Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”
Jeremiah 23:5-6
Sound familiar? These verses are nearly the same as Jeremiah 33:14-16, which we looked at yesterday. The words are not identical, and you may well want to spend some time looking into the differences, but the core truth is the same, that someday this Branch from David’s line will reign, executing justice and righteousness. With such repetition, we should all pay attention…
I find King Zedekiah to be one of the most pathetic figures in the Bible. A little fear of the LORD — yes, fear, even terror, not just mild “respect” — would serve him well. Instead, he fears everyone else. He tells his officials, “Behold, [Jeremiah] is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you.” Right. It is a pointed irony that Ebed-melech, a eunuch, displays more courage than Zedekiah in urging (and implementing) Jeremiah’s rescue from the miry pit. Zedekiah meets with Jeremiah in secret, too scared of his officials to be seen publicly with this “traitor”. He says some positive things in the presence of this prophet of God, but actions speak louder than words, and Zedekiah fails to obey the word of the LORD and continues the fight against Nebuchadnezzar.
The trouble for us is that we can probably all relate to Zedekiah in one way or another. How easy it is to fear people more than God! But unlike Zedekiah, we may not be under threat of physical harm. We probably do not feel that our lives are in danger. Yet we fear people nonetheless. We want to be liked. We do not want to offend. We certainly do not want to be canceled. Meanwhile, we know God is merciful, so we presume upon the Lord’s grace and continue to seek to please men rather than God.
We convince ourselves that our “little” disobediences of God are not nearly as consequential as Zedekiah’s. After all, we do not hold the fate of Jerusalem in our hands. But once upon a time, neither did Zedekiah. He did not come to this point of crisis suddenly. Rather, he has disregarded the LORD in deference to others for years. So now that he requires real courage to defy those men and faith to obey the LORD, he has no experience upon which to draw. We should take note: faithfulness in big things follows faithfulness in little things. (Luke 16:10)
So let’s examine ourselves. How might we be more concerned with others than with God? Do we go along with the crowd when we know better? Do we value the praise of people more than the silent approval of the Lord? Do we simply like being liked, maybe a bit too much?