Priests and prophets want to kill Jeremiah
26
📚In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah this word came from the LORD, saying, 2 📚“Thus says the LORD: Stand in the courtyard of the LORD’s house, and speak to all the people of the cities of Judah who come to worship in the LORD’s house, all the words 📖 that I command you to speak to them. Do not omit a word. 3 📚Perhaps they will listen, and each one turn from his evil way, so that I may relent concerning the disaster which I have planned to do to them because of their evil deeds. 4 📚And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, 5 📚to listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them (but you have not listened), 6 📚then I will make this house like Shiloh 📖, and will make this city an object of cursing to all the nations of the earth.’ ” 26:1-6 This message was given several years before the Babylonians captured Judah and Jerusalem. At that time God offered the people a way of escape. God would much rather save people than destroy them (Ezek 18:32; 33:11). He will forgive when He sees repentance (Jer 18:7-8). He will watch for it and delay His punishments as long as possible. But if there is no repentance, no obedience there can be no escape (compare Luke 13:1-5; Rom 2:5).⚜
7 📚So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. 8 📚Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You shall surely die.
26:8 Jeremiah was completely faithful to God’s instructions in v 2. But see how men would reward him for it. Jeremiah was not the first of God’s servants nor the last to be treated like that (Acts 7:52; Heb 11:35-38).⚜
9 📚Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate without an inhabitant?’ ” And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
10 📚When the officials of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD, and sat down at the entrance of the new gate of the LORD’s house.
26:10 These officials came to judge the dispute.⚜
11 📚Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, “This man deserves to die, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears”.
26:11 The priests and false prophets make their case before the officials. They did not seem at all interested to find out whether Jeremiah spoke the truth. Here is full-grown prejudice and intolerance, and willful ignorance. Compare Matt 26:62-66. Such things are met with in our day also.⚜
12 📚Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people, saying, “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. 13 📚Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will relent concerning the disaster that he has proclaimed against you. 14 📚As for me, see, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. 15 📚But know for certain, that if you put me to death, you will surely bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on its inhabitants. For truly the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears”.
26:12-15 This is Jeremiah’s defense. He was interested only in the truth. The matter of living or dying was a much smaller thing in his eyes. This is what God wants in every generation – people who love truth more than life itself. Compare Ps 51:6; Acts 20:24.⚜
16 📚Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “This man does not deserve to die, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God”.
26:16 In this matter at least the officials and people had more regard for truth and justice than the priests and prophets who should have been their greatest defenders.⚜
17 📚Then some of the elders of the land got up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, 18 📚“Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying,
‘Thus says the LORD of hosts:
Zion will be plowed like a field,
and Jerusalem will become heaps,
and the mountain of the house
like the high places of a forest.’
19 📚“Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and seek the LORD? And the LORD relented concerning the disaster which he had proclaimed against them. Thus we might we bring a great disaster against our souls”.
26:17-19 Micah’s prophecy, uttered about one hundred years previously, was still known in Judah (Micah 3:12). Hezekiah’s repentance is mentioned in 2 Chron 32:25-26. The wisdom of these elders reminds us of that exercised by Gamaliel (Acts 5:33-39).⚜
20 📚And there was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-Jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land, just like all the words of Jeremiah. 21 📚And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard it, he was afraid and fled, and went to Egypt. 22 📚And Jehoiakim the king sent men to Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and some men who went with him to Egypt. 23 📚And they brought Uriah out of Egypt, and took him to Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword, and threw his dead body into the burial place of the common people.
26:20-23 This material is inserted like a parenthesis in the narrative. It reveals the difference between King Hezekiah and King Jehoiakim. It shows, too, the mortal danger Jeremiah faced. What prevented Jehoiakim doing to Jeremiah as he did to Uriah? See Jer 1:8, 19. This Uriah is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.⚜
24 📚But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hands of the people to be put to death.
26:24 Ahikam served good King Josiah and was the father of Gedaliah who later governed Judah for a time (2 Kings 22:12; 2 Kings 25:22). God here used Ahikam to help save Jeremiah’s life. To fulfill His will God uses human means when He chooses to do so (another example – Acts 23:12-24).⚜