Monday, March 18, 2019

Year 9, Day 77: Jeremiah 24


Theological Commentary: Click Here



Understanding the history of the exile is important to this chapter of Jeremiah.  Babylon had come.  They had beaten the Hebrew people into submission.  Nebuchadnezzar has taken captives.  He has allowed some people to remain as his vassals and who were expected to pay regular tribute.  These vassals would occasionally submit, but as we hear in today’s lesson they would turn to Egypt and inspire mini-rebellions thought would periodically need to be put down.



In this context, God sends a clear message.  Those Hebrew people who went into exile would be celebrated and allowed to return as a faithful remnant.  Those who remained and who inspire the rebellions against Babylon would continue to be persecuted.  They would be rejected by God.



Be careful here, because a wrong interpretation would lead to a horribly wrong teaching.  It is not that God minds uprisings against leadership.  Bad leadership needs to change.  In fact, that is the very point God is making by bringing Babylon!  The leadership of the Hebrew people needed to change.



The reason that the people who stay in the Promised Land are rejected by God is because they have rejected God’s attempt to reform them.  In searching for help from Egypt, they are inherently rejecting the very help that God is trying to give them through the Babylonian exile.  What from one perspective looks like people trying to lift of a veil of Babylonian oppression is actually people trying to get out from under the correction of God.



This is an important lesson to learn.  Freedom is a powerful right.  It is good to be able to make one’s own decisions and choices.  However, true freedom only comes from God.  When seeking freedom, we need to be sure that the freedom we seek is not actually freedom from God’s plan.  The people left in Jerusalem after Nebuchadnezzar’s attack make that very mistake.



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