Chapter 41

There are times when hope disappears, even as it is arising.

It seems that just when things are looking good for Judah once again, we take a turn for the worse.

Gedaliah, the new governor, is murdered by this character Ishmael.

Now, I will accept that you can forgive a man for being a patriot. But this man goes beyond pure patriotism. I suspect his motives are more Machiavellian than patriotic. In verse 1 we read that he had royal blood and that he had been a high official of Zedekiah. So perhaps he thought he would be able to seize the kingship if he murdered the governor.

It’s hard to know Ishmael’s motive. What we CAN say is that once he’d killed the Governor he had to kill a whole bunch more people to keep his crime a secret – and not just bodyguards or soldiers, either. Verses 7-8 show us how Ishmael brutally killed a group of pilgrims.

A group of former soldiers rally and rescue the prisoners taken by Ishmael and begin a pursuit of the murderer. They catch up with him; but ultimately, despite their best efforts, Ishmael gets away. And as the chapter ends, we see the people of Judah are in a real pickle – if the Babylonians get wind of this situation, there might well be reprisals. So as the chapter ends, these soldiers (as well as the freed prisoners) are about to head down to Egypt.

We’ll learn more about how THAT little adventure went over the next two nights.

Meanwhile, what can this passage from tonight teach us?

Once again, it’s hard to draw deep messages from a passage that is mostly narrative. But still, we’ll give it a shot.

Sin has a way of snowballing.

Ishmael may have thought he was only going to kill the governor. But once he and his men had overpowered and murdered him, they were faced with a problem – there were others in the Palace, who might get suspicious and return to the Babylonians with those suspicions.

Once Ishmael had dsposed of the witnesses, he would have a further incident in whuch he came face to face with a group of innocent (we think!) pilgrims.

And murdered them too!

To cover up his last sin, each time Ishmael has to do more atrocious things.

I think this is why God’s solution to sin is forgiveness followed by grace – any other treatment of sin is likely to result in escalation.

Grace is about breaking sin’s cycle.