Gedaliah’s Murder and Radical Ministry
October 28, 2009
What does Gedaliah’s murder have to do with Mission and Mercy Month?
If your first response is “Geda-who?” here is the quick background from Jeremiah 40-41. After the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took all but the poor of the land into exile, they left Gedaliah to be the governor over the remaining few in Jerusalem. Then a nearby king hired an assassin to kill Gedaliah. The assassin did his job. End of story for Gedaliah.
Gedaliah’s murder created an atmosphere of chaos, uncertainty, and instability in Jerusalem. Not only was the leader assassinated, but there was a real possibility that the Babylonians would come back and deal with the Judeans harshly for his murder. Even apart from that threat, Jerusalem was clearly vulnerable to the surrounding nations as evidenced by the ease with which Gedaliah was killed. In other words, Jerusalem was not a safe place to be.
This led to a plan by those who remained in this war-ravaged land to take refuge in the nearest superpower who could protect them from the Babylonians: Egypt. From a sheerly socio-political perspective, this made perfect sense, like Somalians today fleeing from Mogadishu to Minneapolis as refugees.
There was only one problem with this plan: it was not God’s plan. His design was not for his people to be protected by the mighty Egyptian kingdom but by his own almighty power. When the would-be-refugees asked Jeremiah for God’s take on the situation, this was the LORD’s response: “If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you. Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the LORD, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land” (Jeremiah 42:10-12).
Along with these fantastic promises was a threat. “If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die” (Jeremiah 42:15-16). In other words, the remaining folks in Jerusalem could either stay in a dangerous land and experience God’s protective presence or travel to a safe land and face his judgment.
So again I ask, what does the murder of Gedaliah have to do with Mission and Mercy Month? If we desire to not only talk about radical ministry but take part in radical ministry, God will require of us what he required of those who remained in Jerusalem. We must be willing to go into the situations, the environments, the places that are chaotic and unstable. Just as Abby Tracy labors in the slums of Uganda and StreetLight Phoenix goes into the underbelly of youth sex-trafficking, we must allow God’s calling and the promise of his presence to be a higher good than the predictability of the situations we enter to share Christ’s love.
For most of us, the first step is simply opening our hearts to whatever radical ministry God is setting before us. We must lay down our plans to go to Egypt and be willing to stay in Jerusalem if that is where God is calling us. There is always a cost in serving people like Jesus did, as evidenced in the ultimate cost that Jesus paid to serve us.
As we hear of the radical ministry others are doing this month, let us abandon our love of comfort, control, and certainty and go with God to the hard places. As long as he is with us, it will be worth it.
Staying in Jerusalem with you,
Pastor Chris