12/9

Jeremiah 1:5,9-10

⁵"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

⁹Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

Archeologists have discovered extra-biblical evidence that Jeremiah and his scribe, Baruch, existed. Pottery shards have been discovered upon which someone complained that the prophet's message was demoralizing. Jeremiah was telling the nation to surrender to their captors because God had determined the nation must go into exile. During the battle for Jerusalem, Baruch's seal was buried and remained there until it was uncovered in this century.

In the introduction to Jeremiah, we read of the call of God upon his life. God had ordained him to be the prophet of doom before he was even formed in his mother's womb. What did God make you to be? The psalmist said that the days of our lives were ordained before our birth (Psalm 139:16), yet we have the freedom to choose. Are you walking in God's ordained plan for your life?

In Jeremiah's case God put His words into Jeremiah's mouth. His message was to foretell the fall and return of the nation of Judah. Because he had such a message of doom, he shed many tears and was called the weeping prophet. Though the nation rejected God's message, Jeremiah faithfully delivered it. It was a lonely job; and though he was tempted to refuse to do it, he was faithful to the end. What an example to us to live in God's call for us!

Consider: Let us be faithful to walk in all that God has called us to that we might have the testimony of being faithful to God.