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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Steven Conway

The Call

Tonight I want to talk with you or begin to talk with you about Jeremiah.

But before we get in, let's have an added word of prayer.

Loving Father, we are thankful for the privilege to be alive, and we ask that the Holy Spirit would be with us in this place, that he would take the things that he has placed in my heart and in my mind and convey them to those who are here tonight.

Thank you for hearing and answering this prayer in advance for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, just for you all who may not know, I live in Michigan.

I am married, going on about 13, 14 years, 1 of those.

And we have, my wife and I have 4 children, and we have been in Michigan for the past, we've been in Michigan for the past 7 or 8 years, something like that.

And actually I was in New York and in New Jersey over there.

And prior to that, I was in Tennessee and everywhere else.

So I'm thankful to be here with you all again.

And I want to share something that I've been studying with you all, and it comes from the life of Jeremiah.

And I'm going to start from Jeremiah chapter 1.

Jeremiah is an interesting prophet because Jeremiah, Jeremiah was called at a young age, as we'll see.

Not only was Jeremiah called at a young age, but Jeremiah is unique because the Bible doesn't only give us Jeremiah's prophecies.

It doesn't only tell us the word of the Lord came to him and he shared it with someone.

It doesn't only give us the people's response to what Jeremiah prophesied, But the Bible also gives us intimate details into the man Jeremiah himself, which means that we know more about Jeremiah than we do about any other prophet in the scriptures.

That is about Jeremiah's mindset, his attitude, his emotions.

When Jeremiah's words are rejected, Jeremiah's response, the rejection of his message is also recorded in scripture.

So we have a unique picture of the man Jeremiah.

Let's start with Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 1.

The Bible says, the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign.

A few details which are actually quite powerful.

The Bible says that Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah and Hilkiah was a what?

Hilkiah was a priest, which means that Jeremiah was also a, he was also a priest.

Now, the Bible says that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the days of which king?

In the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign.

Now, If you study the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, you'll find out a lot of interesting things.

1 of the things that interests me about Josiah is that Josiah's reign fell in the midst of wicked reigns.

In other words, his father Ammon was not a good king.

And yet the Bible says that Josiah was a good king and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.

Unfortunately, it didn't spill over and Josiah's sons didn't follow in the footsteps of their father.

But the Bible says Jeremiah's call to the prophetic ministry came in the days of Josiah and it came in the 13th year of his reign.

Now 5 years later, which would be the 18th year of the reign of Josiah, something momentous took place in Judah.

If you know anything about King Josiah, you know that he was a reformer.

He was 1 who wanted to uproot and get rid of idolatry completely out of the land of Judah.

1 of the other things that he wanted to do was to reopen the temple.

The temple had been closed temporarily And so Josiah went about restoring the temple, not only its physical, the physical structure, but actually the worship of God was restored as well.

But in the 18th year of the reign of Josiah, the Bible tells us that the book of the law was found.

Specifically, it was the first 5 books of the Bible, specifically perhaps Deuteronomy, more than anything else was the 1 that was recovered.

So in the 18th year of Josiah's reign, the book of the law is found and there is a great revival that takes place in Judah.

In fact, the Bible says that there was a Passover that was kept, the likes of which had not been kept since the days of Solomon.

In fact, not only that, but King Josiah, after having read the law, his first response was that he read his clothes and he wept in sackcloth and ashes.

He sent his counselors to go to the prophetess to to prophetess holder to see what God's Judgment was going to be on his people but after all of that Josiah has the book of the law read in the presence of all of the people of Judah.

And after this law is read, Josiah stands along with all of the people, and they commit themselves to following in the ways of the Lord.

Now, what does this have to do with Jeremiah?

Jeremiah was called to be a prophet at a time when it was good to be called to be a prophet.

There was a good and faithful king on the throne, 1 who wanted to follow the ways of the Lord, 1 who wanted to bring God's people back to the worship of the true God.

There was a revival and reformation that was taking place in Judah.

There was no better time to receive a call from God to the prophetic ministry.

But if you know the life of Josiah and if you know the life of Jeremiah, you'll know that times changed.

King Josiah died prematurely and Judah went back into idolatry.

Jeremiah's mission and ministry would be challenged in ways that they had not been challenged before.

Recently I was planning or preparing to give a presentation to a group of men and the subject was, or my subject was, biblical masculinity or maleness.

1 of the things I came across when I was preparing, when I was reading a particular piece of literature, it stated that there are 3 things that define a man.

Now, obviously there are more, but this book chose 3 things.

And, of course, this 1 was leaning more so not only towards hereditary things that we have received from our parents, but also our physical makeup.

Sociology, that is people's perception of who we are.

And thirdly, psychology, that is our own perception, what we think about ourselves.

Well, I was thinking of those things when I was considering the call of Jeremiah, because God's call to Jeremiah seems to transcend each 1 of these possible perspectives.

In Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 1, as we read the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, biologically Jeremiah was a Levite, the son of a priest, who was the son of a priest, etc., etc.

Jeremiah's career path was set, so to speak, basically from the tribe that he was a part of.

Because he was born into a particular tribe, it meant that his life path was laid before him.

And there wasn't really much that he could do about that.

Sociologically, everyone in Jeremiah's tribe thought that he was going to follow in the footsteps of his father.

And if you would have talked to anyone who had come from Judah or any of the other tribes.

They had been transplanted by the Assyrians at this time, but there were some remnants left.

If you had spoken to any of them and they knew what tribe Jeremiah was a part of, they would have told you that Jeremiah is going to be a priest.

But in Jeremiah chapter 1 Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 6.

Actually not in chapter 1 verse 6, but in Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 4, The Bible says, then the word of the Lord came unto me saying, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.

And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee.

And I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

In spite of what Jeremiah's hereditary lines said about him, God had called him to be and do something else.

In spite of the perspective that those around him had on his life, shall we say, what others thought Jeremiah should do, God had a very unique and special call on Jeremiah's life.

In fact, God's call even transcended what Jeremiah thought about himself.

In Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 6, Jeremiah's response now to God's call, then said, I, look, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.

Jeremiah was limited in terms of what he thought he could accomplish for God.

His perspective on his own life was limited.

Verse 7, but the Lord said unto me, do not say I am a child, for you will go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak." God's call transcends what we inherit from our parents.

God's call transcends what family and friends or the path that family and friends may have laid out for us.

God's call transcends what the people around us might think would be the best path for our lives.

And ultimately, God's call transcends what even you and I think we are capable of.

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