Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and the 10 men with him rose up and struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, son of Shefan, with the sword and killed him whom the King of Babylon had appointed governor in the land.
– Jeremiah 41:2
Jeremiah 41 is a story of the assassination of a leader, Gedaliah. Nebuchadnezzar had appointed him as governor of the land that was left behind. Those who were left behind and were not taken into exile. After that happens, chaos just breaks out as everyone works against each other, plotting and fighting for power. It’s a chapter full of evil, injustice, and chaos as the people are just giving themselves over to sin in a fight for power.
Jeremiah 41:2 calls us to honor our leaders.
Let me use that phrase again. They’re giving themselves over to sin in a fight for power.
Because when I say that, I think we realize this is not just an issue in Jeremiah 41. This is an issue all over the world in different countries… In different pictures of warring or competing factions within countries or between countries, all in fights for power. And there’s a lot we could talk about there, but I can’t help but think about 1 Peter 2 and God’s instruction to his church who was being persecuted by a foreign power, by an emperor.
And what did God say? God told his people to honor everyone, including, and he’s really specific to say, honor the Emperor. Now, there’s a lot to process there, especially when you think about leaders who are evil and unjust and how you honor them. But the Bible, the New Testament, is telling us that there is a way to follow Jesus and do justice with honor for people around you who are even working against you.
Jeremiah 41:2 calls us to imitate Jesus.
And I think, how do you do that? And then I look to Jesus and I think we have a picture, a perfect picture of how to endure evil and injustice as he was tried and beaten, and to do it with honor for the people who are trying you and beating you. At no point did he dishonor those people who were killing him. He prayed for them. Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do. And we need his help in countries, in a world where there are fights for power all around us.
And not just on national levels, but people prone to fight for power in all kinds of ways. Let’s pray. God, help us to live with the Spirit of Jesus in the middle of all these things. Lord, for any fights for power that we might even find ourselves in, we pray, oh God, for your grace and your wisdom and your help to honor the people around us, to love the people around us as you’ve taught us, Lord Jesus, to love our enemies, to pray for those who seek to harm us.
This verse encourages us to reflect God’s character.
God, we pray, Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they do. Help us, we pray, to savor the Spirit of your Son in this world. And God, we pray for leaders who will humble themselves and seek good and justice. God, we pray for wisdom as we work to do justice in this world, and we pray that you would help us to do it all with the Spirit and character of Jesus. We pray for that in our countries.
God, we pray for that in businesses. We pray for that in your church. We pray for that in every interaction we have with people around us. God, may we not be caught up in fighting for power and giving ourselves over to sin and the process. Help us to be holy as you are holy, to be humble with the Spirit of Christ, and to work for justice in his name as a reflection of his character.
Prayer for the Vai People
God, we pray for the spread of the gospel among the countries, and the nations of the world, so that we might be saved from sin and evil and injustice. God, the nations need the gospel. The Vai people of Liberia need the gospel. The Vai people of Sierra Leone, West Africa, they need the gospel. We pray for the spread of the gospel to them and to thousands of other people, groups like them. The world needs you, Jesus. We pray that you would help us to be faithful, to spread you to the world with our words and through our deeds, through the way we live. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
