for help, then to Assyria (see Isa. 30—31; Jer. 2:18, 36); and all the while, they failed to trust the Lord and seek His help. But this vision reveals that God is in control of the nations of the world and can use them to accomplish His own purposes. The Lord was even then preparing Babylon in the north to be His servant to chasten His people. For Judah to turn to Egypt for help was futile because Egypt would also fall to Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 46).
When Jeremiah began his ministry, Assyria, not Babylon, was the dominant power in the Near East, and no doubt many of the political experts thought Jeremiah foolish to worry about Babylon in the north. But the people of Judah lived to see Assyria defeated and Egypt crippled as Babylon rose to power and Jeremiah’s words came true. Indeed, the thrones of the conquering Babylonian leaders were set in the gate of Jerusalem (39:1–3), and the Holy City was eventually destroyed.
The sin God singled out was idolatry (1:16)—forsaking the true God and worshipping the gods they had made with their own hands. In their hypocrisy, the people of Judah maintained the temple worship, but Jehovah was only one of many gods who claimed their devotion. Some of the foreign idols were even brought into the temple! (See Ezek. 8—9.) The false prophets flourished in a ministry that was shallow and popular because they promised peace and never called for repentance (Jer. 5:12–13; 8:11–12; 14:13–22).
When a nation turns from worshipping the true God, its people begin to exploit one another, and that’s what happened in Judah. The rich oppressed the poor and the courts would not defend the rights of the oppressed (2:34–35; 5:26–31; 7:1–11). Yet these evil rulers and judges went to the temple faithfully and pretended to be devoted to Jehovah! All they did was make the temple “a den of robbers” (7:11). It was this kind of sin that God was about to judge.
The city, pillar, and wall: God will protect His servant (vv. 17–19). In order to be able to run or work easily, men in that day had to tie their loose robes together with a belt (1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 4:29), so “gird up your loins” (Jer. 1:17) meant “Get ready for action!” It might be paraphrased “Tighten your belt! Roll up your sleeves!” “Gird up the loins of your mind” (1 Peter 1:13) means “Pull your mind together and have the right mental attitude in view of our Lord’s return.”
God repeated the warning He gave earlier (Jer. 1:8) that Jeremiah must not be afraid of the people who would oppose him, because God would defend him. Surrounded by his enemies, the prophet would become a fortified city they couldn’t subdue. Forced to stand alone, Jeremiah would become as strong as an iron pillar. Attacked on all sides by kings, princes, priests, and people, he would be as unyielding as a bronze wall. “I am with you to deliver you” was God’s reliable promise (vv. 8, 19 nkjv), and in the battle for truth, one with God is a majority.
In spite of the demands of the task and the difficulties of the times, Jeremiah accepted God’s call. He knew his own deficiencies, but he also knew that God was greater and would enable him to do the job. The message God gave him was indeed dangerous, but God was watching over His word to fulfill it and would protect His faithful servant.
Jeremiah made the right decision and as a result became one of the most unpopular prophets in Jewish history. Measured by human standards, his ministry was a failure, but measured by the will of God, he was a great success. It isn’t easy to stand alone, to resist the crowd, and to be out of step with the philosophies and values of the times. Jeremiah, however, lived that kind of a life for over forty years.
In the final chapter of his book Walden, Henry David Thoreau wrote, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
“If anyone desires to come after Me,” said Jesus, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. … For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matt. 16:24, 26 nkjv).
In light of that sobering question, what decision will you make? Will you conform to the crowd or carry the cross?