I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 36-38.

I am struck as I read through the Book of Jeremiah by the political factions within the Kingdom of Judah during Jeremiah’s lifetime.  In today’s passage we see that one faction wanted to kill Jeremiah, and other prophets of God, while another faction protected them.  King Jehoiakim was a member of the anti-prophet faction, later, his brother, Zedekiah was part of the pro-prophet faction when he was king.  When Jehoiakim was king, those supporting Jeremiah were able to protect him, but later when Zedekiah was king those opposing Jeremiah were able to endanger his life.  We see from various comments of King Zedekiah recorded here that he was not a strong enough king to stand up to the faction which wanted Jeremiah dead.  As I read this, King Zedekiah was not just politically weak, but also a personally weak man.  Part of him wanted to do what was right, but he was too afraid of others to do so.  It seems likely to me that King Jehoiakim was similarly weak, but, since he did not desire to do what was right, covered it up by being a bully.

The question is, what does all of this mean for us?  Well, we see that God protected Jeremiah for doing his will, both when King Jehoiakim tried to have him killed and later when those who opposed him tried to starve him to death.  I will note that through all of this Jeremiah experienced quite a bit of suffering, and that God allowed several other prophets to be killed.  We also see that King Zedekiah’s failure to do the right thing did not protect him from the consequences he feared.  There is one more thing which I want to point out.  Those who wanted to kill Jeremiah did so out of “patriotism”.  They felt that his prophecies concerning the fall of Jerusalem encouraged the enemies of Judah, especially its internal enemies.  They placed what they perceived as the best interests of the nation above doing what was right.  Of course, it is quite likely that some of them mistook their own interests for the interests of the nation and allowed others to do things they knew to be wrong because they needed support for their policies.