Jeremiah 21:1-10 Nope. No Hope
The time has finally come. Nebuchadnezzar is attacking. The king sends Pashhur to ask Jeremiah if there is any hope. Nope. No hope; for now. God’s judgment time.
First of all, of ALL the people the king could have sent, WHY Pashhur? He and Jeremiah do NOT have a good working relationship. He is the one who beat Jeremiah and put him in stocks. And Jeremiah got to deliver a SCATHING word from the Lord regarding Pashhur’s future. At least another priest went with him.
The second thing I notice is that the king isn’t appealing to Jeremiah on the grounds of their own righteousness. He is asking if God might do one of his “wonderful deeds” of the past. Not because they deserve it but because that was His way of helping Israel in the past.
I can just see Jeremiah’s jaw dropping at their request. Then his eyes would harden like steel, right before he thought “Have you not heard a word I’ve told you!?!?” Nope. The king will get no hope from Jeremiah this day.
Judah’s own weapons will be turned against them. I wonder if this brings back memories of the times in the past where other nations’ weapons were turned against them by God. My favorite of those is the night the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 in ONE NIGHT outside the gates of Jerusalem. I bet King Zedekiah was hoping for another night like that. But that’s NOT what God promised. God said He would use their own weapons against them; in addition to pestilence and famine. Those who didn’t die one way would die the other. I’m pretty sure this would also be the time when mother would eat their own children. VERY sad to say, it wasn’t the first time that happened in Israel.
This is DEFINITELY the atheist and the ‘Christian’ bear story. King Zedekiah didn’t promise any repentance. He didn’t mention any kind of change that would have taken place beforehand. He didn’t even bring up the ‘for Your name’s sake’ appeal. Just “Help us God.”
“You REFUSED to listen over and Over and OVER again. You would not repent. And you would not listen when I told you what was coming for your disobedience. Now ‘live with it’. EVERYTHING I told you is about to fall on your heads.”
There IS a limit to God’s patience and His warnings. You CANNOT continue to live in sin and think that God will save you anyway. You also CANNOT reject Him and His Son and expect Him to move on your behalf. There is an individual limit and there is a global limit. Death is the ultimate limit for the individual.
It is so appropriate that the ‘path of life’ God did hold out for the people was the one that lead to the hard lesson. Those who surrendered themselves to the king of Babylon would see life. Those who stayed entrenched behind the walls of the city would see death. Keep doing what you have always done and death awaits. Take a chance and agree to the correction God has laid out and receive life.
This was not a guarantee that those who surrendered would turn their lives around and worship God. But at least THEY would have a chance to do it, as they would be alive. A dead man can’t change his ways. It often hurts, but going through the corrective fire is the only path to survival. And with that survival is a promise of redemption IF you listen along the way.
Father God, thank You have taken me through MANY lessons. Having the lessons not only helps me grow but shows me that You love me enough to take the time to teach me. To show me what needs to change in my life. To bring me to a place where I can hear You better. To a place of deeper relationship with You. No matter how hard or how much those lessons hurt, it was worth it!!! And so are all of them that still lie ahead for me.
