Year of Exposure Day 28: Some never learn; and then it’s too late.

“But the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had captured him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on him. Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes in Riblah; the king of Babylon also killed all the nobles of Judah. Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon.”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭39‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Once, when Jesus was on a boat with His disciples, a great storm arose. The disciples were terrified. However, even though the storm was raging, Jesus was sleeping.

“Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?””

‭‭Mark‬ ‭4‬:‭38‬-‭40‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Fear is one of the tools Satan uses to provoke, not only anxiety and worry, but also to make people do ridiculous things. And, as bad as that can be, the worst thing fear can make us do is to doubt and/or disobey the word of God.

We saw last time that Zedekiah informed Jeremiah that he was afraid of what might become of him, if he obeyed God, by submitting to the Babylonians.

Even though the Lord had promised Zedekiah that if he would obey, it would be well with him, he just couldn’t seem to push through his fear to obey what God said.

As we see in our opening scripture, Zedekiah’s refusal to obey God‘s word, cost him everything.

You see, Zedekiah’s refusal to submit to the king of Babylon, brought another siege on Jerusalem. And after about a year and a half of being under siege, the walls of the city were breached.

When Zedekiah tried to escape, the Babylonians pursued and captured him. The tragedy we see described in our opening scripture, would prove to be the end of Judah‘s monarchy and the beginning of the Babylonian exile of the Jews. Zedekiah would die a prisoner in Babylon.

Child of God, allowing fear to cause us to disobey what God has said, will bring on us worse than what we had feared.

“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭10‬:‭28‬ ‭NLT‬

Peace to you.

Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!