Jeremiah 38:28

And Jeremiah remained a prisoner in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

I have a couple of thoughts about chapter 37-38.  First, why would the Egyptians come to help the Israelites?  In chapter 37, Babylon temporarily abandons its siege of Israel because the Egyptian army appears at the southern border of Israel.  I don’t know much about the relationship between these two countries, but I didn’t realize they were friendly enough to help each other our in times of war!

Second, King Zedekiah seems like an incredibly wishy-washy king!  He puts Jeremiah in prison because Jeremiah asks not to be put in the dungeon again.  Then, he listens to an official who speaks against Jeremiah and throws him in a cistern (a deep well that was out of water).  Then another official came to ask the King to think again about what he’d done, so the King throws Jeremiah back in prison after allowing the official to put Jeremiah out of the cistern.  Talk about easily swayed!  He was also pretty scared.  He didn’t want anyone to know he’d spoken to Jeremiah, and later, instead of surrendering like Jeremiah said he should, he tries to flee the city.

I don’t know what the lesson is from this…  but it was interesting to me.  Oh, and one last thing…  Jeremiah stayed in prison for two more years until the Babylonians captured the city.  I was thinking that it must have been pretty scary to have been in the city when the Babylonians finally did break through.  The end time of anything can be frightening and uncertain.  But Jeremiah knew that God loved him, so he knew God would take care of him.  That doesn’t mean he wasn’t scared, but I’ll bet he spent a lot of time praying, and I’d imagine that God talked back.

This chapter tells of the Jeremiah and a scroll.  God told him to have a scribe write down all his prophecies and words from God in the hopes that by seeing what was going to happen, the King would be afraid and repent.  Instead, when the king read the words, he cut them off and burned them piece-by-piece!  He was not afraid, not at all remorseful!  So, God said that he’d be killed and tossed in the street and that he would never have a decendant on the throne.  And, he commanded Jeremiah to rewrite the words on a new scroll.

This king was blatantly disrespecting God.  He was bowing up against God’s authority and saying, through his actions, that he didn’t care what God said.  Not a very wise king.  But our children sometimes bow up against their parents and that leads to punishment for them, too.  Unfortunately, this foolish king received some very hard terms of his punishment, and all of Israel would suffer, too.

My thought is, instead of ignoring God’s words to us, we should listen.  Then, we won’t have to endure the great punishment or consequence that comes from ignoring God and thinking that we are better than He is.

Jeremiah 28:10

Then Hananiah the prophet took the Yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it.

Hananiah was prophecying that the Babylonians would return the captives and all the temple treasure and that Israel would be free of the yoke of bondage within two years.  Jeremiah knew he wasn’t really giving the people a word from God, but he knew the people wanted to believe Hananiah.  Later God told Jeremiah to give a message to Hananiah.  He told him that Hananiah had broken a wooden yoke, but that it would be replaced with an iron yoke that was even more oppressive.  He also said that Hananiah would die within a year because of his false prophecies and because he led the people astray (even more).

So I was trying to apply this to life.  It’s in the Bible so there’s got to be something.  My thought is that sometimes we carry a wooden yoke because God is trying to teach us something important or to discipline us lightly to keep us from doing the wrong thing (and often, from hurting ourselves).  It’s tempting to do everything in our power to escape from the yoke and get free.  The lies of the world and, sometimes, of very well-meaning people lead us to believe that surely God wouldn’t discipline us or allow trouble in our lives.  Surely it’s a test and surely if we were good enough or prayed enough or followed this special formula (that they’d tell us about, if we’d just donate a little to the proper cause) that it would all go away.

That’s why it’s so important to pray and read God’s Words for ourselves.  If we do, we’d know the truth about our struggles, we’d know the voice of our Father, and we’d be less likely to be fooled by people.  Remember Job’s friends?  I think they meant well, but the information and advice they gave him were waaaaay off base (so much so that God wanted to punish them pretty severely, but Job interceded).  I know in my life I’ve listened to others or done what I wanted instead of asking God and being patient enough to listen (and be willing enough to get an answer I didn’t want), and that’s always resulted in my situation growing even worse.

So, don’t try to break the yoke that God gives.  Instead submit, offer it to God (in Matthew 11:30 Jesus says,
“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”) and accept with faith what He has for you.  I know I’d rather carry Jesus’ yoke than the yoke this world would give me.  Either way I’m carrying something.  At least I know that Jesus has my best in mind.

Jeremiah 25:3

“For the past twenty-three years … the Lord has been giving me his messages.  I have faithfully passed them on to you but you have not listened.”

I didn’t realize that Jeremiah had been warning the Israelites for 23 years!  Good grief!  That’s a long time – for God to keep warning and for the people to ignore him!  I wonder how often God warns us over and over and over, and we ignore him or are just oblivious to him.

Later in the next chapter, Jeremiah is almost mobbed for telling the people that the Temple will be destroyed.  He is brought before a court that declares he hasn’t done anything deserving death, saying that his message is, in fact, from God.  The wise old men even recall what happened when the people heeded a previous prophets warning and repented thereby averting the impending disaster.  You’d think that after acknowledge that the warning was from God and remember that if they obeyed God would relent, and after so much time, they’d actually listen!  But, no.  They kept right on doing their own thing, signing their own warrant.  And after waiting patiently for them to turn (for 23 years, no less) God finally sends his disaster as Babylon attacks and carries thousands into captivity.

So the question is, do we recognize God’s warnings and change our ways?  Or do we keep on going, even knowing that what we’re doing is wrong?

This verse made me think of our culture. We go around pretending that there is no God or that He is impersonal and uninterested in our lives. It gives us a feeling that we are powerful or in control. But in the end, who is the one who is getting hurt? Does pretending there isn’t a God make it true? It makes Him sad, but it doesn’t make Him not God. We hurt ourselves by taking on the weights and worries of this world, by trusting in ourselves instead of allowing the God who made us and knows exactly the perfect solution to lead us. We like to think we are so self-sufficient, but we hurt ourselves by making it all so hard when there is a loving Father who wants to help. We just need to stop trying to play God and trust God to BE God.

Israel is determined to do things her own way, falling in with the nations around her instead of staying true to the commands that God gave their forefathers. The sad result of this is that in chapter 7 God says that He has rejected and forsaken this generation. In chapter 6 he talks about how they are labeled “Rejected Silver” because He is discarding them.

I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be discarded and forsaken by God. We are blessed because we have the promise of Jesus to never leave us or forsake us. But that promise is made to His children. As part of His family, we may sadden Him and He may allow us to feel the consequences of our actions when we reject Him and His paths, but He won’t abandon us.

To be abandoned and discarded, just pushed aside, would be horrible. But God doesn’t do that lightly. Even then He had reminded them time and again that they were doing the wrong thing and needed to change. And time and again they ignored Him, even killing His messengers. He is incredibly patient, but finally decides that enough is enough and there will be consequences to their actions.

I am so thankful that God is patient with me, even when I’ve earned the consequences I’m experiencing. I’m thankful that He wants to show me the right path. I’m thankful that He won’t discard or forsake me. And I am thankful that my heart is still soft enough to respond to His checks and prompts. I pray that it is always that way and that I don’t ever get to the place where I reject Him and His path again.