Jeremiah 21:1-14.  Today’s reading jumps ahead in history to the final years of the kingdom of Judah.  After the decisive Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took control of the territory east of the Mediterranean Sea and the Babylonian Empire was born (technically reborn since there had been an earlier Babylonian Empire).  At that time Nebuchadnezzar swept through the  area and took promising young men back to his capital to become advisors in his government, Daniel, Shadrech, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were among these captives.  In 609 BC Josiah, king of Judah, went to battle against Pharaoh Necho to prevent him from adding the Assyrians against the Babylonians.  He was killed in the battle and his son Jehoahaz became king.  Jehoahaz was only king for three months when Pharaoh Necho made his brother Eliakim king.  Necho changed Eliakims name to Jehoiakim.  Jehoiakim reigned from 609-597 BC.  Jehoiakim rebelled against the newly powerful Babylonian empire late in 598 BC.  Nebuchadnezzar marched toward Jerusalem to put down the rebellion.  Before he arrived Jehoiakim died.  Jehoiakim’s 18 year old son Jehoiachin became king and felt the brunt of Nebuchadnezzar’s anger.  He was taken captive to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar put his uncle Mattaniah (another of Josiah’s sons) in charge.  Nebuchadnezzar also changed Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah.  For most of his reign the people pressured Zedekiah to revolt against Babylon.  In 588 BC he gave in and made an alliance with Egypt against Babylon.  In response Nebuchadnezzar marched back into the region and in 586 BC Jerusalem fell.  It was during these 2 years 588-586 BC that the events of chapter 21 occur.

Zedekiah must have felt pretty desperate.  Since the time of Josiah all of the kings of Judah had been evil, turning their back on Yahweh (the personal name of the God of the Israelites; the one true God).  Here in chapter 21 Zedekiah sends a group of religious leaders to talk to Jeremiah.  Notice in verse 1 that we are specifically told that Jeremiah’s answer to them is going to be from the LORD (Yahweh).  The two men who came to Jeremiah were Pashur the son of Malchijah and Zephaniah a priest.  This is not the same Pashur from yesterday’s reading (notice they had different fathers).  The two men ask Jeremiah to talk to Yahweh for them; for the king.  The interesting thing here is that it really was a prophet’s job to speak to the people from God.  Sometimes we see a prophet asking God to give information, but here the request is for help in the war against Nebuchadnezzar.  They are asking Jeremiah to speak to God and see if he cannot persuade God to act in a certain way.

Under the rules that Moses gave the people from God, priests were to be representatives to God for the people.  In 2 Chronicles 7:12-22 God promised Solomon that if the people would respond to God when he sent trouble their way and would turn back to him that he would preserve the kingdom, but if they would not turn back to him then the kingdom and the temple would fall into ruin (Solomon had just finished the temple and was dedicating it at the time God, Yahweh, told him this).  Also in Deuteronomy 28 Moses informed the people that when they entered and took over the land that God had promised to them that they would be secure if they obeyed the rules God had given them but that they would suffer and lose the land if they dishonored God.  He commanded them to have a special ceremony where the blessings and curses would be repeated after they entered the land.  The consequences of disobedience were very specific and included many of the things that Jeremiah has been warning the people about.  In Joshua 8:33 we see the actual ceremony and it involved the priests as representative of the people. I think it would have been more appropriate for the king, his representatives, and the priests to talk to God themselves.  The problem is that they were looking to control God rather than humbling themselves and turning away from their plans and begging for mercy (see 2 Chronicles 7:14).

So they came to Jeremiah thinking he might be able to control God.  Of course their request wasn’t, “Hey Jeremiah, get God in line and on our side!”  They were more subtle than that.  “Hey why don’t you see if God can throw some of those great miracles our way, were having a little trouble with Nebuchadnezzar.”  What they were missing was that Jeremiah had been telling them for years that it was God, Yahweh< who was bringing Nebuchadnezzar to town.  At least I hope they had missed that point, otherwise they were just being disrespectful and trying to manipulate God.

In verses 4-7 Zedekiah gets his answer.  Jeremiah never really asks God anything, we just see a message come through from God, and it’s not what Zedekiah wanted to hear.  Jeremiah informs Zedekiah’s representatives that the weapons of the Israelites are the ones that are going to be ineffective.  He also tells them that the guys outside the walls who are besieging the city will eventually be standing right in the middle of the town.  There will be no victory for the people of Jerusalem here because God is personally involved in this battle and is against them; he is not happy with they way they have been acting (verse 5).  First many of the people and even their animals will die.  It appears that a lot of the death will come as a result of disease, a common thing when cities were surrounded for a long time and bodies began to pile up inside of them.  In verse 7 we see that God will eventually turn Zedekiah, his leaders, and the surviving people over to Nebuchadnezzar who will kill many of them and show no mercy.

Verses 8-10 are very interesting.  While Nebuchadnezzar will show no mercy once he has broken into the city, God is ever merciful.  There is actually a way out of this nightmare, surrender to the forces he has sent to conquer them.  I’m sure that message was very unpopular with the leaders and Jeremiah must have felt a lot of fear as he delivered it.  In verse 10 we see that Yahweh (LORD) had made his decision Nebuchadnezzar would win this battle and Jerusalem would be burned to the ground.

