The Bible Book

156

BEFORE I

FORMED YOU

IN THE WOMB

I KNEW YOU

JEREMIAH 1:5, THE PROPHET JEREMIAH

W

hen God declares

Jeremiah a prophet

He assigns him an

unenviable mission: Jeremiah

must make the people of Judah

repent for years of bad behavior.

Though faced with hatred and

adversity, the reluctant prophet

continues to discharge his task

and spread the word of God right

up until the end of his life.

Jeremiah is regarded, after

Isaiah, as the second major prophet

of the latter “writing” prophets

in Judaism (earlier figures, such

as Elijah, were “oral” prophets,

who did not record their words).

He is also known as the “Weeping

Prophet,” as his eponymous book,

written around 585 bce, with

the help of the scribe Baruch, is

deeply melancholic. The epithet

is apt, given the nature of the

prophet’s lifelong travails. Such

is the notoriety of Jeremiah’s

thankless struggles that to this

day an angry or miserable person

is often referred to as a “Jeremiah.”

IN BRIEF

PA S SAGE

Jeremiah 1–52

THEME

Predestination

SETTING

Around 626–570 bce

Jerusalem.

KEY FIGURES

Jeremiah Selected by God to

be a prophet “to the nations.”

Born in Anathoth, a few miles

north of Jerusalem, where his

father Hilkiah was a priest.

Hananiah A false prophet

preaching against Jeremiah.

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See also: Moses and the Burning Bush 66–69 ■ The Golden Calf 84–85 ■ Elijah and the Prophets of Baal 125 ■

The Fall of Jerusalem 128–31 ■ Rebuilding Jerusalem 133

God selected Jeremiah before

he was even born to exhort the

people of Judah to mend their

idolatrous and disrespectful ways.

He later tells Jeremiah He made

him a prophet “in the womb”

(Jeremiah 1:5). Despite an initial

reluctance to accept his role,

Jeremiah ultimately accepts that

his life’s work is predestined, and

faithfully follows God’s carefully

mapped plan throughout his life.

Called to God’s work

Jeremiah was born in Anathoth,

a small village 4 miles (6km) north

of Jerusalem, the son of Hilkiah, a

priest. His lineage can be traced

back to Moses, and there are

several parallels in the two men’s

lives. Just as Moses demurs when

God instructs him to lead the

Israelites out of Egypt, the young

Jeremiah makes excuses as to why

he is not fit to extract the repentance

of the people of Judah and fulfill the

mission that God has assigned to

him. He protests to God that he is

too young to take on such a role

and, like Moses, is not a sufficiently

good speaker to cope with such a

weighty task. In response, God

reassures Jeremiah, as He did

Moses, telling the prophet not to

fear, as He will support and rescue

him. The Lord then touches

Jeremiah’s mouth and says

to him, “I have put my words in

your mouth. See, today I appoint

you over nations and kingdoms to

uproot and tear down, to destroy

and overthrow, to build and to

plant” (1:9 –10).

A dangerous mission

Won over by God’s words, Jeremiah

prepares to try and reconvert the

errant sons and daughters of Judah.

He begins his ministry around

626 bce, in what was a tumultuous

period for the people of Israel.

The message was dire. God was

WISDOM AND PROPHETS

The desolation of Jeremiah is

captured with dramatic intensity in

Cry of prophet Jeremiah on the Ruins

of Jerusalem, painted in 1870 by the

Russian artist Ilya Yefimovich Repin.

Predestination

The theological concept of

"predestination" holds that

all events are willed and

predetermined by God. The

theory is aired in the Bible in

Jeremiah 1:5, Romans 8:29,

and Ephesians 1:5–14. The

“paradox of free will,” long a

subject of theological debate,

is the apparent incompatibility

between God’s omniscience

and the free will of a human

being. In the ways shown in the

Bible, predestination usually

amounts to a form of religious

calling on him to prophesy a

severe, cataclysmic event to

the people—the destruction of

their holy city Jerusalem by the

Babylonians. Jeremiah’s task was

to remind the people of their

covenant with God and to dissuade

them from breaking the laws

associated with it, despite any

opposition he faced. Of their many

crimes, the idolatrous worship of

the false god Baal represented a

particularly disturbing offense. ❯❯

determinism or predeterminism.

The dilemma that Christians

face is whether they are able to

freely make choices of their own

volition, as opposed to choices

that are predetermined by God.

Scholars have labored over the

question for centuries. The

general consensus is that not

all people live predestined lives

and therefore enjoy free will.

However, in Jeremiah’s case, he

had little choice in the path that

his life would take; the events

shaping his existence were

preordained by God when he

was in his mother’s womb.

Call to Me and

I will answer you

and tell you great and

unsearchable things

you do not know.

Jeremiah 33:3

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