Zede-who-zi-kiah?

So, as aforementioned, I've been trekking through Jeremiah for my personal devotions this semester (and I would highly recommend it). However, often times, the story line goes something like this:

Jeremiah tells the people what God says.
The people don't listen and don't care that they don't listen.
God does what he says he is going to do.
The people get angry.
Jeremiah gets horrible things done to him.

So yesterday, I rolled into chapters 37-39 and the reign of a new king named Zedekiah. Old Zeke is actually interested in listening to Jeremiah. In fact, he's fascinated with the words that Jeremiah is speaking. He constantly invites Jeremiah to come and talk to him, even pledging to protect Jeremiah's life, on oath before God, in order to hear the words of Lord through Jeremiah. Three times, he entreats Jeremiah to come and speak to him:

Jeremiah 37:3-> "please pray to the Lord our God for us."
Jeremiah 37:16-18 -> "Is there any word from the Lord?"
Jeremiah 38:14 -> "I am going to ask you something... do not hide anything from me."

Repeatedly, Jeremiah tells Zedekiah to surrender to the Babylonians, for the sake of his people, his city, and his life. Every time, Zedekiah listens, and hears the words of the prophet. Yet, and here's the kicker, he does not act on the words of the Lord; he does not accept them as true for himself. Rather, he is merely a consumer of truth, hearing the words of the Lord, but not accepting them as true, or acting on their validity.

How many times do you and I remember having friends who are fascinated with religion or God-talk? Or perhaps that is you or me...

We hang out in Christian community.
We listen to truth constantly, and we like the way that the gospel makes us feel.
We like knowing about God.
We like engaging "spirituality."
We even enjoy the intellectual stimulation of a good hearty debate about Christian moralism in a post-modern society filled with the evils of relativism.

Yet the take-home from Zedekiah is that just hearing the truth is not enough. Engaging it on an intellectual level, surrounding ourselves with those who believe in its veracity, and placating our consciences from their Sunday guilt is not sufficient. Like Zedekiah, we can surround ourselves with religion or spirituality, and still never know truth for ourselves. And at the end of the day, the truth is still the truth, and God's word does not come back empty. In Zedekiah's case, this meant that he watched his sons and nobles be slaughtered before his eyes. Then his own eyes were removed, and he was bound in bronze shackles for the journey to Babylon (Jeremiah 39:6-7). He knew the truth. He had heard it three times. Yet he did not accept it for himself.

The same question applies to us today. Knowing the gospel is not enough. I know several individuals who can give the correct answer to any spiritual question which you would pose. They can quote scripture better than some pastors. Yet they will tell you that they have not been able to accept it for themselves because they are "still searching." It's a step in the right direction, but eventually, they have to chose... Unfortunately, spiritual proximity does not save us. Free will dictates that we have the choice to accept or reject salvation. We are justified by faith... saved by grace, not works... yet we must take the step of faith (literally) and believe for ourselves, accepting the truth of the gospel as true for us personally...

You can know that the medicine will heal your disease, but if you don't take it, you will not get better.

You can believe that you need food, in order to live, but if you don't take the food and eat it, you will not get sustenance.

So Zedekiah found himself lacking sons, nobles, and eyeballs, and carrying very heavy chains to Babylon... He was offered wellness and life. Child of God, you are offered salvation from your sins. But you, like Zedekiah, have a choice to make.... and at the end of the day, just hearing the word is not enough.