Gedaliah, or Ishmael, or Johanan? (4)

In Jeremiah Chapter 41, after Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, murders Gedaliah; we read that on the following day:

“Now it happened on the next day after the killing of Gedaliah, when no one knew about it, that eighty men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria with their beards shaved off and their clothes torn and their bodies gashed, having grain offerings and incense in their hands to bring to the house of the Lord. Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went; and as he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!” Yet it turned out that as soon as they came inside the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men that were with him slaughtered them and cast them into the cistern. But ten men who were found among them said to Ishmael, “Do not put us to death; for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil and honey hidden in the field.” So he refrained and did not put them to death along with their companions.” (NASB)

How touching that Ishmael was weeping as he went to meet the pilgrims who had come to worship God. How can a man’s heart turn to such evil? How can such poison take root and spread throughout his person? First Ishmael aligns himself with Baalis the king of Ammon, who conspires with Ishmael to assassinate Gedaliah. Then Ishmael, while dining as Gedaliah’s guest, murders Gedaliah. Then Ishmael offers hospitality to the pilgrims and murders them. How can man be an angel one minute and a demon the next? How can we produce Handel’s Messiah and also produce the Holocaust?

A lion is a lion, an elephant an elephant, a hawk is a hawk, and a rabbit is a rabbit. When an animal behaves out of character we say it is mad, perhaps with rabies or with another affliction. But what can we say about man? We are not mad, we are man - and man is wicked outside of God, man is murderous, man is treacherous. We permit wickedness as long as it conforms to our cultural standards, but when it violates our standards then we have sanctions, then we have law enforcement; but of course even then often might makes right and money pretty much purchases everyone and everything.

Ishmael was raised in Jerusalem and Judah. He must have known of, or even experienced, life under godly King Josiah. He certainly knew Jeremiah and perhaps other prophets and faithful priests. He must have known somewhat of the Law of God given to Moses. And yet Ishmael flees to Israel’s ancient enemy Ammon, seeks the protection of its king whose name reflects the ancient cult god Baal, and then conspires to murder Gedaliah and other innocents. It would have been evil enough had Ishmael been an average Jew, but he was not, he was of the royal family, he was a chief officer of the king, thus amplifying his evil, his treachery, his deceit.

As Paul illustrates in Romans Chapter One, when the True and Living God is rejected, when the light He gives us is suppressed, a downward spiral begins that accelerates exponentially until the depths of darkness are unfathomable and man is deceived into thinking that darkness is light and light is darkness, calling good evil and evil good. How else can such madness be explained?

And yet, rather than repent man curses God, rather than fall prostrate man stands against God, rather than allow the Spirit of God to melt hearts, man hardens his heart until it is stone and no longer flesh, it is beyond feeling. Just look around today, what do we see?

Ishmael throws the bodies of his victims into a cistern; better not to drink that water - for there is death in the cistern. Wickedness pollutes the waters around it, it infuses death into all it touches; it kills and then it spreads the results of its murder. Jesus called the religious leaders of His day “whitewashed sepulchres” - nice and white and clean on the outside, but inside “full of dead men’s bones”. In our own society we are seduced by appearances; if it sparkles, if the rich and famous endorse it, if the materially successful use it, if the glamorous and beautiful wear it, if the powerful say it is good - then we follow it, we consume it, and we feed it to our children - we do not know that the cistern has death in it. We are like the people of Flint Michigan who believed their state and local leaders that the municipal water was safe to drink when all the time it was deadly.

And what of the ten pilgrims who made a deal with the devil Ishmael? Who refused to be identified with their brethren and die with them? Did these men really come to worship Yahweh at Mizpeh? Or did they just “think” they were coming to worship God? He who seeks to save his life will lose it, but the man or woman who loses his or her life for Christ will save it. What did the other pilgrims think as they saw these treacherous ten disown them? Better to die with the faithful than live with Satan...don’t you think? So much for character.

How did this cistern get in Mizpeh in the first place? Is was made by King Asa (Jeremiah 41:9) when he fortified Mizpeh, and Asa was able to fortify Mizpeh because he made an alliance with, and relied on, the king of Aram rather than the True and Living God (2 Chronicles 16:1 - 14). When the prophet Hanani rebuked Asa because he relied on ungodly Aram rather than God, Asa compounded his sin by casting the prophet into prison. Asa began his reign by relying on God, he ended it by going his own way. A cistern built as the result of an alliance with the world rather than God is ultimately polluted by a member of the royal family (who was therefore related to Asa) - what had its origin in rebellion has its end in rebellion.

Ah well, which shall it be, with whom will we identify, how shall we live? Gedaliah, or Ishmael, or Johanan?