Igdaliah, A Man Of God

Text: Jeremiah. 35:4, KJV: And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which (was) by the chamber of the princes, which (was) above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:

Thoughts: Igdaliah is only mentioned once in Scripture, in the Book of Jeremiah. He’s known for only three things: first, he was a man of God; second, his ministry—whatever he did for God and where he did it—is never listed specifically; and third, his son had a position of leadership during the last days of Judah’s independence. Another thing is that he may have lived in very difficult times: except for Josiah’s 31-year reign, the last several kings of Judah were, and did, evil in God’s eyes. How Igdaliah remained true to God, and retained the title “a man of God” even during evil days speaks to his commitment to the Lord. We need many like him even today.

So much about Igdaliah is missing, however: when did he live, for example. Who were his parents? How did he come to a point of “saving faith” or becoming a believer, like David, Elijah, and even Jeremiah himself? What did he do? The answers to these questions, we may never know this side of Heaven, but we can be sure of this: God would never call anyone a “man of God” without a good reason for doing so.

Thus, we can take confidence and courage in the Lord. Those men and women who wish to serve God faithfully may never be known by name or by deeds down here, but the LORD knows all that we do—and why we do them. Jeremiah himself may not have known Igdaliah personally but he was led by the Holy Spirit to mention Igdaliah’s name. No matter how long we live, if we can still be called a “man of God” even after our earthly life is over, we have not lived in vain.

Thank you, Igdaliah, for remaining true to the Lord. You provided a worthy example to follow.

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).