We have had quite an extraordinary event occur around our house this weekend, our third grandson was born Friday, March 12, and his name is Jeremiah Clive.  Now, we do  not take big events like this lightly around here.  We see God at work in all things and especially in the birth of babies!  We had all begun to read through the Bible again on January 1 and I noticed that I had no “fresh bread” for our weekly family Bible reading today.  I asked if anyone else did and, no, no one did.  So, I suggested, in light of our big event, that we begin reading the book of Jeremiah.  Everyone agreed.

I do not claim that Jeremiah Clive’s birth means anything prophetically with respect to the world, our nation, or even any family beyond my own, but it might.  God has not spoken an audible word to me telling me so, but it may yet be so.  We live at the beginning of the third and seventh days of God’s creation, and many prophecies deal directly with this day, the Day of the Lord.  So we read the first few chapters of Jeremiah this morning … and I could smell the bread begin to bake….

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. (Jeremiah 1:5-6 KJ2000)

God sovereignly chooses and appoints his prophets.  Jeremiah himself prophesied to the nations, not just to Israel and to Judah, but to the nations.  His words yet resound to the nations because they have not been fulfilled.  Only some of his many prophecies have come to bear fruit and I believe the remaining ones will shortly bud, blossom, and bear.  When God called him Jeremiah answered, “Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.”  What type of child cannot speak except for a very young one, indeed a baby?  Could this itself prophesy a day when God calls another Jeremiah forth, one who literally cannot speak? Could this be the day when Jeremiah’s prophecy truly unfolds?

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what see you? And I said, I see a branch of an almond tree. Then said the LORD unto me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:11-12  KJ2000)

Exactly nine years ago God led my family and I to resettle from Kansas City to Salem, Missouri.  When we arrived we bought a Christian bookstore and promptly renamed it The Almond Branch.  After buying and moving into the building my daughter drew a lovely almond branch on the west inner wall and wrote the words from Jeremiah 1:11-12 in beautiful calligraphy around the branch.  You see, in 2001 we fully expected to see God “hasten his word to perform it.”  After six years the bookstore closed, but the building remains my office, it still bears the name The Almond Branch, and we still expect to see the fulfillment of God’s prophetic word very, very soon.

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