I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms…..
Jeremiah 1:10
This word to Jeremiah, found in the book of Jeremiah, chapter one, is God’s commission to him.
As a young man, Jeremiah finds himself called and appointed to speak firstly to the nation of Israel during a time of judgment that will be bringing them into captivity.
From The Lexham Bible Dictionary we learn,
Jeremiah’s focal point is the destruction of Jerusalem, in 587–86 bc, and the deportations of the ruling class of Judah, in 597 and 587–86 bc. His major concerns are the illicit worship of other gods by the people of Judah, social injustices, the collective guilt of the people of Judah (past and present), the futility of trusting in the sanctity of Jerusalem and the temple for protection, the sufferings of the prophet, and the future restoration of Israel….
As New Testament believers we find ourselves set by God in specific places, with specific people, designed for specific purposes, just like Jeremiah. There is a generation prepared for every season in God to be the voice of God and to do the works of our Father. Each season highlights varying activities that are always unto the preparation of a people who will hear and obey.
Jeremiahs instructions were ~ “See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to tear down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant.” Those who work naturally in a garden understand the effort involved in rooting out existing plants and the toil involved in clearing space for something new. It is hard work.
Every place we are set, much like the children of Israel going into the promised land, is met with opposition. Jesus told us, ‘the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force’, Matthew 11: 12. Whatever place and people we find ourselves set in requires our alignment with our Father to build and plant. We call it the extending of His Kingdom and pray ‘your kingdom come, your will be done’.
Jeremiah writes a letter to the surviving elders, priests, prophets, and all the people taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. In chapter twenty nine, verse one, the Lord instructs in verses four through seven, to build houses, live in them, plant garden, eat the fruit, take wives, have children, give them in marriage and multiply there and DO NOT DECREASE. They are to pray for the peace of the city for in its peace they will find their peace.
Our position in Christ is to be continually increasing with the increase of God. WE are designed by God to multiply and increase. His body grows as each part is working properly. And just as he said through Jeremiah, we are not to decrease!
The children of Israel fought natural battles to take the promised land. We fight ours spiritually. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and encouraged him to fight the good fight of faith, to endure hardness as a good solider. Paul faced many oppositions and hindrances but he recognized these as spiritual forces at work and leaned into the grace of God, that he came to realize, was sufficient to see him through.
Understanding that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but with rulers of darkness, prayer becomes our weapon we use to fight the forces arrayed against advancement of His Kingdom.
We strengthen ourselves through our union with Him as we position ourselves to hear and then to obey. We receive His words and we decree what He has revealed, privately and publicly. We become skilled in handling a two edged sword.
Paul had a people, a place and the purpose to preach a message that would bring the gentiles into the fullness of the blessing of Jesus Christ. He had to root out, pull down and destroy religious mindsets. People holding traditions that blinded them from first receiving Jesus as their Messiah and then recognizing and accepting that God had made a way for the gentiles to partake of His salvation. Paul laboured to present every man, Jew and gentile alike, “in Christ’.
No matter what place or people you have been set among by God, He has assigned purpose for you that requires hard work and much prayer as you follow generations who have gone before. We all have a great cloud of witness who have gone before us. Therefore let us run with endurance the race that has been given to us and be not weary in well doing.