Verse 1-6-Nebuzaradan-The Captain Of The Guard-He speaks about the events that has happened, God uses him as a mouth piece, we don’t know if he is a follower of God, but we know this much, he must have a lot of respect for Jeremiah to let him choose whether to go to Babylon or stay there.
It is sad state of affairs when a man who is from a country that does not follow after God, has more insight than God’s own people do!
The reason they are going thru all this is because the Jewish people had continually disobeyed God, and even though God had told them thru Jeremiah, that this judgment didn’t have to be bad, they keep rebelling and making it worse!
I too have seen non-Christians who have acted more Christ-like than Christians I have known!!
Now he had two choices, go to Babylon and be taken care of, or stay there in this war stricken land.
The preacher who was a pastor of a small church and a bigger church was interested in him, his wife asked him what was he going to do, he replied, “You start packing and I start praying!” Sound like he had his mind made up!
As far I as I can tell, there was no bad choice here, he could have went to Babylon and ministered to the Jews who were already there, are he could stay here and minister to the Jews who are still in the land.
Sometimes there are crossroads in your life, maybe there have already been, and you wonder what would have happen if you would have taken the other route?
If I would have came here, the first time to preach when I was going to, then I might have been your pastor nearly five years earlier, but I wouldn’t have learned the lessons I learned, if it hadn’t been for that other route I took and you wouldn’t have went thru the things you went thru, which made you stronger!
Verse 7-12-Even though there was all this devastation, God is going to continue to bless them even in this time of judgment, by letting things get back to normal, they are to sow and reap a harvest.
Gedaliah is telling them to go back to work as they normally would, and he would take of all the political matters.
Verse 13-16-Johanan warns Gedaliah that the Ammonites have sent Ishmael to kill him.
But Gedaliah doesn’t believe him.
Johanan offers to go kill Ishmael in secret, (Johanan understands that his death would affect a lot of people) but Gedaliah refuses.
There would be a lot more people alive in this world if they would have listened to the warnings of their relatives, friends, coworkers!
When their love ones told them, “I don’t trust him or her!” “I have a bad feeling about that person!” “He or she not good for you!”
But just like Gedaliah didn’t think Ishmael would harm him, those people and other people we may know, or it may even be you, are in denial and their answer most times is this….”But don’t know them, like I do!” “They would never hurt me!” “They said, they were sorry and it’s never going to happen again!”
Listen to the warnings of others!
If a lot of people are telling the same thing, then you need to take into account that they are seeing something in that person that you are not!!
A lot of people would be alive today, if they would have listen to their gut (Their own gut instinct), instead of what they thought their heart was telling them!!
Chapter 41
Verse 1-3-Ishmael kills Gedaliah struck down all the Jews who were with him, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.
Verse 4-9-There were eighty men with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the Lord. (The temple had been destroyed but they were going to offer their sacrifices at the site of were the temple once stood)
Cutting themselves was a pagan ritual, these 80 people were trying to mix pagan worship and true worship together!! There are a lot of people still trying to do that today!!
I know that they were devastated and heart broken over all that has happened, especially the temple being destroyed, but Christian you can’t handle what happens to you in this old world, the way the world handles things that happens to them!! We have a different solution! We have a different source strength, of resolve, of help!!!
Ishmael kills 70 of those and lets 10 live because they promise him wheat, barley, oil, and honey.
Verse 10-18-Ishmael carried away captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah
Johanan and his army went after Ishmael, fought him but he escaped but Johanan, took the ones who had been taken captive to Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, as they went on their way to Egypt, because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael had murdered Gedaliah.
They are going to go Egypt, because they still haven’t figured out, if you follow God, He will take care of you, even when He was punishing them, He was still taking care of them, they are the ones who made it bad on themselves!
You need to ask yourself the question…“Do I trust God?”
Does your actions prove that you trust God?
