Charles Spurgeon Commentary Jeremiah 1

Jeremiah was a young man when he was called to the prophetic office; and he was sent by God, as a young prophet, to help the young king, Josiah. His public life, therefore, began somewhat happily. But, after the death of Josiah, wicked kings sat on the throne, and it was the painful lot, and yet in some respects the choice privilege, of this weeping prophet to be sent on his Master's errand, time after time, to a disobedient and defiant people, who repaid him with only evil while he sought their good.

The Holy Spirit, you see, is careful to note important dates in the history of God's servants; and you and I also should keep a record of the times when God sets us to work, and when He gives us special grace for the service to which He has called us.

He was only young, and when young men are called to be ambassadors for God, they ought to feel the weight of the responsibility that rests upon them, and to be conscious of their lack of experience, and of their lack of fitness for the work. In that consciousness of unfitness, there often lies the evidence of their fitness for the task entrusted to them. Perhaps, out of weakness they will be made strong; but if they do not feel their weakness, they are not likely to cry to God for help, or to receive it from him.

"Ah, Lord God!" said young Jeremiah, "behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child."

Now, even a child can often repeat anything that has been said to him; to say what he is told is not beyond his capacity. And, after all, this is a Christian minister's principal work.

Somebody says, "We want thinkers." Yes, so we do; but we want men whose thoughts should be subordinate to the thoughts of God—ministers who do not come to utter their own thoughts, but to deliver their Master's message, to tell us what He has told them.

Is that sermon merely what you think, sir? Then what do I care what you think?

What is that to me, any more than what I think may be to you? If, however, you can come to me and say, Thus saith the Lord, I will give diligent heed to your message, and I am bound to receive it. But woe to that minister whose word is other than this!

When a king sends an ambassador to a foreign court, he cannot usually go with him; but God's ambassador always has his King with him. Oh, what courage he ought to have with such a Companion!

Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth.

For you young brothers who are to be preachers of the gospel, I cannot wish anything better than that the Lord may touch your mouth in this way. In the old times that some of us remember, godly men used to pray that the Holy Spirit would be "mouth, matter, and wisdom" to the preachers of the Word. It was not at all a bad prayer, for it was a petition that He would give to His servants the right subject, the right spirit, and the right utterance—that He would teach them how to speak, what to speak, and in what spirit to speak it.

And the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

That is a true picture of a Spirit-sent preacher of the gospel—a man who has God's words in his mouth. I said before that the minister must not utter his own thoughts, but here we see that he must not even utter his own words. God's thoughts are best delivered in God's words; and the more of Scripture there is in our teaching, the more true, the more divine, and the more powerful, will it be.