When God's Plan is Contrary to Mine
"Furthermore, tell the people, 'This is what the LORD says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; they will escape with their lives." Jeremiah 21:8-9
When I was 12, my family moved from Indiana to Alabama for my dad's new job. It was not an easy move for me--I was a shy, withdrawn child who after four years with the same class of kids was just finally starting to feel accepted and part of the group, and then I was told we were moving? To another state? Where I'd have to start this process of making friends and being accepted all over again?!? To say I was unhappy with this change would be putting it mildly! 😒
But I had no choice in the matter, so move we did. And, honestly, it was the best thing that could have happened to me at that time in my life. The adjustment wasn't easy, but it stretched me, broke me out of my comfort zone, and forced me to grow. That first year in junior high in Alabama, I grew in every way possible: my grades improved (with no friends to play with initially, I finally started doing my homework--go figure!), I shot up 6" (though I still didn't hit 5' until 9th grade), and I got better at making friends with practice. Most importantly, the year I was 12 was the year I started reading my Bible every single day, and I really started growing in my faith as a child of God. Other than the height--which I have no control over-- I'm not sure those other changes would have happened if I had been allowed to stay where I was comfortable. In that situation, my will--what I wanted--was not the best thing for me.
The year was approximately 588 B.C. The city of Jerusalem was being besieged by the mighty Babylonian army led by the fearsome Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. At this time, Nebuchadnezzar's empire was the strongest, cruelest and most glorious in the Middle East, and King Zedekiah of Judah had foolishly tried to rebel against him despite the warnings and advice from Jeremiah the prophet and other men of God. Now the day of reckoning was approaching fast--it was only a matter of time before the Babylonians broke through the walls--and Zedekiah was desperate for a miracle. He sent two of his trusted advisors, Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, to the prophet Jeremiah asking for intervention from God. What God told them through Jeremiah was NOT what they wanted to hear.
Harsh? You bet. But it must be remembered that this siege, this conquest had been threatened against the Israelites for almost 400 years, and in all that time, the people never completely forsook their idolatrous and sinful lives and either ignored or outright persecuted the many preachers and prophets God sent to warn them. Now the time had come to pay the piper, and there was no avoiding His fee. Jerusalem was going to fall, and most of its people with it.
Then God told Jeremiah something else to tell King Zedekiah, something unexpected: "See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; they will escape with their lives." Jeremiah 21:8-9
Can you just imagine the people's response? "Hold on, hold on, hold on! Stop just a minute! You mean if we want to live, we have to surrender to the Babylonians?!? You just said they're going to kill us! What are you talking about, Jeremiah? Are you crazy?!? Have you seen those guys? They're ruthless! If we surrender to them, they'll just kill us sooner!
And if they don't kill us, they'll take all of our things and make us slaves! What kind of a life is that? No, no, no; I think I'm just gonna stay right here and keep fighting. I'm gonna protect my house and my family and my belongings, and we'll be safe in these walls. This is the city of God; nothing can overcome it! These Babylonians don't stand a chance. Oh, it looks grim now, but things will turn around--you'll see."
Sounds crazy, right? Or maybe it sounds entirely too logical, because that is exactly the way we sinful humans think. We, just like those Jerusalemites from long ago, would rather face our problems our way than submit to God's way of doing things. Surrendering to their enemies did sound crazy to the people of Jerusalem, and I'm willing to bet that there were very few who listened to Jeremiah's message from God and obeyed Him, but those who did were the ones who survived.
Jerusalem did fall, just as God had said it would; the starvation and famine were terrible, and though King Zedekiah and his family managed to escape the city at the last second, they were quickly caught by the Babylonian army and punished for their rebellion. In one of the most chilling accounts in the Old Testament, Zedekiah and his family were brought before King Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar ordered Zedekiah's sons (who were all children or teens at the time) to be executed in front of Zedekiah, and then ordered Zedekiah's eyes to be put out. The last thing Zedekiah saw before he was led away in chains to spend the rest of his life in a Babylonian prison cell was the murder of his children. In that moment, I'm sure he grieved terribly that he had not listened to the message of God sooner and obeyed.
I know this seems like a really stark example, but it's really no different from the story I told you from my own life at the beginning of this post. So many times, we humans are convinced that we know what's best for us, and that if we could just do things our way, if things could just go according to our plan, everything would turn out all right. God's laws and guidelines that He gives us in the Bible just seem ridiculous at times, like they could never work. And the way He orders our lives, sometimes making the very thing we want or expect the least to occur--that's not the way our lives are supposed to go, we think! Surely our way is more likely to succeed, but yet when we do get our way, we are always so surprised when disaster strikes.
But "my plans are not like your plans, and my deeds are not like your deeds, for just as the sky is higher than the earth, so my deeds are superior to your deeds and my plans superior to your plans" (Isaiah 55:8-9, NET). When we're tempted to think that we know better than God and that our way is better than His, we need to remember just Who. God. Is.
He is our Creator. He holds the entire universe in the palm of His hand. He stands outside of time, seeing the beginning and the end at the same time. He orders all things in this world to achieve His great purpose.
God's way may not always make sense to the human mind, but it always works. So when Joshua was told to march around a city seven times and shout to win the victory, it worked. When Gideon was told to fight against an army of innumerable soldiers with only 300 men armed with torches, trumpets and clay jars, it worked. When Jehoshaphat led the Israelites into battle with a praise choir marching in front of the soldiers, it worked. And when God came to earth to live and die as a man in order to save us all, it worked.
God's ways always work; the question is, Will we submit to them?
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