“I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath.”
– Jeremiah 21:5
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you brash kids? Do you know a brash kid? Zedekiah was brash. Zedekiah was the last king to rule over the guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar was king over the guys and gals who were living the country of Babylonia. About seven years after Nebuchadnezzar subjugated God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar named Zedekiah to be king over the guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army in 605 B.C. were doing a land grab. After Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army captured the guys and gals who were living in the country of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonia army moved into the land of Judah. Instead of being grateful to Nebuchadnezzar for letting him be king over the guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah, Zedekiah – after he was king for a number of years over the guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah, had brashly defied Nebuchadnezzar by aligning Judah with a reemerging country of Egypt. This decision by Zedekiah to side with the country of Egypt was met with approval from Judah’s second tier rulers. This decision by Zedekiah was denounced by a God-sent prophet spokesman – whose name was Jeremiah, who was living in the city of Jerusalem. By the time that Jeremiah scribed what is now Jeremiah 21, Zedekiah was seriously looking for an out from having to face a very teed off Nebuchadnezzar – who at this time was moving his Babylonian army into position to tear apart the city of Jerusalem to do a number on Zedekiah. Even though Zedekiah had once jailed Jeremiah to try to get him to shut him up from talking against him, Zedekiah brashly sent a couple of his cronies – whose names were Zephania and Pashhur, with a message for Jeremiah to ask God to save him from Nebuchadnezzar and his advancing Babylonian army. Zedekiah knew that God had saved His specially chosen guys and gals from an enemy army before so . . . Jeremiah – after nearly forty years of doing his thing as a God-sent prophet spokesman and not seeing God’s specially chosen guys and gals changing their stubborn, disobedient, sinful ways, Jeremiah knew that what God had been for a long time telling His special chosen guys and gals – which was that He would punish them by having an enemy people army conquer and devastate them if they did not return to worshipping only Him, was about to happen. Jeremiah told Zedekiah’s gofers to go back to Zedekiah with the message from God that is now found in verse 5, “I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath.” Jeremiah went on to tell Zedekiah’s minions to tell their foolhardy leader that the Babylonian army would not have mercy, pity or compassion on Zedekiah or on any of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem when . . . Jeremiah then went on to tell Zedekiah’s two lackeys to tell Zedekiah that God was going to first send a terrifying plague and then a devastating famine against the guys, gals, kids and animals who were living in or who could be found in the city of Jerusalem before He would use the Babylonian army’s swords to kill any survivors.
God – per Jeremiah, did offer His specially chosen guys and gals an escape option if any of them wanted to stay alive; the guy or gal just needed to leave the city of Jerusalem and give himself or herself up to Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. God made it very clear through Jeremiah to Zedekiah’s cohorts that nothing was going to hold Him back from exercising His wrath against the city of Jerusalem – that He was going to have the besieging Babylonian army ransack and burn the city of Jerusalem because of the economic, social and spiritual ills and evil life norms that His specially chosen guys and gals were living. Even though Jeremiah knew that he was once again putting his own life in danger by what he told Zedekiah’s two henchmen what God had told him to tell them to tell Zedekiah, Jeremiah did what God wanted him to do whatever that might be. Having had a dad who was a priest, Jeremiah knew what it was like to live a life that was centered on worshipping only God. Jeremiah was a young guy when God selected him to be a prophet spokesmen for Him. Jeremiah was a spokesman for God for five Judah kings over forty years. Jeremiah witnessed the moral and spiritual erosion of God’s specially chosen guys and gals.
Your grandmaa and grandpaa remember a country that once had guys and gals living in it who were proud that they were living in a country that was underpinned by moral and spiritual principles and values. The Supreme Court in this country in which your grandmaa and grandpaa grew up in as kids less than fifty years ago took the Bible and prayer out of school classrooms and decided that an embryo was just a disease and that a ma can arbitrarily have ‘it’ removed. Your grandpaa believes that the country in which your grandmaa and grandpaa grew up in as kids is today on an economic, social and spiritual slippery slope and that it has a President that is Zedekiah brash. Indiscriminate spending of non-existent money, acrimonious assassinations of opposing voices and proactive alliances with Jew hating people groups of guys and gals to your grandpaa portends adversity for God’s specially elected guys and gals who call United States home. Christ-follower guys and gals need to be pulling a straight-talking Jeremiah right now.
Jeremiah 21 (983)