God is sovereign. You knew that. His sovereignty allows Him to be in control of everything. He is also omniscient which means He knows everything, the beginning from the end. These two attributes alone allow God to never be taken by surprise. On top of that, God is omnipotent. He has the power to do all things. Like He himself says several times in the Bible, “who is like me and who can challenge me?” (Jeremiah 49:19). He singlehandedly conceived and orchestrated the implementation of the great salvation plan. His wisdom is so matchless that the Bible says “since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4). There is none besides Him. As His people, we only have one response and it is to give Him the honour and glory that is due Him. Unfortunately, the one job we were given has proven difficult for us because of the sin in us. We are called to live according to the Spirit yet we find ourselves living according to the flesh and satisfying its desires. As I was ending my reading of the book of Jeremiah, I came across a story that I would like to share with you. This story as any other story from the Bible is for our edification as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians and from it, I will draw four lessons we can learn from in order to live by the Spirit.
The office of the prophet was not an easy one. Despite the fact that many of the Lord’s prophets suffered harm, they were still respected by the people. Somehow, even though their message was not necessarily pleasing to the crowd, people who wanted the truth would call upon them. The influence of a prophet was so important because their words mattered it could either lead people in the right direction or away from the Lord. Sadly, that is what false prophets did. In fact, many kings of Judah who wanted to hear the truth would often summon the real prophets. In our story, Jeremiah’s prophecies about the fall of Judah have finally proven to be true and the remnant can attest to it. This means, the people’s view of Jeremiah had changed. Those who didn’t treat him as a real prophet now did. The story happens during Judah’s fresh exile. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has just taken Judah captive and left a remnant behind. This remnant was mainly composed of poor people, the ones who had nothing (Jeremiah 39:10). Ironically, their lives changed for the better on that day as they were given lands. Gedaliah was appointed governor over the remnant of Judah by the Babylonian and when the army officers of Judah and their men who had fled to the open country during the invasion heard that Gedaliah had been appointed governor, they returned to Judah. Among these army officers were Ishmael and Johanan. Ishmael who was of royal blood killed Gedaliah. It seems Ishmael was not very pleased with the Babylonians’ decision to appoint a ‘nobody’ over somebody of royal descent like himself. In addition to that murder, Ishmael killed innocent Jews as well as Babylonians. As if this was not enough, Ishmael then took the Judean remnant with him captive but thankfully was stopped by Johanan and all the other army officers. The captives were then set free by Johanan and Ishmael fled to find refuge in the land of the Ammonites. Because of the crime Ishmael had committed, the remnant was afraid of the repercussions of that act by the king of Babylon. Under the leadership of Johanan, the Judean remnant thought of fleeing to Egypt to escape the sword of the Babylonians. However, they decided to inquire of the Lord before taking any decision. So, they came to Jeremiah and asked that he inquire of the Lord on their behalf which he did. As they asked Jeremiah, they also added that they would obey the Lord regardless of what the Lord asks of them. In fact, here are their exact words: “Whether it is favourable or unfavourable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God” (Jeremiah 42:6). The Lord responded to their inquiry ten days later. I am not sure of the significance of that but one thing is clear, the Lord did not respond right away. The people of Judah came to Jeremiah in fear, ready to start their journey to Egypt but they had to wait for the Lord’s answer which came ten days later. I can’t know for sure but I’d like to believe that the fear level kept increasing with each day without an answer from the Lord. When the Lord finally answers, He tells them that they should not go over to Egypt but rather they should stay in Judah. He also tells them to not be afraid of the king of Babylon because He will save them and deliver them from his hand. The Lord also promises to increase and restore them if they stay in Judah (Jeremiah 42:10-12). They finally had an answer and based on their earlier confession, we would think they would obey the Lord but that is not what happens. Unfortunately, Jeremiah is called a liar and told that the words he spoke were not of the Lord. It is clear that when the remnant of Judah came to Jeremiah, they already had an idea of what they wanted the answer from God to be. They were so adamant on fleeing to Egypt that they disregarded the very word of God which could save them. James reminds us of the power of the word of God in similar terms, “…humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” (James 1:21). They disobeyed God and their own words condemned them. But God in His sovereignty knew their hearts when they declared before Him that they would be faithful. He was not taken by surprise by their answer for He knows what is in the heart of men.
We might read this story and think to ourselves how could they act in such a way not realizing that we too are prone to speaking too quickly before the Lord and coming before the Lord relying on our own intelligence or coming before Him with our own agendas. If there is a theme that is often repeated in the bible it is the one to trust the Lord. We are to trust the Lord with all of our might. We are to not lean on our own understanding. We are to acknowledge Him in all our ways. This means, we have to trust that whatever He tells us to do is the right thing to do whether it makes sense or not; whether it hurts or not. God’s words are not up for debate, they are simply meant to be obeyed. The Lord takes His words very seriously. He ensures every word that comes from His mouth gets to pass. None of the good promises of the Lord failed to pass. His Name’s sake, His reputation is tied to having His words fulfilled. Therefore, disobedience to the word of God is a slap in His face that does not go unpunished. In His sovereignty and omniscience, God knew the remnant would disobey Him, yet He still offered them a better way.
God does not change and He has not changed. His commands are still the same and they are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). From the remnant’s response here are four lessons we can learn from. First, God will always give us an answer to our questions. As He says in His words, “you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all you heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). He answers when we call (Jeremiah 33:3) and He remains true to His words. David attests to this in Psalm 34. However, we need to realize that the Lord answers in His time. He does not answer according to our schedule but He answers according to His purposes. Ours is simply to wait for the Lord. It does not matter how long it takes for the answer to come, just wait because His answer will be your salvation.
The second lesson we learn is to realize that God is a King and we are His subjects, not the other way around. We usually come to God with an entitlement attitude as if He owes us anything. We must be humble when coming before our King and recognize that the King knows everything. We must submit ourselves to the timetable of the King because the King is doing us a favour by taking our case in His hands. Part of this humbling exercise is recognizing that we are not very smart and we cannot be smarter than the King of Kings. Our way is limited, it is narrow and it is finite. We lack the bigger picture but God does not.
The third lesson we can learn from this story is to be slow to speak as James tells us to be. Indeed, we will be judged for every careless words we have said (Matthew 12:36) and I believe not keeping to one’s word is part of that judgement. Jesus tells us to ensure our ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and our ‘no’, ‘no’ (Matthew 5:37). In other words, he encourages us to be true to our words just like the Father is to His. We are his imitators after all. We should not be declaring loud and clear things that we are not willing to execute otherwise our very words will condemn us.
The final lesson we can learn from this story is that fear should never be the basis on which we make decisions. Fear is a spirit that is not of God. God always commands His people to not fear, to not be afraid, to be “strong and courageous”. Fear is not the portion of the child of God. We have not been given “a spirit of fear but one of power, of love and of sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, KJV). Our ability to be fearless does not depend on us but rather on the Mighty God we serve. As stated by Mary A. Kassian in her book the Right Kind of Strong, “the charge to be strong and courageous is repeated numerous times throughout the Bible. And each time, the reason for this bold attitude didn’t rest on the ability of the individuals who were being commissioned. It rested on the fact that God would be with them.” The fact that God is with us should fuel our courage in whatever task He calls us to. Whenever we are faced with fearful situations, let’s remind ourselves to rest in Him and with courage go in the power of his might!
I hope you have been blessed by this story as I have. May the Lord grant us the grace to walk courageously, humbly and joyfully on this earth. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 