HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1034
J EREMIA H 1
page 664
had no regard for God or moral issues. Though he was rejected by his contemporaries,
he is recognized today as a towering figure of great courage and faithfulness.
Whenever you are repeatedly criticized for speaking out for the truths of God’s Word,
when you feel like a failure because no one listens, when you feel as if no one cares that
you are a Christian, when people avoid you because you remind them that they are not
living by God’s standards, read Jeremiah. His persistence came, not from the flattery of
his contemporaries, but from the affirmation that he was doing what God wanted him
to do. If you are doing God’s work God’s way, then you can be confident that your efforts
are not in vain. Success in the world’s eyes has temporary benefits; success in God’s eyes
promises eternal rewards.
Key verses in Jeremiah
1:5 “I knew you before I formed
you in your mother’s womb. Before
you were born I set you apart and
appointed you as my prophet to
the nations.”
17:9 “The human heart is the
most deceitful of all things, and
desperately wicked. Who really
knows how bad it is?”
29:10 -11 “You will be in Babylon
for seventy years. But then I will
come and do for you all the good
things I have promised, and I will
bring you home again. For I know
the plans I have for you,” says the
9:24 “But those who wish to boast
Lord. “They are plans for good
should boast in this alone: that
and not for disaster, to give you a
they truly know me.”
future and a hope.”
3:12 “O Israel, my faithless
people, come home to me again,
for I am merciful. I will not be
angry with you forever.”
1
These are the words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests from the town of Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. 2 The Lord first
gave messages to Jeremiah during the thirteenth
year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon, king
of Judah.* 3 The Lord’s messages continued
throughout the reign of King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s
son, until the eleventh year of the reign of King
Zedekiah, another of Josiah’s sons. In August*
of that eleventh year the people of Jerusalem
were taken away as captives.
Jeremiah’s Call and First Visions
4 The Lord gave me this message:
5
“I knew you before I formed you in your
mother’s womb.
Before you were born I set you apart
and appointed you as my prophet to
the nations.”
6 “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for
you! I’m too young!”
7 The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’
for you must go wherever I send you and say
whatever I tell you. 8 And don’t be afraid of the
people, for I will be with you and will protect
you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” 9 Then the Lord
reached out and touched my mouth and said,
10
31: 31, 33 “The day is coming,”
says the Lord, “when I will
make a new covenant with
the people . . . I will put my
instructions deep within
them, and I will write them
on their hearts. I will be their
God, and they will be my
people.”
32:27 “I am the Lord, the
God of all the peoples of the
world. Is anything too hard
for me?”
“Look, I have put my words in your mouth!
Today I appoint you to stand up
against nations and kingdoms.
Some you must uproot and tear down,
destroy and overthrow.
Others you must build up
and plant.”
11 Then the Lord said to me, “Look, Jeremiah!
What do you see?”
And I replied, “I see a branch from an almond tree.”
12 And the Lord said, “That’s right, and it
means that I am watching,* and I will certainly
carry out all my plans.”
13 Then the Lord spoke to me again and
asked, “What do you see now?”
And I replied, “I see a pot of boiling water,
spilling from the north.”
14 “Yes,” the Lord said, “for terror from the
north will boil out on the people of this land.
15 Listen! I am calling the armies of the kingdoms
1:2 The thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign was 627 b.c.
1:3 Hebrew In the fifth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar
calendar. A number of events in Jeremiah can be crosschecked with dates in surviving Babylonian records and
related accurately to our modern calendar. The fifth month
in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign occurred within the
months of August and September 586 b.c. Also see 52:12
and the note there. 1:12 The Hebrew word for “watching”
(shoqed) sounds like the word for “almond tree” (shaqed).