“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
The call to follow Christ is a call to absolute faith in Him to be and to do exactly as He has and does declare in His word. This kind of faith only comes with a true knowledge of Christ, howbeit ever so small or great. True faith can only lay hold upon the One who IS the Truth, and in whom there is no deceit or falsehood. Christ’s great words resound to this day as being the bedrock for faith in the eternal God, when He said: “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 16:6) So then, how does one come to faith, then walk by faith, in an unbelieving world? How is it possible to rise above all that one sees of godlessness, ignorance, and rejection of the truth, to know Christ, and glorify our Maker and Savior?
In the thirty-third chapter of the book of Jeremiah, we find where the prophet is shut up in prison. The city of Jerusalem is being besieged by the Babylonian army, and the word has already come to Jeremiah that the city would fall, and that the survivors in part would be carried off to Babylon, there to remain for seventy years. On the one hand, the limitations that are imposed upon Jeremiah in his imprisonment are very narrow. He is absolutely helpless from a human standpoint. And yet, in that circumstance God will provide a door of hope for the people. How could even Jeremiah have any hope when the city would certainly fall, and the people would be either slain in their resistance, or carried away to Babylon?
The ray of hope would manifest itself by “the word of the Lord” which specifically and directly came to Jeremiah. Is this not how God works in the hearts of individuals, peoples, and nations? Does He not take the initiative to reveal Himself as God, that men might know that it is He who is speaking? And then does He not defy all the imaginations, and so-called “possibilities” of men, to reveal what He will do? And who will truly benefit from such a revelation of Himself and His ways? Will it not be those who truly take Him at His word, being committed to believe and obey Him, in spite of the circumstances and the words of unbelieving men?
In that prison, certainly cut off from the strife of battle that surrounded it, Jeremiah was quiet enough to hear God speaking to him, revealing Himself by declaring: “Thus says the Lord who made it, the Lord who formed it to establish it, the Lord is His name.” (Jer. 33:3) By such words the Lord lifts up the soul and spirit of Jeremiah to consider that which is of God and not of man. He lifts Jeremiah up to a vantage point of seeing the greater truth of Who He is and what He will do as opposed to the terrible and failing attempts of men. The Lord then puts into the hands of Jeremiah a key, one which will unlock and open a door by which God will reveal to him that which will be described as “great and mighty things.” The key is prayer, a prayer that God commands Jeremiah to pray, for He says, “Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.” (v.3) Upon being obedient to God in prayer and trusting Him to fulfill His promise that He will reveal to Jeremiah, things that are possible to God, God will give to Jeremiah a great and glorious vision of things to come after the exile. Even during the exile, God will raise up men and women of the captivity who will pray for the realization of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the temple, and the wall. Difficulty in believing is overcome by prayer and revelation.
Dear Father, Lift us up higher. In Jesus’ name, Amen.