May 11, 2001
The word of the LORD came to me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?"
"I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied.
The LORD said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled."
The word of the LORD came to me again: "What do you see?"
"I see a boiling pot, tilting away from the north," I answered.
The LORD said to me, "From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land.
...snip .... snip ...snip
"Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you.
Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them.
Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall
to stand 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 will not overcome you,
for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 1:11-14, 17-19
As God is giving Jeremiah his charge we also see him meeting the emotional needs that go with it. In verses 11-19 Jeremiah is given two visions the second one is the message that he will preach for 40 years.. that disaster will come form the North to destroy Judah and Jerusalem. The first one seem to be just for him to strengthen him for that very task... it's an interesting analogy... the almost tree is the first one to bloom after the dead of winter.. in fact it starts to bloom before spring arrives and gives hope. God tells Jeremiah in the same way.. despite what things may look like, no matter how long the 'winter' is... I will make sure my word is fulfilled and God again promises to make him equal to the task. Jeremiah preached for a very long time, after about 20 years of this message without any signs of it coming he was an object of scorn and ridicule and that must have been extremely tough (and he still had another 20 years to go)... but he had God's word, his assurance that his word would be fulfilled and it was. This passage was again reminder that God supplies what we need for the task at hand. The other thing that strikes me here is that the images the prophet saw were very common ordinary things... a prophet is not one who sees different things but that he sees things differently. It seems is want we re always striving for as we study the Word and seek to KNOW God more intimately.