Before I Formed You [Jeremiah 1:4]

TEACHING: Before I Formed You...

The prophet Jeremiah was active in Jerusalem during the tragic period of the city's destruction by the Babylonians, which occurred over several stages. Jeremiah prophesied during the reigns of various kings: beginning in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah (626 BCE), and then Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah, and during the brief rule of Gedaliah ben Ahikam, whose assassination in ca. 585 BCE marked the final end of the remaining Jewish community in Judah and Jerusalem and symbolized the conclusion of the First Temple period.

Jeremiah prophesied an ineluctable, unavertible disaster. He launched his prophetic mission in his native village of Anathoth, but was rejected by the villagers. Jeremiah castigated the people bitterly for forsaking God and the Torah and turning to idolatry. With a sense of the inevitability of a terrible punishment, he felt disgusted with his life. Gradually he became the leading exponent of the approach which called for surrender to Babylonian might and not attempting a rebellion against its awesome strength under the auspices of Egypt. This was considered a defeatist stance and as such was rejected both by the people and by the various kings during whose reigns Jeremiah uttered his prophecies. He himself rejected the idea that Jerusalem and the Temple had an almost magical inviolability. Viewed as a traitor, Jeremiah was declared an outlaw during the reign of Zedekiah and placed in detention until the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar. He saw the shattering of the last hope for the survivors of the carnage: the murder of Gedaliah, whom the Babylonians had appointed to rule over Judah. Although Jeremiah was saliently a prophet of apocalypse, he emphasized the temporary nature of the destruction and the consolation to be found in the certainty of the nation's return to its land.

Psalms 69 For the director of music. To [the tune of] "Lilies." Of David.

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. 3 I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God. 4 Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.

5 You know my folly, O God; my guilt is not hidden from you.

6 May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the LORD Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel. 7 For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. 8 I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons; 9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. 10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn; 11 when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me. 12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

13 But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. 14 Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. 15 Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me. 16 Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. 17 Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble. 18 Come near and rescue me; redeem me because of my foes.

19 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. 20 Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. 21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

22 May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap. 23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. 24 Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. 25 May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. 27 Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. 28 May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.

29 I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me.

30 I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. 31 This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. 32 The poor will see and be glad — you who seek God, may your hearts live! 33 The LORD hears the needy and does not despise his captive people.

34 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them, 35 for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it; 36 the children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.

GOD IS NOT A RESPECTER OF PERSONS

God does not show favoritism. Is there a difference between you and Jeremiah?

Rom 2:11 For God does not show favoritism.

Eph 6:9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Col 3:25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

James 2:9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

God cannot sin, therefore God cannot show favoritism. If God knew Jeremiah before he was formed in the womb, He also knew you. And because He knew you, you have a unique purpose in His created universe.

Acts 10:28 He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.

We are unique with a unique contribution to God’s universe – God will not waste His investment.

Jer 1:4-10 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

6 "Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

9 Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

CAN ONE BE KNOWN BEFORE BIRTH?

About John the Baptist:

Luke 1:15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

Job considers the equality of everyone JUST BECAUSE God formed them in the womb.

Job 31:13-15

13 "If I have denied justice to my menservants and maidservants

when they had a grievance against me,

14 what will I do when God confronts me?

What will I answer when called to account?

15 Did not he who made me in the womb make them?

Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?

Eccl 11:5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb ,

so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Isa 44:2 This is what the LORD says — he who made you, who formed you in the womb , and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

Isa 49:5-6 And now the LORD says — he who formed me in the womb to be his servant

to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD

and my God has been my strength — 6 he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

This should give a different understanding for anyone’s opinion about abortion. If God knows a person before birth – before they are even formed – who is a mother or a doctor to destroy that life that God grows? Who is a politician to declare "choice"? Have any of them asked the unborn? Are not all humans formed of equal worth in the eyes of God? But this is not only for the unborn, but for the adult Christian filled with apprehension, inferiority, and the lingering question of perceived value or worth in the Kingdom of God. You, too, were known by God before He formed you and you have equal worth to Jeremiah in God’s eyes.

Rephrase this to your specific ego and your own inferiority complex and feelings of inadequacy. Not even you are qualified to declare that you are so impure and unclean that God cannot use you. And Jeremiah was told, "Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’" And Jeremiah WAS a child.

BOOK OF LIFE

Are all our names of all people initially in the book of life? And then they are blotted out? And then written or grafted back in when they accept Jesus as their Redeemer? God knows everyone from before they are formed – and the Book of Life is from before they were formed. I was not traditionally taught that, but it seems that is what scripture is telling me.

