Trusting God when opposed . . .

 

READ Jeremiah 36–39

Purging my house and computer files brought me to hundreds of articles, Bible study lessons, and other things written, many of them published. My daughter told me to save them. But I wonder what will happen to them after I am gone. Will anyone read them? I identify with this story, in a very small way.

At the command of God, Jeremiah used a secretary named Baruch to write the words God had spoken to him. Since he was banned from the house of the Lord, he told his secretary “go, and on a day of fasting in the hearing of all the people in the Lord’s house you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll that you have written at my dictation.” His hope was that the people would hear it, plead to God for mercy, and turn from evil “for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” (Jeremiah 36:4–7)

The secretary read it and some of the officials heard it and “turned one to another in fear” deciding, “We must report all these words to the king.” They also said to Baruch, “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.” (36:9–19)

The scroll was read to the king while he sat with a fire burning in a nearby pot. As the reader “read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed . . . .” He did not listen to those who urged him to stop burning the scroll. Instead, he ordered Baruch and Jeremiah seized, “but the Lord hid them” and kept them safe. (36:22–26)

The Lord told Jeremiah to rewrite it, and to tell this king (Jehoiakim) that “he shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night. And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the people of Judah all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, but they would not hear.” (36:27–31) Jeremiah did what God told him.

Just like Jehoiakim, there are those who believe if we destroy or ignore God’s judgment, it will go away. Not so. God’s warnings are for His people to turn away from sin rather than lose everything.

Jeremiah warned the next king also, but Zedekiah tossed him in prison. However, this ruler eventually sent for him and “questioned him secretly” asking, “Is there any word from the Lord?” Jeremiah told him the same message, “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” The prophet asked to not be sent back to die, and the king put him in a safer place and made sure of his care. (37:16–21)

However, others managed to take the prophet and toss him in a cistern without water. He sank in the mud until a concerned Ethiopian lifted him out and put him back in a safer place. (38:8–13)

The siege happened. Babylon captured the city, took Zedekiah, slaughtered his sons and put out his eyes. Almost everyone was carried into exile. However, the Lord delivered Jeremiah because the king of Babylon gave this command, “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.” (39:11–12) This happened just as God said:

But I will deliver you on that day, declares the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the Lord.’ ” (39:17–18)

We can have confidence that in these troublesome days, God will take care of His people. He enables obedience so we are not transported by our enemies to live as they live. For us, our enemies are not flesh and blood but the powers of the unseen world. Satan and his forces want us destroyed literally or overtaken by sin. However, we have eternal life, so death merely ushers us into heaven. We also have the power of God to overcome sin and need not to fall into that trap. Like these Israeli kings, we may live in a hostile world, but obedience to God can give us the deliverance Jeremiah experienced, or at least protect us from being overwhelmed by the sin around us. Zedekiah could not even see it and he was well cared for in Babylon!

I do not want a spiritual blindness that renders me oblivious to the conditions around me and unable to pray for those who need the grace of God. Lord, help me to see what You want me to see, say, and write what You want, trusting You with how others respond.