One of the hallmarks and non-negotiables of American democracy is the orderly transition of power and when that is threatened it jeopardizes the foundations of our entire society. It is the same for any society and when a people cannot trust in their government to do that then there is chaos and violence. It is not only true now but it was true in the time of Jeremiah – even though Israel was far from a democracy. In most cases the power of the king passed from father to son until the nation was in its last days. That is where we are now.

No longer is the throne passed from one bad king to the next without interference. It is the king of Babylonia deciding who will sit on the throne and also be his puppet. After the death of Josiah, Nebuchadnezzar appoints one place holder after another. Last week we looked at Jehoiakim and his response to Jeremiah’s message. As each part of the scroll was read to him he took it and carefully sliced it with his knife and put it into the firepot. He did not want to hear Babylonia would conquer Israel and take the people into exile. He should have listened as that is exactly what happened.

Nebuchadnezzar then makes Zedekiah the king but without any real power. Even if he had been given power he would not have known how to use it. He was a weak man who was easily influenced by everyone around him. He was fearful of his enemies – inside and out – and could not make up his mind about what to do in times of crisis. Not only was he devoid of character but allowed everyone around him to steer his decisions. Ironically, he confided his greatest fears in the man – Jeremiah – who was his greatest critic. ”Please pray to the Lord our God for us.” Of course, even if he had listened he would not have had the strength to follow through. Shortly after that request when his officials want to kill Jeremiah he says, “He is in your hands. The king can do nothing to oppose you.” So they took Jeremiah and threw him in a cistern. But then at the request of another official he orders Jeremiah released and sends for him with this request. “I am going to ask you something, do not hide anything from me.” Jeremiah’s response is, “Surrender to the Babylonias and it will go well with you.” That is what Zedekiah has been looking for, isn’t it? He wants a deal. He wants immunity. He wants a promise that he will be spared. But what does he do? He tells Jeremiah not to tell anyone about the conversation and then does nothing for fear of what everyone will say. He should have surrendered given what happens to him soon after.

He rebels against Nebuchadnezzar, a foolish move, and Jerusalem is besieged for two years before falling. The suffering in those two years is horrific. Finally, the Babylonian army breaks through the walls and even though Zedekiah and his officials escape like the cowards they are at night through a hole in the wall they are caught. “There the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and then killed all the nobles of Judah. Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with shackles to take him to Babylon.” In the end, only a remnant of the poor who owned nothing are left behind. All the talent is exported to Babylonia.

But Jeremiah is rescued and the commander of the armies of Babylon says, “All this happened because your people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don’t come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please.” What an offer. Go with him and find a position of respect and influence like others did in Babylon or find a country estate and settle there with the support and protection of the king of Babylon.

What does he do? “So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah (the Governor appointed by Nebuchadnezzar) and stayed with him among the people who were left behind in the land.” That’s the difference between an angry man or an opportunist and a genuine prophet. The prophet stays with those who are left behind. He shares their life and their fate.

For a time things are good. The new governor says to the people, “Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.” He is right and things do go well. Those who were left did exactly that and all those who had been scattered by the war but were not in exile returned to the land and the property that Nebuchadnezzar had left them. “And they harvested an abundance of wine and summer fruit.” Just as Gedaliah and Jeremiah said to them, “if you will settle down and serve the king of Babylon things will go well with you.” That would be hard counsel for people who have been fiercely independent and convinced of their exceptionalism. How can one simply settle down? Isn’t that a form of treason in itself? How can anyone know for sure they are safe enough in such circumstances to do that? How does one settle down in times like these? Of course, that is exactly what Jeremiah said to those who had been exiled. Look at his letter to the exiles in Chapter 29:

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.  They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

The counsel is the same for the remnant left behind and for a time it works for those left in Israel. But it seems no good thing can last. The governor is assassinated by one of Zedekiah’s royal family and the people are terrified that Nebuchadnezzar will march against them and punish them for this. A contingent of army officers who have not been shipped to Babylon chase down the assassin and he flees the country.

All is well, right? No.

The people are still afraid of retribution. After all, they have already been decimated by the Babylonians, their city burned to the ground, the king and his nobles and family brutally murdered, the only person left to keep order assassinated. Any talk about settling down is foolishness now. The only solution is to flee to Egypt and safety.

Now we have arrived at our lesson for this morning in Chapter 42. So, the same courageous man who defeats the assassin comes with all the people to Jeremiah and says, “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, 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”

Remember the request of Zedekiah for Jeremiah to do exactly the same? “Pray for me that we may know the will of God. Whatever the Lord says we will obey.”  How does that turn out for Zedekiah? He does not obey and dies blinded and disgraced.

Jeremiah prays and ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. “This is what the Lord the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition says: If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I am grieved over the disaster I have inflicted on you.  Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him..for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. I will show compassion on you and restore you to your land.”

But there was more from the Lord. What if they disobey and allow their fear to overwhelm them? What if they do not trust in the Lord. “If you say, No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread then hear the word of the Lord. If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt and there you will die.”

I understand their desire to never see war again or to hear the trumpet call to battle or be hungry for bread. I expect all of us have felt that way at one time or another. “Stop the world. I want to get off.” It’s too much to live through another crisis or think that for the rest of your life you will live in fear and anxiety. David wrote, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.” But is it ever genuine rest if all we have done is fly away from the storms of life? Is it ever true rest when we look to circumstances other than our own? Is it ever rest when we try to escape the wars, the trumpets and the hungers of our own times?

The reading in Oswald Chambers yesterday said this:

When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits’ end, showing that we don’t have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.

“…O you of little faith!” What a stinging pain must have shot through the disciples as they surely thought to themselves, “We missed the mark again!” And what a sharp pain will go through us when we suddenly realize that we could have produced complete and utter joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, in spite of what we were facing.

There are times when there is no storm or crisis in our lives, and we do all that is humanly possible. But it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.

We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him.

Is that us? Are we those who are reliable in the panic around us? Are we genuinely at rest in the knowledge that when we react to our fears and allow them to determine our course of action that, ironically, it is always those very fears that take us down in the end. It is the very thing we fear that will overtake us and that which we dread will follow us.

Instead, we should be the very people to whom others look for stability and resolve. We should be not only salt and light but anchors in the storm. We should not be those caught up in conspiracies, insurrections, violence, anger and extremes. Instead, we are those who refuse to be manipulated by fear and not looking for those who present themselves to be our avenger and our retribution. We are those who trust in the Lord and will not go to Egypt and a false sense of power and security. We will stay in the land and commit ourselves to being a part of the remnant.

Jeremiah was given the opportunity to do what he pleased. He could have chosen comfort and respect in Babylon. He could have chosen a life of ease as landed gentry. Instead, he chose to stay with those who, in spite of God’s word, forced him go with them to Egypt.

“So, all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the Lord’s command to stay in the land of Judah. Instead, they led away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered. They also led away all the men, women and children and Jeremiah, the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the Lord.”

It was in Egypt that Jeremiah died. We don’t know where or how as there is no marker. He went with them against his will but he stayed. In spite of their disregard and defiance. In spite of their fear and cowardice he stayed. In spite of their disobedience and eventual disappearance he stayed. What an extraordinary man.

The last lines of the novel “Middlemarch” by George Eliot are about Dorothea who lived a difficult and nearly invisible life which would have appeared to an outsider as almost wasted: “But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”