_Jeremiah's Call._
Josiah and Jeremiah passed through the first great and vital
experience of their lives together and the friendship between these
two lads was thereby knit as closely as was that of David and
Jonathan.
From the very beginning of Josiah's mounting the throne of Judah, this
friendship promised even to outrival that of the king's great ancestor
and Saul's son. Every day Hilkiah had to bring Jeremiah to the palace,
because the young king was not permitted to leave Jerusalem and go to
Anathoth.
One of the very first official acts of the king was to make Ebed-melech
a freedman; but the young Ethiopian chose to remain at the palace in
Jerusalem, to be at the right hand of his master, even to put the young
king to bed, for many years after he was crowned, as he had done the
baby prince.
This friendship of Josiah and Jeremiah had an unlooked-for effect upon
the former; for, though teachers in all the subjects that pertained to
the education of the young king were appointed, Hilkiah, the high
priest, practically became the young monarch's guardian and father.
In fact, the older Josiah grew the more he understood the love of
Hilkiah for him and the heroic act he had performed in saving him on
that terrible night of the conspiracy.
So it happened that while the boy king was instructed by special
tutors in the laws and intricacies of government, his religious and
moral training came under the influence of Hilkiah. This meant that
the moral qualities that make for manhood and character, and the
principles of religious belief that were developed in Josiah, were
identical with those that Hilkiah taught his own son.
At the suggestion of Hilkiah, a cousin of the young king, named
Zephaniah, a member of the Prophetic Party and follower of the
teachings of Isaiah, was appointed Josiah's religious instructor. The
king, therefore, grew up in total ignorance of the idolatrous
religious beliefs and practices introduced by his grandfather,
Manasseh, and practiced by his father, Amon.
Josiah was so busy with the many things relating to the government of
his kingdom that he had no time to study his religion very deeply, but
the moral influence of Zephaniah and Hilkiah was very apparent in his
development and showed their effect in his later years.
Jeremiah, on the other hand, received an education on much broader and
more general lines. Not burdened with cares of state, he studied first
of all the history of his own people and his own religion, and the
history and religion of the other peoples with whom his country came
in contact. In his religious training he was grounded deeply in the
religious history of now almost forgotten Israel as well as of Judah.
He paid special attention to the moral and religious condition of his
country and of its people and made himself master of his father's
ideals, which meant the ideals and hopes of the older prophets.
As Jeremiah advanced in years and Josiah took the reins of government
more and more into his own hands, the former's visits to the palace
became less and less frequent.
Jeremiah delighted to stay in Anathoth. He spent many hours studying
in his own room. He roamed among the barren hills near his village
from which, looking down the ravine, a view could be had of the blue
waters at the north end of the Dead Sea.
He often came across the many altars that had been erected on the high
hills and in thick groves in imitation of the heathen. Even in the
city of Jerusalem, the religious legacy left by King Manasseh had not
been destroyed. The Temple Courts were desecrated by images and the
Temple itself defiled by idolatrous practices.
The teachings of his father and the religious influence of his home
were great factors in turning Jeremiah's mind to view these
abominations with alarm for his people. Idolatry and heathen worship
led the people to practice vice and commit crimes that were abhorrent
to the religious ideas and ideals taught by such men as Amos, Hosea
and Isaiah in the days gone by, and by Zephaniah and Hilkiah in
Jeremiah's time.
Now Jeremiah knew very well that when Josiah reached the age of
manhood the influence of Zephaniah and Hilkiah upon him would tell. He
felt quite sure that, in due time, religious and moral reforms would
be introduced into the country by the king. He was convinced,
nevertheless, that a movement for reform of some kind must come from
the people at large as well as from the king.
Sometimes he thought that the people ought to be prepared for the
reforms that Josiah would surely introduce. Often, therefore, he felt
the voice of God speaking within him, urging him on to go down into
the city and there speak to the people of the living God, of His love
for them and of His religious and moral demands upon them.
One day, in the early spring, while roaming among the hills,
meditating upon the thoughts that consumed all his waking hours, he
stopped before an almond tree. It was just beginning to shoot its
earliest leaves. He contemplated this wonderful miracle of nature. He
saw the hand of God working through that tree; he saw that God must be
very watchful over the things He created; he saw in that tree a
symbol--God's message to him that the immoral and ungodly people of
Jerusalem and Judah could be awakened to a new life, even as the
almond tree was blooming into new life.
At another time he was watching carelessly a boiling caldron. A wind
unexpectedly came up from the north, so strong that Jeremiah thought
the caldron would turn over and empty its contents upon the ground. In
this, too, Jeremiah saw a symbol--a call from God to warn the people
of Judah against the oncoming of the Scythian hordes that were roaming
at large over the once great Assyrian empire, even reaching the little
states along the Mediterranean.
One night, in his room, Jeremiah was thinking over these and similar
incidents that had been happening to him quite frequently of late.
Though ready to retire, he knew that he could not sleep, because a
terrible restlessness was consuming his mind and heart.
Noiselessly, he stole out of the house into the open. It was one of
those wonderful full-moon, spring nights, when the sky is clear blue,
unclouded and studded with myriads of stars, stars, stars.
Jeremiah breathed in deeply and tramped out into the hills. He walked
lightly, as on air, without fatigue. A strange feeling, as if he
wished to get away from himself, drove him on. Finally, he reached a
point from which he could discern the most northerly corner of the
Dead Sea. For awhile he stood in his favorite spot and meditated,
though he could not, for the world of him, say what was passing
through his mind.
He pressed his temples with his open palms, hoping in that way to
clear up the jumble of thoughts tumbling about in his head. He
clenched his fists. He beat the palm of his left hand with the fist of
his right. He raised his arms to heaven, as if pleading for advice and
guidance. He was, evidently, passing through a great, inward struggle.
Then he heard a voice, clearly and distinctly, saying over and
over again:
Before I formed thee, I knew thee;
Before thou camest forth, I sanctified thee.
I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.
and he knew that God was speaking to him.
A stifled groan escaped his lips. The muscles of his face and body,
tense up to this moment, relaxed. He dropped to his knees and gave up
the fight. He buried his face in his arms and cried, in a muffled
voice:
Alas, O Lord God!
Behold, I do not know how to speak;
I am only a youth.
This plea showed clearly what inward agonies Jeremiah had been through.
Timid by nature, he shrank from God's call to him to go out and
prophesy to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and he struggled
against it. Although he was now a young man of twenty-four or five, he
feared to undertake this great task and to answer the call. He felt
that he was yet too young and unprepared to deliver the message of God
to his people.
But God answered him, saying:
Do not say, "I am only a youth";
For to all to whom I shall send thee, thou shalt go,
And whatever I command thee, thou shalt speak.
Be not afraid of them,
For I am with thee to deliver thee.
And Jeremiah tells us that God, having stretched
out His hand toward him and touched his lips to purify
them, spoke to him further:--
Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth;
See, I have set thee this day over the nations and kingdoms,
To tear up, to break down and to destroy, to build up and to plant.
Now that God had selected him for a distinct and set purpose in life,
no matter how incapable and unworthy he deemed himself, and being
assured of His help and protection, Jeremiah walked slowly homeward.
For the first time he noticed that the sun had risen big and bright
and warm. His mind was calm and at rest, but his heart was filled with
woe because of what the future held out for him and his people.