Chapter 1
A 13-Week Bible Study · Lesson 01 Now Available
Thirteen Weeks With the Weeping Prophet
Jeremiah spoke God’s truth to a nation that would not listen, wept over a city about to fall, and still bought a field because God promised a future. This class walks through his story by theme, drawing straight lines from Judah’s exile to the pressures Christians face today.
Five Movements, Thirteen Lessons
Filled arches are lessons we’ve reached. The ringed arch is this week.
This Week · Call & Confrontation
Before I Formed You
God’s Call and Our Purpose
Primary text: Jeremiah 1:1–19
Key verses: Jeremiah 1:5, 7–8
Jeremiah was a young priest from Anathoth when God called him around 627 BC, in the final decades of the kingdom of Judah. He would preach for more than forty years, all the way through the fall of Jerusalem, and almost no one would listen.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Before Jeremiah could offer a single excuse, God told him the call came first. We don’t create our purpose; we discover the one God has already set. When Jeremiah protested that he was too young and couldn’t speak, God refused the excuse and handed him a promise instead: “I am with you.”
God never sends His people out empty-handed. He put His words in Jeremiah’s mouth, promised His presence, and made him strong as a fortified city. And Jeremiah’s mission ran in a hard order: uproot and tear down before he could build and plant.
Key Takeaways
- Your life isn’t an accident. God has invested in you.
- God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
- He supplies His words, His presence and His strength for the task.
- Sometimes God tears down before He builds up.
Infographic · Lesson 01
The Call of Jeremiah at a Glance
Forty Years Before the Fall
- 627 BCGod calls young Jeremiah in Josiah’s 13th year (1:2)
- 609 BCKing Josiah dies; Judah slides back into idolatry
- 605 BCBabylon defeats Egypt at Carchemish and rises to power
- 597 BCFirst major deportation of Judah’s people to Babylon
- 587/586 BCJerusalem and the temple fall, just as Jeremiah warned
- AfterwardJeremiah is carried to Egypt, still faithful (Jer. 43)
Our Excuses vs. God’s Promises
“I am too young.” 1:6
“Do not say, ‘I am too young.’” 1:7
“I do not know how to speak.” 1:6
“I have put my words in your mouth.” 1:9
“I’m not gifted like…” today
“I am with you and will rescue you.” 1:8
Three Provisions for the Called
Jeremiah 1:9
His Words
God touched Jeremiah’s mouth. The message was never his to invent.
Jeremiah 1:8, 19
His Presence
“I am with you” comes twice in one chapter. Obedience is never solitary.
Jeremiah 1:18
His Strength
A fortified city, an iron pillar, a bronze wall against the whole land.
The Order of the Mission (1:10)
- Uproot
- Tear down
- Destroy
- Overthrow
- Build
- Plant
Four words of demolition, two of new life. What might God need to clear away in you before He builds something new?
For Class or Small Group
Talk It Over
- Jeremiah felt inadequate because of his youth and inexperience. What are the “I’m only…” or “I’m not…” statements that keep you from stepping into what you sense God wants from you?
- God promised, “I am with you to deliver you” (v. 8), yet Jeremiah faced rejection, imprisonment and isolation. How do we reconcile God’s promise of presence with the reality that obedience often leads to hardship?
- Jeremiah had to “uproot and tear down” before he could “build and plant” (v. 10). What might God need to tear down in our church, our culture or our own lives before He can build something new?
Next Week
Cracked Cisterns
When We Look for Life in Wrong Places
Before Class
- Read Jeremiah 2:1–13
- Remember when your faith felt most alive. What has changed since then?
- Notice the cisterns you reach for when life feels dry: success, approval, money, distraction.
Quiz · Lesson 01
Check Your Understanding
Six questions on Jeremiah 1. Pick an answer to see why it’s right.
Quiz Complete
Study Game
Rebuild the Verse
The verses are in ruins. Tap the phrases in order to rebuild three of God’s promises to Jeremiah.
Your verse will rise here, one stone at a time.