[Note: The following is the prepared text for a sermonette given to the Portland, Oregon congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, June 1, 2024.]

Good afternoon brethren. We tend to think that our own times are unique in having people seek to escape facing up to the reality of God’s judgment by seeking to exploit apparent contradictions in scripture. Unfortunately, this evil tendency of our own age is not unique, but has happened numerous times throughout human history. Today I would like to focus on one example recorded in the scriptures where a powerful person under God’s direct personal judgment as well as leading the people of god who were under a collective divine judgment sought to exploit what he viewed to be a contradiction between the divinely inspired messages given to him by two prophets instead of seeking to harmonize these prophecies and ponder how both of them could come true, as both of them did. In examining this example, let us learn a lesson that this ruler did not and understand how it is that what appears to be contradictory is not so when it comes to the Bible, and let us draw the appropriate conclusions of how people in our own time are to deal with the reality of God’s judgment, even when it appears at face value to be contradictory.

Let us first examine an account from the prophet Jeremiah, who gives the last king of Judah before Babylonian captivity, Zedekiah, a personal warning of what is to be his fate for rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of Babylon. We find this account in Jeremiah 34:1-7. Jeremiah 34:1-7 reads: “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem and all its cities, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.  And you shall not escape from his hand, but shall surely be taken and delivered into his hand; your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, he shall speak with you face to face, and you shall go to Babylon.’ ” ’  Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord concerning you: ‘You shall not die by the sword.  You shall die in peace; as in the ceremonies of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they shall burn incense for you and lament for you, saying, “Alas, lord!” For I have pronounced the word, says the Lord.’ ” Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, when the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and Azekah; for only these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.”

At the time that Jeremiah delivered this message to Zedekiah, the kingdom of Judah was already in a bad spot. Almost the entire nation, save three cities, had fallen to the forces of Nebuchadnezzar and his coalition of forces. Only the cities of Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem–the three strongest defensive cities of Judah during this time–held out against the unstoppable forces of the Babylonians. Jeremiah did not have for Zedekiah the message of deliverance that Zedekiah might have hoped for, but his message for Zedekiah was not entirely without positive news. Jeremiah said that Jerusalem would certainly fall and be burned with fire, and that Zedekiah would be unable to escape from Nebuchadnezzar’s hand, and that he would see the Babylonian king whom he had rebelled against face to face, talk with him, and then go to Babylon. Yet he would not be killed by the sword, as one might expect to be the fate of a rebel such as he was, but rather would die in peace and be mourned when that death happened. While this is by no means a positive message, it is not the worst message that could be delivered, and the intent of this message, as is frequently the case in Jeremiah’s messages, is to encourage Zedekiah to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar and to accept the judgment that God had placed upon Zedekiah personally and upon Judah as a whole for their sins.

[We know that Jeremiah was urging Zedekiah to surrender because he personally appealed to Zedekiah to do so in Jeremiah 38:14-23, where the exact same promises and warning are given. Jeremiah 38:14-23 reads: “Then Zedekiah the king sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance of the house of the Lord. And the king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me.” Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.” So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, “As the Lord lives, who made our very souls, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life.” Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you surely surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul shall live; this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live.  But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans; they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.’ ” And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they abuse me.” But Jeremiah said, “They shall not deliver you. Please, obey the voice of the Lord which I speak to you. So it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live.  But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the Lord has shown me:  ‘Now behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah’s house shall be surrendered to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women shall say: “Your close friends have set upon you and prevailed against you; your feet have sunk in the mire, and they have turned away again.” ‘So they shall surrender all your wives and children to the Chaldeans. You shall not escape from their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. And you shall cause this city to be burned with fire.’ ””

As we have already read, this advice given to Zedekiah matches perfectly with what Jeremiah said before. There was no variation in Jeremiah’s message to Zedekiah. He warned, accurately, that if Zedekiah did not surrender to Nebuchadnezzar but made the Babylonians win a siege, then the city would be burned by fire and Zedekiah would be delivered to the angry king, but if he surrendered he would be treated much better. Yet Zedekiah was afraid that those who had already defected to the Babylonians would take advantage of Zedekiah’s vulnerability to mistreat him and be abused. He did not consider what sort of abuse he would face from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar for rebelling against him. Jeremiah was right to tell Zedekiah that it was useless and worthless to give Zedekiah the same counsel that he had given before, the message of the Eternal to him, because he would not listen or follow it, but at least for our purposes it is notable that what Jeremiah said came to pass exactly as he said it would.]

