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EDEKIAH was a double-minded man
(James 1:8 & 4:8). He vacillated with an appalling wishy-washy pragmatism.
One moment he was delivering Jeremiah to men who were willing to imprison and
even kill that good prophet. The next moment he was authorizing Jeremiah's
rescue. This man had no business being the king of the Holy City, that's for
sure. As we saw in the last chapter, Zedekiah wanted God's blessings, he just
didn't want God telling him what to do. He was a religious rebel.
Sadly, I've been in Zedekiah's place
more than once in my life. Oh no, I've never had the authority of a king; never
had the executive power of life or death in my mouth, yet too many times I have
been guilty of moving from spiritual curiosity to moral complacency, and then
back again to "the straight and narrow," all in very short order. We
need to be reminded that God is deeply disgusted by this kind of amoral
mutability (Revelation 3:15-16). It may sound strange, still, it is true that
God would rather us be either religious (James 1:27) or rebellious (I
Corinthians 15:34), but He despises any admixture of both (Titus 1:15-16).
Now, if you want some examples of
unadulterated sincerity, the Babylonians were evil, through and through. On the
other hand, men like Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel were holy, through and
through... well, holy by the sanctifying power of God's grace; holy through the
tool of faith (see Hebrews 11:2 & 32-39). Men like that are wonderful
examples for us to follow.
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