Jeremiah 1:4-10 is the call of Jeremiah in 627 BC. The Assyrian Empire was weakening. In this year, Ashurbanipal died. It left a political vacuum in which Israel and its neighbors struggled for dominance and survival. Egypt, under Pharaoh Necho, sought a stronghold in Judah and the surrounding countries. The weakness of surrounding powers allowed Josiah to free Judah from the humiliating vassalage to Assyria. Emotions and hopes ran high as Josiah's religious reforms not only re-dedicated the country and people to a purified Yahwistic form of worship, but also renewed the sense of an independent identity for the entire nation.
The calling of Jeremiah is similar to that of Moses in that the Lord calls him into familiarity with God and the counsel of the Lord.[1] Like most Old Testament "call" narratives, Jeremiah's personal experience involves six steps. Reflecting upon the call of Jeremiah has led me to ponder the nature of the summons from the Lord that we may hear today. It has led me to ponder the summons of the Lord upon my life. I hope that in the process, it might lead the reader to ponder such matters as well.
First, 4 Now the word (davar) of the Lord came to me. He records a divine confrontation ‑‑ a personal one‑on‑one encounter with the Lord. We do not receive an indication of the form of this word. The phrase is one of the most common and well-known biblical expressions. The phrase occurs over 200 times in the Old Testament, especially in prophetic texts, with the bulk of those occurrences found in the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah. Although the expression covers a broad semantic range, in general it refers to the content of divine revelation, sometimes given to individuals (e.g., Abram, Genesis 15:1; Moses, Numbers 3:16; Samuel, I Samuel 15:10) and sometimes to groups (the king and his counselors, II Chronicles 30:12). The Hebrew word translated “word,” like its Greek counterpart logos, has a much broader semantic range than its ordinary English translation, and may mean (in addition to a simple spoken word) “report,” “thing,” “matter,” “affair” or “business.” In the theological context the set phrase “word of the Lord” usually refers to direct revelation to an individual, either through audition (as in the case of Jeremiah) or vision (as in the cases of Abram and Samuel and, later, Jeremiah), and the expression usually contains the idea of specific command-instruction or prediction (e.g., Jeremiah 19:3). It may also have, especially in wisdom contexts, the broader meaning of the divine will, plan, or design (e.g., Psalm 33:6). In certain situations, especially situations of prophetic conflict, the expression can vouchsafe prophetic authenticity (e.g., Jeremiah 27:18 and Ezekiel 13:2, where the “word of the Lord” is contrasted with those who prophesy “out of their own imagination”; see also Zechariah 11:11). An author may direct the expression not only to Israel, its customary object, but also to neighboring nations (e.g., Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 25:3). One of the characteristics of the word of the Lord is that, as here, one utters such a word to a particular historical context. One of the consequences of that interaction is that the word can function positively as something to be desired and (sometimes unsuccessfully) sought after (e.g., I Samuel 3:1; Amos 8:12) or negatively as a word of judgment (e.g., Exodus 9:20 and many instances).