Unfortunately, the problem with this goal is that Zedekiah was unwilling to surrender to the Babylonians in hope of mercy, because he held out for a better outcome. How did he expect to get such a better outcome and escape the sure judgment of God? However he wanted to, he likely found the counsel given to him by the prophet Ezekiel somewhat unclear as well. While Ezekiel never refers to Zedekiah either as king or by name, there is a clear and relevant prophecy that appears contradictory in Ezekiel 12:7-14. Ezekiel 12:7-14 reads: “So I did as I was commanded. I brought out my belongings by day, as though going into captivity, and at evening I dug through the wall with my hand. I brought them out at twilight, and I bore them on my shoulder in their sight. And in the morning the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’  Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are among them.” ’  Say, ‘I am a sign to you. As I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall be carried away into captivity.’  And the prince who is among them shall bear his belongings on his shoulder at twilight and go out. They shall dig through the wall to carry them out through it. He shall cover his face, so that he cannot see the ground with his eyes.  I will also spread My net over him, and he shall be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there.  I will scatter to every wind all who are around him to help him, and all his troops; and I will draw out the sword after them.”

This particular prophecy of Ezekiel’s must have been a difficult one for Zedekiah and the other Jews of Ezekiel’s time to unpack. Like Jeremiah’s prophecies, this one was certainly not good news for Zedekiah, who is told that once again he will not escape from Nebuchadnezzar. Here, though, there was an apparent contradiction that he could use for his own confusion, in that Ezekiel told him that he would go to Babylon and would die there but would not see it. Zedekiah likely did not understand what this meant, especially in light of what Jeremiah had told him about dying in peace and not suffering abuse at the hand of the Babylonians if he surrendered. What would it mean that he would go to Babylon and not see it, he must have wondered, unable to put the prophetic pieces together that he had been given, even if he was inclined to obey God, which sadly he was not.

What was the end result of Zedekiah’s attempt to maneuver between the apparent contradiction between the two prophets? We find the sad result in Jeremiah 39:1-8. Jeremiah 39:1-8 reads: “In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem, and besieged it.  In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the city was penetrated. Then all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer, Samgar-Nebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergal-Sarezer, Rabmag, with the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon. So it was, when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, that they fled and went out of the city by night, by way of the king’s garden, by the gate between the two walls. And he went out by way of the plain.  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.  And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.”

When Zedekiah finally faced up to the results of his rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, it must have been a horrifying moment when he saw how the apparent contradictions all came together in one horrifying picture. He would be caught in the snare of the Babylonians, and would see the angry Babylonian ruler face to face, but seeing that king’s anger and his sons and the nobles who had pressured and counseled him to rebel slaughtered before his eyes, helpless to do anything about it, would be the last thing that he would see before bound in chains, he would be brought to live out the remainder of his days imprisoned in Babylon. At that point, if not before, he would realize that there was no contradiction in the warning he was given. He would see the king face to face and he would go to Babylon, but he would not see Babylon, or anything else, for the rest of his life. He had forfeited the chance to save his family and avoid horrible and gruesome punishment by being too cowardly to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar, and the warnings of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel came to pass as God had ordained, and Jerusalem was destroyed, and Judah helpless to escape the judgment it had brought upon itself through its persistent national sins that God had warned them about for centuries.

What does this prophecy mean for us and for our generation? As is the case with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we too live in an age of people who rebel against God’s judgment and seek to find contradictions within the Bible that justifies them in their own mind to rebel against the clear passages of the Bible that condemn them for their foolish and rebellious conduct. If we are not alert and do not take God’s word seriously enough, we too, like the people of that time, can be counted among that rebellious house. To the extent that we see the judgment of God approaching upon our own society as inexorable and as harsh as the judgment that came upon Judah with the Babylonian conquest and the destruction of Jerusalem by fire, we are called to face our fears about the future and the reality of that judgment with courage, trusting in God to deliver us according to His will, and trusting that He will reward those who faithfully follow His way. It then remains for us to faithfully follow that way, and not be counted among those who rebel against God and who trust in our own wisdom and find fault with the warnings that God gives us, lest we suffer the same fate as Zedekiah and the foolish nobles of Judah of his time who brought destruction upon themselves and their people by refusing to surrender to God’s judgment and to the fate that he had decreed for them.