Old Sandals

So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they went as far as Tahpanhes.   Jeremiah 43:7

“All the way, my Savior leads me…” This old hymn, written by Fanny Crosby in 1875, is familiar to many of us.  It expresses a confidence in God’s overarching guidance in our lives, however “weary” or “faltering” our steps may at times seem to be.  Often, it is difficult to see a way forward.  How will God get me through this?

The way our Savior leads us is always forward. It is never backward. Never. This is what going down to Egypt symbolizes—a turning back, a breaking of confidence, an unholy desire to satisfy the deepest hungerings of our soul with the fleshly leeks and melons Egypt (this world) has to offer.  It may seem like a shortcut to happiness, but it is ultimately a sure path to disappointment and destruction.

“Pray for us to the Lord your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but  a few of many, as you can see), that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.”   Jeremiah 42:2-3

However insincere this particular petition may have been, the words echo the prayer of saints down through the centuries.  Meek and lowly people, sinners all, but pioneers for the gospel.

If you would like learn more about those who blazed the trail, so to speak, in Christian history, join with me and others as we read the church fathers, beginning December 2nd, the first Sunday in Advent.  For more information, go to http://ReadTheFathers.org.

Now it came to pass in the seventh month  that  Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and of the officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And there they ate bread together in Mizpah. Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, arose and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.   Jeremiah 41:1-2

It might have been a better fate—being led away as captives to Babylon—than being allowed to remain in a land now so filled with treachery and murder.  The Lord alone is our refuge and strength. The Lord alone.

Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard…let [Jeremiah] go from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all who were carried away captive from Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon. And [Nebuzaradan]…said to him: “The Lord your God has pronounced this doom on this place. Now the Lord has brought it, and has done just as He said. Because you people have sinned against the Lord, and not obeyed His voice, therefore this thing has come upon you. And now look, I free you this day from the chains that were on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you. But if it seems wrong for you to come with me to Babylon, remain here. See, all the land is before you; wherever it seems good and convenient for you to go, go there.”   Jeremiah 40:1-4

What an intriguing scene!  Nebuzaradan, a captain in the Babylonian army and surely a pagan idolator, admonishes Jeremiah and the people of Judah because of their sins!  “Therefore this thing has come upon you.”  Then, inexplicably, Nebuzaradan unshackles Jeremiah and lets him go free! Nebuzaradan was not a friend, but an enemy.  Even so, as the proverb says, “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

 Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah.  He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.   Jeremian 52:10-11

Zedekian rebelled against the LORD.  Although warned by the prophet not to do so, he also rebelled against the king of Babylon.  His fate was horrible.  If only Zedekiah had repented, even as he languished in a Babylonian prison!  His fate was not something the LORD took delight in.  He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  But sin pays its own wages.

How far removed is this sad story from the lives of those who follow the counsel found in the Didache (c. 70):

“Accept whatever happens to you as  good, knowing that apart from God nothing comes to pass….for Thine is the power and the glory for ever. Let grace come, and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God (Son) of David! If any one is holy, let him come; if any one is not so, let him repent.  Maranatha.  Amen.”

But I will deliver you in that day…and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword…because you have put your trust in Me.  Jeremiah 39:17-18

When I say, “I know Whom I have believed, and I put my trust in Him.”, it is not the same kind of statement as “I know I am sitting on this couch at this moment, typing out these thoughts.”  The latter is an objective certainty in time and space.  The former I hold to be just as certain as my physical position on the couch, yet it is a metaphysical certainty.  Faith is like standing on your tiptoes, reaching with fingers outstretched for something that is just beyond your grasp.  But you know it’s there, so you keep reaching, you keep stretching.

The reaching and the streching are temporaral things, as are this keyboard, this couch, and my body sitting on this couch for that matter.  The faith will someday (soon) be sight. Then my fingers will no longer ache from stretching; then I will touch, then I will see, then I will experience—in time and space—my Lord and my God, the One in Whom I have put my trust, the One my very soul has been reaching for all along.  He will return to this earth as He promised.  He will set His foot on this planet, and every eye will see Him.  Speed the day.

So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying,  “As  the Lord lives, who made our very souls, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”  Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you surely surrender  to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul shall live; this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans; they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.”   Jeremiah 38:16-18

There would have been in Zedekiah’s voluntary surrender to the king of Babylon a kind of a surrender to the will of God.  This is why a promise of life is given to him.  And yet Zedekiah stubbornly refuses to submit even to this (the inevitable), and in so doing forfeits the lives of his own sons, and his own eyesight as well.  Of a truth it has often been said: There is none so blind as those whowill not see.

When Jeremiah entered the dungeon and the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days, then Zedekiah the king sent and took him  out.  The king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there  any  word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is. Then he said, You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon!    Jeremiah 37:16-17

Many of us would have lost our nerve after spending weeks in prison, but it doesn’t seem to have stifled Jeremiah’s courage.  We can take heart from this. God is an ever present Help in trouble, and the Strength of those who put their trust in Him.

Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. And you shall not escape from his hand, but shall surely be taken and delivered into his hand; your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, he shal Jeremiah 34:2-5 l speak with you face to face, and you shall go to Babylon….You shall not die by the sword. You shall die in peace.Jeremiah 34:2-5

Zedekiah was a rebellious king, the last king of Judah.  He was captured and taken to the king of Babylon in Riblah.  There, his sons were put to death before his eyes, and then he was blinded, loaded down with chains, and taken to Babylon. The king of Babylon did not kill him. He died in Babylon, in peace, just as the prophet had told him.  But unless he found it in his heart to repent, he died in utter despair.

“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.”   Jeremiah 21:10

We Christians are fond of saying, “The Lord is in control”.  But what do we actually mean when we say that?  How are we comforted?  Strengthened?  I’m afraid that, sometimes at least, we mean little more than a Christian version of “It’ll be alright”.  A Christian colloquialism.

The Lord is in control.   We are comforted and strengthened when we remind ourselves of that reality.  Comforted when our cross seems too heavy to bear.  Strengthened to continue to bear it.  Carry your cross, Christian and follow.  Follow hard.