This word came, saying, second, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,[2] and before you were born I consecrated (qadash, made holy, sanctified, set apart) you. Jeremiah receives an introductory word that points to his dependence on the Lord. This suggests that he would have to abandon himself if he were to abandon this task.[3] This view of the consecration is unusual, but Isaiah 49:1, where the Lord appointed him before he was born, is similar. The usual reference would be to set apart at birth, rather than before. Other prominent religious figures, such as the prophet Samuel (I Samuel 1:11) and the warrior-judge Samson (Judges 13:5; 16:17), were likewise set apart prior to their births for special divine service. The idea of being set apart for the particular task of serving the Lord, without regard to demonstrated qualifications, is probably rooted in the idea of the consecration of the firstborn as the Lord’s portion (Exodus 13:2, 12; 34:19), for which the temple service of the Levitical priests was later substituted (Numbers 3:12; 8:16). Before Jeremiah had even entered the arena of human interaction, the Lord had defined the role he would play. The creation of the individual human being, no less than the creation of the world (Genesis 1:1) or the nation of Israel (Genesis 12:2; Isaiah 44:2, 24) was understood in the Old Testament to be the direct result of God’s gracious will and action (see Job 1:2; 10:18; Psalm 139:13; Ecclesiastes 11:5). There is no notion in the Old Testament that existence is either accidental or a right. A related view of history likewise understood the historical vicissitudes of Israel’s existence to be functions of the divine will in both positive and negative circumstances. At the same time, there is no notion of the pre-existence of souls in the early and classical periods of the Old Testament, including this passage. Such a concept will appear in later Judaism, after its contact with Persian and Greek ideas, in the idea of the guf, the heavenly storehouse from which all embodied souls on earth descend. One might compare the roots of this idea the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon 8:19; the Slavonic Book of Enoch 23:5; the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch 30:2-3.[4] Jeremiah 18's famous Potter's House Parable makes use of the dual meaning of this verb by portraying God as the Potter with the power to "form" or to destroy his marred creation and begin again. Many other prophets also use this double meaning to describe humanity's dependence upon its creator (e.g. Isaiah 45). Yet, even as his vocation is holy, his sanctification by God assures his estrangement from the nation to whom he prophesied.
Third, I appointed (ntn, which can mean “to give.”) you a prophet to the nations.”[5] He records the divine confrontation, a personal encounter with the Lord. He has received a divine commission. The prophet explains his inability to do anything else but follow his call. The Lord "gives" his creation Jeremiah to the nations as prophet, but they do not accept this "gift" in the spirit the Lord intended. Thus, Jeremiah knew Yahweh had claimed his life, that he had been predestined for the prophetic life. Jeremiah is not on some "career track" like those false, politically motivated prophets who surround him. Jeremiah’s appointment as a prophet “to the nations” as well as to Israel reflects the theological understanding that Israel’s God was the God of all the nations of the earth and not simply Israel’s exclusive totem. As the servant of that universal deity, God gave Jeremiah a universal commission.
Fourth, 6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” Typical of call narratives is that the prophet thinks he lacks ability. On a factual basis, this argument is weak, for he is eighteen years old. Moses (Exodus 4:10-15) and Solomon (I Kings 3:7) both express reluctance. He tries to convince Yahweh that he is too young to undertake such an arduous career. However, one wonders if we might not have here an answer to the dominant question of philosophical anthropology: Who am I? The answer of the prophetic call narratives is that the answer arises out of a divine mission, charge, and appointment that transcends the bounds of the humanly possible. Confronted by his call, he recognizes what he is and was. Self-knowledge comes about when confronted by the mission and call of God, which demand impossibilities of humanity. It is knowledge of self, humanity, guilt, and the impossibility of oneown existence when confronted wit the possibilities demand by the divine mission. One attains knowledge of oneself by discovering the discrepancy between the divine mission and one’s own being, by learning what one is and what one is to be, yet what one cannot be in one’s own strength. The call becomes the prospect of a new ability to be. One learns who one is not from within oneself but from the future to which the divine mission leads one. We learn who we are only by the history to which the missionary hope leads one. In this history of missionary possibilities one recognizes that we are open to the future and therefore hope for new possibilities of being. This means our future is hidden from his in the present and will be revealed to us in the projects that open up to us as we fulfill the mission.[6] The prophet protests his unworthiness in a way that reminds one of Moses' response to his call (Exodus 4:10-15), and Solomon's prayer to God for guidance upon assuming the throne of David (I Kings 3:7). Moses protests his inability to speak with eloquence and Solomon begs for God's assistance because he is a mere "youth." It is a weak argument even if he had not made it to the Divine. At the time of his call (627), Jeremiah is approximately 18 years old - young, but according to the cultural standards, hardly a "boy." What is more, it is fitting that, at the time the religious reforms undertaken by the boy-king Josiah are restoring Yahweh's honor, the Word of the Lord should come to boy-prophet, Jeremiah. That Jeremiah feels himself inadequate to the task puts him in good company. From the days of Moses, those whom the Lord had genuinely designated as divine spokespersons had felt ill-equipped to serve - and often for better reasons than Jeremiah could muster.
