March 13, Jeremiah 41
Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men with him rose up and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor in the land. - Jeremiah 41:3
Sometimes people get confused about different Bible characters who have the same name. Saul, the first king of Israel, lived 1,000 years before Saul of Tarsus who became the apostle Paul. In a similar way, the name Ishmael reminds most Bible students of Abraham's son, born to Hagar before Isaac was born. Perhaps you remember how Abraham gave Hagar and Ishmael a portion of his wealth and sent them away after Isaac was growing up. God's promises to Abraham were bound up in Isaac, not Ishmael. But the Ishmael of Jeremiah 41 lived about 1,400 years after Abraham's Ishmael.
This Ishmael of Jeremiah’s time was an Israelite, and even a member of the royal (Davidic) family. But his actions showcased in this brief but bloody one-chapter appearance in the Bible show what a wicked, violent man he was.
In Chapter 40, Johanan tried to warn Gedaliah that Ishamael had come to kill him. But the governor did not take the warning seriously and forbade Johanan from doing anything to stop Ishmael.
Johanan was right. Ishmael came to dine with Gedaliah. During the meal, he and ten of his men attacked and killed Gedaliah, murdering him with the sword. He proceeded to kill Gedaliah's Chaldean body guards and the rest of the guests at the dinner.
The next day, 80 pilgrims arrived in Mizpah, mourning the destruction of Jerusalem. Ishmael pretended to weep, and invited them to come in to Gedaliah. When they entered the city, Ishmael killed them all. He threw all the bodies of his victims into the large cistern Hezekiah had dug many years before. Ishmael killed so many people that their bodies filled the large cistern, turning it into a mass grave.
The only survivors of the massacre were ten men who claimed to have a food supply hidden in the fields. Food was like treasure in the post-siege times. Ishmael made a deal with the men to spare them if they showed him the stores of food.
After the cistern was filled with bodies, Ishmael's reign of terror probably made it easy to round up the rest of the people and take them away, probably to sell them to the Ammonites as slaves. When Johanan heard about all the evil Ishmael had done, he and his men went after the mass murderer and defeated him in a battle. Ishmael and eight of his men escaped, and the rest of the captives returned home with Johanan to Mizpah. They later decided to go to Egypt to seek protection from the Chaldeans who might start killing Judeans without asking any questions, once Babylon heard about Ishmael's murder of the governor.
Johanan was right about Ishamel’s murderous plan. But if going to Egypt was his idea, it was a bad one, an unlawful one, because God had forbidden his people to ever return to Egypt. His strategy to protect them from the Chaldeans would eventually lead many people including Jeremiah to be back in Egypt where God never intended for his people to be again.
Did jealousy prompt Ishmael to kill Gedaliah? Did this descendant of David imagine that he was the rightful heir and murder the appointed governor thinking he could bring control of the shattered nation back into David's family line? Did Ismael kill so many people at Mizpah to try to keep news of the governor's death from getting back to the Babylonians? Or did his bloodlust drive him to kill without cause until his mass grave was filled?
We should ask God for wisdom and carefully consider consequences before making choices. Gedaliah should have listened to Johanan, but he didn't. That turned out to be fatal mistake. Johanan didn't always make good choices or listen to wise counsel himself as the next chapter will show. Let's be prayerful and careful as we make decisions that may affect our lives and maybe even the lives of others.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—March 2024
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