Year 9, Day 93: Jeremiah 40

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Jeremiah is given his freedom by the Babylonian commander.  Perspective is an interesting thing.  The Hebrew people didn’t like Jeremiah’s message arguing for them to accept Babylonian exile as God’s will.  They imprisoned Jeremiah in a besieged city.  The Babylonians, for obvious reasons, approve of Jeremiah’s message.  They celebrate him and grant him freedom.  Jeremiah’s own people couldn’t see what the Babylonians could see because of the perspective of their own heart. 

It is interesting how the human heart will see what it wants to see in any message or person.  We see what we want to see, based on what we think is right.  This is why it is so important to have a godly perspective.  We need to learn to see what God sees, not what we want to see.  We should be becoming more like God every day, listening to Him and making judgments according to His will and His ways.

Next, we move to Gedaliah.  Gedaliah is lifted up as a decent man, capable of leading the Hebrew people in their vassalage under Babylon.  However, the Hebrew people are more skeptical of him.  It is easy to see Gedaliah as a traitor, one who collaborates with the enemy instead of working against them.  The people see Gedaliah in much the same way as they saw Jeremiah.  Their perspective allows them to see him as they want, not as God does.

Gedaliah does prove himself a little foolish, however.  When he is warned of danger, he waves it off.  He does not take the threat upon his life all that seriously.  We’ll see the results of this action tomorrow. 

What we should learn here, though, is that we need to be careful where we put our faith.  We don’t know why Gedaliah doesn’t take the threat seriously.  It could be that he thinks it can’t happen to him.  It could be that he thinks the people wouldn’t act against an emissary of Babylon.  It could be that he doesn’t believe in the evil that lies in Ishmael’s heart.  Whatever reason, though, Gedaliah misplaces faith.  He trusts in something imagined rather than heed a very real warning.  This is always dangerous.

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