7 Nevertheless, fifth, the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you (or "I am with you to come to your rescue"), says the Lord.” The Lord dismisses the objections and instead offers reassurance that divine power and presence are with Jeremiah. Yahweh utterly rejects Jeremiah's hesitancy and instead, goes on to recount how completely the Lord will use him. Some translations define Jeremiah's role as not so much a prophet as an errand boy - translating the divine words as "you will go on what errands I send you." The prophet would go where the Lord sent, and say what the Lord commanded. He need not fear anything or anyone, however, because the Lord would be present with him to protect him. He need not even worry about the content of his prophecies because the Lord would put the divine words directly into his mouth.
Sixth, 9 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. The Lord seals the call of this new prophet through a sign. There are other similarities here to other prophetic call stories. For example, the calls of Jeremiah, Isaiah and Ezekiel all have some special focus on the prophet's mouth as the instrument of divine speech. In Isaiah 6:5-7 a seraph takes a coal from the altar and touches the lips of the prophet to purify him. The incident in Jeremiah describes no such need for purification. Jeremiah's call is like Ezekiel's also (Ezekiel 2:1-3:15) in that Ezekiel is told not to fear (2:6), he is told that he will be delivering God's own words (2:7), and he too is instructed to use his mouth to eat God's words which are written on a scroll (2:8-3:1). In this way, he was to absorb God's words without making direct physical contact with the divine. In fact, this is one of the most significant differences among the three stories. Not only does this incident assume that Jeremiah is worthy to receive God's words (unlike Isaiah), Jeremiah survives the hand of God touching him! This is a level of intimacy that neither Isaiah nor Ezekiel would ever tolerate. The Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. The first message God gives to Jeremiah concludes this "call." In fact, verse10 provides, in condensed form, the basic thrust of Jeremiah's continuing message throughout his prophetic ministry. The infinitive clauses of verse 10 make it clear these are divine orders, not suggestions. With his prophetic words, Jeremiah is to pluck up, to break down, to destroy, to overthrow, to build and to plant. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Armies destroying a nation frequently pulled down, not only stones in fortification walls, but also trees to make barricades and weapons. Deuteronomy 20:19-20 forbids Israel to destroy food-bearing trees in times of war because that would do lasting damage to the land. Thus, to restore a land, after one has pulled it down and destroyed it, one must replant as well as rebuild. Jeremiah preached and prophesied during the tumultuous days between Assyrian and Babylonian dominance. It was a tragic, troubling time. However, from the outset, Jeremiah's prophetic message also contains kernels of hope. "To build" and "to plant" are constructive, new energy enterprises. Thus, while Jeremiah's primary role was as a pre‑exilic messenger, warning the people of the Babylonian exile to come, there remained at the heart of Jeremiah's words, seeds of hope and a vision of a future when "planting" and "building up" would once again be part of God's divine plan for the people. God's offer is to replant the nation that forms the hope of restoration woven throughout Jeremiah's otherwise grim book. Jeremiah knew the history of the prophets and the prophetic role in old Israel. He knew that when Yahweh called prophets to preach an unpopular word to powerful people, the results were not always rosy for the individual prophet. Yet, Jeremiah also knew the impressive record of triumphs that had accompanied those prophets who had remained faithful to Yahweh's word. The Lord outlines the content of the future of the prophecy of Jeremiah in terms that become a common theme throughout the book. Chapter 18:7-10 states that at any moment God may decide to "pluck up and break down and destroy" a disobedient kingdom, but he might just as easily decide to "build and plant" an obedient kingdom. In 24:6, God promises to bring obedient exiles back from Babylon and restore them ("build ... and ... plant them"). 31:27-28 promises that just as God has plucked up and broken down Israel and Judah, he will later build and plant them. In 42:9-10, God promises those few remaining in Judah that if they will stay he will build them up and not pull them down. The call of Jeremiah suggests both the irresistibility of the disaster coming and the dreadful nature of the task in proclaiming the will and act of the Lord.[7]
Time is finite for all of us. Listening to such a call and responding with Yes builds the virtues to which we would like people to testify at our funeral, in the manner that David Brooks (The Road to Character, 2015) writes. These virtues point the way to deep satisfaction of having lived our lives. Maybe, instead of wondering what will make us happy, we need to ponder a different question. Are we responding to a summons? Yes, our circumstances can be challenging, and we can hear the call of God in it.
