Jeremiah Was on Trial For His Life

Did you hear about the pastor that has a great message on humility? He is just waiting on a bigger congregation to preach it too! (Source Unknown, Lou Nicholes - Missionary/Author).

Message

This chapter gives a historical background of Jeremiah’s temple message given in chapters 7-10. In those chapters he focused on the content of the message while in this chapter he focuses on the response to the message. It describes how and why Jeremiah was on trial for his life. This all happened during the reign of Jehoiakim who was a materialistic and self-centered king that persecuted and killed many innocent people (v. 1).

The purpose of the message was to get the people to listen to God’s threatened judgment so they would each turn from his evil way (vv. 1-3). The content of the message was one of judgment for disobedience. If the people refused to follow God’s Law and to listen to God’s servants the prophets (Jer 7:21-26), God would make the temple as desolate as the tabernacle that once stood at Shiloh (vv. 4-6). When the priests, the prophets, and all the people who were in the temple courts heard Jeremiah’s words, they seized him just as he finished his message and demanded that he must die for his words (vv. 7-11). Jeremiah gave a threefold defense on his own behalf (vv. 12-15).

  1. That the Lord had sent him to deliver the message they had heard (v. 12).
  2. That if the people would repent God would not bring disaster (v. 13).
  3. That if they killed him they would bring innocent blood on themselves (vv. 14-15).
After hearing the case the officials along with all the people sided with Jeremiah against the religious establishment (the priests and false prophets) (vv. 16-19). Though Jeremiah was spared, other prophets were not so fortunate (vv. 20-23). Jeremiah had the support of Ahikam son of Shaphan who prevented the people from having Jeremiah put to death (v. 24). But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.

Application

Like Jeremiah, I must never ignore or hold back import parts of God’s Word to please anyone.

Jeremiah 26:1-24 (English Standard Version)


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