Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I hallowed thee, I appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.
God's first recorded word to Jeremiah is not about his nation. It is about Jeremiah himself, and it reaches back before he was born. Three things were already settled before he drew breath: God knew him, God set him apart, and God gave him his work.
The verse opens with God knowing Jeremiah before he existed. One writer names what that knowing is, and where else the Bible speaks of it.
God simply spoke to him in his early youth declaring in a few precise statements why He chose to send him: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" (Jer. 1:4-10). This is God's foreknowledge. For us it is connected with His election before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:2; Eph. 1:4). The motives of this great plan are not revealed to us.
Another writer asks what such complete knowledge means for us. God knows the worst about us, and He has also spoken to us about our sin.
God knows us from the start of our life to the end of it. His verdict on us is that our own nature "is no help at all." We do well to start from that verdict. But the same God has spoken to us in the gospel about the forgiveness of sin. Because He knows everything, it is forgiveness of all sin. When God speaks to us of the righteousness of faith, He again knows everything, so that righteousness is "everlasting righteousness."
Why did God pick this man for this moment in history?
God does not choose His servants at random. Nor does He choose them because of the situation of the moment. Jeremiah and Paul served in situations that arose long after God chose them. Yet He chose them for those very situations.
If the choice comes first, then all the years before the calling are preparation. That includes the years when a person knows nothing about it.
With this in view, God shapes the person He will use and arranges everything in his later life. God uses all that he goes through to prepare and train him for the calling God has for him. This happens even while the man is still unconverted and knows nothing of that calling.
The verse moves in three steps, and one writer traces them in order.
But to Jeremiah the Lord revealed more, "Before you were born I consecrated you." Like the apostle Paul, Jeremiah was set apart from his mother's womb (see Gal. 1:4, Acts 9:15; 22:14). Then God spoke further to him, "I appointed you a prophet to the nations," and finally, "I will send you."
Jeremiah was a Jew and a priest, and most of his message lands on Jerusalem. Yet the last phrase of the verse reaches wider than Jerusalem.
"I appointed you," it is carefully added, "a prophet to the nations." Why to the nations? This special commission shows us something unusual about Jeremiah's service. We will see it confirmed again and again in this book. He was a Jew himself, and even a priest. The Jews in Jerusalem fill a huge place in his prophecy. Yet the nations hold a large place too.
God had already appointed Jeremiah before any human body could have a say. One writer presses that point, using this verse alongside Paul's account of his own calling.
These verses speak plainly of God Himself ordaining and appointing people to His service... God called and appointed Paul. Paul did not learn his ministry from the apostles who came before him. So how could they, or anyone else, ordain him? And why would he, or anyone else, need man's ordination and permission, when God, the highest authority, had already called him, appointed him, given him his gift, and taught him?
Jeremiah's immediate reaction to this word was to protest that he was only a child. The truth he was given did its real work later, under pressure.
At first Jeremiah felt he was only a child. Later it must have been a great support to him to remember that God knew him before he was born, set him apart, and made him a prophet — not only to Israel, but to the nations... Every servant of the Lord should have some sense of this, and a settled conviction that God knows us beforehand. This gives stability in trials and testing.
- Known — the verse starts with God knowing Jeremiah beforehand. Writers here link this to God's choice made before the world began. Why He chose is not told us.
- Chosen — God did not choose Jeremiah because of the situation he would face. He chose him long before it, and for it.
- Prepared — from that choice on, God shapes the person and arranges every part of his life, even the years he knows nothing about it.
- Sent — set apart, then appointed, then sent. The call comes straight from God, and no human body has to approve it.
- Steadied — a man who called himself a child later stood firm, because he knew God had known him first.
And I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.
God has just told Jeremiah He knew him before birth and appointed him a prophet to the nations. The young man's first answer is a protest, and it raises a question every called person asks: what if the job is far bigger than the person given it?
Jeremiah's first answer is fear about himself. One writer sets it beside Moses, who said much the same when God sent him to Egypt. (Older translations read "I am a child" here.)
Jeremiah expresses at once his fear. Like Moses (Exodus 4:10), he shows self-distrust. He was a child, not in the sense of a mere child, but a youth. The Greek Septuagint translates it, "I am too young." The Lord then encouraged him with the promise of His presence: "I am with you to deliver you."
This shrinking back was not a passing mood. It runs through the whole opening chapter.
Verses 6-8, 17, 18 show the great fearfulness of the prophet's spirit, which Jehovah had to strengthen in this way.
Commentators differ here. God corrects the objection, yet one writer treats the feeling behind it as exactly right, because the opposite attitude is more dangerous.
"Then I said, 'Ah, Lord GOD!... for I am only a youth.'" That is the right attitude in which to respond to God's call: a sense of complete inadequacy to answer it in oneself... There is nothing more to be dreaded in God's service than self-confidence. These are very testing matters. Some of us may have been ministering the word for many years. But if we rely on our past service or our own ability, we are bound to fail.
Jeremiah's temperament made the charge harder. God gave him a message of judgment to carry, and he was a man of tender feeling.
He was a prophet set apart for the nations. The people of God were about to lose their position as His set-apart people, and all were merged into one common ruin and exposure to divine judgment. A serious charge for one of Jeremiah's tender feelings, so open to grief and pity! But he must deliver it.
God's reply does not argue that Jeremiah is more capable than he thinks. It shifts the whole matter off the messenger.
