11/05/2017 - NOTHING HAPPENS, IF NOT BY GOD

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Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and seek the Lord’s favor? And the Lord relented concerning the doom which He had pronounced against them. But we are doing great evil against ourselves.” Jeremiah 26.19

When God sends a person to take the message to His people, or to the lost, this person should not fear the threats that may show up during his journey of obedience, nor deny the message in its extension. If he gives in to fear, he will have no conditions of serving the Lord. No evil will happen to him if he is willing to fulfill the divine order; therefore, he should not fear what the devil says he will do against him.

The days of Jeremiah were difficult, for Judah had been entirely corrupted, far away from the Lord. Not only that, but the people did not care about those who honored the ones who called themselves gods. The verdict of the Most High said that they would be taken to captivity in Babylon; however, unfortunately, they did not want to listen. The Lord has been warning His people not to give in to sin, but many are not obeying and will be lost forever.

The priests, the prophets and all the people said that Jeremiah deserved to be killed for transmitting the message of God. As a man, he could have felt that his days were over; however, as a servant of the Lord, he knew that He would keep him safe and that, in the end, nothing bad would happen. This should be our certainty! At all times, we need to give a faithful testimony of our faith.

Jeremiah was not to blame for the nature of the message God had given him, but because it was a tough message, people planned to kill him. When the princes heard about this, they left the king’s house and went to the house of the Lord. There, they learned about what the ecclesiastical authorities wanted to do against the prophet. God always has the right way to operate in favor of those who serve Him. Amen!

They allowed Jeremiah to defend himself, and he repeated what he had already said: everyone should set their paths and actions straight, and hear the voice of God to prevent evil from reaching them. The prophet declared that he was on their hands and they could do to him as they wished; however, if they killed him, they would bring innocent blood upon their lives. So, the princes came to the conclusion that the prophet had done nothing worthy of death.

At that moment, some of the ancients stood up and remembered that, in the days of Hezekiah, Micah had prophesied about what would happen to Zion and Jerusalem. As he heard this, Hezekiah did not kill the prophet, but begged for divine favor, and God changed the sentence against His people. That is what the Lord wants to do when He warns us not to take the same path as the sinners. Judah did not obey the warnings, and was sent to captivity as a result.

The lesson we learn from this story: God will do the same in favor of those who fear Him and change their procedures to fulfill his Word. What will you do?

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares