Jeremiah 37 - The duplicity of man

Zedekiah was made king, but purely as a puppet ruler, installed by Nebuchadnezzar. No one paid any attention to the words of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah. So the rulers, the officials and the people in general were in rebellion against the Lord. Things are not that much different today.

However, Zedekiah still wanted Jeremiah to pray for the nation. This double mindedness is typical. They were not willing to respond to the word of God, which would indeed have brought salvation, yet they still wanted Jeremiah to pray for them. Today politicians are flatly rejecting God's words, yet will then pay lip-service to Christianity. God cannot be mocked, and this sort of attitude did Zedekiah no good, nor will it do our country or its rulers any good. 

At the time the Egyptian army had marched out, possibly in response to some request from Zedekiah. While Zedekiah was installed by Babylon, he was using devious means to try and save Jerusalem. As a result of the Egyptian army marching out the Babylonians withdrew. Zedekiah must have thought that his scheming was paying off, but God sends His word to assure Zedekiah that the relief was only temporary, it would not last. Israel's problem was not Babylon and the solution most definitely was not Egypt. Her problem was her sin against the Lord and the solution was repentance.

During the lull Jeremiah went to the territory of Benjamin to get his affairs sorted out. However, he was accused of deserting and was arrested. Later Zedekiah had him brought to him and asked if there was any word from God. The duplicity of this is amazing. If he was a man of God why did Zedekiah have him imprisoned? There had been numerous words from the Lord, all of them ignored. Men will act in totally illogical and hypocritical ways. Jeremiah simply repeated the word of the Lord. He also pointed out that all the false prophets who had said Babylon would not attack had been clearly proved wrong. Yet Zedekiah still would not listen. However, Jeremiah was confined to the courtyard, and given a daily provision of food.