Jeremiah: Too Young to Speak?

A young man hears God call him. And his first answer is, I can’t. I don’t know how to speak. I’m too young. Nobody will listen to me.

His name is Jeremiah. He comes from a family of priests in Anathoth, a village a short walk north-east of Jerusalem, in the land of the tribe of Benjamin. The word of the Lord first comes to him in the thirteenth year of King Josiah. Josiah is a good king, but storm clouds are gathering over Judah. Jeremiah will go on speaking for God for about forty years, through the reigns of the last kings of Judah, right up to the day Jerusalem falls.

The word of the Lord comes to him. “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Before Jeremiah ever took a breath, God had a plan for him. But Jeremiah is not excited. He is scared. “Ah, Lord God!” he says. “Look, I don’t know how to speak. I’m only a child.”

“Do not say, I am only a child. You will go to everyone I send you to, and you will say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to rescue you.”

Then the Lord reaches out his hand and touches Jeremiah’s mouth. “See, I have put my words in your mouth. Today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah does not have to invent clever speeches. The words will be God’s. His job is to say them.

Then God shows him a picture. “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see a branch of an almond tree.” “You have seen well,” says the Lord, “for I am watching over my word to make it happen.” Then a second picture. “What do you see?” “I see a boiling pot, tipping over from the north.” God explains. Trouble will pour out from the north on everyone who lives in the land, because the people have left God behind and worshipped things their own hands have made.

“So get ready,” God says. “Stand up and tell them everything I command you. Do not be terrified of them.” And then a promise. “Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and walls of bronze, against the whole land, against its kings, its officials, its priests and its people. They will fight against you, but they will not win, for I am with you, says the Lord, to rescue you.” It was a promise Jeremiah would need. In the years ahead he would be mocked, beaten, locked up and thrown into a muddy pit. But he would not be abandoned.

The almond branch hides a play on words in Hebrew. The word for almond tree is shaqed. The word for watching is shoqed. They sound almost the same. The almond is also one of the first trees in the land to blossom, flowering at the end of winter while other trees still look bare. So it is a fitting picture of being awake and watchful. When Jeremiah looks at the almond, God says, in effect: I am wide awake, watching over my word.

Jeremiah’s call is told in Jeremiah chapter one. He felt too young and too small for the job. God did not tell him he was big enough. God told him, I am with you. So here is something to think about. What do you feel too young or too small to do, and how might it change things to know that God is with you?