Year 6, Day 92: Jeremiah 39

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Jeremiah 39 is a dark chapter.  I’m still remember the day that I read this chapter 3 years ago.  I remember the study of the consequences upon Zedekiah.  But I’ll get to that in a second.  For the beginning, I want to focus on Jeremiah.

Can you see God’s protection?  Jeremiah had been tormented by the Jews in Jerusalem.  But Jeremiah remained faithful to God and stayed in Jerusalem.  Jeremiah proclaimed God’s messages – even when they were not popular.  But in the end, God protects Jeremiah.  Nebuchadnezzar’s men come for him and keep him safe even while the rest of the people head off into captivity.  God protects Jeremiah.

In fact, we also get to hear the story of God protecting Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian.  He is the man who went to Jeremiah in an earlier moment of captivity and then went to Zedekiah and pleaded for his safety.  Ebed-Melech watched out for God’s own and he now enjoys the protection of God.

Having looked in on two shining examples of God’s protection, we now turn to Zedekiah.  Here is a man who gets to watch his sons executed.  Then his own eyes are plucked out, ensuring that the last thing he ever remembers seeing is the brutal death of his own children.  Here is a man who refused God’s protection because he was too proud to surrender to Babylon while submitting to God.  Zedekiah had been given plenty of opportunities from Jeremiah.  But he refused to listen.  As a consequence of His stubbornness, Zedekiah does not have the protection of God.  He is punished hard by Nebuchadnezzar.  There are usually consequences for our rebellion, especially when we are unrepentant.

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