Before I Formed You I Knew You
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah’s prophecy deals with one of the most tragic events in the life of God’s people. The Judeans have become carefree and careless. They continually indulged in gross shameless idolatry. They rejected the many warnings that their compatriot Jeremiah gave them about the impending disaster soon to break upon them. They repeatedly lied to the prophet and to God. Eventually, ruin came upon them as Nebuchadnezzar swept through the land like an invading locust horde (586 B.C.). The devastation that occurred was the promised disaster of God.
It is remarkable today how we refuse to attribute disasters upon the earth as from God. We just don’t believe that God could or would do such things, yet the evidence of Scripture over and over again is that this is precisely what God does. If God desires to get the attention of any nation, he can do so in any way that he pleases, yet we will not countenance such devastating behavior from God. This is because we believe that God loves the wicked as he loves his people, and this is simply a fallacy. It is a blatant denial of the fact that Scripture says that the “wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…” (Rom. 1:18). It is a blatant denial of the Scripture when it says that God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11). Psalm 11:5 states: “The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.”
If God loves his elect people before they were born, then what love does he have for the wicked? It surely cannot be the same, when he promises wrath upon them, both in the present and in the future. What would we say about Jeremiah, of whom God said that he knew Jeremiah before he was formed in the womb (vs. 5)? This surely is nothing less than foreknowledge. Foreknowledge is not merely an acquaintance of future things but is a deeply intimate relationship.
For those who object to such things, consider that if foreknowledge is simply future knowledge then God’s knowledge of the wicked is that they are not his, nor shall be, because they are not his people, and so in the end, we have the same result. But verse 5 is more than foreknowledge. It is also predestination and consecration. This is what Peter says to the diaspora in 1 Peter 1:1, 2: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” These scattered Christians are elect according to God’s foreknowledge, sanctified or consecrated by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus. God did not appoint Jeremiah (Jer.1:5) so that he might disobey him. No, he was appointed as a prophet and that was what he was.
When Jeremiah said that he was only a young person and, as such, not qualified ( vs. 6), God told Jeremiah: “But the LORD said to me, ‘Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak’” (vs. 7). Jeremiah’s consecration as a prophet hinges upon God’s choosing him before his birth in verse 5. God’s choice goes back beyond conception, and God’s ordination of Jeremiah as a prophet took place before he was born. The result of these activities by God is that Jeremiah is to be a prophet to the nations. He will not only speak to Judah, but also to the Gentile nations (25:15–38; 46:1–51:64). Jeremiah was to go only to those whom God sent him, and he was to say only what God told him. This is the true prophet. He obeys the call of God and the commission given to him, and he says nothing other than God’s Word (vv. 7, 9).
Jeremiah is such a wonderful and relevant book because the task God gave him was almost impossible to accomplish. He was to call Judah to a wholehearted commitment to God’s law as they faced disaster. It was a call to national repentance, let alone individual repentance. The Judeans were so corrupt after many years of compromise, they could hardly recognize truth at all. There was moral and social decay, in addition to spiritual decay. They were corrupt people. They were indifferent and rebellious. This was reminiscent of what God told Amos almost two hundred years previously: “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘when I will send a famine on the land–not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it’” (Amos 8:11, 12).
How do people come to have no desire for the Word of God? It is when they do not listen to what the Word says. They seek to change the Word to suit them or their situation. This is what the Charismatic or Word-Faith movement continually does. This is also what good Protestant Christians do at times. We make the Word say what it does not say. We do not believe that the God who has revealed himself could actually be that kind of God, so we adjust our view of God and use the Word to support what we desire. This is nothing but disaster theologically. Consider today whether the individual Christian in the pew of any so-called evangelical church really comprehends good sound doctrine. He does not. He operates solely on the good-feeling level. He wants motivation and self-improvement. This is not the Jesus of the Bible.
The fruit of all this is Pelagianism: man’s will is free. He can, therefore, choose good or evil apart from God. Pelagianism also denies original sin, which is why we are supposedly born good and thus free to choose. This is utter nonsense. The full-blown fruit of this is Arminianism and Semi-Pelagianism: two pillars of the modern church. Like Dagon’s temple could not stand before Samson, these two idolatrous positions can never stand against the sovereign purposes of God. Anyone who espouses these two positions is frankly, not reading Scripture plainly or biblically. It is simply a blatant assertion in the face of Scripture that the God who has revealed himself is actually not that God. Therefore, they make up their own god to suit their psychological and emotional state. I fear that today people regard this as a total fabrication or exaggeration, but it is not so. It is very serious, and the Christian Church will continue in its weakness until it returns to a sound biblical position.
The Judah of Jeremiah’s day had their religion. They were comfortable. They had their prophets and priests. But they did not believe the Word of the Lord. The phrase “thus says the Lord” occurs more than 400 times in Scripture. The same phrase occurs in Jeremiah 151 times. More than one-quarter of its occurrence is in Jeremiah. What is the point? The point is that God is speaking and his people better listen. Judah did not, and what Jeremiah foretold concerning them came true. It came true not because Jeremiah said it, but because God said it. Are we really reading and studying God’s Word? Are we immersing ourselves in it, or are we simply using it like some witchdoctor’s medicine? God has chosen his people to be holy and godly. Only the Spirit can transform us. Let us get rid of all this hocus-pocus feel-good theology and commit ourselves to solid biblical truth. Let us love to hear the Word of God lest we perish as in a famine. Let us worship God for his greatness and goodness to us.