Chosen One

If you are ever in a fight, and you discover that your opponent is an orphan boy, lost at sea, raised by pirates or wolves or something, is seeking his lost love… and maybe looks suspiciously like the long-lost King.

Just quit. Go home. They are obviously the hero destined for victory!

Unless you have an even more tragic backstory. Like you’re a double-orphan, and the prophecy of the ages mentions your initials or something.

This is a great board game, somewhat cooperative that the kids and I play. Basically your are trying to build the most interesting character, playing on all the tropes of “heroes journey” type stories.

The chosen one succeeds. The hero wins. That’s just how it works.

Or… that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Chosen One - Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:1–3 ESV

The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

We remember Josiah, the “great” king… but just not great enough to make up for the evils of his Grandfather, Manasseh.

We can see in the fact that there’s a string of Josiah’s kids inheriting… it isn’t going well for them. The years after Josiah’s death is filled with turmoil, because Babylon is coming.

But it’s okay, because here comes the origin story. Here comes the hero.

Jeremiah 1:4–10 ESV

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “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.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 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. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.” Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

There’s a lot of great birth stories… Jeremiah tops them with “womb” stories. Crafted in his mother’s womb, consecrated before birth, known by God even before being formed in the womb.

(Does that mean pre-existence of souls before conception, or was it before a certain stage of forming in the womb, or just God’s foreknowledge???? Not the point. God knew Jeremiah.)

Jeremiah means “Exalted in the Lord”. He is of the priestly line, so he is prophet and priest… he’s got credentials!

And God gives him words of encouragement, of coming victory:

Jeremiah 1:17–19 ESV

But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.”

Sweet! That’s a guaranteed victory, right there. If God is for you, who can be against you? How do you expect that to work out? You may not know exactly how the hero is going to win, but you know it’s coming.

Babylon is threatening, it is growing in power… but here comes Jeremiah. He is warning everyone, he is speaking the truth. And it isn’t hopeless, God is giving real options here, conditional prophecies based on their choices.

Jeremiah 7:5–7 ESV

“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

Stop the idolatry. Start practicing “justice and righteousness” or “love” to the hurt and needy among you. He has a whole chapter on keeping the Sabbath, which is also an act of grace and freedom to the oppressed.

Repent and there can be victory.

And they have to listen… because Jeremiah is the hero. Right? Right?

Spoilers. No. In fact Jeremiah gets just wrecked over and over again.

Jeremiah 20:1–2 ESV

Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord.

Sounds like he’s winning? Maybe Jeremiah is still confident of victory. We get his thoughts on the matter:

Jeremiah 20:7–18 ESV

O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my close friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.” But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause. Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers. Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you,” making him very glad. Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great. Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?

Roller coaster of emotion there. God is with me!!! But also… I wish I was never born! Courage and despair hand in hand.

Maybe the next king will listen?

Jeremiah 36:1–3 ESV

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

His scribe Baruch reads the scroll in the temple and in the “hearing of all the people.”

Jeremiah 36:20–23 ESV

So they went into the court to the king, having put the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the secretary, and they reported all the words to the king. Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the secretary. And Jehudi read it to the king and all the officials who stood beside the king. It was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him. As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot.

Maybe he next King, King Zedekiah? Accuses Jeremiah of joining the Chaldeans, beats him, throws him in a dungeon then...

Jeremiah 38:6 ESV

So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

Now… Jeremiah doesn’t die there. Some people rescue him and hide him. And then Jeremiah has to watch the worst come to pass.

Conquered

Jeremiah 39:1–10 ESV

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it. In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate: Nergal-sar-ezer of Samgar, Nebu-sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, with all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon. When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled, going out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and they went toward the Arabah. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, at Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he passed sentence on him. The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. The Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the people who remained. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

Soon after they burn the temple… and so ends “Solomon’s Temple”, they burn all the houses of Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar spares Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesies against fleeing to Egypt… but the remaining remnant of Judah flee to Egypt anyway… and forcefully take Jeremiah with them… and he dies there.

