Jeremiah 39:18: “‘For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,’ says the LORD.”

November 7th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This chapter gives us a strong contrast between faithfulness and faithlessness. On one side we see Jeremiah’s faithfulness to the Lord and God’s faithfulness in return to him. And on the other, we see King Zedekiah’s faithlessness and weakness, how he failed to be courageous when pressure came, and how he ended up paying a terrible price for his cowardly indecision. The irony of this section is that the king, who refused to see the truth Jeremiah declared to him, had his eyes put out. The temple that burned incense to idols, was itself burned to the ground. And the citizens of Jerusalem who illegally held their fellow Jews in slavery, were themselves led away as captives to slavery in Babylon. But those who “put their trust” in God, Jeremiah and Ebed-Melech (an Eithopian in Zedekiah’s court who helped Jeremiah), found that their lives were protected.

Hebrews 12:6 says, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, / And disciplines every son whom he receives.” Faith in God makes demands on a believer almost every single day. It requires determination and strength of character, demanding us to cling to, trust in, and rely on God. When we fail, stumble, and fall, we must simply go back and humble ourselves before God. The Lord then faithfully picks up where we left off, and we journey down the road a little farther. When Francis of Assisi was asked why God called him, he said that God picks “the weakest, the smallest, the meanest of men on the face of the earth” because they will be acutely aware that it is God, not them, doing the work.

“LORD, use us today.”