Jeremiah (1-31) 21:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 21:1

Comments

All these narratives, these passages of history of the people of God, the typical people of God in olden times, are written for our learning, for our help, with exhortations for today, and this chapter is no exception. Now we know that the people of Judah were conspicuously wicked, and when we apply these things to churches in modern times, we are not suggesting that the people are literally idolaters and committing quite the same offences. Judah had double scope for offence in a sense, because they were not only the people of God but a nation-state also, and they disobeyed the Lord in both spheres. Not only as his privileged people, but in the conduct of their state, there was so much corruption at that time. ‘The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord when Zedekiah sent to him.’ So we are now on the brink of the invasion. Within a year it is about to happen. Nebuchadnezzar is on his way. He is even visible to the watchers of the city. He has not yet surrounded the city, but he is obviously making ready to lay siege. At this point Zedekiah sends Pashur – not the same Pashur as in the previous chapter; we are given the descent of each one; this is a much later Pashur. The former Pashur became a kind of nervous man, and there was a sentence pronounced upon him by God: that he would be a terror to himself and to others. But this Pashur, we learn later on, is a rougher character altogether. He is a prince, and he is priest also; he is the messenger of the king. Actually he is a man who hated Jeremiah even more than the governor of the house of the Lord. This Pashur was the one who, in the later chapters, is seen trying to get Jeremiah prosecuted for treason. It is strange that the King Zedekiah should alight upon a man who hated Jeremiah, and commission him to go and get information and counsel from the prophet. We are told later on that he is one of those who is in favour of the idea that Jerusalem can adequately defend herself against Nebuchadnezzar, and especially with the help of Egypt. So he is in favour of the alliance with Egypt – they will deliver us – and is in support of mounting a defence. He is opposed to Jeremiah who is giving God's word that if they won’t reform and repent, judgment is inevitable. It will come, and the only people who will be saved are the people who surrender to Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans. Their lives will be preserved, whereas those who stay defending in Jerusalem will be destroyed. Those who fall to the Chaldeans will certainly be taken into captivity, but they will be given quite a measure of freedom in the Babylonian Empire, even though they become exiles. So there are these options put before them. Pashur is against that.There is no record that King Zedekiah had ever consulted Jeremiah before. He had stood at the king’s gate to preach, meeting with scorn and rejection; we are told that. But now following right on from this last episode of severe down-heartedness, there opens up a tremendous opportunity that he never expected: the king sends for his council. Comfort comes through turning our thought to the Lord and thinking of his attributes, and it also comes from an outstanding opportunity. The king comes into the picture. Now Jeremiah is going to have personal audience with him. Now he can give his testimony and his prophecy directly to the king.‘Enquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us’, and Jeremiah remains bold and true to his message. It is the eleventh hour now. The invasion really is going to happen. He has been humiliated before and punished for his message; at the eleventh hour what will he do? Well no matter what the consequences, he delivers it faithfully. Pashur makes this request on behalf of the king: ‘For Nebuchadrezzar’ – spelt here differently – ‘king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up [Nebuchadrezzar] from us.’ The king knows he is in a tight corner, and current circumstances makes him do what he would have been reluctant to do before. He sends his representative, but there is no real repentance or humbling before the Lord. What presumption! In their idolatry and their syncretism – their mixing of true worship with false – they presume that God will not allow this to happen. They presume upon God dealing kindly with them. They will not examine themselves; they will not listen to the prophet; they will not be warned; they will not repent; they will not change their ways. But they fondly expect God to protect them according to former wondrous works.

Application

Pashur comes with flattery to God, but flattery is no substitute for real praise. Flattery does not really believe that praise is due, but it wants to make a bargain. It gives the minimum praise that it thinks is due, but its eye is on what it will get in return. Men flatter God in the hope that he will overlook their sins. They are not truly willing to turn from them, but they want him to turn a blind eye. They imagine that no one can see through their duplicity, but they are wrong. God is never fooled, and Jeremiah is about to respond with due bluntness to this hypocrisy.

Questions

In chapter 20 there is a different king. It is earlier and another Pashur is sent to Jeremiah. And when Jeremiah gives the word of God to him, the message for the king, he is furious, and Jeremiah is humiliated and put overnight in the stocks in a most public place, and considered a false prophet and degraded in that way. Now time has passed, and yet the warnings are the same. The patience of God is seen. This is now two kings later, and chapter 21 takes place in the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah. We don't know exactly when the prophecy of chapter 20 was made – chapter 21 follows on – but what is happening is this: that chapter 20 represents the kind of warning that was being given over a period of at least a decade, possibly twelve or thirteen years. It is somewhat frustrating in one way for Jeremiah. He gives these tremendous warnings, that there is going to be destruction and punishment from the Chaldeans, from Babylon. and nothing happens. There is great unrest; Nebuchadnezzar is moving around; he is attacking nations, but he doesn't come to the people of Judah for years. And now the trail is picked up after a gap of ten, eleven, twelve, possibly thirteen years in Jeremiah 21.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Jeremiah (1-31) 21:1 Commentary and Bible Study