Criswell Theological Review 5.1 (1990) 99-108
[Copyright © 1990 by
digitally prepared for use at
Gordon and
THE CALL OF JEREMIAH
RONALD YOUNGBLOOD
For every
true believer, the concept of a divine call should be abso-
lutely basic to his understanding of biblical
religion. The call of Abram
(Gen 12:1-3)
at the very beginning of the patriarchal history is the
seminal
event referred to by Stephen at the very beginning of his
speech to
the Sanhedrin in Acts 7. Adherents of all other religions are
asked to
reach out to God, but the Bible everywhere describes God as
reaching out
to us, searching for us, calling us. Elsewhere the direction
of the
call is from down upward, as people seek to touch God in their
own
strength and through their own devices, building towers of
in
uninvited attempts to storm the bastions of heaven. But in Scripture
the
direction of the call is from above downward, and that difference
alone is
enough to expose every man-made religion as being diametri-
cally opposed to biblical faith. F. Thompson
has depicted God figura-
tively as "The Hound of Heaven,"
pursuing us relentlessly" down the
nights and
down the days," "down the arches of the years" of our lives.l
Indeed, as
the hymnwriter puts it,
Jesus calls us; o'er the tumult
Of our life's wild, restless sea,
Day by day His sweet voice soundeth,
Saying, "Christian, follow Me."2
It hardly needs to be stressed that the imperatives of the divine
call
to any
life do not take place in an historical vacuum, and supremely is
this the
case when God calls a spokesman to perform a special task.
1 F.
Thompson, The Hound of Heaven (New York:
Dodd, Mead, 1922) 45.
2 C. F.
Alexander, "Jesus Calls Us," Worship and Service Hymnal (
1966) 407.
100 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
The call of
each OT prophet or deliverer, for example, occurred in a
particular
historical context that was usually precipitated by a national
crisis of
some sort. For Moses it was the Egyptian crisis, for Gideon it
was the Midianite crisis, and for Jeremiah it was the sickness unto
death
that was
destined to bring the southern
end.
The history of any nation furnishes examples of both good and
bad
rulers. Although most of
greater or
lesser degree, a few of them tried to be faithful to the God
whose law
their priests had been trained to teach and on whose behalf
their prophets
spoke. One such good ruler was Hezekiah. By governing
his
people for the most part wisely and well, he slowed down the decay
and
disintegration of the kingdom. But much of Hezekiah's work of
spiritual
renewal came to naught at his death, because he was suc-
ceeded by his reprobate son Manasseh--the most
evil king ever to
occupy the
throne of
The old saying, "Like father, like son," was not
applicable to
Manasseh. He
almost completely undid the religious reformation that
had been
carried out under his father's direction. He built altars to Baal,
made
altars for the worship of the starry hosts within the two courts of
the
temple, and sacrificed one of his sons as an offering to false gods.
Although
prophets warned him that he would be punished for his
terrible
sins, he paid no attention to them and continued to shed
innocent
blood throughout
somewhat, but
it was too little and too late: the seeds of evil worship
and
idolatry that he had sown would remain to plague
time of
the Babylonian exile.
I. Historical Context of
Jeremiah's Call (Jer 1:1-3)
About ten years before Manasseh's death, an important and fateful
event
occurred in the
spectacular
about it, and no one at the time could have recognized its
profound
significance for the nation as a whole. The event was the
birth of a
male child in the house of Hilkiah, one of the
priests of
Anathoth, a
little town located slightly more than an hour's walk north-
east of
3 The
modern
Age remains
at Ras el-Kharrubeh ("
southwest of Anata, make identification of Ras
el-Kharrubeh with the Biblical Anathoth
virtually
certain; cf. The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land (rev. ed.;
ed.
A. Negev;
Ronald Youngblood: THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 101
ordained by
God to become one of the two greatest prophets of
under the
Old Covenant, but of course at the time his father knew
nothing of
that. He decided to give his son the relatively common and
lackluster name
of Jeremiah.4
The early years of Jeremiah's life were crucial ones for
politically
speaking. Manasseh died in due course, and when after only
two
years of rule, Amon, Manasseh's son and successor,
was murdered
by
palace servants, the assassination must have left its mark on the
impressionable mind of the young Jeremiah.
With the accession of good King Josiah, however, the boy lived
out the
rest of his teenage years in a fair degree of peace and serenity.
