When Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, sent his military officials to demand King Hezekiah surrender, Hezekiah sent three officials to meet them, including Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator. During Josiah’s reign, Hilkiah was the high priest who found the Book of the Law. In the first verse of Jeremiah, he describes himself as son of Hilkiah, one of the priests from the town of Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. It is very likely that these mentions of “Hilkiah” refer to the same person, which would mean that Jeremiah was a member of an influential family.
Jeremiah started receiving messages from the Lord during the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah and received messages until the eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah, one of Josiah’s sons. It was at that time that the people of Jerusalem were taken away captive.
The Lord told Jeremiah that he knew him before he formed him in his mother’s womb, that he set Jeremiah apart before he was born and appointed him as a prophet to the nations. We don’t know how old Jeremiah was when he first heard the Lord, but he must have been very young. Imagine: here was Jeremiah, a young man living in chaotic times, being told by the Lord that he was to speak God’s words to the people. He must have been frightened by this, because the Lord told him not to be afraid of the people, that he would protect him.
What do you suppose it felt like when the Lord touched Jeremiah’s mouth? Jeremiah was appointed to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Jeremiah’s mission is in Jeremiah 1: 17- “Go out and tell them everything I tell you to say.” Jeremiah didn’t have to decide what to say. The Lord God Almighty put his words in Jeremiah’s mouth. Imagine being told to stand against the whole land.
But we can be assured by the Lord, as Jeremiah was: “For I am with you, and I will take care of you.”
Jeremiah was told to go and shout the Lord’s message to Jerusalem – that the Lord had brought them out of Egypt and they had worshiped worthless idols. The people ignored the prophets God sent to them and abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water for cracked cisterns they dug themselves which wouldn’t hold water at all. Israel was carried into slavery because of sin. The Lord promised the same to Jerusalem. He invites the people to call on the gods they have made.
In chapter three, you can hear God’s broken heart because of Israel’s sin. His message is that “Only in the Lord our God will Israel ever find salvation.
Tomorrow, we’ll be reading Jeremiah 4 - 6.
Until next time…
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