Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
Understanding the sovereign rule of God in the lives of His people might be one of the most difficult mysteries of the Godhead we can focus upon. Churches have spilt over how God's sovereign control of His universe is actually put together. The above verse ought to be a key piece in that puzzle. Jeremiah is about to tell us about the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the nation. The book will cover the events over several years, multiple kings and numerous sins. God, according to the book of Jeremiah is bring a nation from the north (Babylon) to take the nation captive. Jeremiah will speak to them and tell them not to seek refuge in Egypt or another country, but to allow this discipline from God to take place. He will be telling them to lay down their swords, don't fight and surrender to these wicked armies from the north ... because it is God's will that they do so. Jeremiah will be punished, banished, and imprisoned for this dialogue of doom and despair. And, he will weep. This is why he is known as the weeping prophet. Yet, through all of the Jeremiah is steadfast and sure in his message and his ministry because of the above verse. He has clarity for the work he is about to do ... God called him to it. He has no worries about what his daily calendar is all about ... God called him for the work. This call took place, according to God's Word, BEFORE Jeremiah was ever born. God formed him in the womb, but before God formed him in the womb his mission and his walk was formed in God's plan. We might argue all the nuances of God's sovereign rule on the earth and the events in the earth, but we ought never fail to believe and respond to this truth: God has a plan and His people are part of that plan and that plan was worked out and set in motion well before the foundations of the earth were ever established. Notice what Paul told the Ephesian church several centuries after Jeremiah wrote the above verse:
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
God, before creation, prepared "good works" that those who have been saved by Christ, should walk in them ... do them. God didn't just save us, (and this before the foundation of the world), He saved us to do good works. God has ordained those good works and you and I, each day, are to seek the good works that God has ordained for us ... before we were even born. We are not here to find our "will" or to do our "thing." We are not here to accumulate wealth, to make ourselves comfortable, or craft our trade. We are here to fulfill a purpose for our God and that is the plain and simple truth, no matter what you believe, think or can understand about the sovereignty of God. Before we were in the womb, He knew us!!
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