Jeremiah 1:8

The Lord is giving instructions to Jeremiah in chapter one at the time when Jeremiah is a youth and God first calls Jeremiah to be a prophet. The Lord says in Jeremiah 1:8, “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.” This statement by the Lord tells us right away one of the things that is going to happen to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was going to have a lot of opposition to his preaching. One might think that if the Lord is going to call you to do a great work for Him, then there would be great results. But this is not always the case. Sometimes people oppose every word that you say. Sometimes instead of recognizing the truth of what you have to say, they are going to fight against you and reject your message. That does not mean that God does not want you to give the message. He still wants you to give it. It still brings glory to His name. All the things that you said when you gave God’s message will be used at the judgment to show these people how much God tried to help them, and to get them to repent.

From a human standpoint, Noah saw very few results in the preaching he did for a hundred years while he built the ark. No one in the community believed him except for his own family. Some of the cities that Jesus went to did not believe Him when He spoke to them. Jesus said in Matthew 11:15-24, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.”

To speak to people who oppose you and who resist you will take strength and will take courage. That is why the Lord said to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:8, “Be not afraid of their faces.” Just the expressions on the faces of those who would not listen would be enough to cause fear. But Jeremiah was fore-warned of what would happen. And Jeremiah was given a promise from the Lord. The Lord promised, “I am with thee to deliver thee.” How do you conquer fear? Have faith in the promises of God, and you will be strengthened against one of your greatest enemies: fear.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 1:9-10, “Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:9 reminds us of the doctrine of inspiration. We have the Bible as God’s Word. We call the Bible God’s Word because every word came from God. That is why the Bible is different from every other book in the world. The words of every other book came from human beings, but the words of the Bible came from God. God used certain human beings to record His Word. As it says in Second Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” It also says in Second Peter 1:21, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

A couple of very interesting truths are given to us in Jeremiah 1:10. Jeremiah is told that God has put him “over the nations and over the kingdoms.” That is a very powerful statement. The person who preaches God’s message with God’s power has great power over any nation because God is in control, and Almighty God uses His Word to accomplish His will. Do not underestimate the power of the Word of God when it is preached. God spoke and the worlds were created. The course of nations can be changed by the message that God gives one preacher. A good example of that was Moses and the word of God that Moses spake in Egypt. When Moses gave God’s Word, things happened that affected the entire nation of Egypt and Pharaoh himself.

The other truth to notice about Jeremiah 1:10 has to do with what it says about God’s ultimate purpose. Of course, God is the creator. That is why it says about Jesus in John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” Because Jesus is the Creator, He is the life-giver. His tendency is to build things up and make them better. He made the worlds out of nothing. He took nothing and made something. If God is the One who creates, and builds up, and makes better, then why did God say to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:10 that God had called Jeremiah “to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down?” To find the answer to that question, we must simply read the rest of Jeremiah 1:10 that says, “to build, and to plant.” In other words the ultimate purpose is to build and to plant, but in order to get there, some tearing down has to take place first. Before you re-model your kitchen, you must do the demolition phase. Sometimes a potter discovers that the vessel he has been working on has too many flaws, and he crushes the clay back down into a ball and starts over. That is what God does sometimes. That certainly is what He did to the nation of Israel. The Lord is going to fulfill the promise that He made to Abraham concerning Israel becoming a great nation, but Israel had to be laid waste and taken into captivity in foreign lands before they would be ready for God’s ultimate purpose for them. The same principle will come into effect for the entire earth in the last days. It says in Second Peter 3:10-13, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 1:11-15, “Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north. Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.” In this passage of scripture the Lord is telling Jeremiah what is going to happen to Jerusalem, and the message is not a happy message. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Jeremiah saw two things to illustrate this. He saw “a rod of an almond tree.” In the Bible a rod is symbolic of punishment. The true message to Israel from God was this: punishment is coming, so you better get ready for it. That was not a message that Israel wanted to hear. They wanted to hear that things were going to get better. They did not want the truth. There are a lot of people today who do not want the truth either. That is one of the reasons that people listen to false teachers. It says in Second Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

In addition to seeing “a rod of an almond tree” in Jeremiah 1:13 we are told that Jeremiah saw “a seething pot.” The image of the seething pot signifies things boiling up from the pot that are ugly and undesirable. If you have a pot, you want good and edible things to come out of it. If that does not happen, then things are terribly wrong. What would happen to Israel was that instead of being in peace and security, armies would come against them from the north. That is why it says about the pot, “the face thereof is toward the north.” One important point to notice about the armies that will come against Israel is that God says in Jeremiah 1:15, “I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come.” The armies will be a confederacy of the entire world against Israel. This verse seems to go beyond the destruction that Babylon would bring, and tells what will happen in the last days. Israel did ultimately survive the type of destruction that Babylon brought, but the destruction of the last days will come to the point of their total destruction, except that Jesus suddenly returns to save them.

The Lord said to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:16-19, “And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.” Most people who preach hope that their words will have some good effect on at least some of the listeners. That is normal to hope for and to want. But if you are called of the Lord, you might just be called to a situation like that of Jeremiah. Because you may not see many results in the people, what you will need is great strength, and great faith knowing that the Lord has sent you. It will be a labor of faithfulness to the Lord. You will need to remember the promise that the Lord made to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:19, “And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.”

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