Call to Commitment

 

A pretended search for God’s will

 1.      Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near 

 2.      and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), 

 3.      that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do." 

 4.      Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard. Indeed, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and it shall be, that whatever the LORD answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you." 

 5.      So they said to Jeremiah, "Let the LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the LORD your God sends us by you. 

 6.      Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God." 

 7.      And it happened after ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. 

 8.      Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, 

 9.      and said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: 

This is the third chapter that has to do with the captains of Judah´s army. Ishmael is not among them now, but is with the Ammonites. The protagonist, whom we have studied, is Johanan and we have watched his character develop. In the beginning, he acted as a good patriot and uncovered Ishmael´s evil plot. He was rejected by the Governor Gedaliah, who died, because he refused to believe and react according to the word of Johanan. We have mentioned previously that rejection of his counsel and the vindication, when it proved valid, had a negative effect on the captain. The rejection produced bitterness and the vindication unveiled pride, and now we will see how these characteristics influence him.

 After the governor died, Jeremiah´s word was highly valued in Judah, which, of course, is now living under the Babylonian conquest. Jeremiah was respected by the emperor and other Babylonian officials. In the last chapter, we observed that Johanan feared repercussions from Nebuchadnezzar, because of the assassination of the governor that he had appointed (41:18). Would he blame all the captains for the deed of Ishmael? 

 

Ancient cistern at ruins of Mizpah

Chapter 41

 

Ishmael’s nonsensical massacres            

  1.      Now it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and of the officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And there they ate bread together in Mizpah. 

 2.  Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, arose and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.

 3.      Ishmael also struck down all the Jews who were with him, that is, with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war. 

 4.      And it happened, on the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, when as yet no one knew it, 

 5.      that certain men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the LORD. 

 6.      Now Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went along; and it happened as he met them that he said to them, "Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!" 

 7.      So it was, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them and cast them into the midst of a pit, he and the men who were with him. 

 8.      But ten men were found among them who said to Ishmael, "Do not kill us, for we have treasures of wheat, barley, oil, and honey in the field." So he desisted and did not kill them among their brethren. 

 9.      Now the pit into which Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain, because of Gedaliah, was the same one Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain. 

 10.  Then Ishmael carried away captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king's daughters and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive and departed to go over to the Ammonites.

The story of Israel´s army captains continues in this chapter in the seventh month of the 11^th year of King Zedekiah. They began to maneuver after Nebuchadnezzar penetrated Jerusalem on the ninth day of the fourth month. This chapter begins over two months after the city was conquered and burnt. At the end of the last chapter, we had just learned, through one of the captains, Johanan, that another captain, Ishmael, is plotting against the new governor, Gedaliah. Gedaliah refused to believe Johanan and was in denial of the evil intended by Ishmael. It is the only fault that we have learned about the governor, but this chapter will expose the seriousness of refusing to face an unpleasant reality. May the people of God take warning, because this trait in Gedaliah led to his death. We do ourselves and the church no favor, by ignoring or tolerating the potential of evil in the human heart.  

Jeremiah taught us that the heart is perverse and deceptive (17:9), something the Lord showed to him and also something that He taught him, providentially, as he observed the fate of his friend, the governor. See how Ishmael took advantage of the naivety in this good man and subtly carried out his conspiracy. He was emboldened, because he possessed royal blood and was held by his conceit, because of his past position in Judah. He comes to Mizpah with ten men to dine with Gedaliah (1).

The governor learned too late that you cannot surmise that everyone has good intentions and will act for the good of his country and people. Unfortunately, many are possessed by an egotistical yearning for power. Please understand that some people with this attitude are inside the church in our day. The apostle John knew of one: “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us” (3 Jn.9). In his second epistle, he warned of dangers that come to believers and the action that must be taken concerning them: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house or greet him” (2 Jn.10). John was not only a great advocate of brotherly love, but a lover of divine truth: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 Jn. 4). Paul wrote that love “rejoices in the truth” (1 Co.13:6).

Possible site of Mizpah, 7 m. from Jerusalem

                                Chapter 40

 

Jeremiah and Nebuzaradan

   1.      The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all who were carried away captive from Jerusalem and Judah who were carried away captive to Babylon.

  2.      And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him: "The LORD your God has      pronounced this doom on this place. 

 3.      Now the LORD has brought it, and has done just as He said. Because you people have sinned against the LORD, and not obeyed His voice, therefore this thing has come upon you. 

 4.      And now look, I free you this day from the chains that were on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you. But if it seems wrong for you to come with me to Babylon, remain here. See, all the land is before you; wherever it seems good and convenient for you to go, go there." 

 5.      Now while Jeremiah had not yet gone back, Nebuzaradan said, "Go back to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people. Or go wherever it seems convenient for you to go." So the captain of the guard gave him rations and a gift and let him go.

 The wise man wrote: “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Pr.21:1). In the fearful crisis in Jerusalem, when the hand of mighty Nebuchadnezzar, backed by the armies of Babylon, takes control of the city, Jeremiah need not fear. He is the servant of the King of Kings and He has already prepared Babylon’s emperor to care for His servant, the prophet.

 It seems that Jeremiah is mistakenly put in chains among the Jews, who left the city of Jerusalem, as captives (1). He marches with them, about 5 miles, to Ramah. It lay in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin and was the headquarters for the prophet, Samuel, in its distant past. In the last chapter, Nebuchadnezzar had given word to his general, Nebuzaradan, to care favorably for Jeremiah, yet he falls into this uncomfortable position. We must reflect on this situation and try to discern what God is doing in allowing this disappointment.