But
A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts--5
and I
cannot help wondering whether Jeremiah was entirely pleased
with the
religious situation as he found it in his hometown. After all, his
father was
a priest of the Lord, which made Jeremiah a "PK," a
"priest's kid," the OT equivalent of the modern-day
"preacher's kid."
Jeremiah
turned out so well in later life that his father must have been
the kind
of man in whose vocabulary the word "discipline" loomed
large. Hilkiah doubtless taught his son the Ten Commandments, and
to
love the
Lord his God with all of his heart and mind and soul and
strength, and
to love his neighbor as himself, and not to walk in the
counsel of
the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of
mockers. The
stern and dignified and unyielding character of Jere-
miah's later life assures us, from the human
standpoint at the very least,
that his
father had learned the secret of disciplining him in love. Fond
memories of
those early years in his home must have strengthened
Jeremiah and
given him solace and comfort as he went about the
difficult task
that God commissioned him to perform.
And what was that task? Jeremiah was to be a spokesman for his
God.
Indeed, the divine call to prophesy may well have come
to him
while he
was viewing the bleak landscape and the rocky terrain sur-
rounding Anathoth on one of the frequent hikes that are part and
parcel
of any
youth's routine. Every time he heard or even thought about the
name of
his hometown Jeremiah must have shuddered inwardly, be-
cause Anathoth is the plural of Anath,
the name of the infamous West
4 At
least seven different OT men (cf. BDB 941), and perhaps as many as ten
(cf. B. T.
Dahlberg, IDB 822), bore the name.
5 H. W. Longfellow, "My Lost
Youth," American Poetry and Prose (3d ed.; ed.
N. Foerster;
102 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
Semitic
goddess well known from Canaanite poetry of an earlier period
as the
sister of Baal and ironically referred to in that poetry as "the
virgin."6
A parallel development is that of the city-name Ashtaroth,
the
plural of
the name of the equally infamous Babylonian goddess Ishtar,
known also
as the "Queen of Heaven" (Jer
ancient Near
East, cities were often named for a tutelary god or
goddess, and
such considerations caused Jeremiah, early in his ministry,
to
taunt
yourselves? Let
them come if they can save you when you are in
trouble! For
you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah" (Jer
and the
altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal
are as
many as the streets of
As a young man, Jeremiah had already seen many of the evil
results of
pagan worship, and he perhaps longed to do something-
anything--to
foster and further the worship of the God of his fathers.
But we can
be sure that he had no idea of the fearful responsibility that
the Lord
was about to place on his shoulders.
The date of Jeremiah's call coincided with the "thirteenth
year of
the
reign of Josiah" (1:2), which was 627 or 626 B.C.7
That, says Jere-
miah, was when "the word of the LORD
came" to him (1:2, 4; 25:3). He
later
wrote that the Lord "began speaking to (him) in the reign of
Josiah"
(36:2), and he dated an early divine oracle to him as occurring
"during the reign of King Josiah" (3:6). The year 626
B.C. would indeed
have
initiated a time of crisis for
became the
ruler of
aggressive
program of expansion that, under him and his son Nebu-
chadrezzar II, would lead not only to the
devastation of
612, the
obliteration of
605, but
also to the invasion and eventual destruction of
capital of
and/or
exile of its people, primarily in 597 and 586 B.C. The latter year,
the
"eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of
marked the
formal end of Jeremiah's prophesying in
giving him
a total ministry of about 40 years in that city.
6 Cf.,
J. C. de Moor, An Anthology of Religious Texts from Ugarit
(
1987) 7 n. 33; 114.
7
Although 627/626 B.C. as the date of Jeremiah's call is preferred by most com-
mentators (cf., e.g., H. H. Rowley, "The Early
Prophecies of Jeremiah in Their Setting,"
A Prophet to
the Nations: Essays in Jeremiah Studies [ed. L. G. Perdue and B. W. Kovacs;
survey see
L. G. Perdue, "Jeremiah in Modern Research: Approaches and Issues," A
Prophet to
the Nations 2-4; cf.
also J. P.Hyatt, "The Beginning of Jeremiah's
Prophecy,"
and C.
F. Whitley, "The Date of Jeremiah's Call," A Prophet to the Nations
63-87;
Ronald Youngblood: THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 103
II. Literary Context of Jeremiah's Call
A comparison of the literary structure of the account of
Jeremiah's
call with
those of the accounts of the calls of Moses and Gideon reveals
that
Jeremiah made extensive use of an outline that demonstrates his
firm
conviction that Moses and Gideon, men of calling akin to his, were
his
spiritual ancestors.8
Moses Gideon
Jeremiah
1. Divine
confrontation Exod 3:1-4a Judg
2.