Some of you might remember the 2004 movie Cellular, in which someone kidnaps a woman, but she manages to use a broken telephone to call for help and reaches a total stranger. She begs him for help, hoping he will not hang up. Well, the movie has many action sequences along the way, but eventually Ryan rescues Jessica. She thanks him and asks him if there is anything she can do to repay him. At that point, the two are attractive enough that you think a hint of romance is coming next. He responds, “Yes, don’t ever call me again.”
Receiving a call can be difficult. Most of us do not have circumstances as difficult as was the man in the movie. However, we have our difficult circumstances to face.
In Hamlet, the play by Shakespeare, Hamlet experiences hesitation in a challenging call.
The times are out of joint
oh cursed spite
that ever I was born to put them right.
Yet, out of such difficult circumstances, we may well experience a summons. In that case, we are no so much looking deep inside. We listen to the people and circumstances that are part of our lives. We respond to what we hear if we are attentive.
Reflecting upon such matters has led me to ponder the summons of God in my life. I was in college, wrestling with what I was to do with my life. I knew I enjoyed studying and learning. I felt the summons to expand my knowledge through reading and to share that knowledge with others. Yet, I was uncertain how I would fulfill the summons. At a church service, I felt the tug in my heart that God wanted me to devote myself to what in 1970 we called “full-time Christian service.” I steadily found myself wanting to focus my studies on the Bible and share what I learned. Within the church, we refer to this as a call. I have wrestled, however, with the nature of that call. I have wondered, for example, if my calling was to teach and that I might have found deeper satisfaction fulfilling the summons by teaching in a Christian school or Seminary. I may have made a mistake pursuing ordination in the Wesleyan Church and then in the United Methodist Church. If so, it would sadden me, of course. We have only one life to live. I will not get another chance to get it right. At the same time, if this were so, God has still used the summons to learn and teach to serve others. I am confident that I have become an important part of the life story of others due to the insights they have received. I can point to specific persons who have become an important part of my life story due to the obvious advances in learning they have made. My point is that even if I made an error in judgment, being a pastor has allowed me to fulfill the summons of God upon my life to learn and teach. I have done so through my preaching and especially in Bible study classes.
Some of us run away from the call. Generally, we do not want to hear such a summons. We want it only when we think we need it.[8] Running away will have harmful effects in the way we lead our lives. To run away from the call will also mean running away from that which will provide deep satisfaction in life. Some of us need to ponder the witness to our lives that we desire. What do want family and friends to say about us when we leave this earth and receive a new life with God?
Some of us need to cut through some misconceptions. Dan Cumberland[9] identifies three myths to avoid when trying to discern God's call. Myth 1 is that calling identifies itself with a job. Calling provides a direction that influences one’s entire life. You will express your calling in your job, but you will do so in other parts of your life as well. Myth 2 is that your calling is somewhere out there, so you just have to find it. The partial truth of this myth is that we will hear our calling from out there only if we are inwardly attentive to the people and circumstances of our lives. Our calling is in the still small and familiar voice. Myth 3 is that your calling is a place of obligation. Rather, your calling is a place of freedom. Your calling is life giving. Your calling is a place of joy.
The call that we hear may actually bring some difficulty into our lives. It may well push us to our limits and beyond. For that reason, we may well want to run away. Of course, calling moves us beyond a job and a sense of obligation. It moves us toward deep satisfaction, as we are attentive the people and circumstances of our lives, listening and responding at a deep level.
Frankly, reflecting upon calling a calling to which we respond should get us thinking about the end of life. To what do want people to testify about us? For what do we want those who love and care about to remember about us?
