Jeremiah 38:17-19
Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "This is what the Lord God of Heavens Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'If you surrender to the Babylonian officers, you and your family will live, and the city will not be burned down. But if you refuse to surrender, you will not escape! This city will be handed over to the Babylonians, and they will burn it to the ground.'"
"But I am afraid to surrender," the king said.
II Chronicles 36:13
Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man, refusing to turn to the Lord, the God of Israel.
King Zedekiah, we are told, "was a hard and stubborn man," refusing to submit to his God. But he also refused to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, to whom he had pledged a loyalty oath.
Even though he had sought out Jeremiah and promised to not allow him to be killed, he was too afraid to submit to what Jeremiah told him. He really didn't believe that he couldn't escape and decided to "take his chances" anyway.
So King Zedekiah was captured, forced to witness his sons' executions, then had his eyes gouged out. How much better things would have been for him if he would only have allowed his heart to be softened toward God!
O my dear Father God, You are good, kind, forgiving; a merciful Potentate to those who submit to You. And You are not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance. But, like Zedekiah, many are too hard, proud, and stubborn to want to submit to Your love. They have bought the enemy's lies and allowed themselves to be deceived into thinking that they "know better," like Zedekiah did. And their end will be no better than his.
Please, Father, show Yourself strong to my loved ones who do not yet know You; soften their hard hearts, and draw them to Yourself, no matter what it takes.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
