Jeremiah 41
We are encouraged to bring our prayers to God with confidence. We are told to ask, and that we shall receive. We are also told to expect sufferings. As our Savior faced great difficulties and troubles, as He was surely a man of sorrows, we too will face many trials. Somehow the Lord will answer our prayers far beyond even our expectations, and yet we will still have suffering. It will help us to remember that the godly man knows that he is a servant of God as well as a son of God through adoption, and he desires, in his better moments to suffer for Him even though that may mean all kinds of difficulties as we move by God’s grace to the place of His great glory.
Even the greatest moments in the service of the Lord on earth will have divinely planned setbacks and difficulties according to the mercy and wisdom of the Lord. This is something that we see in the sacred record given to us in the Scriptures. Every parable reaches its limit, for the good things of God will be better than any story that can be told about God’s eternal gifts. Every victory in the history of God’s people will also reach some boundary of joy, for we are still here below. Therefore even the greatest day may be swiftly followed by some bitter disappointment. Even the faithful servant of today who shows us something wonderful of Christ through his life, may soon show us a glimpse of the deep sin of man when the day of testing comes.
Johanan is the hero of this chapter who shows us something of our Savior, but in chapter 43 he and his companions will reject the plain word of the Lord and give themselves over to idolatry. This is deeply disappointing, but we must be able to see the good that he displays in Jeremiah 41 as a way of honoring the Lord, though we know that by chapter 43 he will seem more like the man he rightly opposes in Jeremiah 41.
Johanan had warned the governor, Gedaliah, concerning a man named Ishmael, who he claimed was in league with the Ammonites and who would murder Gedaliah, the man who had been made governor by the conquering Babylonians. This Ishmael, like the more famous biblical character of the same name, was a wild donkey of a man. He apparently was also a member of the royal family, a descendant of David. Not every descendant of David followed in the godly heritage of their ancestor, who himself was a famous sinner according to his own words in Psalm 51. This Ishmael was more like an Absalom than a David. In the face of Babylonian conquest of the land, he takes matters in his own hands. Like a Judas, who would betray the best descendant of David, Ishmael is full of lies and deception. He may seem to some observers to be a patriot standing against a foreign power. He and ten men with him pretend to be men of peace, and enjoy table fellowship with Gedeliah the governor. Then they murder him.
Who is the real patriot in
Ishmael is nothing more than a ruthless criminal. He is good with his tears at the right moment, as some are able to give the kiss of a friend to the man that they will betray. He kills not only Gedaliah, but goes on to kill those desiring to come to worship God. He and his band of rebels throw their bodies into a well, unless of course they can lead them to some hidden stores of supplies. That knowledge saves the lives of a few of the men. The rest are thrown into an ancient cistern.
Ishmael’s secret is soon obvious to all as he takes the remaining poor people in the land captive with a plan to escape with them to the Ammonites. A promising deliverer arises at this point in Johanan, the leader who had earlier warned Gedaliah of Ishamael’s murderous plot. Those who have been forced as prisoners of Ishmael to flee with him now rejoice in the arrival of Johanan who has come to stop Ishmael. The murderer of Gedaliah is able to escape with a few of his men. Though he is now gone from the scene, the damage is done. Surely the Babylonians will come and bring trouble upon the people in the land. No one seems to want to attempt to make the explanation to the Babylonian officials that it was someone else who killed the man that they put in power. They now make plans to flee to
Like the people who had been captured by the evil betrayer Ishmael, we long for the appearance of our strong Deliverer. We do not want to be taken away to some strange land by worldly liars and murderers. Our Redeemer will return and He will bring us home. He was courageous even unto death in His first coming, and there will be no denying Him in His second coming. He will bring the fullest victory. There is no evil empire that He fears. He is God. He is King. He is our Redeemer. He is the best answer to all of our prayers, and it is a privilege to suffer briefly now for the eternal glory of His holy name.
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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