Say Not, I Am a Child

2013-09-07

When Jeremiah was called into the ministry, he apparently was very young, since he refers to himself as a child (Jeremiah 1:5). Growing up in a priestly family (1:1), he would likely have extensive knowledge of the things of God.

Jeremiah’s ministry apparently was spread out a bit. The Word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign, which would have been a time of spiritual blessing. The way the context reads, it appears that this is the only year of Josiah’s reign he received the Word of the LORD. However, the Word of the LORD returned again to Jeremiah beginning in Jehoiakim’s reign to the days of Zedekiah and Jerusalem’s demise. These were times of spiritual famine, and these were times that Jeremiah received much persecution.

God tells Jeremiah in 1:5 that he was the one to ordain him as a prophet from the womb. In Jeremiah 1:7, it is God who sends him, and God is the one to give him the words to speak (Jeremiah 1:7, 9). God set him over the nations and kingdoms (Jeremiah 1:10), and God is the one who delivers him (Jeremiah 1:8).

How much more so for us? Let us consider the famous triad of verses, Ephesians 2:8-10:

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

We are saved by grace through faith, and neither intrinsic goodness nor explicit good actions bought us from the fires of hell; God single-handedly wrought this great salvation. However, we were ordained for good works upon being created in Christ Jesus. Being created in Christ Jesus is not being born, but being born again. Notice the order here: we do not do good works to be saved; we get saved to do good works. Say not, I am a child! On a higher plane than Jeremiah, we were fore-ordained to walk in specific good works that God has prepared for us to do, and we will do them... because God has ordained them.