How easily deceived we are

Jeremiah 39:11-18

How easily deceived we are; God never promised us a rose garden, but so many are teaching a gospel of all gain and no pain, and it has no roots in Scripture.  But when God makes a promise, as He did to Jeremiah, it will always be fulfilled.  Do you recall Jeremiah trying to leave the city by Benjamin’s Gate and a sentry named Injah seized Jeremiah and called him a deserter and the officials beat him and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan?  God arranged for the King to rescue him and have him held in the court of the guard and for a loaf of bread to be given to him daily. 

Do you recall the evil officials going to King Zedekiah and reporting all that Jeremiah was saying and telling the King he must die?  How the King told them to do as they pleased and Jeremiah was cast into the Cistern to die in the mud and without food.  And God used Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch in the Kings service to rescue him.  How often we forget our God is big, in fact, He tells us in Jeremiah 23:23-24, “Am I only a God nearby,’ declares the Lord, ‘and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord”.

Bodies are stacking up in Jerusalem and where do we find Jeremiah in the court of the guard and our God who is nearby and far away has put into the heart and mind of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to give this command concerning Jeremiah to the captain of the guard.  Picking up the account in Jeremiah 39:12-14, “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.” So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, Nebushazban the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon sent and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard. They entrusted him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, that he should take him home. So he lived among the people.”

And you recall Ebed-melech the Ethiopian eunuch because he was faithful to what God put into his heart, he became as a prize of war.  This is the account: “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the guard: “Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day. But I will deliver you on that day, declares the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the Lord.’” (Jeremiah 39:15-18)

God has a great plan for those who have ears to listen, but it is never our timeline.  One of my favorite verses in Jeremiah is 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  But that promise is going to happen after seventy years are completed for Babylon, then God is going to bring His people back home.  Obedience brings blessing and disobedience brings curses, and those are the only choices!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice