Day 165: Jeremiah Goes Back to Judah

Jeremiah 40:1-6

The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were carried away captive to Babylon. The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, “Yahweh your God pronounced this evil on this place; and Yahweh has brought it, and done according as he spoke. Because you have sinned against Yahweh, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing has come on you. Now, behold, I release you today from the chains which are on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will take care of you; but if it seems bad to you to come with me into Babylon, don’t. Behold, all the land is before you. Where it seems good and right to you to go, there go.” Now while he had not yet gone back, “Go back then,” he said, “to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go.”

So the captain of the guard gave him food and a present, and let him go. Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, and lived with him among the people who were left in the land.

One of the things that really strikes me about this passage is the fact that Babylon’s captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, was so aware of God. He knew that the reason that Babylon had taken Judah in battle was because the God of all Heaven was punishing them. It appears that the Babylonians were paying closer attention to the Bible than Judah was. Isn’t that interesting? It’s possible for the religious to get so caught up in their religion that they fail to listen to and believe in the Bible. It is also possible for those who are completely un-religious to hear what the Bible says and change their lives because of it.

It would also appear that Jeremiah was actually popular with the king in Babylon. I’ve noticed that this is true in countries that actually have leadership that believes in the Bible. Crossing the boarder can be a life-changing experience. When the leadership of a country becomes anti-Bible, people like Jeremiah are hated, but when the leadership is pro-Bible, people like Jeremiah are treated with great respect.

Jeremiah was bound with all of the other captives at first but later was unbound and given freedom to go wherever he wanted to go. Isn’t that amazing? The captain actually said to Jeremiah: “Behold, all the land is before you. Where it seems good and right to you to go, there go.” This is the freedom that a true believer in God is supposed to have. In this world, it is rarely given, but there are times when God allows His will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

So, with food and a present given to him by Babylon, Jeremiah chose to go back to live with the poor people who were left behind in Judah. Not long before this time, Jeremiah was wondering if he would be left to die in well of mud but in the end Jeremiah was given freedom by God to stay in the land and live with his people. It’s pretty revealing that Jeremiah chose to stay in Judah. The country was destroyed now and very depressing. It would have been a pretty good deal to be living off of the government in Babylon where things were probably much nicer. It stands as a testimony to the heart of Jeremiah. He never wanted his people to leave the land, and neither did God. God’s heart was in Judah and Jeremiah represented the heart of God in his decision.

Pastors are Avoiding Government Matters

Why do pastors and leaders avoid talking about government matters? Thankfully, there are a few who do, but it appears that the vast majority in the United States avoid talking about the government.

This is not wise because the Word of God has things to say about what is going on in government today. Without the Bible being applied to government, government has a chance to go unchecked and become increasingly wicked. I believe that it is very likely that the reason we are seeing the horrific wickedness in government now is because we as believers have avoided our responsibility to apply the Great Commission to the government.

Jesus told us to go into “all the world” and to teach “everything” Jesus commanded. Jesus commanded that government is not to be wicked and is also to submit to Jesus. The Great Commission even says that “all authority has been given to me.” This means that even the Great Commission says that governments must all submit to Jesus. This is what we are to teach those in government so that they can be convicted of sin and accept the Gospel which saves them from their sin.

If we refuse to show people their sin, we are refusing to preach the Gospel. Here’s a message from one pastor who understands this issue. He’s also guiding his congregation to not take the vaccines. You can hear the reasoning in this video:

Day 155: Mob Justice

Jeremiah 37:11-15

When the army of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, then Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in the middle of the people. When he was in Benjamin’s gate, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans!”

Then Jeremiah said, “That is false! I am not defecting to the Chaldeans.”

But he didn’t listen to him; so Irijah seized Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes. The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.

It’s pretty obvious that this passage is relevant today. They had mobs back in Jeremiah’s day but they were nothing like the ones we have today. With the presence of world-wide social media, an accusation can turn into condemnation in a matter of seconds. I happen to live in an area in the United States in which this has happened multiple times in the last 20 years. In Jeremiah’s case, he was merely leaving town at a time when he could do business outside of the city. This appears to have been the business of acquiring the land that God told him to purchase. While he was doing that, he was falsely accused of attempting to defect to Babylon. Instead of being given a proper trial, they simply kidnapped him, beat him and locked him in jail.

There’s a lot of things for us to learn from these events. First of all, doing God’s will doesn’t always mean that you won’t be opposed or stay out of trouble. In this case, Jeremiah was completely obedient to God, yet he ended up being accused, beat and thrown in jail! Was this a sign that he was outside of God’s will? Absolutely not, but isn’t that what we think sometimes? We need to remember events like these when we go through trouble. We especially need to remember them when we are tempted to accuse other Christians of sin when things don’t go well for them. The Bible clearly illustrates the fact that good people often suffer persecution and it should be very obvious that this continues in our cultures today. Let’s remember what Jesus told us:

Luke 6:22-23

Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.

Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.

Another important thing to pay attention to is that government officials and police have a very serious responsibility to follow the law and to not jump to conclusions based on appearances. Israeli law clearly stated that no one was to be accused without a proper trial, yet that’s exactly what happened to Jeremiah here. Ancient Israeli law actually forms the bases for our laws for trials today. Israel had these very laws already but they abandoned them in their own fear and passion. Any of us in positions of authority have the ability to do this whether we are managers, parents or older siblings. Let’s learn from this and stand up for justice. Let’s allow God to show us the facts before we jump to conclusions. Let’s also remember that social media is often used to slander people. This is a sin that actually keeps people from heaven. As I have mentioned before it’s right up there with all the other big ones like murder and sexual sins. Christians should have nothing to do with social media slander but should be a force of righteousness that moves people toward the proper methods of justice.

