3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah [That profane wicked prince Ezk 21.25] the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

Jeremiah's ministry occurred over a 40 year period.

James recommends when he says,‭

‭"‬Take,‭ ‬my brethren,‭ ‬the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord,‭ ‬for an example of suffering affliction and of patience.‭"

‭ ‬Jeremiah is more serviceable in this respect than almost any of the prophets,‭ ‬for we get closer to him,‭ ‬and observe the shades of his individual feelings in the various circumstances in which he was placed.

His prophecy is remarkable for the absence of all pompous introduction.‭ ‬Nothing could be more bald or literal than the preface which describes him ...‭

...What a total absence is there here of any attempt to magnify the importance of Jeremiah and his writings.‭ ‬How unlike in this respect to all ordinary literary efforts‭; ‬how indicative,‭ ‬amongst many things,‭ ‬of the genuine character of his communications from God.‭

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5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

...he had been ordained a prophet before his birth. The natural corollary of this as a matter of human thought would have been one of two things,‭ ‬and perhaps both‭; ‬first,‭ ‬that God would have made Jeremiah a strong,‭ ‬self-sufficient,‭ ‬impervious man,‭ ‬proof against all trouble‭; ‬and secondly,‭ ‬that Jeremiah would at least have had a strong sense of his capacity for the work to which he was called.‭ ‬Instead of that,‭ ‬the very first response of Jeremiah is V6

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6 Then said I, Ah, Adonai Yahweh! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

...we have Jeremiah's extreme sense of unfitness for the work to which he was called...This response never could have been written but for the sincere experience of the sentiment‭; ‬and it never could have found entrance into a human conception of a prophet's mission.‭

It is a characteristic that crops up very frequently in the history of God's use for men.‭ ‬Even Moses,‭ ‬that first and greatest of the prophets,‭ ‬raised a similar objection,‭ ‬a sense of extreme self-deficiency‭; ‬and Paul confesses to the same feeling.‭

Such a feature naturally belongs to the genuine employment by God of men for purposes of revelation.‭ ‬It is easy to understand that Omnipotence would employ weak human mediums in the revelation of divine purposes and wishes:‭ ‬human importances and self-confidences would naturally have been in the way. Jeremiah appears very far from one in the position of self-confidence.‭ ‬At this very opening interview he is divinely exhorted to be strong,‭ ‬because he was feeling weak.

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17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.

Thus authorised,‭ ‬Jeremiah goes forth to his work,‭ ‬and soon finds it the most painful work a man could have been called to‭; ‬so painful that he wished himself dead.‭ "‬Cursed be the day wherein I was born‭; ‬let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.‭ ‬Cursed be the man that brought tidings unto my father,‭ ‬saying,‭ ‬A man child is born unto thee,‭ ‬making him very glad.‭ ‬Let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew,‭ ‬because he slew me not from the womb.‭ ‬Wherefore came I forth to see labour and sorrow,‭ ‬that my days should be consumed with shame‭?"

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