Jeremiah 1 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin

The book of Jeremiah is categorized as one of the Major Prophetical books due to its great length spanning fifty-two chapters.  Jeremiah, the man, is also said, traditionally, to have written the book of Lamentations as well as the book of Kings with the help of his faithful scribe Baruch.  The book of Jeremiah is foundational to much of the New Testament being quoted directly over forty times but primarily in the book of Revelation regarding the destruction of Babylon as a symbol of the destruction of all evil kingdoms standing in opposition to the Lord and his Anointed.

Jeremiah was not only a prophet, he was also the son of a priest, thus having priestly blood within him, but he was called to be a prophet by the Lord, even before he was born, to speak forth the Word of God even to the priests who were not listening to God’s Word.  Jeremiah’s ministry actually began in the thirteenth year of the reign of the godly King Josiah and would continue through the reigns of Josiah’s sons Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin as well as Nebuchadnezzar’s puppet king Zedekiah until sometime after the fall of Jerusalem, thus his ministry would span some forty years, like Moses, from around 626 to 586 BC.

We actually know more about the prophet Jeremiah than any other prophet save Moses, for his book tells us not only of the words that he spoke but of the sufferings he endured for the sake of the Lord.  Jeremiah would face much opposition throughout his life because of the Word of the Lord.  Not only would many of the kings distrust and hate him, so would most of the priests, including his own kin, and even other prophets who claimed to speak forth the Word of the Lord.  On numerous occasions, Jeremiah would be mocked and ridiculed by the Jews.  At times he was beaten and thrown into the stocks, and once he was even thrown into a well to starve to death but was eventually saved by a slave.  After that, he was thrown into prison for daring to speak forth a word of correction and rebuke to God’s people, and he remained in prison until the Babylonian army actually sacked Jerusalem and freed him from his captivity showing him many kindnesses.  Later Johanan, a self-proclaimed leader of the Jews, rejected the word of the Lord from Jeremiah, refusing to submit to the Babylonian king and fled to Egypt taking with him many other prominent Jews including Jeremiah.  There the prophet continued to speak forth the word of God, but still no one listened to him, and he eventually died there in an unmarked grave.

Jeremiah is often referred to as the weeping prophet not only for authoring the book of Lamentations and for witnessing the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the slaughtering of God’s people but, because, like Jesus himself, he had longed to gather God’s people to the Lord and they had refused his embrace.  Over the years, there have been many artists and sculptors who have made depictions of the prophet Jeremiah, and he is always portrayed in a forlorn and dejected manner because of this.  My favorite rendition is Rembrandt’s painting of Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem.  I think he captures well the internal struggle and weariness of the prophet who is continually rejected just like the Lord whom he represents.

Jeremiah’s primary prophecy consisted of warning the Jews of the coming invasion of the Babylonians, the transplanting and captivity of the Jews into foreign lands, and the destruction of the city of Jerusalem because of the peoples’ unfaithfulness to their covenant with the Lord, continually forsaking him to worship the Canaanite gods instead.  The Israelites even sacrificed their own children, burning them alive as an offering to god Moloch.

Although Jeremiah’s ministry began well during the reign of the godly King Josiah and actually resulted in the king leading the nation to repent of their sins and to return to the Lord, this spiritual renewal would not last.  As soon as Josiah died, the people immediately reverted back to their idolatrous ways and refused to hear a word from the Lord.  Our English word “Jeremiad’ comes from the life of this prophet who continues to lament, mourn and complain that God’s people will not listen.

In this first chapter, we read of the Lord’s calling upon the prophet Jeremiah to speak forth the Word of the Lord and of the prophet’s reluctance to do so due to his youthfulness and fears.  Here the Lord grants the young man many assurances that he will protect him in order that he might continue to testify to the ways of the Lord for the generations to come.

As you might expect, most people would never volunteer to be a prophet, for it is certainly the least popular vocation in the world today to tell people that they are sinners and need to repent of their sins.  As you know, most of the prophets in the Bible were martyrs for this reason.  But the Lord still uses his people today to proclaim forth the truth of God’s Word, whether they want to hear it or not.  We are His witnesses (the word in the Greek is the root of our English word ‘martyr’) called to stand up to a culture that has turned its back on God and to say “repent, this is the way of the Lord, so walk in it.”  If any of us seeks to do that, there will certainly be opposition, but blessed are those who mourn, as the prophet Jeremiah did, for they shall be comforted, and blessed are those who are insulted, reviled and persecuted for Christ’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”