The challenge of taking God’s Word to heart (Jeremiah 39)

Distrust towards God and His Word seems to be programmed into our sinful heart. Like the serpent asked in the garden of Eden, ‘Did God really say…?’ (Gen 3:1). When God’s Word teaches something we do not like, or something that goes against the cultural expectations of the day, we may be tempted to ask whether God really said that or if it is a matter of interpretation. And if He said it, did He really mean it? Maybe the delay in His Word coming true means that it won’t happen… Or maybe God just wants to deprive us from something good (cf. Gen 3:4-5). The variations on this theme are endless, but at its root, it questions God’s truthfulness or His motives in wanting our good.

Rejecting and fighting God’s Word and will

This was Jeremiah’s experience as he spoke God’s Word over and over again. Neither king, nor people listened. But now, after a siege that lasted a year and a half (Jer 52:4-6), Jerusalem finally fell (Jer 39:2-3). The king’s palace was on the eastern side of the city and his attempt to leave by way of the Kidron valley and escape into the trans-Jordan (the Arabah sometimes refers loosely to the rift valley of the Jordan; Jer 39:4), was futile. God’s Word cannot be evaded, and the Babylonians caught up with him near Jericho (Jer 39:5). What follows makes for gruesome reading in this stark, unemotional account. The king’s succession is cut off by the execution of his sons and it is the last thing he will ever see before taken into Babylon in chains (Jer 39:6-7). His officials executed, the city wall broken down, the palace and people’s houses burnt (Jer 39:8), there is nothing left to hope for. Conspicuously, God seems to be missing from this account as if He has withdrawn entirely. The final outcome of prolonged sin is God’s absence where there is no longer a Word from Him, no more explanations, warning or way out.

Those who trust in the Lord

Nevertheless, for the exiles reading this later, there would have been a glimmer of hope pointing them in the right direction. Following the account of Jerusalem’s fall are two vignettes of God’s mercy for those who trusted God and believed His Word. Jeremiah is released and allowed to remain with the people in the land under the protection of Gedaliah (Jer 39:14), the man whose father (Ahikam) protected Jeremiah earlier (Jer 26:24) and whose father and grandfather (Shaphan) were present when King Josiah heard God’s Word and initiated a reform to cleanse the land from idols (2 Kings 22:11-13). Gedaliah, who will be appointed by the Babylonians as governor (Jer 40:7), will take Jeremiah under his wings. Secondly, Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian official who courageously petitioned the king for Jeremiah’s life, will be saved by God because of his trust in Him (Jer 39:16-18). Strikingly, a foreigner who relied on God was saved, while God’s own people who did not were to perish or be exiled.

Two ways to live

The way this chapter is divided into its two sections of judgment and mercy highlight two ways of living. Those who ignore and disbelieve God’s Word destroy themselves even as they try to evade God’s will, while those who trust Him, whether Israelite prophet or nameless foreigner, are saved. The good news is that we have a choice and, mercifully, God often delays judgment to allow for yet another opportunity to respond, but there is eventually a cut-off point. Our reading is an illustration of what Proverbs describes about the ultimate outcome of choosing the way of wisdom or folly.

³⁰ “They rejected my [wisdom’s] advice
    and paid no attention when I corrected them.
³¹ Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way,
    choking on their own schemes.
³² For simpletons turn away from me—to death.
    Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.
³³ But all who listen to me will live in peace,
    untroubled by fear of harm.” (Prov 1:30-33, NLT)

May we choose God’s way, even when it looks like it would benefit us not to, and trust that His Word is true and life-giving.

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