Laurence Wareing explores the demands of prophecy

It was not a good time to be a prophet when Jeremiah was summoned to the task by God. For most of his 40-year career the people to whom Jeremiah spoke lived under the threat of immanent disaster – political and natural.

It was a time of war and the threat of invasion. Superpowers vied for dominance at the expense of their vulnerable neighbours. The Egyptians were rampaging from the south through Jeremiah’s own country of Judah, and to the north Babylon’s hold on Judah’s neighbour Israel also posed a troubling threat. Meanwhile, Assyria was on the rise – and in Jeremiah’s lifetime Judah would suffer devastating drought…

Laurence Wareing is Content Editor for Reform. Jeremiah 1:4-10 is a lectionary reading for 24 August

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This is an extract from an article published in the Issue 5 – 2025 edition of Reform

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