The Folly of Zeal Without Knowledge Text: 2 Kings 25:22-26
Introduction: The Politics of Rubble
We come now to the grim aftermath, the epilogue of a tragedy written in the ink of covenant rebellion. Jerusalem is a smoking ruin, the Temple is gone, the king's eyes have been gouged out, and the best and brightest have been hauled off to Babylon. This is the righteous judgment of God. And in the midst of this desolation, a small, bruised remnant is left behind, tasked with the simple job of surviving in the rubble. What we find in this brief account is a masterclass in political folly, a case study in the difference between godly wisdom and carnal, reactionary zeal.
Our age is not so different. We too live among the ruins of a once-great civilization, a Christendom that has been sacked and burned, not by Babylonians with siege engines, but by secularists with lawsuits and relativists with PhDs. And in the midst of our own rubble, we are faced with the same fundamental choice. Do we accept the reality of God's providence, even when it comes in the form of a pagan overlord, and work faithfully within the new reality for the glory of God? Or do we let our wounded pride and our nationalist zeal drive us to acts of insane, self-destructive violence that masquerade as piety?
The story of Gedaliah and Ishmael is not some dusty historical footnote. It is a mirror. It forces us to ask what true faithfulness looks like in a time of judgment. Is it quiet, patient rebuilding, or is it a flash of bloody, patriotic rage? Is it accepting the terms of our chastisement from God, or is it a prideful refusal to be governed by anyone but our own kind? The choice made by the remnant in Judah determined their immediate future, and the choices we make will determine ours. We must pay close attention, because the spirit of Ishmael, the spirit of zeal without knowledge, is very much alive and well in our own day.
The Text
Now as for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan over them. Then all the commanders of the military forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor. So they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men. Then Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them, "Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you."
But it happened in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, came with ten men and struck Gedaliah down so that he died, along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. Then all the people, both small and great, and the commanders of the military forces arose and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
(2 Kings 25:22-26 LSB)
A Sensible Arrangement (vv. 22-24)
First, we see the establishment of a new, albeit humbled, order.
"Now as for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan over them... Then Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them, 'Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.'" (2 Kings 25:22, 24)
Nebuchadnezzar, the instrument of God's wrath, now acts as an instrument of God's provisional mercy. He appoints a governor, and he doesn't appoint a Chaldean. He appoints a Jew, Gedaliah. And not just any Jew. Gedaliah comes from a distinguished family. His grandfather, Shaphan, was the scribe who read the rediscovered Book of the Law to King Josiah, sparking a great revival (2 Kings 22). His father, Ahikam, was the man who protected the prophet Jeremiah from being executed by the wicked King Jehoiakim (Jer. 26:24). This is a family with a track record of fearing God and respecting His prophets.
Gedaliah's policy is one of pragmatic faithfulness. It is precisely the policy that Jeremiah had been preaching for decades. God has sent the Babylonians. This is His doing. To fight them is to fight God. Therefore, the path of wisdom is to submit to God's chastening hand. "Serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you." This is not cowardice; it is covenantal realism. It is recognizing that God is the one who sets up kings and pulls them down. God had given Nebuchadnezzar this authority for a time, and the duty of the remnant was to live quietly under that authority.
Gedaliah gathers the scattered commanders of the defeated army. These are men who have been hiding out in the open country, men with swords and a grievance. He makes them an oath, a solemn promise. He tells them not to be afraid. This is the counsel of a wise statesman. He is trying to quell the spirit of rebellion and fear, and to establish a basis for peace and rebuilding. He is offering them a chance to beat their swords into plowshares, to plant vineyards, and to live. This is the path of life. It is not glorious, it is not independent, but it is the will of God for that time and place.
Zeal, Treason, and Murder (v. 25)
But this wise counsel is met with treacherous, hot-headed rebellion.
"But it happened in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, came with ten men and struck Gedaliah down so that he died, along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah." (2 Kings 25:25)
Here comes Ishmael. Notice his pedigree: "of the royal seed." His actions are fueled by a toxic mix of wounded royal pride and misguided patriotic zeal. He cannot stomach the idea of a non-Davidic governor, especially one appointed by a pagan king. In his mind, Gedaliah is a collaborator, a traitor. And so, under the banner of what he likely saw as loyalty to the house of David, he commits treason and murder.
