Jeremiah 37:11 After the Babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army….
Commentary talks about the “significant price” Jeremiah paid for remaining faithful to God and the messages God gave him for the rulers during this time. God, and therefore Jeremiah, didn’t sugarcoat anything. Those in power didn’t like the message. Jeremiah was arrested as a defector and imprisoned.
Jeremiah 37:12 Jeremiah started to leave the city to go to the territory of Benjamin to get his share of the property among the people there.
This chapter has me thinking about what God is asking me to do, how He is calling me to be faithful regardless of the personal cost. I know He’s asking me to love unconditionally even those who are difficult to love. He’s asking me to set aside my pride and my defensiveness when I feel I have been wronged, to trust that there is so much I don’t know, that I can’t see the bigger picture that is so clear to Him.
Jeremiah 37:13 But when he reached the Benjamin Gate, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, arrested him and said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!”
Lord, I can be selfish, stubborn, and headstrong. I can rail at unfairness and the sense that I have been wronged. But I don’t want to do that. More than anything, I want to shine Your light and do Your will. I want to be an agent of Your hope in this dark and weary world. Help me. Amen.
Jeremiah 37:14 “That’s not true!” Jeremiah said. “I am not deserting to the Babylonians.” But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.
Have a blessed day.