Jeremiah 1:5

We are not ignorant that some refer these things, as being too great for Jeremiah, to our Savior and Lord; and one must know that most of them are in accord with Him and can be referred to the Savior, which I will set forth; but a few of the things said to Jeremiah press hard upon the argument, being unable, as they can with respect to the many, to be fitted to the Savior. What, then, are the things that fit the Savior? "To all to whom I shall send you, you shall go, and according to all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid before their face, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." These would not yet seem to be referred to the Savior; but what follows—"and the Lord stretched out His hand to me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words into your mouth. Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down"—presses hard upon the interpretation concerning Jeremiah. What nations did Jeremiah root out, what kingdoms did he overthrow? For it is written: "Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down." And what authority did Jeremiah have "to destroy," which is said as if to Jeremiah in the phrase "and to destroy"? And how many so great did Jeremiah build up, that it should be said "and to build"? Jeremiah says: "I have not benefited, nor has anyone benefited me." How then has "to build and to plant" been given to him? How will "to plant" fit Jeremiah? These things, referred to the Savior, do not press hard upon the interpreter, since Jeremiah in these matters is a symbol of the Savior. […]

Concerning Jeremiah, God says, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." … If such terms are used in Scripture of things created, but the term ever is used of the Word, then it follows, O enemies of God, that the Son did not come out of nothing, nor is he to be numbered at all among created things, but he is the Father's image and eternal word, never having not existed, but never existing as the eternal radiance.

Read the word of God that was spoken to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." God not only forms us in the womb; he also breathes on us as he did at the first creation, when "the Lord God formed man and breathed into him the breath of life." And God could not have known a person in the womb, except in his entire nature: "And before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you." Well, was it then a dead body at that early stage? Certainly not. For "God is not the God of the dead but of the living."

The embryo therefore becomes a human being in the womb from the moment that its form is completed. The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the one who shall cause an abortion, inasmuch as there exists already the rudiment of a human being that has imputed to it even now the condition of life and death, since it is already liable to the issues of both, although, by living still in the mother, it for the most part shares its own state with the mother.

Through the Holy Spirit we are reborn the children of promise, not in the mother's womb but in the power of baptism. For this reason David, who certainly was a son of promise, says to God, "Your hands have made and fashioned me." And to Jeremiah the Lord says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you."

God's choice of Jeremiah was not without basis: knowledge preceded it. Notice it says that God had knowledge and then he consecrated, for he knows everything before it happens. Now, he employed the word consecrated, meaning "he appointed." Then God also mentions the task for …

It was not that Jeremiah existed before he was conceived, as some heretics suppose, but that the Lord foreknew Jeremiah to be coming, the Lord to whom what does not yet exist is already present, in accordance with what the apostle said of him: "who calls that which is not as though it were." But we also ought to understand Jeremiah's consecration in the womb according to the apostle's word: "When it pleased him, he set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might proclaim him to the nations." John the Baptist similarly was consecrated in the womb, where he received the Holy Spirit and leaped and spoke through his mother's mouth. Furthermore, when the Lord says, "I appointed you a prophet to the nations," he wants it to be understood that we will eventually read in him the prophet who will prophesy not only to Jerusalem but also to a multitude in the entire company of nations. Some understand this as referring to the Savior, who was himself a prophet to the nations and called all peoples through the apostles. For it is certainly true of him that before he was formed in the virginal womb of his mother and before he came forth from her, he was consecrated in the womb and was known to the Father, he, indeed, who is always in the Father and the Father always in him.

So, if God still forms human beings, shall we not be guilty of audacity if we think of the generation of children as something offensive when even the Almighty is not ashamed to make use of them in working with his undefiled hands.

In the first place we testify that he was born twice: first, in the spirit, later in the flesh. It is said in Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." And again, "who was blessed before he was born," which happened to no other besides Christ.

He is not ashamed to assume flesh, who is the creator of those very parts. Who tells us this? The Lord said to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came forth out of the womb, I made you holy." If, then, in making humanity he was not ashamed of the contact, was he ashamed in making for his own sake the holy flesh, the veil of his Godhead? It is God who even now creates children in the womb, as it is written in Job, "Didn't you pour me out as milk and curdled me like cheese? You have clothed me with skin and flesh and have knit me together with bones and sinews." There is nothing polluted in the human frame unless a person defiles it with fornication and adultery. God, who made Adam, also made Eve. Both male and female were formed by God's hands. None of the parts of the body as formed from the beginning are polluted.

(Vers. 4, 5.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you: I have made you a prophet to the nations. Not that Jeremiah existed before his conception, as some heresy suspects, but that the Lord foresaw him to be. To whom things not yet made already exist, according to what the Apostle spoke: Who calls those things that are not, as those that are (Rom. IV, 17).

To show them, however, the weakness and transparency of their objection, though it has no real relation to any truth, divine or human, I will prove to them that people have existed before they were born. Let them show that Jacob had not been appointed and ordained, even before he was born. While yet hidden in the secret chamber of his mother's womb, he supplanted his brother. Let them show that Jeremiah had not likewise been so, before his birth, "Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the belly, I sanctified you, and appointed you for a prophet amongst the nations." … What do you [Arians] mean by your principle that "before he was begotten he did not exist"? Was the Father engaged for some time in conception, so that certain epochs passed away before the Son was begotten?

Moreover, this calling, which works through the opportune circumstances of history, whether this calling is in individuals or in peoples or in humankind itself, comes from a decree both lofty and profound. To this relates the following passage: "In the womb have I sanctified you."

Just as the spiritual bosom of the Father is understood as a certain inner secret of paternal love and nature, in which the Son is always present, so also the spiritual bosom of the Father is the womb, the secret of the innermost mystery, from which the Son has proceeded as though from a generative womb.

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,.... Not merely by his omniscience, so he knows all men before their conception and birth; but with such a knowledge as had special love and affection joined with it; in which sense the Lord knows them that are his, as he does not others, and predestinates them unto eternal life; and which is not only before their formation in the womb, but before the foundation of the world, even from all eternity.

I sanctified - I ordained thee for this public service. He speaks thus to Jeremiah, not to the other prophets, because he stood in need of greater encouragement than they, both in respect of the tenderness of his years, and the difficulties which he was to encounter with.

Yet he was given to be a prophet, not to the Jews only, but to the neighbouring nations, to whom he was to send yokes ( ch. xxvii. 2, 3 ) and whom he must make to drink of the cup of the Lord's anger, ch. xxv. He is still in his writings a prophet to the nations (to our nation among the rest), to tell them what the national judgments are which may be expected for national sins.

Rather, “Before I formed thee in the belly.” I approved of thee (as one fit for the prophetic office),” and before thou camest forth from the womb” I made thee holy (dedicated thee to holy uses); I have appointed thee (now by this public call to be) “a prophet unto the nations.” Unto the nations - The privileges contained in this verse are so great as in their full sense to be true only of Christ Himself, while to Jeremiah they belong as being in so many particulars a type of Christ.

Jeremiah's call to the prophetical office. unto me--other manuscripts read "to him"; but English Version probably represents the true Hebrew text; this inscription was doubtless made by Jeremiah himself.

knew--approved of thee as My chosen instrument (Ex 33:12, 17; compare Isa 49:1, 5; Ro 8:29). sanctified--rather, "separated." The primary meaning is, "to set apart" from a common to a special use; hence arose the secondary sense, "to sanctify," ceremonially and morally.

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Before I formed thee - I had destined thee to the prophetic office before thou wert born: I had formed my plan, and appointed thee to be my envoy to his people. St. Paul speaks of his own call to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles in similar terms, Gal 1:15, Gal 1:16.