Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and I will shew thee great and hidden things, which thou knowest not.
Jeremiah is in prison, enemy armies have closed in around Jerusalem, and the word that reaches him is not a plan of escape but an invitation to ask. What are these "great and hidden things," and does the invitation still stand for anyone who prays?
An invitation from prison
The invitation lands at the worst possible moment. The first thing God shows is not comfort but the fall of the city.
Jeremiah is still in prison, as we learn from the first verse. The siege of Jerusalem is on. Then the Lord said, "Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known." What an offer and what an assurance! Then the Lord speaks of the great and mighty things, announcing first the overthrow of Jerusalem. The people are pulling down the houses of Jerusalem to use them in the defense against the siege mounds and the sword. There will be great slaughter.
(The older translation he works from reads "great and mighty things, which you know not.")
What God is willing to show
The revealed things do not stop at the siege. They run forward to a restoration that history has not yet matched.
The next great and mighty things revealed are the future blessings and glory. God promises health and healing, plenty of peace and truth, a full return from captivity for both Judah and Israel, cleansing from all their iniquity, and complete forgiveness. Remember that none of these promises has come true yet… The delay may be long, put off according to His eternal purposes. But at the appointed time these days will come.
Why ruin draws out the promise
The timing is not accidental. The lower the nation sinks, the fuller the promise becomes. And that promise goes past anything Israel had known before.
But when they are brought low — above all, when they lie in hopeless ruin before their enemies — the Lord at once gives them the assurance of blessing… He would build them up again in their land as at the beginning, and far beyond what they had at first. At that time the Lord did not cleanse them from all their iniquity, and He did not pardon their sins against Himself. Their sacrifices were a witness that good things were coming. But He had not yet freed them from the law, which for sinners could only bring condemnation and death.
Two ways of missing it
People have a habit of believing neither half of a message like this. The same writer sets that habit against what faith does with it.
Before the threatened evil or judgment comes from the hand of the Lord men do not believe it. They are always hoping for a deliverance where there is no deliverance, for peace where there is no peace. This is the first effect of unbelief — fighting against the Lord's correction. Then the correction comes, and they fall into despair. They think it is all over for the people, and that the Lord will never bless them again. Now faith, on the contrary, believes the judgment before it comes, but believes in the goodness of the Lord and that mercy shall rejoice against judgment.
Where the invitation leads
Read alongside the rest of the chapter, the call to pray is the doorway into everything that follows it.
In chapter 33 the Lord urges the heart to call to Him. He will show great things, too deep to work out, that they had never known. He will cleanse and pardon those who had sinned against Him. He will bring health and plenty of peace and truth to the city that was once wicked (vv. 1-8)… He will bless both houses together, Israel and Judah, and give them one heart and one way.
Praying like people who believe it
Commentators writing on prayer elsewhere describe the gap between what God is ready to do and what we actually ask for.
Oh! we have but little idea of what our God would do for us if we only honoured Him. Our thoughts are too narrow and our prayers too formal… So in every difficulty, let us honour the Lord by bringing Him into it. We can be sure He will give us full victory over it, whether it is great or small. His power can reach the greatest — His love will stoop to the smallest.
One of the things worth asking for is understanding of what God has already written.
Go to God in prayer for a key to unlock the mysteries of His word. It is not the plodding but the praying soul that will get this treasure of Scripture knowledge. God often hands a Christian a truth as an answer to prayer — a truth he had long hunted for in vain, with much labour and study.
Summary
- Prison. God's invitation came to a man locked up while enemy armies closed in. The worst circumstances shut no one out from asking.
- Call. God offers to answer and to tell what the hearer could never work out alone; the asking comes first, the showing follows.
- Judgment. The first "great things" shown were the city's fall — God tells the truth about ruin before He speaks of mercy.
- Cleansing. The promised blessing goes past any earlier return: full pardon, full cleansing, health, peace, and one heart for both Israel and Judah.
- Faith. Unbelief refuses the warning, then despairs when the blow lands. Faith takes both the judgment and the promise from the same hand, and prays with thoughts as large as God's offer.