Introductory word 3:4b-9
6:12b-13 1:5a
3.
Commission
4. Objection
5.
Reassurance 3:12a
It goes
without saying that similarity of literary genre in no way denies
the
actuality of the event described, its reality in space and time.9
III. Contents of Jeremiah's Call (Jer 1:5)
I like to think that, like his earlier kinsman Moses, Jeremiah re-
ceived his commission and made his commitment in
a quiet retreat, far
from the
hustle and bustle of the city. With Moses it was on "the far
side of
the desert," near the burning bush, at
Jeremiah it
was in a similar place. As far as we know, the appearance of
God to
Jeremiah was not nearly so spectacular as it had been
to Moses;
there was
no burning bush or other startling visible phenomenon. But
although
Jeremiah did not see or feel anything, at least not at first, he
heard the
voice of the Lord speaking to him (1:4). While it is evident
from
Scripture that people hear God when he speaks, and while it is
demonstrable that sometimes his voice is a sound audible to the human
ear (cf.
1 Sam 3:4-14),10 whether a word from God comes to us ex-
ternally or internally is usually of little
consequence. Reception of
divine
communication by means of an inward ear makes that com-
munication no less real. In any case we have no sure
way of knowing
exactly how
the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
Following the description of the divine confrontation (Jer 1:4),
which is
elegant in its simplicity, the introductory word and its
8 Cf.
N. Habel, "The Form and Significance of the Call
Narratives," ZAW 77 (1965)
297-309;
Habel and
9 Habel, "Form and
Significance" 305,317.
10 For
the possibility that the "prophetic call" of Samuel was in reality an
"auditory
message
dream theophany" see R. K. Gnuse,
The Dream Theophany of Samuel (Lanham:
University Press of
104 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
attendant
commission summarize the various elements of Jeremiah's
call.
Four verbs are employed, all of which have "I" (= God) as their
subject and
the suffixal "you" (= Jeremiah) as their
object.
1. Creation. God says that he "formed" Jeremiah
in the womb.
The verb
"form" is regularly used to describe the work of a craftsman,
especially of a
potter (cf. 18:1-6), and Gen 2:1 comes immediately to
mind:
"The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground
and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a
living
being." Creation by God was an element in the call of Jeremiah,
who was
thereby "predestined to the prophetic office even before he
was
born."11 In a sense, therefore, the verb "formed" is presupposed
by the
other three verbs and serves as the indispensable pedestal on
which they
stand. Though written for another purpose, the famous
words of
Augustine are appropriate here: "You, a Lord, have created
us for
yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."
2. Choice. God says that he "knew" Jeremiah. More
a reference
to
knowledge by experience (cf. Gen 4:1 MT) than to knowledge by
mere
acquaintance--that is, more a reference to heart knowledge than
to head
knowledge--the verb implies that God "knew" Jeremiah,
personally and
individually and intimately, even before Jeremiah was
formed in
the womb. Such knowledge is virtually the equivalent of
election or
choice, and it carries with it elements of redemption12 as
well (cf.
Gen
key
ingredient in covenant terminology in the ancient Near East:13 The
suzerain was
to "know" his vassal, and vice versa.
was
therefore the expected joyful and loving response to his knowing
them, and
this in turn had significant ramifications in the areas of social
justice (Jer
(Exod 33:12-13), and the like. It is thus ironic that Jeremiah's
instinctive
and
immature response to God's knowledge of him was that he did not
"know" how to speak (Jer 1:6).
3. Consecration. God says that he "set" Jeremiah
"apart." The
underlying
Hebrew root is usually translated "holy," as in Jer
2:3,
where
bloom of
youth, early in her history. OT call
narratives often use the
word
"holy": Moses was told to remove his sandals because the place
11 J.
Bright, "A Prophet's Lament and Its Answer: Jeremiah 15:10-21," A
Prophet to
the
Nations 329.
12 Habel, "Form and
Significance" 307.
13 H.
B. Huffmon, "The Treaty Background of Hebrew fdayA,"
BASOR 181 (February
1966) 31-37.
Ronald Youngblood: THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 105
where he
was standing was "holy ground" (Exod 3:5),
and Isaiah heard
seraphs
calling to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Al-
mighty"
(Isa 6:3). To approach God's presence, or to serve
him, one
must be
made holy, be consecrated, be set apart or sanctified by God
(Exod 19:14). Jeremiah was set apart in order that he might
be able to
prophesy to
people who, though once holy, were no longer so.
4. Commission. God says that he "appointed"
Jeremiah as a
prophet to
the nations. The underlying Hebrew root is usually trans-
lated "gave"; the meaning
"appointed" is a nuance subsumed under the
derived
sense of "put" or "placed." In Jeremiah's case, choice and
consecration were followed by commission, a special commission as a
prophet to
the nations (cf. chaps. 25; 46-51). Far from being restricted
to
merely provincial interests, Jeremiah's prophetic mission was to be
worldwide (in
the context of his time). Such a divine appointment
could not
but be expected to produce a reluctant response--indeed, a
negative
response--from Jeremiah.
IV. Jeremiah's Objection to His Call (Jer 1:6)
Even had Jeremiah been anxious to do his part, was not God
asking a
bit too much of him? How could he possibly be a prophet to
the
nations? What academic credentials could he produce that would
qualify him
for such a high position? What fame did he possess that
would
command the attention and respect of the nations? His objec-
tions--excuses, really--were two in number.
1. Timidity. "I do not know how to speak." Moses
at the burning
bush had
also given his lack of eloquence, his inability to articulate his
thoughts with
precision, as a reason that he hoped would be enough to
release him
from the responsibility of leading his people out of bon-
dage in
Moses in
this regard is at least as old as the 4th century A.D., when
Ambrose of
Milan wrote: "Moses and Jeremiah were called by the
Lord to
preach God's oracles to the people, as he enabled them by
grace to
do, but they pled timidity as an excuse."14 And,
in a sense, who
can
blame them? How could it be otherwise? Who is sufficient for such
things?
2. Youth. "I am only a child." Jeremiah may have
been in his late
teenage
years, or in his early twenties at best, when God called him.
Since wisdom
came with experience and age in the ancient world, how
14
Quoted in W. L. Holladay, "The Background of Jeremiah's
Self-Understanding.
Moses, Samuel, and Psalm 22," A Prophet to the Nations
314.
106 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
could God
expect Jeremiah, young as he was, to accept such a daunting
task?
Centuries later, how could Paul expect the young Timothy to "set
an
example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in
apurity" (1 Tim
"flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness,
faith, love, and
peace,
along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart"
(2 Tim
2:22)? Jeremiah would some day learn not to trust in or boast of
wisdom, or
strength, or riches, but rather to boast about his under-
standing and
knowledge of God and his will (Jer
his
response was characterized by the timid reluctance that is an all-
too-common
accompaniment of youthful immaturity.
V. Divine Reassurance to Jeremiah (Jer 1:7-9)
The Lord's words of reassurance to Jeremiah not only repeat in
essence the
content of the divine commission15 but also respond to his
twofold
objection. The section 1:7-9 is paralleled in some respects by
the
three verses that conclude the chapter (vv 17-19), and 1:7, 9 echo
Deut
miah's consciousness of being a prophet like
Moses.16 Each verse of
reassurance may
be treated in turn as a distinct unit.
1. Divine authority. To Jeremiah's objection that he is
"only a
child"
the Lord responds that he will give him the courage to go to
everyone he
is sent to, and to Jeremiah's objection that he does not
"know how to speak" the Lord responds that he will give
him the
ability to
say whatever he is commanded to (1:7). The phrase "say
whatever I
command" (cf. also
but also
of Exod 7:2,18 another classic text
concerning Moses as a
spokesman called
by God.
2. Divine presence. To Jeremiah's timidity the Lord
responds
with the
command not to fear as well as with the most comforting of all
promises:
"I am with you" (1:8). The latter phrase is repeated in
phenomenon
evident also in the call of Gideon (Judg
profoundly
important theological context, the account of the call of
Moses (Exod
of the
divine name, "I AM WHO I AM" (cf. also Judg
as the
great "I AM" does not intend by that name to teach us about his
15 Habel, "Form and
Significance" 301.
16 J. A.
Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah (NICOT;
1980) 148.
17 Habel, "Form and
Significance" 308.
18
19 Habel, "Form and
Significance" 319.
