HONORING OUR CALLING
Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew or chose you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
What would you think if God would have told you this? Well, if God appeared and said this chances are that might give us confidence to believe that it was true. We don’t know for sure how the word of the came to Jeremiah, but he felt that it was certainly of God. But even with the believing and accepting it in such a way as to do it is something else. Before I get into the calling of Jeremiah to be a prophet for the Lord, let me talk a little about God knowing or choosing him before birth.
Science is beginning to reveal revelations of humanities makeup that generations before were never possible. One of them is the make up our DNA. Just a few weeks ago the National Geographic channel had a special program on how they had done a DNA survey on a diverse population in New York City. Using modern science they were able to discover where the ancestors of the test subjects came from. They could do this as they found that as people migrated their DNA would change just a little enough to make them a little different. One interesting person was an Afro-American that thought that his ancestors had come from Africa, but his DNA actually showed that they were from Europe. Somewhere in the past one of his ancestors had a child with dark skinned woman. Now if our people of science can now figure this out, is it really isn’t too hard to imagine that God can look at our DNA and know right away if we are to be male, female, what color, straight or curly hair, will be tall or short or whatever? God knows the potential makeup for every person that has been created. You may be thinking if this is the case why does God create birth defects? The reason is because God also allows freedom in his creation. It is almost like having a handful of dice representing our DNA and tossing them. The DNA of our parents will be a controlling factor as to what DNA possibilities come up, but the randomness rests in the freedom of how they come together. This is why children from the same parent can be so different. I have twin grandsons and they are even different. God know us even before we are born. It is not a matter of pre-existence of souls that God created before the body was formed as the Mormons believe, or reincarnated souls that had died and will have another chance for physical life on earth as the Hindus believe. The Bible gives us no case of pre-existence of soul, but does say in Hebrews 9:27 that, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” In other words reincarnation or pre-existence of souls are not a reality, but rather God knowing our DNA.
The next part of today's text concerns free will and how before Jeremiah was born he was set apart by the Lord to become a prophet for the him to the nations. We see this several time in the Bible. We see it with Samson to set Israel free from the Philistines, the Levites to serve the Lord, John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus, and even Christians being a royal priesthood for Jesus.
God has established freedom in his creation and will not take it away. The reason for this is that freedom allows us not to just disobey, but rather to willingly obey! It is through the opportunity to willing obey that we express our love to the Lord. Without it and we wouldn’t be any different than a rock. Many times Jesus reminded his Heavenly Father that he only wanted to do his Father's will. God himself has a free will and we were created in his likeness. So what does this calling or setting us apart really mean? It means that God has chosen us to do something for him,and it is up to us us to do it or not to do it! In the case of Samson he killed some Philistines, but it had nothing to do with setting Israel free of their oppression. Samson killed them for personal reasons and the life he lived was shameful and sinful. The life he chose to life was one that mocked God and his calling. John the Baptist was just the opposite. He chose obedience and sacrifice even to the point of death.
In I Peter 2:9 says of Christians, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, so that whosoever believe in him might not die but have everlasting life. In other words God wants or calls everyone to be a Christian and declare the praises of Jesus. But because of our free will even as Christians, we are not made to tell others of Jesus’ wonderful love and grace. Like with Samson, John the Baptist and so many others, we have a free will to choose whether we obey our call by God or not.
It is a great honor to have God’s call on our life. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sinfulness, the righteousness of Christ and the judgment of God. It is his call that encourages us to go on and become a Christian. God doesn’t make anyone become a Christian, and he will not make any Christian praise Jesus or tell other about him. If we do not, we shouldn’t expect God to bless us for rejecting our call. But if we do receive God’s call on our life and obey him, we are sure to be blessed greater than we can ever imagine.
Prayer: Thank Lord for our calling. Please help us to be faithful to it and always consider it an honor. We ask this in Jesus’ holy name.
