SIEGE (Jeremiah 39)

In the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem. In the eleventh year and fourth month, on the ninth day of Zedekiah’s reign, they broke , MSG)through into the city. (Jeremiah 39:1-2, MSG)

October 2009 to April 2011--easier for me to calculate than "10th month of the 9th year and the 4th month of the 11th year."

The Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem for 18 months.

Eighteen months.

The famous siege of Masada in the first century, where all the residents killed themselves rather than be captured, only lasted a few months. Two pregnancies. No new supplies for a year and a half. This was a city, after all. House gardens wouldn't provide the grains and produce without the surrounding countryside.

No grain or livestock for the daily sacrifice.

Surviving eighteen months of dwindling resources and the threat of annihilation would ordinarily rouse admiration for their courage. We would admire the king who look to their leaders for our heroes.

Instead, Jeremiah told them to go to the Babylonians and end the siege. And Zedekiah is remembered as the last king of Judah.

Are you facing any long-term problems? Where would you like to be in eighteen months? Do you do the right thing by fighting towards that goal, using all of your resources and then some more?

Or is God calling you to give up that battle and to move on to the next stage of your life?

Is the future God wants for you something other than that seems obvious to you?

It's worth thinking about.

WHEN BAD NEWS IS GOOD: LIFE, POLLYANA-STYLE

You won't be killed. You'll die a peaceful death. They will honor you with funeral rites as they honored your ancestors, the kings who preceded you. They will properly mourn your death. (Jeremiah 34:4-5)

I'm going to see you free--God's Decree--free to get killed in war or by disease or by starvation. (Jeremiah 34:7-8)

Poor King Zedekiah.

Well, not so poor. As king, I expect he had a fairly comfortable lifestyle; and his father was the great Hezekiah, one of the high notes as the kingdom of Judah stumbled toward exile.

The exile Judah had been earning year by year, decade by decade, century by century, came due during Zedekiah's reign. He couldn't escape. He would end his life in Babylon, far away from home.

Jeremiah sugar-coated the bitter pill of death in exile. He would live a full life span. He wouldn't die in battle, be executed or assassinated. When he died, he would be honored and mourned. His family and his people would mark his passing.

He might be a prisoner of war, but he was given VIP treatment. Bad news, with a twist that turned it good.

Later in the chapter, God turned good news into bad.

The people of Judah had entered into a covenant to free their slaves. They never should have kept their fellow-Israelites as slaves beyond seven years. But like so much else of the law, they paid no attention.

And in this case, they went back on their word almost as soon as they released them, pulling their former slaves back to work in their homes.

God teased them. I'm going to set you free!

Grins on everyone's faces. For a split second.

Freedom to get killed. Not in old age, in their sleep. No, war, disease, and starvation would thin their ranks.

Clouds can have silver linings. The glass can be half full when it seems half empty.

I believe I read this story in Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. They were in a concentration camp. And their barracks had bedbugs. Suffering upon suffering. Corrie complained about it until she realized--the guards turned their back on the Bible reading and prayer because they didn't want to come to close t the bugs.

Death in exile.

Small mercies help us keep the bigger problems in perspective.

God is Good (Jeremiah 32:33)

     Thirty-four years ago, when my husband and I married, we were unaware he had bipolar disorder. In fact, he said he didn't get depressed. He did cite one time of mental confusion years earlier, but blamed it on coming off meth, the turning point when he followed the Lord wholeheartedly. His dedication to the Lord and his emotional stability attracted me to him. On the other hand, I struggled with depression.

     About nine years into our marriage, when our two children were little, job instability, financial pressures and budding marital problems woke up the sleeping monster of bipolar disorder. Once so stable, my husband became a roller coaster of emotions, with breaks from reality. Once sensitive to God’s wisdom and insight, he became confused and lost confidence in his relationship with the Lord.

     He and I always had been opposites, but over the next fifteen years or so we struggled to keep body, mind and marriage together. We often gave up trying to see eye to eye and simply said, “The Lord is good!”  We could always agree on that, even though times were tough.

     In Jeremiah 32, King Zedekiah couldn't understand why Jeremiah would prophecy destruction. He even locked the prophet up in prison. But the king only understood part of the message. When God called Jeremiah, He told him to buy land from his cousin and seal it up in a clay pot so it would keep for a long time. Because of the Israelites’ evil ways, God would destroy the city, but He promised they would live and thrive there again. Jeremiah’s deed was a sign of hope.

     God’s intentions were, are and always will be to love and care for His people. The Lord said in Jeremiah 32:41, “I will rejoice in doing them good.” In Jeremiah 33:15, He went on to say that He would send “a righteous Branch to spring up for David” who would carry out justice and righteousness.

     That branch is Jesus, in whom we find grace, love, forgiveness, and the good God has always wanted for His people. Most importantly, we have a loving relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit within us.

God is good and desires good for His people. He will take us through bad times to get to the good times. Many marriages would stay intact, if they’d grasp the vision of what God intended to do for them through trials.

     My husband is back to being emotionally stable (for the most part) and the spiritual man I fell in love with. And I’m seldom depressed. We’re still opposites. If there are two way to do things, he’ll do it one way and I’ll do it the other. But we always agree that God is good.  

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3)             

                                                                                                                                

Connie L. Peters has thirty years of experience in writing poetry, adult and children’s fiction and inspirational non-fiction. Currently she writes devotions for The Presidential Prayer Team and The Pagosa Sun. She also writes a poem a day on enthusiaticsoul.blogspot.com. Connie’s work has appeared in numerous publications including Focus on the Family, Bible Advocate and The Quiet Hour. She has served on the board of Southwest Christian Writers Association for the past twenty years. Connie lives in Cortez, CO where she and her husband host two adults with developmental disabilities. The Peters’ two grown children live in Arizona.