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Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Jeremiah 40

What would happen to God’s servant Jeremiah after the horrible events that he had spoken of for so many years actually came to pass? If you have revealed great blessings to come and then they do come, you are a popular prophet. What happens to the man who prophesies disaster after the day of trouble finally comes? Yes, he was right, but who can celebrate about that. Even Jeremiah had wanted the facts of false prophets to be true, though he knew that they were not. There is no room for celebration when the land is going into exile.

We find the prophet in chains, along with the rest of the people who are being carried away. It is as if all distinction between Jeremiah and the rest of the people has been lost. Like Jesus who is baptized by John with a baptism of repentance though He has no sin, Jeremiah is in chains. The prophet had been singled out for special protection, but now he is seemingly just another face in a crowd of disheartened exiles. He does not appear to run away from association with the rest of the people of God, though he had long ago counseled various kings and the people concerning the judgment of God that they should surrender to the Babylonians. The rulers of the people would not listen to Jeremiah, and now he is in chains like everyone else.

The situation seems to change abruptly as the captain of the guard speaks of the Lord’s judgment against His people in the unfolding of those events. Jeremiah now listens, as this official recounts words that are like Jeremiah’s of earlier days. What has happened to Judah is an expression of God’s judgment against them. It was by the Lord’s pronouncement that Judah was destroyed, and people were sent away in chains. It was because of their sin, because they did not obey His voice.

Jeremiah was given his freedom by the captain of the guard. Other men would have no such liberty. Jeremiah could choose to go to Babylon if this seemed right to him. He could remain in the land if that seemed right to him. He was released, but He stayed with the poor and the despised in the land, the ones who did not heed his earlier warnings to surrender in Babylon. At the suggestion of the captain of the guard, he took up residence with the new governor of the land. Like Joseph of old who was forgotten in Pharaoh’s prison, he was suddenly eating at the king’s table, not as one who was forced to be one place or another, but because it apparently seemed to him to be the right thing to do.

To be with the new governor, Gedaliah, seemed to be a choice of safety in a situation where security may have been important. This man was the choice of the king of Babylon. He was surrounded by others who were also men of approved position. The former king, Zedekiah, was now a blind man, and his sons were dead. Not only this, but Gedaliah’s message was one of relative peace. The people should submit to the Babylonians, and serve the foreign king, and it would go well for them. For a time it appeared that things were going very well. People began to come back to Judah who had been driven away to other lands in earlier days. When they returned it seems that the yield of the land was good.

Nonetheless, Gedaliah had been joined by a number of the captains of various military forces in the open country, one of whom would soon murder him. Gedaliah had received a warning regarding this man, but had dismissed it as a false report. We will consider this murder in its place, but we need to see here that there would be much turmoil in the land and in Jeremiah’s life. The order and peace would be short-lived as powerful people arose trying to establish themselves, even through murder.

This world is a dangerous place. The true prophet of the Lord has the privilege of addressing the leading cause of instability in the affairs of men and nations – the problem of our sin. There is no cheap solution to sin. Only through the blood of the Son of God, could true peace come to any Jew, and between Jews and Gentiles.

The Son of God came with great prophetic insight. He announced the fall of Jerusalem just as Jeremiah had announced the destruction of the city centuries before. Jeremiah was not happy to give this message. Jesus also expressed His love for Jerusalem though he knew of the coming day of desolation upon the city. He said to those who would hear in Matthew 23, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate.”

The Lord uses the name of this city to refer to a new city that is the gathering of His chosen flock. His new Jerusalem will be a place of lasting peace – even peace between Jews and Gentiles through the Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ. He would fulfill the Law of Moses, and in dying for our sins He would somehow put to death the law that was against us and that served as a dividing wall of hostility between the Jews and the other nations. Especially Jesus would bring a lasting peace between God and His people that no murderers could take away.

In this world we face much grief and danger. There are wars and rumors of wars. Nations rise and fall, and the sword of men pierces many mothers’ hearts. Yet the Son of Man has won a lasting peace for us through His blood. We will one day recognize the brevity of our life of trouble now when compared with the thousands and thousands of years that we will enjoy in the new Jerusalem that Christ has won for us.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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