This is the perennial danger of a certain kind of conservatism. It is the danger of idolizing a past political order. Ishmael's loyalty was not to the God of David, but to the throne of David. He could not see that God Himself had set that throne aside for a time. His zeal was for the nation, for the bloodline, for the symbol, but not for the God who gave them. This is what happens when your nationalism becomes unmoored from your theology. You get zealots who think that blowing things up is the only way to prove their piety.
Ishmael does not just kill Gedaliah. He kills the Jews who are with him, his own countrymen. He kills the Chaldeans who are there as well, ensuring that the wrath of Babylon will come down on everyone. This is not a strategic military action; it is a temper tantrum with swords. It is a foolish, faithless act that accomplishes nothing but more death and more chaos. He has taken the path of life offered by Gedaliah and turned it into a slaughterhouse. He has traded the chance to plant vineyards for a harvest of corpses.
The Fruit of Faithlessness: Fear and Flight (v. 26)
The consequences of Ishmael's "principled" stand are immediate and disastrous.
"Then all the people, both small and great, and the commanders of the military forces arose and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans." (2 Kings 25:26)
Look at the result. Did Ishmael's bold stroke restore the kingdom? Did it drive out the Babylonians? No. It plunged the entire remnant into fear. The very thing Gedaliah told them not to be, "Do not be afraid", is now their controlling emotion. Their fear of man, the fear of Nebuchadnezzar's reprisal, utterly overwhelms any fear of God.
And where does this fear drive them? To Egypt. Of all the places. The book of Deuteronomy had explicitly forbidden any king from leading the people back to Egypt (Deut. 17:16). Egypt was the symbol of slavery, the house of bondage from which God had gloriously redeemed them. Their flight to Egypt was a complete, symbolic rejection of the entire Exodus narrative. It was a vote of no confidence in the God who had brought them out. They were running from God's appointed chastisement in Babylon, right back into the arms of their original pagan captors.
The prophet Jeremiah, who was caught up in all this, explicitly warned them not to go to Egypt (Jer. 42). He told them that if they stayed in the land and trusted God, He would protect them. But if they went to Egypt seeking safety, the very sword they feared would find them there. They refused to listen. They chose the apparent safety of Egypt over the commanded faithfulness of staying put. And so the last remnant of Judah, in an act of supreme spiritual irony, trudges back to the land of slavery, proving that their hearts had been there all along.
Conclusion: Trusting God in Babylon
The lesson for us is stark. We are living in a kind of Babylon. The culture is not our friend. The government is increasingly hostile to the things of God. And we are tempted, like Ishmael, to respond with a carnal zeal that despises pragmatic faithfulness. We are tempted to think that the only authentic Christian response is a revolutionary one, a violent one, a "no compromise" stance that refuses to acknowledge the political realities God has placed us in.
But the way of Gedaliah is the way of Jeremiah, and it is the way of the New Testament. "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God" (Romans 13:1). We are to live quiet and peaceable lives (1 Timothy 2:2). We are to serve the "king of Babylon" in our day, not by worshipping his idols, but by being the best citizens, the best employees, the most honest taxpayers. We are to seek the welfare of the city where God has sent us into a kind of exile (Jer. 29:7).
Our task is not to launch a doomed, prideful rebellion like Ishmael. Our task is to build, to plant, to marry, to have children, and to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, right here in the shadow of the pagan empire. Our weapon is not the sword of Ishmael, but the sword of the Spirit. Our strategy is not assassination, but evangelism. We will out-live, out-think, out-work, and out-laugh the pagans. We will build a robust Christian culture, a parallel polis, that is so fruitful and so joyful that it makes the crumbling ruins of secularism look like the joke that it is.
The folly of Ishmael led to fear, flight, and death in Egypt. The wisdom of Gedaliah, had it been followed, would have led to life in the land. Let us not be driven by fear or by a prideful, reactionary zeal. Let us be driven by a robust faith in the sovereignty of God, who has us right where He wants us. Let us live faithfully in our Babylon, and in His time, He will bring us home.