In verses 11-14 we have a personal message to Zedekiah and his household.  First we see what appears to be a way out of the trouble that they are in, start living for God again.  The Biblical word for this is “repent”; stop and go the other way.   In verses 13-14 though we see Yahweh returning to the idea of destruction and assuring them that that is what is coming.  Notice in verse 13 that the men were saying, “Who will come down against us?”  That is pride speaking and it is the opposite of humility (like in 2 Chronicles 7:14).  The destruction that is coming is a sure thing because the people of Judah had turned away from God, were proud, and had no intention of honoring God any more, so why the offer of a way out?  I think the answer is found in the wording of verse 12.  Notice the offer is addressed to the “house of David”.  While Zedekiah may have been a descendant of David the idea of the “house of David” goes beyond being a relative.  Although he made plenty of mistakes David was called a “man after my own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22).  God made specific promises to David about a forever kingdom that would be ruled by one of his descendants.  Eventually that promise will be fulfilled by Jesus in an eternal kingdom (see Revelation 20-21).  There will be an earthly aspect to his kingdom that will involve the Jewish people.  The Jewish people tended to focus more on the physical part of the kingdom and physical descendants  but when we read about the “house of David” we should think more about the relationship David had with God.  Physical birth alone is not what gives us a relationship with God.  God is looking for people who love him; people “after his heart”.

It is tragic that God was so clear with the Jewish people and that they refused to listen.  He warned them over and over for centuries before he finally destroyed their kingdoms.  Even then, though, there was hope.  Their immediate situation would not change but their eternal situation was not lost, not as a nation and not as individuals.  The individuals facing the sword, famine, and disease in Jerusalem in 588 BC could escape if they gave up their right now for me attitudes and surrendered to the punishment God was bringing on them.  Those who were taken captive in 586 BC were in part paying for centuries of disobedience by their ancestors.  Once every seven years the Israelites were to let their fields rest; they were to rest, and trust in God.  For 490 years they disobeyed that commandment, 70 years of rest had been missed.  Beginning in 586 BC God was going to bring rest to the fields of Israel.  Late in that century the Israelite people would return from captivity in Babylon under orders from yet another non-Jewish king.  Those who had humbled themselves would be restored or at least their children.  God is the one in ultimate control and he is good and loving and forgiving and kind but we must put our existence in his hands to enjoy those qualities.  For those who stubbornly stay walled up in their own fortresses destruction awaits.  God is fair, those who don’t want him won’t get him.  No matter how bad living for God might be living without him for eternity will be infinitely worse.

God thank you for being so patient.  Thank you for always offering a way out; a way to be right with you (1 Corinthians 10:13). Thank you for sending the ultimate “Son of David”, Jesus, to pay the price for my disobedience.  Help me live humbly with you each day.  Help me overcome the fear of following you.  Help me honor your messages, to me and through me.  Let me be a light to the world, helping the world see you for who you are, Yahweh, the one true God.  Let me be submissive when you punish and correct me.  Let me follow your path wherever it leads, even if that path is thought he “valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23).  Thank you for loving me.  Keep me faithful.

Jeremiah 20:1-18.  Today’s reading continues the story from yesterday.  Jeremiah has just told the people of Jerusalem that trouble is coming; big trouble, it is coming from Yahweh (LORD the one true God) and that they have brought it on themselves.  In verse one a guy named Pashur, a chief priest in charge of the temple confronts Jeremiah.  He has Jeremiah beaten (the language could be translated that Pashur himself actually beat Jeremiah), then he had Jeremiah “put in the stocks”.  The word translated “stocks” is fairly rare in the Hebrew language (the language the Old Testament is written in) and comes from a word that means to “turn”, “turn over”, or “overthrow”.  The word also might contain the idea of folding over.  The word translated “stocks” occurs 4 times in the Old Testament and twice it is translated stocks and twice it is translated prison.  Some experts believe that if it was a prison cell that it was too small to stand or lie in forcing the person to be bent or curled up all the time.  Where ever he was he was confined near the temple.

Pashur must have though that a night of punishment would get Jeremiah in line so he released him the next day.  Jeremiah was anything but quiet, after being released he confronted Pashur personally and told him that God had given him a new name, Magor-missabib.  In the Old Testament names were often related to a persons life, sometime even being prophetic (see “What’s in a Name?”).  This new name means “terror all around”.  Pashur will not escape the trouble that is coming to Jerusalem but will be right in the middle of it.  He will see his friends killed in the siege of the city.  Some people would be carried away in exile to Babylon and more would be executed there.  The wealth of Jerusalem would fall into the hands of the invaders from Babylon and Pashur and his family would also be taken captive.  There Pashur and whatever friends he had left would die in exile.  Jeremiah then adds insult to injury when he informs Pashur that Pashur is partly to blame because he has been a false prophet to his friends.

In verse 7 Jeremiah starts a prayer that seems to turn into a pity party with Jeremiah feeling sorry for himself.  The prayer actually doesn’t start out very well with Jeremiah telling God that he feels like God tricked him.  It is clear from the Bible that we need to be honest with God.  According to Psalm 139 God knows our thought before we even think them, but God still want’s us to communicate them to him.  The action of sharing our feelings with him tells him that we know he cares and that we think he can help us.  Many of the psalms start out with feeling similar to what Jeremiah says in verse 7.  Also Job, whom God himself tells us was right with him, spends a good deal of the book complaining about his situation.

Jeremiah tells God that he feels like God has defeated him, every one hates him and makes fun of him, and for what?  Because he keeps telling them that God is going to deal harshly with them.  In verse 8 he clearly tells God that he is in so much trouble with the people because he is passing on God’s words to them.

In the face of such strong opposition Jeremiah tries to give up; quit preaching to the people.   But he can’t resist if he tries to keep God’s word to himself he feels as if he is going to burst into flames.  In verse 10 he tells God that the people are not just laughing at him but that they are threatening him too.  In verse 10 he tells us that the people are using the very same words that God renamed Pashur with and are applying the idea to Jeremiah.  It’s like they are saying, “Your telling me I’m going to see trouble, you don’t even know what trouble is, but we will show you!”  Even his friends are beginning to turn on him.

In verse 11 the prayer seems to take a good turn.  Jeremiah realizes what side he is on, God is a fierce warrior and he is a winner, and Jeremiah is on his side.  As a result the people threatening Jeremiah will fail.  In verse 12 Jeremiah asks to see God deal with the people threatening him.  He has told God how he feels now he wants to see some action.  In verse 13 Jeremiah stops and praises God for protecting him from his enemies.  So far this is very much like some of the psalms and like much of the book of Job.  Unfortunately Jeremiah doesn’t stop here.

Jeremiah was protected by God but remember he also wanted to see a little pay back.  Jeremiah already told Pashur that he and his friends were going down.  There were three separate invasions by the Babylonian’s during the time of Jeremiah and none of them have probably happened at the time of this fight between Jeremiah and Pashur (Remember the language that Jeremiah used in the prediction is future language).  IN spite of being protected by God, Jeremiah feels let down.  In verses 14-18 his prayer falls apart as he curses the day he was born.  He goes even further over the edge when he curses the guy who brought he news of his birth to his father.  He asks that they guy be destroyed for not destroying him at birth.  In verse 18 he demands to know why God allowed him to be born, was it just so he could be troubled and sad and made fun of?

Interestingly we are less than half way through the book and probably less than half way through Jeremiah’s adventure of being God’s messenger.  Although Jeremiah’s attitude is way over the edge it is completely understandable; the guy had a sucky life.  It’s interesting for that very fact, God keeps using Jeremiah.  In tomorrow’s reading Jeremiah’s job as God’s messenger continues just like this complaint never happened.  We don’t see any response from God, any threats to show Jeremiah real trouble, God just keeps letting Jeremiah be his representative.  That is very cool, I could never deal with that kind of back talking the way God does.  It is to Jeremiah’s credit that he keeps on serving God in spite of his complaints, but clearly God is the more impressive one here.  I like it that God is so patient with us.  I like it that God uses real people with real feelings.  I like it that our weakness does not disqualify us as friends and servants of God.  I like it that we can be honest with God; even brutally honest.  Finally I like it that, in spite of what seem to be like suicidal thoughts, that Jeremiah stuck with God.  God had a purpose for Jeremiah’s life, it wasn’t always pretty, but it was for a purpose.  God has a purpose for each of our lives and we need to find that purpose and live it, even if it involves trouble.  Ending our earthly existence is never the answer.  If Jeremiah had died on the day he was born he still would have existed and continued to exist, but he would have missed so much opportunity to affect others for eternity.  While in prison waiting for what could have been a death sentence Paul wrote to the church in Philippi telling them that he appreciated their prayers and that they should not be troubled by his imprisonment.  Why?  Because people around him were hearing about Jesus.  Because of that fact he was not ashamed of his situation and was sure that people would be impressed with Jesus whether he was executed or not.  He then told them that while alive his life was about Jesus but that if he died that that would be much better.  Why?  Because then his troubled life would be over and he would be with Jesus forever.  He then told them that he was encourage by both ideas not knowing if life or death was better.  He conclude though that life was better because it would give him more opportunities to serve them for God; be God’s messenger to them (Philippians 1:18-24).  Paul’s situation was very similar to Jeremiah’s and his conclusion should be our too, we should want to live so we can serve others and when faced with death we should be encouraged that we have a place in heaven specially prepared for us9John 14:2-3).

God thank you for your love.  Thank you for your patience.  Thank you for making me.  Thank you for giving my life purpose.  Help me hang in there in the tough times.  Let me never regret the gift of life you have given me.  Thank you that I can be completely honest with you.  Thank you for not zapping me when I am.  Let my life show the world around me the reality of you and the way to have an eternity with you.