October 2, 2020: Day 41 – Jeremiah 41

There is a whole lot of unrest happening here in this chapter.  Keep in mind that Judah has been taken off into captivity and Jerusalem was burned to the ground.  But the Babylonians had appointed a person who was going to be the  king for any of the stragglers who were left behind. That was Gedaliah, and he and his family were in Mizpah, that’s where they set up shop.  The previous chapter we saw a warning that Gedaliah received from Johanan that this guy Ishmael was planning on coming and killing Gedaliah.  Gedaliah poo pooed it and said that would never happen to me.

It happens to him, Gedaliah is killed in this chapter by Ishmael, and he also kills a bunch of Chaldeans (read Babylonians) and then a bunch of very spiritual Jews who came to worship and offer sacrifices.  Ishmael basically made a hot mess in trying to overthrow Gedaliah.  Johanan sees all that Ishmael does and brings a group of fighters with him to drive Ishmael out.  He does and then brings the people who were left over to Egypt in order to protect them since Ishmael had made such a hot mess and killed a whole bunch of people that he should not have, including a bunch of Babylonians.

Two lessons here.  We are never immune to that which we want to avoid.  It will probably come and get us sooner or later.  That was the state of Gedaliah that he was living in denial that he could ever be subjected to what other rulers were subjected to, namely an overthrow.  Then on the part of Ishmael we can read that we should never take matters into our own hands especially when the prophet of the Lord tells us to do certain things and to live in a certain (accept the rule of the Babylonians because it will pass over time) way.