I trust that God knows what God is doing. Sometimes, God seems to value things in our world that human beings rarely value quite so highly. A prophet can complain about God calling him to a task too large in comparison to his youth. He does not like speaking in public. God calls a liberator to lead people out of Egypt, while he wonders if they will listen and reminds God that he has no speaking ability. The Hebrew people are such a small relatively insignificant group of people. The Jewish people today, although in every land, remain a small group scattered among the nations. God even uses a woman from Nazareth to bear Jesus, whom we would come to know as the Son of God. God does not seem to work great words of salvation through the great and mighty political and economic powers. Rather, God seems to delight in selecting the unexpected and often insignificant persons and groups to bring the good news of what God is doing in the world. That may be the reason why we need always to be open to surprising movements of God in the world. God may well surprise us, who expect God to work in one way, while God is actually moving in another direction.
Leadership begins in the mind of God, as gracious inclusion of humanity into the plan and purposes of God. Speaking of the people whom God calls to lead, they are almost universally, laughably, the wrong people. That is, God goes out of the way to pick those who, at least on the face of it, have no virtues or qualities that suggest they would be good leaders. Perhaps God likes a challenge. Maybe God, being a creator who makes something out of nothing, considers vocation a continuing aspect of creation. Any God who could make an introverted kid like Jeremiah into a really quite wonderfully prophetic leader must be some God. The qualities of “good leadership” are more gracious gifts of God that gratefully receives rather than skills, techniques, or knowledge one must developed. When the chips are down, all biblical leaders have for credentials is faith in the promise, “Go. I will be with you” (1:1). The issue we face is that we enjoy thinking of our lives as something we decide, a project we have chosen, a path we have conceived on our own. Specifically biblical leadership begins, not in our ambition to rule, or in realistic assessment of our talents, but rather in summons.
We fear loss of control. We have anxiety over what life is like to be accountable to someone other than ourselves. It is somewhat frightening to construe our lives in such a divine cast; to have our lives lived in constant reference to the purposes of God. A life tethered to the movements of God can be tough. However, it is also invigorating to receive the freedom and the dissonance of living the called life in a world where all too many people are answerable to nothing more than their own ill-formed desires. Sometimes the call comes early (Jeremiah felt it from his time in the womb. “Before you were born . . . from the womb” Jeremiah 1:5), sometimes it comes late as with Abraham and Sarai (Gen 17). Whenever the call comes, in saying yes to the summons, we yield to the adventure of a life free of the ideology of personal autonomy that so enslaves this culture. God owns us, using us for purposes greater than ourselves.
With this demanding, even frightening call comes a promise for young Jeremiah, an astounding promise: I will put you over kingdoms and nations; I will give you authority to pull down empires and make new kingdoms (v. 10). Note the absurdity of telling something like this to this kid! You shall be a prophet! You will speak truth to power. You will go up to the palace and bring this whole kingdom to its knees so that I might plant a new kingdom in its place. What absurd ambitions! Yet, have we not noted, this is an absurdly gracious God. This God thinks it is quite cool to call a kid to speak words that shake the whole world. This God derives enjoyment from making a claim on your life, and on my life, in the form of plans, a job, a task, and a purpose to fulfill. God wants to influence the world through you – through me.
David Brooks (The Road to Character, 2015) refers to two different classes of virtues we write in the course of our lives. One class is the resume virtues. The resume is the career-oriented, ambitious side of our nature. We want to conquer. We want to build, create, produce, and discover things. We have high status and win victories. This resume focuses upon the external matters. We are creative and savor our accomplishments. We want to venture forth into the world and away from home. Brooks will opine that resume virtues in our culture suggests that our accomplishments can provide a deep sense of satisfaction. However, the desires of the resume virtues are infinite. We will never find genuine happiness and satisfaction focusing upon them. The second class of virtues is funeral virtues. They are the virtues we hope people might highlight at our funeral. We want to obey a calling to serve the world. These are the inner virtues, the moral qualities we want to develop. We want more than to do well. We want to be good. We want to love intimately, to sacrifice self in the service of others, to live in obedience to some transcendent truth, to have a cohesive inner soul that honors creation and our possibilities. We might renounce worldly success and status for the sake of some sacred purpose. A primary question we answer in the funeral virtues is why we are here. We often want to return home, savor our roots, and savor the warmth of a family meal.
