Consider the Promises
Here we are. Part IV of this overview of Jeremiah’s call to prophetic ministry. We’ve looked at:
The Call(er): The God who calls
The Call(ing): The mission that God calls us to
The Call(ed): The imperfect people that God graciously calls
And in this post, we look at the promises of God to those He calls who obediently* respond to His calling. It’s pretty hard to determine how to feature God’s promises which are endless. I mean, how do I pick from the cornucopia of divine guarnatees to explore in a simple blog post? Eternity will not suffice to recall and declare God’s faithfulness to keeping His promised to both the redeemed and the damned.
So, in Letterman style, here are my three picks (no time for 10) on the promises of God to the called.
This call will not be easy, but…
you will be a fortified city
and salvation will be yours.
This call will not be easy… but
From chapter 1 through 52, Jeremiah’s call was not easy. God promised him this from the beginning.
In Jeremiah 1:19, God says, “They will fight against you…”. Unpopularity in the best case. Betrayal, hatred, and death threats in the worst case.
Early in the prophet’s ministry, his immediate family tired of his message and turned on him. Jeremiah cried out to the Lord as his troubles unfolded into lamentation. God responds to this complaint and even re-ups His promise by saying, ‘Trust me. You’ve not seen anything yet’. Jeremiah 12:5-6 says “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearing you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?”
So, application, believer? Expect that obedience will be met with resistance that comes from within and without. Resistance even comes from our very own thoughts and minds. But, this is part of the God’s promise. Christ renewed this promise to New Covenant believers in John 16:33. “I have said these things to you that you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world”.
The hardship is a guarantee, but so is the guarantee that in Christ, we will endure and overcome. That guarantee even comes with a warning. Do not fear the hardship or those who subject us to Gospel-provoked provocation. Look at verse 17 and ponder which demands rightful fear: temporary hardships OR the warning of an eternal God.
“But you, dress yourself for work; arise and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them”
2. you will be a fortified city
What a remarkable promise! God would make Jeremiah and all those who are obedient to the call like a fortified city. Historical context is vital to understand and appreciate this promise. Jerusalem was the capital city of the threatened nation of Judah. As its most prominent city and effectively among its last holdouts against the advancing Babylonia military machine. The walls were the last hope and greatest confidence of the people of Judah. The walls and fortifications represented all that they trusted in (that and the temple) and serve as icon of strength and trust. To understand the importance of this promise to Jeremiah, it’s worth looking at the way the LORD pokes at His disobedient people and the futile nature of their misplaced trust.
5:17 …your fortified cities in which you trust they shall beat down with the sword
8:14 Why do we sit still? Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities and perish there…
Jeremiah, in chapter 39, Nebuchadnezzar breached the city walls, and the Babylonians entered and destroyed the Jerusalem. It’s fair to say that the fortified city and misplaced trusts are a major historical and theological themes of this book. For that reason, it’s remarkable that God promised to make Jeremiah reinforced and undergirded by the faithful hand of God. Chapter 1 includes this promise and God recaps it expressly in chapter 15.
“And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; the will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the Lord.”
Application: Placing our trust in the Lord, we can be ensured we will endure the attacks and persevere unto the end. He will save and deliver. This brings us to the 3rd promise.
3. and salvation will be yours.
This salvation applied to Jeremiah in that he was spared from death when beaten, imprisoned, thrown into a cistern, opposed by false prophets, and relentlessly threatened. But there is a different sense in which salvation was preached through Jeremiah’s ministry. Jeremiah pointed to the salvation which was to be ultimately secured for him and all believers in Christ Jesus. The highpoint of the book of Jeremiah must certainly be chapter 31. The proclamation of the New Covenant. All of Scripture intersects with Jeremiah’s clear proclamation of God’s inspired Word. Hebrews contains the longest direct Old Testament quote, explaining the realized promise! Praise God that Jeremiah delivered the message of this New Covenant, believed it, and was saved by it. And believer, so must you. Believe the New Covenant. Be saved by the New Covenant. Deliver the message of the New Covenant.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”