The Bible in a Year – 21 May

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

21 May. Jeremiah chapters 26-29

Chapter 26 records how, early in his ministry, Jeremiah was threatened with death because unlike the ‘false prophets’ such as Hananiah (chapter 28) he was giving the honest truth, namely that the policies and practices of Judah’s political and religious leaders were offensive to God and unless they repented would lead to the downfall of the nation.  Rulers seldom like to hear that.  The common people however knew that Jeremiah was a genuine prophet and called for his life to be spared (26:16); others recalled that an earlier prophet, Micah had said much the same thing and was believed (26:18); and finally Ahikam son of Shaphan [King Josiah’s secretary, see 2 Kings 22:3] supported Jeremiah’s cause, so his life was spared – unlike that of Uriah, we are told, another prophet who had been murdered by the ruling elite.

 

All this sounds much like what Jesus encountered several centuries later: the common people mostly welcomed him, even when he gave difficult teachings, because they recognised him as sent from God.  It was, again, the political and religious rulers who conspired against him and eventually persuaded enough of the people to call for his execution.   Uriah’s equivalent in this comparison would be John the Baptist, whose outspoken criticism of Herod was fatal for him; and Ahikam’s counterpart would be Nicodemus, a leading Pharisee who unlike his colleagues believed in Jesus.

 

The difference was, that Nicodemus kept his support for Jesus secret until it was too late.  It was all very well providing the spices to preserve Jesus’ dead body (John 19:39) but if he had spoken up for him sooner, would Jesus’ life have been spared?  We will never know.

 

The lesson, then, is that if we see an injustice being done, initiated or tolerated by the people in power, the right thing to do is to speak up about it – to be a whistle-blower, as we say nowadays.  Such people may well lose their place in the corridors of power as a result, but if it results in the career or maybe even the life of someone innocent being saved,  they are doing God’s will. “Anyone who received a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward (Matthew 10:41) – the prophet’s reward being honour in the Kingdom of God, even or especially if he or she has suffered on earth for their obedience.

 

Finally among these chapters, 29 jumps forwards n time again to after the exile and records Jeremiah writing to those taken by the Babylonians with his prophesy that it would be 70 years before God would relent and let their descendants return to Jerusalem.  In the meantime they were to settle in their land of exile, assimilate and pray for the people of that land.  It would in fact be a preparation for the much longer diaspora of the Jews from AD70 until 1948 during which time most of them remained faithful to God despite repeated discrimination and at times persecution.  The fact that Jeremiah seems to have stayed in Jerusalem at least meant that he was at a safe distance from those who were the subject of his message.