Jeremiah 39 Commentary
Given a choice, would Zedekiah have chosen arrogance over personal safety – his own eyes and the lives of those closest to him? We doubt. But what was he afraid of so much that he exposed his own flesh and blood to cruelty and bloodshed? It defeats logic.
More than anything else, salvation is a huge escape from this kind of foolishness.
Finally, Nebuchadnezzar attacks; and King Zedekiah is captured. The last thing Zedekiah sees is the painful slaughter of his own children. The once powerful officials, the ones that often had Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned were slaughtered right in front of Zedekiah. And Jeremiah? Well, the Babylonian emperor specifically ordered that the prophet is protected and kept supplied.
It is not exactly the right picture but who wouldn’t think of the saint’s final position – the powerful but sinful neighbors getting what they have always deserved while the saint walks free under the Ultimate Power!
It is interesting how the LORD takes care of such details as Ebed-Melek’s personal safety.
The LORD has been talking to the nation through the great prophet Jeremiah. Judgment on the nation appears ‘wholesale and non-selective’ in nature. Yet the LORD singles out Ebed-Melek. You guess the LORD took care of His own people, the remnant, during these hardest of times for the nation.
Who wouldn’t want to hear these words? “But I will rescue you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be given into the hands of those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord.”
Yes, because you trust in the LORD God.
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