Ever been surprised by a bit of news? Perhaps when you were in grammar school you can recall a time when you found out that people you thought liked you actually didn’t. That probably was not the first ‘for instance’ that came to your mind but if you’ve ever had that happen on any level you can sympathize with the much-more-severe-news that came across Jeremiah’s mental-desk. Granted, he knew full-well right from the beginning of his ministry that being God’s prophet wouldn’t make him many friends (Jer. 1:17); but he was nonetheless surprised that he ended up on people’s ‘hit lists.’ And this is news he wouldn’t have had unless God had provided it to him. He said: “Now the Lord gave me knowledge of it, and I know it; for You showed me their doings” (vs.18). So at this point we are not told what the Lord gave him knowledge of or what the Lord showed him, only that the Lord was the gracious revealer that Jeremiah was in dire need of without knowing it. We find out the dire-aspect of Jeremiah’s state in the following verse:
