Jeremiah 21:1-14.\u00a0 Today\u2019s reading jumps ahead in history to the final years of the kingdom of Judah.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 At that time Nebuchadnezzar swept through the\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In 609 BC Josiah, king of Judah, went to battle against Pharaoh Necho to prevent him from adding the Assyrians against the Babylonians.\u00a0 He was killed in the battle and his son Jehoahaz became king. \u00a0Jehoahaz was only king for three months when Pharaoh Necho made his brother Eliakim king.\u00a0 Necho changed Eliakims name to Jehoiakim.\u00a0\u00a0Jehoiakim reigned from 609-597 BC.\u00a0 Jehoiakim rebelled against the newly powerful Babylonian empire late in 598 BC.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar marched toward Jerusalem to put down the rebellion.\u00a0 Before he arrived Jehoiakim died.\u00a0 Jehoiakim\u2019s 18 year old son Jehoiachin became king and felt the brunt of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s anger.\u00a0 He was taken captive to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar put his uncle Mattaniah (another of Josiah\u2019s sons) in charge.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar also changed Mattaniah\u2019s name to Zedekiah.\u00a0 For most of his reign the people pressured Zedekiah to revolt against Babylon.\u00a0 In 588 BC he gave in and made an alliance with Egypt against Babylon.\u00a0 In response Nebuchadnezzar marched back into the region and in 586 BC Jerusalem fell.\u00a0 It was during these 2 years 588-586 BC that the events of chapter 21 occur.<\/p>\n
Zedekiah must have felt pretty desperate.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Here in chapter 21 Zedekiah sends a group of religious leaders to talk to Jeremiah.\u00a0 Notice in verse 1 that we are specifically told that Jeremiah\u2019s answer to them is going to be from the LORD (Yahweh).\u00a0 The two men who came to Jeremiah were Pashur the son of Malchijah and Zephaniah a priest.\u00a0 This is not the same Pashur from yesterday\u2019s reading (notice they had different fathers).\u00a0 The two men ask Jeremiah to talk to Yahweh for them; for the king.\u00a0 The interesting thing here is that it really was a prophet\u2019s job to speak to<\/span> the people from<\/span> God.\u00a0 Sometimes we see a prophet asking God to give information, but here the request is for help in the war against Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 They are asking Jeremiah to speak to<\/span> God and see if he cannot persuade God to act in a certain way.<\/p>\n Under the rules that Moses gave the people from God, priests were to be representatives to<\/span> God for the people.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He commanded them to have a special ceremony where the blessings and curses would be repeated after they entered the land.\u00a0 The consequences of disobedience were very specific and included many of the things that Jeremiah has been warning the people about.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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).<\/p>\n So they came to Jeremiah thinking he might be able to control God.\u00a0 Of course their request wasn\u2019t, \u201cHey Jeremiah, get God in line and on our side!\u201d\u00a0 They were more subtle than that.\u00a0 \u201cHey why don\u2019t you see if God can throw some of those great miracles our way, were having a little trouble with Nebuchadnezzar.\u201d\u00a0 What they were missing was that Jeremiah had been telling them for years that it was God, Yahweh< who was bringing Nebuchadnezzar to town.\u00a0 At least I hope they had missed that point, otherwise they were just being disrespectful and trying to manipulate God.<\/p>\n In verses 4-7 Zedekiah gets his answer.\u00a0 Jeremiah never really asks God anything, we just see a message come through from God, and it\u2019s not what Zedekiah wanted to hear.\u00a0 Jeremiah informs Zedekiah\u2019s representatives that the weapons of the Israelites are the ones that are going to be ineffective.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 First many of the people and even their animals will die.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Verses 8-10 are very interesting.\u00a0 While Nebuchadnezzar will show no mercy once he has broken into the city, God is ever merciful.\u00a0 There is actually a way out of this nightmare, surrender to the forces he has sent to conquer them.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that message was very unpopular with the leaders and Jeremiah must have felt a lot of fear as he delivered it.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n In verses 11-14 we have a personal message to Zedekiah and his household.\u00a0 First we see what appears to be a way out of the trouble that they are in, start living for God again.\u00a0 The Biblical word for this is \u201crepent\u201d; stop and go the other way.\u00a0\u00a0 In verses 13-14 though we see Yahweh returning to the idea of destruction and assuring them that that is what is coming.\u00a0 Notice in verse 13 that the men were saying, \u201cWho will come down against us?\u201d\u00a0 That is pride speaking and it is the opposite of humility (like in 2 Chronicles 7:14).\u00a0 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?\u00a0 I think the answer is found in the wording of verse 12.\u00a0 Notice the offer is addressed to the \u201chouse of David\u201d.\u00a0 While Zedekiah may have been a descendant of David the idea of the \u201chouse of David\u201d goes beyond being a relative.\u00a0 Although he made plenty of mistakes David was called a \u201cman after my own heart\u201d (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22).\u00a0 God made specific promises to David about a forever kingdom that would be ruled by one of his descendants.\u00a0 Eventually that promise will be fulfilled by Jesus in an eternal kingdom (see Revelation 20-21).\u00a0 There will be an earthly aspect to his kingdom that will involve the Jewish people.\u00a0 The Jewish people tended to focus more on the physical part of the kingdom and physical descendants\u00a0 but when we read about the \u201chouse of David\u201d we should think more about the relationship David had with God.\u00a0 Physical birth alone is not what gives us a relationship with God.\u00a0 God is looking for people who love him; people \u201cafter his heart\u201d.<\/p>\n It is tragic that God was so clear with the Jewish people and that they refused to listen.\u00a0 He warned them over and over for centuries before he finally destroyed their kingdoms.\u00a0 Even then, though, there was hope.\u00a0 Their immediate situation would not change but their eternal situation was not lost, not as a nation and not as individuals.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Those who were taken captive in 586 BC were in part paying for centuries of disobedience by their ancestors.\u00a0 Once every seven years the Israelites were to let their fields rest; they were to rest, and trust in God.\u00a0 For 490 years they disobeyed that commandment, 70 years of rest had been missed.\u00a0 Beginning in 586 BC God was going to bring rest to the fields of Israel.\u00a0 Late in that century the Israelite people would return from captivity in Babylon under orders from yet another non-Jewish king.\u00a0 Those who had humbled themselves would be restored or at least their children.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 For those who stubbornly stay walled up in their own fortresses destruction awaits.\u00a0 God is fair, those who don\u2019t want him won\u2019t get him.\u00a0 No matter how bad living for God might be living without him for eternity will be infinitely worse.<\/p>\n God thank you for being so patient.\u00a0 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 \u201cSon of David\u201d, Jesus, to pay the price for my disobedience.\u00a0 Help me live humbly with you each day.\u00a0 Help me overcome the fear of following you.\u00a0 Help me honor your messages, to me and through me.\u00a0 Let me be a light to the world, helping the world see you for who you are, Yahweh, the one true God.\u00a0 Let me be submissive when you punish and correct me.\u00a0 Let me follow your path wherever it leads, even if that path is thought he \u201cvalley of the shadow of death\u201d (Psalm 23).\u00a0 Thank you for loving me.\u00a0 Keep me faithful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jeremiah 21:1-14.\u00a0 Today\u2019s reading jumps ahead in history to the final years of the kingdom of Judah.\u00a0 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1718,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions\/1718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}