Jeremiah 21 Devotional

Life Through Surrender

“Furthermore, you are to tell this people that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.”Jeremiah 21:8 (BSB)

With Babylon's army at the walls, King Zedekiah hopes the LORD will do one of his past wonders and drive the enemy away (21:2). Instead, God himself will fight against Jerusalem with his own strong arm, in anger and great wrath (21:5). Zedekiah wanted God's power without returning to God, but the LORD is not a weapon to be pulled out in an emergency.

Yet even in this sentence of judgment, God opens a path. He sets before the people two roads, one leading to life and one to death (21:8). Those who stay in the city will die, but those who go out and surrender to the besiegers will keep their lives (21:9). Life comes through giving up the fight, not winning it. Long before, Moses set life and death before Israel and urged them to take the path of life (Deuteronomy 30:19). God's mercy often comes in the shape of an unexpected surrender. Where you have been fighting to hold your ground against him, life may lie in yielding.

To think about: Where are you fighting to hold your ground against God, and what would surrender to him look like there?