16 Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “No death sentence for this man! For he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.” 17 Then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, 18 “[c]Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus the Lord of hosts has said,
“Zion will be plowed as a field,
And Jerusalem will become ruins,
And the mountain of the house as the [d]high places of a forest.”’19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord, and the Lord [e]changed His mind about the misfortune which He had pronounced against them? But we are committing a great evil against ourselves.”
20 Indeed, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land words similar to all those of Jeremiah. 21 When King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and all the officials heard his words, then the king sought to put him to death; but Uriah heard it, and he was afraid and fled and went to Egypt. 22 Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan the son of Achbor and certain men with him went into Egypt. 23 And they brought Uriah from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim, who slew him with a sword and cast his dead body into the [f]burial place of the [g]common people.
24 But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death.
In a shocking twist, after Jeremiah gave his defense, the officials and people spoke against the priests and prophets and said Jeremiah should not die. Why? Because they believed he really had spoken in the name of the Lord. And they didn’t just say “Lord”, but had an actual name for God, Yahweh, which Jeremiah had spoken–and that was rarely done.
Regardless, that might not have been the end of it, but the elders also spoke up specifically. They reminded the people of the prophet Micah who prophesied similar things during Hezekiah’s reign and was not killed for it, but the people repented and were saved. On the other hand, another prophet, Uriah, had spoken the very message Jeremiah was preaching only a few years earlier. King Jehoiakim sent men all the way to Egypt to bring him back for execution.
So what would it be? In the end, one named Ahikam is given the credit for swaying the masses and saving Jeremiah’s life. Of course, it wasn’t really Ahikam’s doing, but God Himself, but that’s a bit beside the point. What is clear is that God’s message never changed, through all those years. Hezekiah was four generations back and five kings prior to Jehoiakim.
Indeed, God doesn’t change, though maybe some would prefer that He did. Or they would like to convince you that He’s been misunderstood for centuries, or whatever else. This is the same thing the prophets and priests were doing with God’s commands, which had been unearthed by Jehoiakim’s father, King Josiah.
They wanted to live however they liked, revel in the debauchery involved in worshipping various idols, and claim that God was just fine with that–provided one offered the requisite sacrifices at the proper times. Sadly, this isn’t something only our world is involved in, but also many in churches who claim to follow Jesus.
We need to stop trying to fit God into our own molds, and instead conform our life to His mold. It isn’t just about blindly following some authoritarian deity, but wholly trusting a God who came near. He is a God who put on flesh, walked among us, and gave Himself to rescue us from our sins. Jesus did this because of His great love for us, and because He wants the very best for each of us. That doesn’t come from twisting God’s words, but by trusting them and taking Him at His Word–just as King Hezekiah did so many centuries ago.