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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the
prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the Lord. “I
am going to ask you something,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not hide
anything from me.”
Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I give you an
answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not
listen to me.”
But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to
Jeremiah: “As surely as the Lord lives, who has given us breath, I will neither
kill you nor hand you over to those who want to kill you.”
Jeremiah
38:14-16
This ends today’s reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have
you ever told someone something, following it up with a statement to reinforce
the truth of what you were saying?
I
think we may have all done it at some time or another, especially when we might
be trying to convince someone to believe something that might be hard to
believe. At other times, we may do it if we feel the person we’re speaking to
is showing signs of not believing what we are saying. Still at other times, a
person might try and validate their statements if they had been guilty of not
telling the truth in the past.
The
point is that there are any number of things that may lead a person to do it
and they may use any number of sayings to serve their purpose.
We
can see a great example of this in today’s scripture passage as we continue our
study of the Book of Jeremiah, and specifically, chapter 38. Look again at this
exchange between Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and Jeremiah, God’s prophet:
Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to
the third entrance to the temple of the Lord. “I am going to ask you
something,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”
Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I give you an answer, will you not kill
me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.”
But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: “As surely as
the Lord lives, who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you
over to those who want to kill you.” Jeremiah
38:14-16
To
review a little, you’ll recall that Jeremiah had been on a roller coaster ride
of late.
First,
he tried to leave Jerusalem after the withdrawal of the Babylonian army to
check out the property he had purchased in the territory of Benjamin but before
he departed, he was confronted, accused, arrested, and beaten before being
placed in a dungeon cell.
Then,
Jeremiah was called to have a private meeting with Zedekiah who asked if the
Lord had any message for him. You’ll recall the prophet told the king he would
be removed from power and handed over to the Babylonians. This was followed by
Jeremiah asking Zedekiah why he was being held unjustly. Zedekiah agreed to
release Jeremiah from his cell and allowed him to reside on the courtyard of
the guard.
Everything
seemed good for Jeremiah at that point but then some of Zedekiah’s officials
came to the king and proposed that Jeremiah should be put to death for the
messages he had shared, messages that had disturbed the Israelite soldiers and
people. The king placed Jeremiah’s fate in the hands of his officials who
lowered the prophet into a cistern where he sunk into mud, sure to either
suffocate, starve, or both.
Finally,
a Cushite by the name of Ebed-Melek approached Zedekiah and pleaded for him to
not allow Jeremiah to die. Zedekiah gave Ebed-Melek permission to rescue
Jeremiah from the cistern and again, Jeremiah had relative safety again in the
courtyard of the guard.
And
that brings us to today’s scripture and yet another encounter between Judah’s
king and God’s prophet. We read where Zedekiah summons Jeremiah and asks to
meet him in the temple of the Lord. Once there, the king is interested in
hearing Jeremiah’s answer to a question he had and added the following:
“Do
not hide anything from me.”
Of
interest, Jeremiah had never held anything back from the king. The problem was
that the king heard what he wanted to hear, not necessarily what the Lord
wanted him to hear. The Israelite officials and people under his rule were
guilty of the same thing.
When
Jeremiah replies, we know his words are ones of reservation because as we have
already discussed, the king was not much of a Jeremiah supporter. Rather, he
seemed to flip flop between killing God’s messenger and saving him. That would
make anyone uneasy so we should be able to completely understand Jeremiah’s
state of mind when he replies to the king:
“If I give you an answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you
counsel, you would not listen to me.”
It
seems the prophet knew the king all too well.
So
Zedekiah needed to say something convincing to Jeremiah, something that would
put the prophet at ease and willing to answer his question. His words were
definitely not what one would expect to come from him, particularly since the
scriptures have already told us that Zedekiah had no interest in the word of
the Lord spoken through Jeremiah (Jeremiah 37:2). The king had done nothing but
disrespect and disregard the Lord but now look at the words that he spoke back
to Jeremiah:
“As surely as the Lord lives, who has given us breath, I will neither
kill you nor hand you over to those who want to kill you.”
Wow!
Now that was an amazing oath delivered by the king. And if Zedekiah truly meant
what he said, it was quite a shift in his attitude toward the Lord. For note
the following assertions about his apparent beliefs drawn from what he said:
1. The Lord lives.
In
saying, “As surely as the Lord lives”, Zedekiah was confessing that the Lord
was alive. In other words, the Lord who Jeremiah said was speaking through him
was real, not just some fabrication of Jeremiah’s imagination.
2. The living Lord sustains
life.
The
Lord is not only alive but King Zedekiah acknowledges that He keeps everyone
else alive as well, providing breath.
With
this, we see that Zedekiah is actually saying that his words are as true as the
Lord is living and as sure as the Lord sustains life, both of which are
absolute facts. Thus, Zedekiah is swearing an oath that can’t be denied as
false.
He
said he would preserve Jeremiah’s life by not killing himself or turn the
prophet over to anyone else who would kill him, and that’s exactly what
happened. More on that as we continue our study of this book.
So
what is the word of God trying to convey to us today regarding how we should
relate to one another, especially when making assurances to others?
Well,
it really comes down to ensuring that we stay true to our word when we tell
someone we are going to do something. Our words need to be as true as the certainty
that the Lord lives and makes the way for us to live as well. We can do that by
allowing the Lord’s words and promises to be our own, by letting Him dictate
the things we say and the pledges we make.
The
Lord will never speak falsehood and we can be seen as people of the same kind
of integrity when we surrender our will and words to Him.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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