This text is a narrative of the call of Jeremiah; but before the call narrative, we have a preface by the editor of the tradition, placing the call in its historical context (1:1-3). The word of the Lord does not exist in a vacuum and it does not work only in some spiritual realm. It is rooted in our history and related to our chronology. It came in all its specificity to Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah (1:1), during the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah (1:2-3). In what seems to be a simple superscription, we are already alerted to the fact that the kings and rulers of the earth are subject to a greater power, a power which, though often hidden, still orders historical events.

Jeremiah had a sense of that overriding power in his own life. He had experienced his call as something outside h…