Summary: Jeremiah 1:1-12

Opening: why we need Jeremiah

The teacher begins with the previous Sunday’s sermon on incurvatus in se, a phrase attributed to Augustine and used by Luther, meaning “curved in on oneself.” Human nature since Adam and Eve bends inward, so we see everything through our own agenda. Luther said we even use God to get what we want for ourselves. This ties to Jeremiah’s claim that the heart is crooked and inscrutable, and to the Hebrew word avah (crookedness). Last week’s repeated refrain in Jeremiah (“you follow the dictates of your own heart”) shows this. The hope is the new covenant (Jeremiah 31), fulfilled at Pentecost, when believers receive the Spirit and the ability to live outward in love and service. The teacher also points to two resources: a Hebrew word study on tom (integrity) posted on the church website, and Craig Groeschel’s book Hope in the Dark. The point of the word study is that God never lowers his standard of righteousness.

Background on Jeremiah

• He was a priest’s son from Anathoth, a small town a few miles northeast of Jerusalem, and was probably born around 645 BC.
• He was called in 627 BC, in the 13th year of King Josiah, the last good king of Judah, and prophesied for about 40 years. The book has 52 chapters and is not in chronological order, so a study Bible helps.
• He is a “type of Christ.” He stood alone, was mocked and persecuted by his own people, was rejected by his hometown, and did not marry.
• He is called the “weeping prophet” because his heart was aligned with God’s and he grieved over the coming judgment.
• Timeline: Babylon defeats Assyria in 612. The first exiles, including Daniel, go to Babylon in 605. Ezekiel is in the second group. Jerusalem falls in 587. The 70 years of exile end under Cyrus, followed by Ezra and Nehemiah. Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah prophesied in the same period.

Key points from the passage

1. God initiates. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and he did not seek it out. God knew and consecrated him before birth.
2. True prophets feel inadequate. Jeremiah, a teenager, says “I’m only a youth,” as Moses and Isaiah did. God answers “but,” in the same way Ephesians 2 turns on “but God.” He tells Jeremiah not to say it, and says “go” and “speak.”
3. “I am with you to deliver you” does not mean no suffering. God promises to rescue Jeremiah, not to spare him opposition. The teacher compares Paul in 2 Timothy 3 and Jesus in John 15.
4. The touch on the mouth. The Lord touched Jeremiah’s mouth, as with Isaiah (the burning coal, which removed his guilt) and Ezekiel (the scroll that was “sweet as honey”). The teacher suggests this personal touch is a step beyond the usual “I am with you” and explains their courage.
5. Six verbs of commission (v. 10).
   • Pluck up and break down: expose sin.
   • Destroy and overthrow: judgment.
   • Build and plant: restoration after exile.
   • This pattern mirrors the Christian life of putting off the old self and putting on the new, and of “plowing up fallow ground” in our thought habits.
6. “What do you see?” God asks Jeremiah (and Amos and Zechariah) to name what he sees before God interprets it. The teacher’s lesson is that we must first perceive and label reality accurately, which many people refuse to do, as with those who saw Jesus’s miracles and still called him a fraud. Jeremiah then stays quiet and lets God give the meaning.
7. The almond branch. The almond tree is the first to bloom in spring, as if “watching” for it. God says, “I am watching over my word to perform it.” Jeremiah’s job is only to speak, and trying to make God’s word happen ourselves is exhausting.

Closing application

God’s fulfilled prophecies (Isaiah 14, 42, 46; Jesus foretelling Judas’s betrayal in John 13; the road to Emmaus in Luke 24) are given to build our faith. If a teenage Jeremiah could stand firm, there is hope for us. The session ends with a prayer for practical application of the new covenant (“Christ in us, the hope of glory”).