“I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the LORD.”
~ Jeremiah 39:18
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you experienced a day that you will never forget? Has something happened during your lifetimes that you will never forget? There are days that your grandpaa will never forget. One of the days that your grandpaa will never forget is the day when two airplanes flew into the Twin Towers that were located in New York City. Your grandpaa was with your grandmaa at a medical clinic when it happened. Your grandmaa was having a chemically induced stress test done on her heart when your grandpaa heard what had taken place to the Trade Center. Your grandmaa was in the middle of doctors running the chemically induced stress test on her when the doctors told your grandmaa what had happened. Your grandmaa did not know whether or not if she should believe the doctors. Your grandmaa asked the doctors if they were trying to get an anxiety reaction from her to see what it would do to her heart. Your grandmaa and grandpaa will never forget what happened on September 11, 2001. Your grandpaa will never forget the two years that he lived with your grandmaa, dad and Aunt Lynn in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Before your grandpaa was asked by Beneficial Finance to transfer to Aberdeen to manage their loan office that was located there, your grandpaa had absolutely no clue at all that the two years that he and your grandmaa would live in Aberdeen would lead your grandmaa and grandpaa to become intimately involved in a church and then be called by God to be missionaries. Your grandmaa and grandpaa will never forget all the blessings from becoming proactively involved in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church that is located in Aberdeen. Your grandpaa will also never forget a couple of nights in Aberdeen when the temperature went down to minus thirty degrees resulting in your grandpaa having to get out of bed every couple of hours, go outside, start the car that your grandmaa and grandpaa owned and let the car run until it had warmed up some. Your grandpaa will also never forget the summer afternoon in Aberdeen when he and your grandmaa saw a very angry looking, boiling black line of clouds heading directly for Aberdeen. Your grandmaa and grandpaa headed to their leaning, two story Dutch looking house when they saw the really ominous looking thunderstorms heading in their direction. When the really scary looking thunderstorms got to Aberdeen, the storms put on a constant show of flashing lightening and booming, crackling thunder. Your grandmaa and grandpaa had your dad and your Aunt Lynn go with them into the basement of their house. Your grandmaa and to grandpaa were very thankful that their house was not damaged by the roiling storm as it passed over Aberdeen.
Jeremiah – who was one of God’s prophet spokesmen, did not forget what took place on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign as king over the guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area. The tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year when Zedekiah was ruling as king over the guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area was January 15, 588 B.C. or almost 2592 years ago – or at the time of this editing – over 2609 years ago. At the same time that Zedekiah was ruling as king over the guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area, Jeremiah was living in the city of Jerusalem. The Babylonian army – led by their king Nebuchadnezzar, began on January 15, 588 B.C. a siege of the city of Jerusalem. This siege on the city of Jerusalem would last for over two and a half years before the Babylonia army finally broke through the fortified walls that surrounded the city of Jerusalem to overrun and raze the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah had spent most of his lifetime warning God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem and who were living in Judah’s land area that this was going to happen one day to them because of their disobedience and unfaithfulness to God. Because of Jeremiah’s constant haranguing against the guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem, Jeremiah had been put under house arrest by the leaders of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem. After the Babylonian army broke through the walls of the city of Jerusalem – which was on the ninth day of the fourth month and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign as king over the guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area, the Babylonian army’s leading officials met at the Middle Gate in the wall that surrounded the city of Jerusalem to claim victory. This day – the ninth day of the fourth month in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign as king over the guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area, was July 18, 586 B.C. In an attempt to escape the Babylonian army, Zedekiah took off running with his boys and his soldiers by the way of the king’s garden and between the two walls that surrounded the city of Jerusalem to the Arabah wasteland. Zedekiah, his boys and his soldiers made it to the plains of Jericho before the Babylonian army caught up with them. Zedekiah, his boys and his soldiers were taken to Nebuchadnezzar – who was in Riblah. Riblah was a Babylonian stronghold that was located at the headwaters of the Orontes River. Nebuchadnezzar slaughtered Zedekiah’s boys in front of Zedekiah, he gorged out Zedekiah’s eyes and he bound Zedekiah with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
Do you think that Zedekiah ever forgot the horrific things that happened to his city, boys, soldiers and himself around 2590 years ago? God made a promise to Jeremiah before all the things that happened in the city of Jerusalem happened. Jeremiah wrote down in his Jeremiah Book – in Jeremiah 39 and in verse 18, “I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the LORD.’” A single day – or a single moment, just might – in God’s unfolding plan, lead to a bleak future for one guy and hope for the next guy.
Jeremiah 39 (439)