THE history of Zedekiah, king of Judah, as set forth in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, presents before us much that is of value with respect to the conduct of Christian life. It is among those things which were written “aforetime,” for our learning and instruction, and one lesson at least that we may draw from it is not difficult of discovery. That is the lesson of allegiance to our inmost convictions of truth and right, whether with or without the sanction of those whose counsel and advice in other matters we have been accustomed to respect;
Zedekiah does not seem to have been at heart a very wicked man; but he possessed one trait which in the circumstances that surrounded him, was equally fatal to the prosperity of his reign and to his own personal welfare: his fear of man was greater than his fear of God. Apparently he did entertain some regard for the divine will, as revealed through the prophet Jeremiah; but when the-instructions given him by the prophet came in conflict with the wishes and opinions of those in positions of authority around him, he invariably yielded to the latter. It does not appear that the king was convinced of the correctness of their views; rather the opposite may be inferred; but he did not dare to take any decided stand in opposition to their purposes. When the princes of Judah came to him and demanded the death of the prophet, he replied, ”Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do anything against you.” The untruth of this abject declaration appears in a subsequent interview with Jeremiah, when, as it is recorded (Jer, 38:16), “Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.”
As Zedekiah feared both God and man, the former a little and the latter a good deal, he sought some way by which to please both; and the result was, of course, that he pleased neither. And in the course of his striving over this impossible task, he seems to have brought himself into a singular state of self-deception; for while going directly contrary to the instructions God had given him, he would send to Jeremiah with the inquiry, “Is there any word from the Lord ?” He was determined to continue in his own way and according to the will of the priests and princes, with the continual hope that God would change his mind. He learned erelong that ” God changeth not,” and that the opinions of men, however invested with worldly greatness, count for nothing against the definite instructions of the Omniscient.
No person can admire the course pursued by this unhappy king of Judah, or read the record of it without conceding his great folly. Yet how many to-day are like him? Laodicea—making the same mistake that he made, and yet flattering themselves that they are somehow doing about as well as they can; so much harder is it to discover our own folly than to see it in the course of another. The will of God is no less plainly revealed to man now than it was to Zedekiah; yet how many more understand that will than are honestly endeavoring to perform it! and among the causes of this delinquency, how potent is that of the fear of the opinions of others First is a refusal to walk in the light that has been given them, then an attempt to perform the impossible task of pleasing God and their worldly friends— or more often their own worldly natures—at the same time, and then, like Zedekiah, inquiring of the prophet, they watch for some sign that God justifies their course. But all such must learn the same
lesson in the end, —that God never justifies what he has condemned, and that the only guaranty of their present or future welfare is their compliance with the divine will, obedience to the divine/moral law, the ten commandments, according to the directions of their inmost conscience, the working of the Holy Spirit, convicting of sin, regardless of what all others may think or say. “The fear of man bringeth a snare.”Pro 29:25 There wilt be no moral cowards in heaven.
Zedekiah lived at a time when a firm stand for the right and a bold adherence to his own conscientious convictions were matters of the utmost consequence, both to himself and the people of his kingdom; but he yielded to the influence of his backslidden priests and princes, preachers and teachers promoting a backslidden and now apostate church, and became a mere instrument in their hands for the accomplishment of their blind and ruinous purposes. Struggling on toward an illusive and impossible hope, without the approval of God or man or his own conscience, he only saw at last the overthrow of his own kingdom, with the glorious temple destroyed, and himself a miserable, hopeless captive in a distant land. Unhappy reign, unhappy end !—a type of the end of all those who fear man rather than God.