Day 152: Tyranny and the Fear of God

Jeremiah 36:19-26

Then the princes said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah go hide. Don’t let anyone know where you are.”

They went in to the king into the court, but they had laid up the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe. Then they told all the words in the hearing of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the room of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king, and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire in the brazier burning before him. When Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. The king and his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, and didn’t tear their garments. Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them. The king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but Yahweh hid them.

There’s a lot about these verses that are troubling because of how similar they are to things that I see happening in the United States and in the world today. Here we see that the king and his men took written words of God and attempted to destroy them, while the people and their princes respected God’s word and were afraid. It appears that evil men had taken hold of the highest positions of government, leaving the vast majority under their wicked domination. There were even princes of the people who feared God, yet the top levels of the government boldly opposed Him. It’s pretty obvious that these evil leaders had come to the conclusion that God didn’t have any real power to do anything against them. What I see is that evil usually has to force its will by taking over human governments. It appears that the common man and most leaders are able to fear God after hearing His word, but the most wicked are not moved. When those most wicked men take over the government at the highest level, the righteous men often have to hide, and that’s what Baruch and Jeremiah did.

There are some good things here. The fact that God gave Jeremiah and Baruch a chance to hide is one of them. Another good thing is that there were princes who did fear God. They must have known, however, that the king and his men didn’t because they told Baruch and Jeremiah to hide before they even went to the king. Could it be that the princes were aware of evil but were too afraid to oppose the king all this time? It’s interesting to me that so many common men and even leaders were able to fear God even during this time of God’s judgment. The Bible is clear that even in the very last days, this same kind of thing will happen. Even though the anti-christ will take power, he will kill huge numbers of believers during the great tribulation and many Israelis will go into hiding. Some will be protected by God in such a way that they won’t even have to hide. It would appear that the majority of the people were willing to fear God at this point. That causes me to think that a democratic form of government would have worked better in this situation. Even so, leaders would have to respect that form of government in order for it to work and when a tyrant takes over, they may claim to be democratic but actually work against it.

A Book that General Flynn Recommends to Government Officers

I’ve talked a lot about The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates. In this video, I learned that General Michael Flynn is recommending the book too. Watch this:

Day 117: God Chooses King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon

Jeremiah 27:1-7

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, Yahweh says to me: “Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck. Then send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the children of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. Give them a command to their masters, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “You shall tell your masters: ‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him. All the nations will serve him, his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their bondservant.

No one should ever accuse God of failing to communicate. God is the very best communicator and this book of Jeremiah is a great example. God has been speaking much the same message over and over in various ways to various people on earth through Jeremiah. Here, God chooses to send an illustration out with messengers to the nations in the middle east. He has Jeremiah make bonds and bars and then makes him wear them. Then, he gets messengers and sends these bonds and bars to five nations. You can imagine how getting a bond or a bar in the mail would get your attention. If the messenger was then to tell you that Jeremiah, a prophet in Israel, wore these and took them off to have me bring them to you. Then he would tell them that Jeremiah said that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon is going to take over your land and all of the land in the area because Israel’s God, the One who made it all, has decided. That would communicate don’t you think?

God is also communicating to us right now through this message. He’s reminding us that He “made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth” by His power. It reminds us that He is the One who is in complete control of all of the leadership on the face of the earth. Notice that eventually, even Nebuchadnezzar’s time of judgment was to come and at that time, the land was to be taken from him. I’m not sure that Nebuchadnezzar was willing to admit that He was God’s servant at first, yet, that’s what God called him. The Bible tells us that God calls all who have positions of authority, His servants. God even chose us to be parents or older siblings or aunts and uncles. We were given authority by our birth order not by our power. God has and always will control the governments of the world and we have nothing to worry about. Our job is to depend on God’s good purposes and obey His word.

Day 116: God’s Power and Good Leadership

Jeremiah 26:17-24

Then certain of the elders of the land rose up, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, “Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says:
“ ‘Zion will be plowed as a field,
and Jerusalem will become heaps,
and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.’
Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Didn’t he fear Yahweh, and entreat the favor of Yahweh, and Yahweh relented of the disaster which he had pronounced against them? We would commit great evil against our own souls that way!”

There was also a man who prophesied in Yahweh’s name, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath Jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. When Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt. Then Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt; and they fetched Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that they didn’t give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

It’s interesting that the Bible doesn’t say that the majority of the leaders got together and took a vote as to whether or not to kill Jeremiah. All it says is that “certain of the elders of the land rose up, and spoke.” In fact, God also tells us here that if it wasn’t for “the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan,” Jeremiah would have been given “into the hand of the people to put him to death.”

This demonstrates the power of a few wise leaders. Even if the majority is wrong, a single wise leader can change the course of history. God didn’t use a vote to change the direction of the people. He used the wise words of what appears to be a small minority. This demonstrates that righteousness doesn’t come from voting, but from those who understand the truth of the situation.

In this case, the wise leaders reminded the people of their own history. It would be wrong to kill someone for prophesying against Jerusalem and Israel because good prophets had said things like this before. Hezekiah was one of the greatest kings in Judah and he didn’t kill the prophet Micah when he warned them about the same thing. Instead, the king humbled himself and prayed that God would change His mind. It appears that the second argument was that another prophet had already prophesied the very same thing. His name was Uriah and he had already been killed by the king. Jews know that the word of two witnesses establishes a fact and Jeremiah was the second witness. This was a very serious warning and it appears to have affected the people enough to stop their plans to kill Jeremiah.

These events remind us of some encouraging things. You don’t have to be in the majority to be right and to change public opinion. It also shows us that God is capable of saving us from something horrible even when it doesn’t look possible.