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Preparing To Serve God – The Charge To Jeremiah

by Chris Simmons

God had work for Jeremiah to accomplish in delivering His message to the nation of Judah and there were a few things that were going to be necessary if he was going to be successful in his service to God. If we are going to be useful to God in His service (II Timothy 2:21) we would do well to learn the same lessons Jeremiah needed to learn.

The first lesson is: don’t make excuses. After being told that God had “appointed (him) a prophet to the nations,” Jeremiah reacted like Moses and offered two excuses to God as to why he shouldn’t be the one. First he said, “I do not know how to speak.” When told that he was to be the one to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses also questioned if he was the right man for the job (Exodus 3:11) and offered a similar excuse when he said in Exodus 4:10, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since Thou hast spoken to Thy servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” To both Jeremiah and Moses, God simply said, don’t make excuses. To Jeremiah He said in Jeremiah 1:3, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak.” To Moses he said in Exodus 4:11-12, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.” We also must learn to rely on God’s revealed word today to fulfill our responsibility to spread the gospel. Great skills as an orator are not required or even perhaps desired. Paul noted his reliance on the inspired message of God rather than his own talents and abilities in I Corinthians 2:1-5 when he said, “my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”

So what excuse will we offer to God for not following Jesus wherever He goes? In Luke 9:57-62, Jesus teaches us there is no acceptable excuse for “looking back.” The lesson of the context of Luke 14:15-24 is that there is no acceptable excuse for not serving God. Throughout the scriptures, people like Gideon (Judges 6:15), Esther (Esther 4:10-11) and others offer examples about the need to refrain from excuses in serving God. Our age (young or old), talents, abilities or any other fleshly factor are not to be used by Christians today for reasons for not actively serving God.

The second lesson is: gird up your loins – that is, get focused and get ready to go to work. God said to Jeremiah in 1:17, “Now, gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all which I command you.” The call was to simply get ready to go to work. Get ready for action and the work or task at hand. “When a man was ready to work, he put a belt around his waist; then he tucked up his robe so his legs would not be hindered. This is the meaning of ‘girded up his loins’ (I Kings 18:46). To ‘gird up the loins of your mind’ (I Peter 1:13) means to prepare for strenuous mental activity” (Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary). Jeremiah was urged to mentally get ready to go to work and we also have to be ready to “gird your minds for action, (and) keep sober in spirit…” (I Peter 1:13). We need to have a “mind to work” like those in Nehemiah’s day (Nehemiah 4:6) and be committed to “always abounding in the work of the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58). To “gird up your loins” is to exhibit a level of maturity about the task before us even as the Lord directed Job to “gird up your loins like a man” (Job 38:3). It’s time for us to get serious about the work God needs done and eliminate those things that will slow us down in our effort to run the race set before us (Hebrews 12:1).

The third lesson is: don’t be dismayed and be realistic about the challenges ahead of us and have the courage to overcome. Jeremiah 1:17 continues, “Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them.” The word “dismayed” means “literally, to break, and so to break down with fear or shame” (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary). Jeremiah was urged to not be ashamed or afraid of those who would vigorously oppose him. We need courage today as we must stand fast against the “spiritual forces of wickedness” (Ephesians 6:12) just as Joshua needed to be reminded to “be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:6, 7, 9). With courage and conviction, we simply need to go do what God said can be done (cf. Deuteronomy 1:21)!

Finally, the last lesson is to simply have faith. The Lord stated to Jeremiah in 1:19, “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you.” We have a formidable adversary who most certainly will fight against us (I Peter 5:8). John states in I John 4:4, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” Do we believe that? Do we have the faith we need to trust in the promise that God will be with us? Just as Joshua was promised, “I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you,” so also the promise is extended to us in Hebrews 13:5-6 if we remain faithful to Him.

How can we prepare to serve God? Don’t make excuses, gird up our loins and have a mind to work, have courage and have faith.

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