Tag Archives: Bible Difficulties

Day 216: The God of Justice and Mercy

Jeremiah 52:31-34

In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and released him from prison. He spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life. For his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Evidently, it took two days for king Evilmerodach to get Jehoiachin out of jail. I’m not sure about that but what we do know is that King Jehoiachin was released from jail on both the 25th and the 27th of the month. That’s because in 2 Kings 25:27 we read that Jehoiachin was actually released on the 27th. Perhaps it was officially decided on the 25th and ultimately executed on the 27th. I don’t believe that there is an error in the original text. It could be that the translation that we have of the original has an error but it appears to be more likely that the writers are writing from two different perspectives. One is probably talking about when the degree was issued, and the other is probably talking about the actual day that Jehoiachin walked out of jail. An accusation against the Bible, built on this alone, would be pretty pathetic since there isn’t enough information to prove that there is an error here. Still, I like to mention it so that no one is surprised when they see or hear about it.

The bigger thing to see here is the mercy and grace of God. Even here at the end of a book about the horrors of God’s judgment against sin, we read that mercy and grace was extended to Jehoiachin. This wasn’t just mercy toward this king. It was also mercy toward the nation of Israel. God had not forgotten them and He intended to do everything He said He would do

We have been following God’s story of the salvation of the human race. It’s no surprise that these events are followed by this amazing little passage. God is making it perfectly clear that He is a God of salvation. No one is beyond His mercy. Even after all of the sin and all of the prophesy that God performed against Judah, His grace came through in the end. This is the God that we have. I think that we know this in our hearts. God has put the truth in us that our God must be both a good judge and a merciful person. As a result we all have the same choice today. Either we will accept God’s mercy, or receive the judgment we deserve.

Day 101: The Troubling Curse of Coniah

Jeremiah 22:24-30

“As I live,” says Yahweh, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, I would still pluck you from there. I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will cast you out with your mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born; and there you will die. But to the land to which their soul longs to return, there they will not return.”
Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel?
Is he a vessel in which no one delights?
Why are they cast out, he and his offspring,
and cast into a land which they don’t know?
O earth, earth, earth,
hear Yahweh’s word!
Yahweh says,
“Record this man as childless,
a man who will not prosper in his days;
for no more will a man of his offspring prosper,
sitting on David’s throne,
and ruling in Judah.”

This passage holds so many things that could be confusing and lead to criticism of the Bible that I don’t think I would be able to do it justice in a single devotional. First of all Coniah isn’t mentioned in the Bible anywhere but here. To make matters even more interesting, Jehoiakim’s son had two other names: Jeconiah and Jehoiachin. It appears that this person had three names. Not only that, we learn in 2 Chronicles 36:9 that he took the throne at 8 years old. He’s the guy that the Bible said did evil in God’s sight even at that young age.

The second thing we read here is that God says that even if Coniah were his special ring on His right hand He would still take it of and give it to Judah’s enemies. It might sound as if Coniah’s behavior wouldn’t matter; that even if he was a good king God would give him over to his enemies, but that would appear to be a wrong interpretation too. The Bible tells us that Jehoiachin was a bad king. The issue must be one of God’s desire to prize David’s family. God appears to be demonstrating the fact that no matter how much He wanted to help David’s kingly line, He was obligated to curse them because of sin.

Next, the curse appears to be saying that Jehoiachin was to never have children. We know that is wrong because we have a genealogy in the Bible that traces back to Jehoiachin. More on that later, but how can this not be an error? Well, just because someone has children doesn’t mean that God recognizes them as an heir to the throne. Notice that God carefully said: “Record this man as childless.” In context that would make sense. God was not going to recognize this man’s children as kings anymore.

Finally, this curse is a horrible prophetic dilemma. God both promised the kingdom to David forever and cursed his kingly line right here! How can that be anything but a discrepancy in the Bible? This is where you are going to have to do some study. The answer appears to be in another thing that looks like a discrepancy. There are two very different genealogies for Jesus given in the Bible. One in Luke and the other in Matthew. Scholars have come to see that one of the genealogies follows the line of Joseph and the other follows the line of Mary. Joseph’s line was the cursed line of Jehoiachin. He was the legal father of Jesus but not a physical father. Mary was also in the line of Judah but not in the line of Jehoiachin.

God really knows what He’s doing doesn’t He? There are many places in the Bible that are challenging to a critical mind. I believe that God expects us to address these things, but I also believe that He wants us to trust Him when we can’t see the answers yet. He allows the temptation to doubt to exist but our job is to believe with out wavering and wait for God to show Himself to be true when we don’t understand.

Day 100
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Day 102