He’s got something to teach about mourning, about suffering, about Lamentations. In fact, we’ll spend some time on that in the coming weeks.

Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. Not because of what happens to him, or not just because of that… but because he is heart broken for the coming, and then the actual destruction of the people.

In every way we would count “victory” or “success”, Jeremiah - the Chosen One, he loses.

And even the most famous passage in all Jeremiah. The bumper sticker one. Anyone know it?

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

That is in a letter from Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon saying “get comfortable in your exile, God’s going to keep you there for a few generations.” For 70 years!

Not how I would have told the story of “Jeremiah, the Chosen One.” Not the happy ending anyone, including Jeremiah, was hoping and praying for… and really expecting giving the auspicious start.

Trouble

What did Jesus, the ultimate Chosen One, say?

John 16:33 ESV

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

God doesn’t define success by your standards. And thank God.

And He doesn’t see the finish line were you see the finish line.

Our timeline is short, our horizon is half a mile away, our patience gives out in months or weeks, not decades or centuries or millennia. We are terrible at being God.

And yet, in our hearts we criticize God and question His plans constantly!

This can’t be right, it’s taking too long!

That must have been a mistake, it isn’t working. It looks like failure, feels like failure. If Jeremiah was basing his ministry on results, he would have quit a LONG time ago.

And yet, again and again, Jeremiah is faithful. “Thus says the LORD.”

He recognizes the voice of God, the will of God, and he is faithful to hear from God and say what He says. That is faithfulness.

Be Faithful. That is Victory.

And no matter what any other appearance may tell you… that is victory.

It isn’t the way Jeremiah probably would have defined victory.

But look at him, one of the most famous prophets and poets of all time. Because He was faithful.

Why is this important?

When you have trouble in your marriage.

It is easy to sit back and think “I’ve made a huge mistake.” It isn’t supposed to be like this. Clearly this wasn’t God’s will for my life.

When you have trouble in your church, with the “chosen people of God...”

When you feel God to that job… and it ends in disaster. You got fired.

When you sit back and look at the ministry God has called you to and see nothing but failure and devastation.

Now, this isn’t “failure and devastation” as we look around… but it isn’t

We are terrible at defining or recognizing victory.

God usually has a different “win” condition than what we are expecting.

So we define “faithfulness” as “success.”

Was Jeremiah “successful?” Absolutely. He was faithful start to finish. His words are preserved for millennia, one of the most famous prophets and poets of ALL TIME!

When you struggle to love your enemy… you don’t measure “success” by whether they repent, or they become your friend, or anything like that. Be faithful to obey God’s command. Be faithful to love. That is victory.

When you struggle to love your spouse. When they have become your enemy. “Success” is not whether it gets better or easier. I hope it does, I pray it does, it often does. But be faithful to God’s command to love and serve, to submit yourselves to each other. Be faithful to love. That is victory.

When you feel like you are walking in failure in school, in your work, in your neighborhood… the question is never Is It Working? That isn’t how it works in God’s economy. You may never know if it’s working, sometimes we see the fruit and sometimes we don’t. The question is not “is it working” but “is this where God has and is calling me?”

You were formed in your mother’s womb. If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God, who can and will direct your steps and empower your ministry. Be faithful. That is victory.

When you witness boldly to what Jesus has done, what Jesus is doing… it isn’t about whether that stranger, that Uber driver, that neighbor falls to their knees in that moment and prays with you. I mean, yeah, awesome! But some sow and some tend and some harvest, and all the glory is God’s. For your part: be faithful to share when and where He has called and commanded you. Be faithful: that is victory.

It wasn’t all emptiness and sorrow for Jeremiah. God gave him a vision of the ultimate victory to come:

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:13 ESV

Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

He will turn our mourning into dancing. Our trials are temporary. Our tribulations shall pass. The day is coming. Be faithful: that is victory!

Related Media

Related Sermons