Jeremiah 1:1,2 - The word of the Lord came to him

1:1

“The words of Jeremiah ...” Of course, this is the word of God, but the prophet himself is also of importance, as is clear from the book as a whole which spends some time on Jeremiah’s struggles and thoughts. This in no way detracts from the fact that it is the word of God. One might ask how can such a human production be the inerrant word of God, but we forget the God created Jeremiah, as we will read later, God formed him in the womb. Hilkiah is not the Hilkiah of 2 Kings 22,23. Jeremiah came from a priestly family. It is perhaps significant that one of Jeremiah’s repeated complaints was that the priest were not fulfilling their duties properly. Ananoth was a town in Benjamin.

1:2

The word of God first came to Jeremiah during the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah. So Jeremiah experienced one of the few good kings (Josiah rediscovered the Law), and several terrible kings, leading to the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Jeremiah spoke in favour of Josiah (22:15,16). The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. The word of God can come in many and various ways. The method does not matter, what counts is the content.