This unusual commission brings out Jeremiah's timid spirit. Jehovah's answer is, "Do not say, 'I am only a youth.'" That was not the question at all. The question was who was sending him. If a king chooses a man by his own wisdom to be his servant and ambassador, what matters to others is not who the ambassador is, but what power sends him. Those who despise are not despising the man, but despising the authority that appointed him.
Jeremiah is not the only servant who answered a call this way.
Jeremiah is still young, and this God-given mission frightens him. He protests meekly, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth." Moses, when much older, made the same objection when the Lord sent him into Egypt (Ex. 4:10). Amos reminds us that he was not the son of a prophet nor a prophet himself, but a simple and poor shepherd. God, however, had taken him while he was tending the flock, and had said to him, "Go, prophesy to my people Israel" (Amos 7:14-15). Timothy also was young and timid, but the apostle still wanted him along (Acts 16:3).
The same writer turns the verse on the reader, and notes how an excuse repeated long enough becomes a life.
Isn't it true that we make similar objections? Sometimes we feel too young or too ignorant to pray in the presence of others... The years go by. We still feel too young or not good enough, so we stay silent — until middle age arrives, and then old age!
The cure for Jeremiah's fear was not a change in Jeremiah, but a sight of the One who sent him and words that were not his own.
There is no need to fear the face of man when one has seen the face of God. The weakest is as the mighty when he has the words of God on his lips. Let us remember this in these days, and not faint because of our feebleness. The Lord will let none of His words fall to the ground, though spoken by faltering lips.
- Objection. Jeremiah's "I am only a youth" is self-distrust — the same reaction Moses had when God sent him to Egypt.
- Attitude. A sense of complete inadequacy is the right way to meet God's call. In God's service, nothing is more dangerous than self-confidence.
- Correction. God does not argue about the weakness. He moves the question from who the messenger is to who sends him. To despise the ambassador is to despise the authority behind him.
- Company. Moses, Amos and Timothy all felt the same disqualification, and God used every one of them.
- Cure. God's presence and God's words in the mouth end the fear. No one needs to fear the face of man when he has seen the face of God.
But Jehovah said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for thou shalt go to whomsoever I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
Jeremiah has just pleaded his age: he is too young to speak. God overrules that objection instead of soothing it, and the two commands He gives rest on His own authority, not on Jeremiah's fitness.
Jeremiah's excuse is about himself. God's answer moves the whole matter onto different ground.
This unusual commission brings out Jeremiah's timid spirit. "Then I said, 'Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.'" The Lord's answer is, "Do not say, 'I am only a youth.'" This was not at all the question, but who was sending him. If a royal authority chooses a man by its own wisdom to be its servant and ambassador, it does not matter to others who the ambassador is. What matters is the power that sends him. Those who despise him are not despising the man. They are despising the authority that appointed him. Jeremiah was meant to feel that the Lord was calling him to this office.
The word Jeremiah uses does not mean a baby. It means a young man with no experience. He is not the first servant of God to plead it, and the Septuagint — the old Greek translation of the Old Testament — makes that plain.
Jeremiah expresses his fear at once. Like Moses (Exodus 4:10), he shows self-distrust. He was but a child, not in the sense of a mere child, but a youth. The Septuagint translates it, "I am too young."
Jeremiah's sense of weakness was the right starting point. The danger sits at the opposite end.
"Then I said, 'Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.'" That is the right attitude in which to respond to God's call — a sense of complete inadequacy to answer it in oneself... In God's service there is nothing more to fear than self-confidence. These are very testing matters. Some of us may have been ministering the word for many years. But if we rely on our past service or our own ability, we are bound to fail.
The verse gives two plain commands. God then adds the promise that makes both possible.
As for Jeremiah, the Lord deals with him in his time of weakness. He gives him words of encouragement and words of promise. First He gives him the definite order, "You shall go" (Jer. 1:7). He had spoken in the same way to Gideon, who thought he was the least in his father's house: "Go in this might of yours" (Judg. 6:14). God says further to Jeremiah, "Whatever I command you, you shall speak." Then, calming his mind still further, He says, "I am with you to deliver you."
"Whatever I command you" is a limit as well as a duty. Keeping to it also guarded Jeremiah from being shamed in public.
There was a way in which he could have been put to shame before the people. The way to avoid it was simply to "speak to them everything that I command you." If we bring our own thoughts into ministry, we must not be surprised at failure. But if we minister God's own word in the power of the Spirit, He will stand by His own word.
The plea is not only Jeremiah's.
Isn't it true that we make similar objections? Sometimes we feel too young or too ignorant to pray in the presence of others... The years go by and we still feel too young or perhaps too inadequate, and we remain silent until middle age and finally old age arrives!
Yet the commission itself is not reserved for famous names.
Divine principles never alter... Men like the apostle Paul have no exact copies. They had their own particular place. But the features that marked them must mark us today too, in a smaller measure. Whatever the service is, small or great, the Lord commissions us for the work He gives us as fully as He commissioned Jeremiah.
- Sender. The question was never who Jeremiah was. It was whose authority stood behind him. To despise the messenger is to despise the One who appointed him.
- Youth. The word means "too young," not "infant" — the same self-distrust Moses showed, and the right instinct to bring to a call.
- Go. The first order answers the fear: "You shall go" — the same word that sent Gideon out in the strength he thought he lacked.
- Speak. The second order sends him and limits him. God stands by His own word; our own thoughts mixed in end in failure.
- Still. You can plead youth or weakness until you are old. But the Lord commissions every servant, in small work or great, as fully as He commissioned Jeremiah.