Ronald Youngblood: THE CALL OF JEREMIAH 107
ontological
existence but rather to assure us of his gracious and protect-
ing and permanent presence. As Immanuel,
"God With Us," he guaran-
tees that
he will never leave us or forsake us. Central in the three
sentences of
divine reassurance, the Immanuel theme is also a central
feature--some
would say the most central and noteworthy feature--of
Scripture as a whole. For example, Matthew begins his gospel by
presenting
Jesus Christ as "God with us" (Matt
by
recording Jesus' words: "I am with you always" (28:20). The Bible
itself
begins with God creating humankind for fellowship with him
(Gen
Lord Jesus be with God's people" (
Wesley on
his deathbed uttered in a clear, loud voice--more than
once--these
words that became a watchword of Methodism: "The best
of all
is, God is with us!"20
3. Divine touch. In a way analogous to the seraph's
touching the
sinful lips
of Isaiah (Isa 6:6-7), the Lord responds to
Jeremiah's pro-
fessed lack of speaking ability by symbolically
touching his mouth (Jer
1:9). The word "pat" is literally "given,"
found elsewhere only in Deut
one's
mouth.21 As God had "given" Jeremiah to be a prophet to the
nations
(1:5), so now he has "given" Jeremiah his own words in order to
help him
fulfill more adequately his divinely ordained mission.
VI. Conclusion
Jeremiah was appointed to be a "prophet" to the nations.
The
English word
"prophet" is a somewhat inadequate translation of the
Hebrew word xybinA, the passive participle of a verb best clarified in its
occurrences in Akkadian. There the verb nabu
means "to call," and in
the
prologue to his law code the Babylonian king Hammurapi
referred
to
himself as nibit Enlil,
"one called by the god Enlil."22 Similarly, a
"prophet" of the Lord is "one called" by God
to serve as a deputy, a
representative, an ambassador23 from the court of heaven--"one
called"
by God
to be a spokesman for God. He is a person who proclaims the
words that
God tells him (Jer 19:2). The prophet, as one who has
been
called, is
a man of vocation.
How can we apply to our own lives and experiences this under-
standing of
the role of the ancient Israelite prophet? We can learn to
20 C.
T. Winchester, The Life of John Wesley
(London: Macmillan, 1906) 263.
21
22 Cf. CAD 11/2203 for additional examples.
23 Habel, "Form and
Significance" 312, 318, 323.
108 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
pity the
man in the ministry today for whom that ministry is a pro-
fession rather than a vocation. We can learn to
pity the self-made
minister. It
is only God who can "give," who can "make," who can
"appoint" a minister. The initiative in making a prophet
rests with God,
and it
is only the false prophet who arrogates that title to himself. The
ministry is a
vocation, a calling; it is not a profession, something that a
man
himself chooses as he would a book from a shelf or a frozen dinner
from a
supermarket display case.
Miserable indeed must be the man who, without receiving a defi-
nite call from God, has willfully plunged
ahead into the ministry any-
how! I
am convinced that the weakness and spiritual lethargy that
characterizes far too many churches in these days is due at least
partially to
the fact that their pulpits are occupied by uncalled men;
men who
have usurped the divine prerogative and have placed them-
selves in
positions that they have no right to hold. In such cases the
voice of
authority is replaced by the voice of opinion; proclamation is
replaced by
discussion; the Word of God is replaced by the words of
men.
But miserable indeed must also be the man who, having received a
definite call
from God, has refused to obey that call! Jeremiah tried to
keep from
speaking forth God's word at one point in his career, but he
was
unable to keep it in because it was like a fire shut up in his bones
(Jer 20:9). Peter and John on one occasion said, "We
cannot help
speaking
about what we have seen and heard" (Acts
referred to
the inward compulsion that he felt: "Woe to me if I do not
preach the
gospel!" (1 Cor
He becomes
miserable when for one reason or other he is not engaged
in
fulfilling his divine vocation.
I feel confident, however, in affirming that there is no happier
man
on the
face of the earth than the man who, having been called by God
to be a
spokesman for God, has been obedient to the heavenly vision
and has
answered the call with a resounding "Here am I. Send me!"
(Isa 6:8). Such a man was the prophet Jeremiah; such was the
legacy
that had
come down to him. He had been created, chosen, consecrated,
and
commissioned by the Lord himself. His objections had been more
than
answered by a gracious God. And he would soon learn that the
best of
all is this: The Lord would be with him.
Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
Hallelujah! what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.24
24 J.
W, Chapman, "Our Great Saviour," Worship
and Service Hymnal, no. 121.
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