The art of living is learning to balance the building resume virtues as they confront the funeral virtues. Confrontation is the proper word, for the resume logic is utilitarian. Effort leads to reward. Practice makes perfect. Pursue self-interest. Maximize your utility. Impress the world. Cultivate your strengths. The funeral virtue is a moral logic. You have to give to receive, surrender to something outside yourself, and conquer your desire to get what you crave. Success can lead to pride. Failure can lead to great success. In order to fulfill yourself, forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself. Confront your weaknesses.
The art of living will involve cultivating humility, a “going down” before you can “rise up.” This concern for pride going before the fall is part of the journey. Yet, the journey does not mean they receive healing of their weaknesses. One can find a vocation or calling. One can commit to some long obedience and dedicate oneself to something that gives life its purpose.
In Chapter 2, Brooks refers to the importance of responding to a summons. He refers to the idea of discovering your passion, trusting feelings, and finding purpose. The assumption in such language is that the answer is inside of us. Therefore, the first step in the business plan of your life is to take an inventory of your gifts and passions, set your goals, and adopt a strategy to accomplish the goals. As William Ernest Henley put it in his poem “Invictus,”
I am the master of my fate
I am captain of my soul.
It appeals to our sense of individual autonomy and fascination with self. It answers the question, “What do I want from life?” In contrast, Brooks says, if we focus upon the funeral virtues, the question to which we respond is “What does life want from me? What are my circumstances calling me to do?” We respond to the summons of life. It begins with our embeddedness in a community of people, circumstances, and inter-relations. Frederick Buechner famously put it, “At what points do my talents and deep gladness meet the world’s deep need?” Viktor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning (1946), said that it did not matter what we expected from life, but what life expected from us. We need to stop asking about the meaning of life and instead think of ourselves as those of whom life asks questions. He concluded that life had given him a moral and intellectual assignment. Such a calling or vocation feels like the person has no choice in the matter. In reality, of course, any of us can run away. We will usually do so with dire results. If one pursues it, however, one’s life becomes unrecognizable without the calling.
God be in your head, and in your understanding.
God be in your eyes, and in your looking.
God be in your mouth, and in your speaking.
God be in your heart, and in your thinking.
God be in your end, and at your departing.[10]
Much food for thought (I know that is a cliché, but maybe a good phrase here). I need to chew on it for a while. I thought it might be good spiritual food for you as well.
Go now to pursue your calling.
Silence any noise that threatens to drown out God’s words of love and wisdom to you.
Listen for Christ’s teaching in the places and people around you.
Be prepared for the powerful movement of the Spirit, for it will sustain you, especially when God’s voice seems hard to hear. May God’s voice echo all around you, sharing words of challenge, bringing songs of peace. Alleluia!
Amen.
[1] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 203.
[2] The written Hebrew text of Jeremiah 1:5 has a different verb from the one that is traditionally read in the phrase "before I FORMED you." The Qere (or traditionally read text) reads "Before I FORMED you in the womb, I knew you." The Ketiv (or written text) reads "Before I SAW you, (even) in the womb, I knew you." In the Qere version, there is also creation imagery at work. The verb yatsar is often used to mean "create" as well as to "form" because of the way a potter creates a vessel out of clay by forming it with his or her hands. It first has this meaning, of course, in Genesis 2:7.
[3] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.3 [71.4] 581.
[4] Both of the latter in J. H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1 [New York: Doubleday, 1983] .
[5] The Greek version of this verse uses the singular term "nation" instead of "nations," implying that Jeremiah's prophecies were intended only for Israel. Verse 10, however, makes it clear that this is not what was originally meant.
[6]
[7] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.3 [71.4] 581..
[8] --Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God.
[9] --Dan Cumberland, "3 big myths about calling: Ideas to avoid when figuring out what to do with your life." Relevant, April 14, 2015. relevantmagazine.com. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
[10] -Sarum Liturgy, The United Methodist Book of Worship
(Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1992), 566.
Good, liked the personal observation. Think I share your feelings. I know when I discovered that God wanted me in foster care there was a real sense of freedom that has never left me.-Lynn Eastman
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