Jeremiah’s Commission From God

Jeremiah was accorded a very rare honor even among the biblical prophets. The Creator declared to him: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you (set you apart); I ordained you a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5). This prophet was commissioned from his mother’s womb for his sacred task.

Please note that his prophetic commission is plural in nature. His brief is "to the nations"—not just to the one nation of Judah alone. Verse 10 mentions nations and kingdoms (both plural). Jeremiah’s overall mission was "to build and to plant" as well as "to destroy and to throw down."

His prophetic commission began with Judah and Jerusalem (Jeremiah 2:1-2), but was extended to "all the families of the house of Israel" (verse 4). (To understand the full extent of Jeremiah’s sacred task among the 12 tribes of Israel and its modern implications, please request our free brochure The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy.)

Two scriptures written by Luke (author of the Gospel account and the book of Acts) in the New Testament reveal the broad extent of Jeremiah’s divine commission. In the Olivet Prophecy, Jesus Christ specifically stated: "For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written (the Old Testament prophecies) may be fulfilled" (Luke 21:22). Horrendous events are predicted to occur during the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. World conditions would get so bad that only Christ’s direct intervention will assure human survival (see Matthew 24:21-22).

However, other biblical prophecies show that an undreamed world of peace and prosperity will follow Christ’s second coming to this earth. In the early Church the apostle Peter exhorted his audience to "repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration (restitution, KJV) of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:19-21).

So Bible prophecy is twofold in nature. It certainly promises punishment for transgressions of divine law. But it also encourages mankind by promising a golden age of peace, prosperity and plenty following in the wake of global repentance occasioned by Christ’s second coming. Jeremiah (the longest book in the Bible) contains many prophecies of punishment for national sins, but also crucial prophetic promises of a new covenant and a utopian age that will come upon and overtake humankind.—WNP

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