Jeremiah 21:1-2: “The Word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, ‘Please inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.’”
Surprisingly, evil King Zedekiah asked Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord with the hope that if he did, the Babylonian army would withdraw from Jerusalem.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary suggests that Zedekiah was concerned that once the Egyptian army withdrew, the Babylonian army would return.
About 120 years prior to King Zedekiah’s rule, God did a wondrous work for his forefather King Hezekiah. In 2 Kings 19:35-36, God sent a destroying angel to slay 185,000 enemy soldiers in one night. The mighty army surrounding Jerusalem was destroyed by God.
But King Hezekiah had a relationship with the Lord and with God’s prophet Isaiah. Hezekiah purged the land of idols. He called his people to observe the Passover. He restored worship at the Temple. King Zedekiah did not have such a relationship with the Lord, nor did he want one. He just wanted God to bail him out of a crisis.
Can you imagine how exasperated Jeremiah must have felt? He found himself caught between the throne of God and the throne of man. Again!
For years, this king and this city wanted nothing to do with God or His messengers. As bucking broncos buck off rodeo riders, these men wanted God off their backs. They expected God to act as though no abuse happened. They mistreated God’s servant Jeremiah and then expected him to give them a good word.
Jeremiah 21:3-4: “Then Jeremiah said to them, ‘Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, thus says the Lord God of Israel: behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them in the midst of this city.’”
Pashhur and Zephaniah were likely shocked when Jeremiah told them to tell the king that God was for Jerusalem’s enemies. The Babylonians would turn Jerusalem’s weapons on them. Babylon’s army would enter their gates.
While in Jerusalem, Jesus had a similar message for corrupt leaders. In Matthew 22:1-7, He told of a king who invited people to his son’s marriage feast. They refused his invitations. As time went on, they even arrested his servants, tortured, and killed them. What did the king do? He burned their city down.
Zedekiah refused to come to the Lord’s table despite being repeatedly invited to do so. Now, he wanted the Lord’s help. The Lord doesn’t work that way. It is no coincidence that Jesus used a parable about a marriage feast when He spoke to corrupt leaders. God wanted His relationship with His people to be like a marriage, but they rejected such a relationship with God.
Jeremiah 21:5-6: “I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence.”
Isaiah 63:10 says, “They rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. Therefore, He turned Himself to become their enemy. He fought against them.”
Love has two sides to it. Love protects. Love also attacks fraudsters like a ferocious mother bear robbed of her cubs! Such leaders ruin a nation.
Jeremiah 21:7: “Afterward, says the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them or have pity or mercy.”
After the Lord rescued His people from Egypt, He warned them against breaking covenant with Him. He told them in Deuteronomy 28:49-50, “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young.”
Jeremiah 21:8: “Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord: behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.”
Each person and each nation has a choice to make. What will it be the way of life or the way of death? The way with God or the way without God?
Jeremiah 21:9: “He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him.”
Sword, famine and pestilence are God’s red flags to those who break covenant with Him. As God created nerve endings to help our body sense heat when it is near fire, so God allows pain when we are near to hell’s fire. He allows a lesser pain to save us from a greater pain.
Jeremiah 21:10: “For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good, says the Lord. It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.”
When circumstances begin to go downhill, we should stop and ask the Lord to place our sins under His atoning blood. To forgive us!
Even if our circumstances seem unrelated to our behavior, turning to the Lord in humility is a good move. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:5-7, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
Jeremiah 21:11-12: “And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, ‘Hear the Word of the Lord, O house of David! Thus, says the Lord: execute judgment in the morning; and deliver him who is plundered out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My fury go forth like fire and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.”
To execute judgment in the morning means to do it with promptness. Oppression has to do with being held down by spiritual forces of wickedness so that you cannot be who God created you to be. The Lord wants those of us who have His authority to rebuke the spiritual forces of wickedness that hinder people’s service unto God.
In Matthew 28:19-20, the Lord Jesus gave us the action plan. We are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything that He commanded us.
The highest form of deliverance from oppression is salvation. There is no greater poverty than being in hell. The only way to escape hell is to call on the Name of the Lord.
In Romans 10:14-15, Paul wrote, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”
Jeremiah 21:13-14: “Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, says the Lord, who say, who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter our dwellings? But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the Lord. I will kindle a fire in its forest, and it shall devour all things around it.”
2 Chronicles 36:19 says that when the Babylonians came, “They burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles.” It will be even worse for souls today who know not the Lord.
Were prophets like Jeremiah meant to be anomalies among God’s people or the norm?
In Numbers 11:29, Moses said to Joshua, “Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”
In 2 Peter 1:3, Peter wrote, “His divine power has given us everything we need for godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” God doesn’t want a few good men. He wants all men, women, boys and girls to believe in His Son and to be filled with His Spirit.
We need God’s Spirit working within us like a fire in our heart and bones. We don’t need masks or capes. The Holy Spirit works through humble servants of Christ to do great exploits for God’s glory!
So, what is the plan? The plan is to listen to the Lord! Inquire of the Lord! Obey the Lord! Make His Name known among the nations.
Attached is a link to a power point version of this article which I have recorded on my YouTube channel:
Free resources for prophetic servants of Jesus Christ
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