Preface: Many pastors today are in for a rude awakening. The question is how will they respond when they find out that they were asleep....and that God was indeed judging all of us....and they did not warn the sheep like they should have been doing? The more faithful servants of God will admit it....and God who is full of mercy....(or I would not be typing this right now)....will chasten them but restore them....to once again feed the flocks. The others will find excuses....and never admit that they were wrong. The following post is from October 2 of 2013:
Were you ever telling a story to someone and as you finished the other person looks at you and asks...."So what happened?" You had completed the narrative but there were some loose ends not necessarily related to the message you were intent on giving. Well that's kind of the way it is with Jeremiah. We follow him for forty years of warning kings and princes and false prophets and the people....Nebuchadnezzar returns super angry....just like Jeremiah told them that he would....and destroys the temple and the walls and the city and takes just about everyone as captives back to Babylon. So what happened to Jeremiah?
The short answer is that we do not know. What God's Word does tell us is that Nebuchadnezzar knew about this prophet who all along was telling Zedekiah to surrender. He gave orders to his top general to find Jeremiah who had been under house arrest....and offer him a good life in Babylon....or he could stay in what was left of Jerusalem if he chose....but even that's not the end of the story.
Nebuchadnezzar took everyone back to Babylon but left the poorest of the poor to pick up the pieces and farm the land....and he chose someone to be a governor over them...someone that he could trust....Gedaliah was his name. Here's where it gets complicated. A third man....Ishmael....wasn't happy with the choice....for being of royal lineage he thought he should be named king. Gedaliah was warned about Ishmael but did not heed that warning....long story short....Ishmael kills him....rounds up the people....and starts to take them where he thinks they should go. Enter yet another key player....Johanan....he gathers up as many soldiers as he can and pursues Ishmael and the people....and finds them.
Ishmael escapes but now Johanan is in charge....and he asks Jeremiah whom along with Baruch was with the people.....he asks him what the LORD would have them do....and then promises to obey whatever Jeremiah tells them. Remember this is after Jeremiah giving true prophetic words for four decades!
So Jeremiah asks of the Lord what the people should do....and the LORD tells them to stay in Israel.....and He will protect them and provide for them. Essentially it is the same thing that God had been all along telling the people through Jeremiah....TRUST! You would think that the people would finally believe Jeremiah....but no sooner had he told them what God said but Johanan and the leaders....who had promised to obey what what the LORD would say.....called Jeremiah a liar and a false prophet....just like all the kings and princes had been accusing him of for decades! It's mind-boggling....and frightening....how weak we all are when we do not trust God's Word!
Johanan took the people to Egypt....and Jeremiah did his visual parable thing again....this time with rocks....essentially telling the people that they would all eventually die of the sword and pestilence and famine. That's all we know about what happened to Jeremiah....except for this....the most important thing....he is praising the great I Am right now....and exalting his Lord and Savior and King of Kings....and will joyfully do so forevermore....whatever that time paradigm will be that is eternity!
So take heart friends....stand for what God's Word tells us of judgment that is coming....and our need to amend our ways and to prepare. No one is going to want to hear it....just as they didn't want to hear what Jeremiah told the people. Trust God....heed the warnings from His Word....listen to what He tells us....and not the various princes and voices that dominate the airwaves today!
