Readings for today: Jeremiah 41-44
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
We have come to the end of the nation of Israel. There is nothing left. Everything is destroyed. The remnant scattered. God has executed His righteous judgment on His people. The testimony of the histories of the Old Testament clearly demonstrate how patient God is with His people. For generations, He called to them. Longing for their return. Longing for them to repent of their ways. Over and over again, He sent prophets to teach them. To show them the way home. Jeremiah is simply the latest in a long line of God’s messengers who end up being ignored.
Judah has been conquered. The Babylonians have set up a provisional government under the leadership of a man named Gedaliah. His charge is to pacify the territory in the name of Nebuchadnezzer and extend Babylonian influence and power over the region. Naturally this creates resistance. Bands of freedom fighters who seek to disrupt and perhaps even overthrow Babylonian rule. A man named Ishmael leads them and succeeds in assassinating Gedaliah along with many of his supporters. The body count is so high it fills a massive cistern built in defense of the city. Loyalists hear the news and raise their own forces. They pursue Ishmael and his followers, eventually catching them and defeating them.
Now comes the test. They ask Jeremiah what the Lord would have them do. The answer is clear. “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him: If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you. Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land. But if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,’ then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die. All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them.” (Jeremiah 42:9-17) Stay and I will keep you safe. Flee and I will see you destroyed. Place your faith in Me and I will not fail you. Place your trust in the kings of this earth and you will fall.
You and I face the same choice in our lives as well. Will we trust God or will we trust ourselves? Will we place our faith in Him or will we place our faith in our own ability? Our own resources? Our own social, economic, and political policies? Will we choose the way of life or the way of death? Jesus clearly says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Following Jesus means surrender. Submission. Relinquishment. It means seeking to serve rather than be served. It means losing our lives in order to find them. It is the way of self-denial not the way of self-indulgence. It involves great risk because it requires us to walk by faith not by sight. To place our lives and livelihoods in God’s hands.
Readings for tomorrow: Obadiah 1, Psalms 82-83