"...I am watching over my word to perform it." —Jeremiah 1:12
The ability to speak is God-like. We can think thoughts and speak them. People may listen to us and even change course if our words are persuasive. But even at their most convincing, our words are powerless compared to God’s. When God speaks, the world is created, stars fill the sky, planets appear, the universe is born (see Genesis 1). When God speaks, His will is accomplished. God’s words are powerful, effective, and generative. They make things happen precisely as He intends them to.
John Piper says about Jeremiah 1:12, “God doesn’t merely predict the future, he knows the future. And he knows the future ‘because he plans and performs it.’ And he plans and performs it through his word.” (Ask Pastor John, 41)
There’s a tendency in our culture to assume God is for us, meaning He wants our good as we define “good”: wealth, health, and happiness. But this is not what Scripture says. God is for our sanctification. He is for our rescue from sin, death, and hell. He is the refuge we must seek if we are to be saved. And for all who reject Him, for all who seek to save themselves, He will be for their destruction and eternal punishment. This too is part of God’s word that he is watching over to perform.
This is the point of Jeremiah 1. God is announcing to Jeremiah that he is appointed to speak words of coming judgment. They will not be easy words. We read that God “put out his hand and touched” Jeremiah’s mouth (v. 9) before He said,
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.” (9b, 10)
Judah’s leaders despised Jeremiah’s words of doom. They blamed him for the bad news he delivered and he suffered for it. But there was comfort for Jeremiah in knowing that God would perform His word. As long as Jeremiah was faithful to deliver God’s message, God said He would be with Jeremiah to deliver him:
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.” (vv. 17-19)
God performed His word to Jeremiah personally, and to the people of Judah corporately. He delivered Jeremiah even as He sent His people into exile. We dare not think God will watch over only the happy words of promise and overlook His promises of judgment. God is faithful to all His promises and He is patient, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
But He will not delay forever. Peter warns, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (v. 10). How should we then live? Peter continues, “according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. …You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:13, 17-18).
May we who belong to God in Christ take heart knowing that God will accomplish all His will for deliverance and for judgment, according to His word. Let us take shelter in, and grow in the grace and knowledge of, that Word—the One who became flesh and dwelt among us.
For Reflection
How does knowing that God knows, plans, and performs the future through His word change how you think about the latest headlines in the news?
Are you more likely to meditate on God’s promises of reward or judgment? Why are both necessary and encouraging?
Ask God to use His warnings to the people of Judah in Jeremiah’s day to motivate your evangelism in our day of widespread rebellion against God.
Candice Watters is a wife, homeschooling mom, and editor of the Fighter Verses blog. She and her husband Steve are the parents of four children ages 15-24, and co-authors of Start Your Family: Inspiration for Having Babies. They live in Louisville, KY.