“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Yahweh Created Everyone for a Purpose
One: Yahweh told Jeremiah why He created him.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1: 5)
Yahweh didn’t ask Jeremiah to serve. He told Jeremiah to serve and explained that He had created Jeremiah for a purpose. To consecrate someone means to set him apart specific assignment.
Yahweh knew Jeremiah before his father’s sperm touched his mother’s egg, and He set Jeremiah apart “as a prophet to the nations”. Jeremiah didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was a done deal before Jeremiah was conceived.
Yahweh knew every one of us before He formed us in the womb. Yahweh sets apart all of His people for a specific purpose.
Two: Jeremiah hesitated and made excuses.
Then I said, “Oh, Adonai Yahweh! Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.” (Jeremiah 1: 6)
Three: Yahweh reprimanded Jeremiah and gave him instructions.
“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to save you,” declares Yahweh. Then Yahweh stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and Yahweh said to me, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1: 7-10)
Yahweh commanded Jeremiah not to be afraid of the people to whom he would deliver Yahweh’s message, and He added,
“For I am with you to save you.”
Jeremiah’s message was not about happiness, peace, wealth, and prosperity. It was about death, misery, destruction, exile, and captivity.
Jeremiah was not a popular guy in Judea for that reason. He came under unrelenting attack immediately when he delivered Yahweh’s message, but everything Yahweh told Jeremiah to say came about exactly the way Jeremiah presented it.
Four: Yahweh reassures Jeremiah and repeats His warning.
And the word of Yahweh came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.” Then Yahweh said to me, “Out of the north the evil will be unleashed on all the inhabitants of the land. For, behold, I am calling all the families of the kingdoms of the north,” declares Yahweh; “and they will come and place, each one of them, his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls around, and against all the cities of Judah. And I will pronounce My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, since they have abandoned Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. Now, belt your garment around your waist and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I will make you dismayed before them. Now behold, I have made you today like a fortified city and like a pillar of iron and walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its leaders, to its priests, and to the people of the land. And they will fight against you but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to save you,” declares Yahweh. (Jeremiah 1: 13-19)
Yahweh warned Jeremiah again that he was not to be afraid: “Do not be dismayed before them, or I will make you dismayed before them.”
That statement could have been translated like this:
“Do not be terrified before them, or I will shatter you before them.”
I think that is how it should have been translated. The point being that Jeremiah was to tell people exactly what Yahweh said without fear or hesitation. The consequence for not doing it was catastrophic.
Five: Yahweh created everyone for a purpose.
No one can resist Yahweh. Jonah tried and failed. Eventually, Jonah relented.
Yahweh created each one of us for a purpose, and we will fulfill our destiny. Fulfilling our destiny is not up to us. It’s up to Yahweh. Our job is to do what Yahweh tells us to do without fear.
Remember what Yahweh told Jeremiah:
“For I am with you to save you.”
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