Ps 69:22-28

22 May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap.

23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.

24 Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them.

25 May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents.

26 For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt.

27 Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation.

28 May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.

Phil 4:3 Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life .

Rev 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

Rev 13:8

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast-all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.

Rev 17:8 The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.

Rev 20:12-15 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life . The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life , he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Rev 21:26 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life .

What is at risk here? Not having your name written in the book of life. But what is really at risk? Having your name removed or blotted out of the book of life.

Revelation 17:8 indicates that the names of those who are going to be saved are written in the book of life from the creation of the world. This gives strong argument for predestination, however, if all the names are "predestined" to salvation, David’s talk about "blotting out" does not make sense. Neither does Revelation 3:5 make any sense. If you are in the book, how can you be blotted out of the book?

But there is one more symbol that should be considered: being grafted into the vine.

Rom 11:23-24 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

Dare I suggest that there is one more thing about that book of life – the Lamb’s book of life? If all names are written in it from the beginning of the universe – all 144 billion for instance – and the only one’s who don’t make it are the one’s whose names have been blotted out of the book, shouldn’t we be looking at what causes a person’s name to be blotted out?

Job with all of his troubles had his name in the book and I know that simply because of his confession.

Job 19:23-27

23 "Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll,

24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!

25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;

27 I myself will see him with my own eyes-I, and not another.

How my heart yearns within me!

"My Redeemer lives" and "I will be alive to see him." Those say the same thing as Paul says.

"Out of your mouth Jesus is Lord" and "believe that God has raised him from the dead."

What gets your "predestined" name blotted out of the Lamb’s Book of life? Psalm 69 gives a hint.

Ultimately, rejection of Jesus as your Redeemer and rejection of resurrection damns you. In the resurrection you will be judged for what you have done. Only your Redeemer, Jesus the LORD, can buy with His blood your record of sins. He can wipe your slate clean. Only Jesus with His blood can re-write your name into the book of life. Only He can put it back where it was before you rejected Him as Lord.

Scripture tells us that all have sinned. That means all have had their names removed from the book of life. All who are capable of sin have had their names removed. That is why I have no doubt that the aborted and infants or children who have died are with Jesus because their names have not been blotted out. They could not have rejected their Redeemer.

WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?

Jeremiah was known by God before he was conceived – before God formed him in the womb. God had a plan and purpose for him.

A popular book – a best selling book – suggests each of us needs to have a "Purpose Driven" Life. When we recognize that we each have a purpose in life, we should have a slightly different attitude about ourselves and about each other. But we struggle. We constantly wonder what the will of God is for our lives. And then we hear the guilt-filled sermons.

God has a purpose for you that only you can fill. And that purpose is not for just this life, but for all eternity. This is just a start.

Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you ," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you , plans to give you hope and a future.

I contend that not only does God have a purpose for each individual, but only that individual can complete that purpose. Whether in this life or the next, that spot can only be filled by that person. No wonder God is so angry with sin. Sin removes that specific thing God wanted done and it can’t be done by someone else.

The main spiritual job you have to do in this life is confess that Jesus is LORD and that God has raised Him from the dead. Job said it. "I know that MY REDEEMER lives and that I, with my own eyes, am going to see him." Quite honestly, everything else doesn’t matter. The name in the book does.

"But I can’t seem to find God’s will for my life." A common Christian whine. And Jeremiah did something similar with God.

Jer 1:6-8 "Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

God does not show favoritism. If God knew Jeremiah before he was formed in the womb, he knew you. He also knew the excuses you were going to make. He knew your inadequacies because he made them in the first place.

Ex 4:11-14 The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

13 But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

14 Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses...

And God will provide you with ALL you need to do His work. He did it to Jeremiah. How can you assume God who cannot have favorites will not do the same for you?

The problem with "I can’t" is first in the "I". God made you, therefore you can. He gave you what you need, to do what you are to do. But what is that? What am I to do for God? First, what ever it is, is exactly where you are right now, with all of your problems, all of your weaknesses and all of your feelings of inadequacy – it is doing what you are doing right now. How are you doing it? With what frame of mind? Are you doing it in sin and risking having your name blotted out again? Or are you doing it as unto the Lord?

Eph 6:5-8 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord , not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

Jeremiah was provided ALL that he needed. Quite honestly, it was a miserable life. But he did what he had to do with the power and authority of God. Each of us has that same promise from before God formed each of us in the womb.

Phil 4:12-13 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Paul means what he said. I CAN DO EVERYTHING. Does God show favoritism and exclude you?