Faithfulness in the Rubble Text: Jeremiah 40:1-6
Introduction: The World Turned Upside Down
We come now to the aftermath. The storm has passed, the judgment has fallen, and the holy city of Jerusalem is a smoking ruin. The temple of God has been plundered and burned, the walls have been torn down, and the people of God, the covenant nation, are being led away in chains. From a merely human perspective, this is the absolute nadir. This is the final defeat. Yahweh has been routed by the gods of Babylon. That is what it looks like.
But what looks like defeat to the world is, in the economy of God, the vindication of His Word. For decades, Jeremiah had been preaching this exact outcome. He had been mocked, beaten, imprisoned, and thrown in a cistern for it. The court prophets, the smooth-talkers, the positive thinkers, had all promised peace and safety. They were the liars. God's Word, spoken through His faithful servant, had come to pass with terrifying precision. The rubble of Jerusalem was a monument to the fact that God keeps His promises, both the promises of blessing for obedience and the promises of curses for rebellion.
This chapter presents us with a profound choice, embodied in the prophet Jeremiah. The judgment is over, and now the question is what to do next. How does a faithful man live in the ruins of a fallen civilization? What does obedience look like when the world as you know it has ended? Jeremiah is given a choice between two paths: the path of worldly comfort and security in the heart of the pagan empire, or the path of faithfulness with the impoverished remnant in a desolate land. His decision is not merely a personal travel plan; it is a prophetic action that teaches us where our loyalties must lie when the world is turned upside down.
The Text
The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after Nebuzaradan captain of the bodyguard had released him from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon. And the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, "Yahweh your God promised this calamity against this place; and Yahweh has brought it on and done just as He promised. Because you people sinned against Yahweh and did not listen to His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you. So now, behold, I am freeing you today from the chains which are on your hands. If it is good in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, come along, and I will set my eyes to look after you; but if it is displeasing in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, never mind. Look, the whole land is before you; go wherever it seems good and right in your eyes to go." But as Jeremiah had not yet set out to return, he said, "Return then to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people; or else go anywhere that is right in your eyes to go." So the captain of the bodyguard gave him a ration and a gift and let him go. Then Jeremiah went to Mizpah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and stayed with him among the people who remained in the land.
(Jeremiah 40:1-6 LSB)
A Sermon from a Pagan General (vv. 1-3)
The scene opens with a staggering irony. Jeremiah, who had been chained up by his own people for speaking the truth, is now being released by the conquering Babylonians. And the man releasing him, Nebuzaradan, the captain of Nebuchadnezzar's bodyguard, proceeds to preach a sermon that is more theologically astute than anything the priests of Judah had offered for years.
"And the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, 'Yahweh your God promised this calamity against this place; and Yahweh has brought it on and done just as He promised. Because you people sinned against Yahweh and did not listen to His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you.'" (Jeremiah 40:2-3 LSB)
Take this in for a moment. A pagan military commander correctly identifies the God of Israel by name, Yahweh. He correctly identifies Him as the agent of this destruction. This was not a failure on Yahweh's part; it was the fulfillment of His plan. Nebuzaradan understands divine sovereignty. Then, he correctly identifies the cause: sin. He says, "Because you people sinned against Yahweh and did not listen to His voice." This is covenant theology 101. This is the doctrine of Deuteronomy 28 in a nutshell. The false prophets of Judah had spent their careers denying this reality, and here is a Babylonian warlord declaring it over the ruins they helped create.
This is a terrifying demonstration of God's sovereignty. When His own people refuse to proclaim His truth, God can and will raise up pagans to do it for them. He is not short of mouthpieces. If the sons of the kingdom are silent, the stones will cry out. And sometimes, those stones are Babylonian generals. This is a severe mercy. God is shaming His people by having their conqueror explain their own covenant history to them. It shows that God's truth is inescapable. You can ignore it, you can suppress it, but you cannot erase it. It will find you, even if it comes from the most unexpected of sources.
The Babylonian Offer (vv. 4-5)
Having preached his sermon, Nebuzaradan now makes Jeremiah an offer. It is the offer of the world, and it is exceedingly reasonable.
"So now, behold, I am freeing you today from the chains which are on your hands. If it is good in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, come along, and I will set my eyes to look after you; but if it is displeasing in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, never mind." (Jeremiah 40:4 LSB)
This is the temptation of comfortable co-option. "Come to Babylon," he says. "We recognize your talent. You were right all along. You have a future with us. I will personally look after you." This is an invitation to the imperial court. It means prestige, safety, good food, and a pension plan. Jeremiah could have been a well-respected religious advisor in the most powerful empire on earth. He could have had a comfortable ministry among the exiles, with the full backing of the state. It was the sensible choice. It was the pragmatic choice.
The alternative is bleak. Stay in Judah. Stay with the remnant, the poor of the land, the ones not even worth deporting. Go and live under a puppet governor named Gedaliah. The choice is between the center of global power and a desolate, impoverished backwater. It is the choice between a cushy sinecure in the world's system and a hard, uncertain future with the beleaguered people of God. This is a temptation that every faithful minister faces in some form. The world is always looking for prophets it can domesticate. It will offer you comfort and a platform, in exchange for just a little bit of compromise. Just soften the edges. Just stop talking about the hard things. Come to Babylon. We will look after you.
The Prophetic Choice (v. 6)
Jeremiah's response is not recorded in words, but in action. His feet do the talking.
"Then Jeremiah went to Mizpah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and stayed with him among the people who remained in the land." (Jeremiah 40:6 LSB)
He chooses the remnant. He chooses the rubble. He chooses the land of the promise, even in its state of judgment. He turns his back on the glories of Babylon and casts his lot with the poor, the weak, the nobodies who were left behind. Why? Because that is where God's people were. A shepherd does not abandon the flock, especially not when it has been ravaged by wolves. Jeremiah's calling was not to be comfortable; it was to be a prophet to Judah. And as long as there was a Judah, as long as there was a remnant in the land, that was his post.
This is an act of profound faith. Visibly, all hope for Judah was either in Babylon with the exiles or gone entirely. To stay in the land was to trust that God was not finished with this place. It was to believe in the promise of restoration that Jeremiah himself had prophesied (Jeremiah 29:10). He chose to live in the midst of the very judgment he had proclaimed, as a sign of his faith in the future grace he had also proclaimed. He was not an abstract theologian; he was an embodied prophet. His life had to align with his message. And his message was that God had a future for His people in this land.
He chose the people of God over the patronage of the world. He chose the place of promise over the place of power. This is the heart of pastoral faithfulness. It is not about climbing the ladder or seeking the most influential position. It is about staying with the flock that God has given you, in the place He has put you, for as long as He calls you there.
Conclusion: Staying in Mizpah
We too live in the ruins. We are living in the long aftermath of the rebellion of the West against its Christian foundations. The walls of our Christian consensus have been torn down, our institutions have been plundered by pagans, and the allure of Babylon, the secular empire, is strong.
And Babylon makes us the same offer it made to Jeremiah. "Come along with us. Be reasonable. We will look after you. Just stop being so dogmatic, so exclusive, so offensive." The temptation is to seek security and influence by assimilating into the pagan culture, to become court chaplains to the empire. We can get a seat at the table, as long as we agree to play by their rules.
Jeremiah's choice is the choice set before us. Will we go to Babylon for comfort and acceptance, or will we stay in Mizpah with the remnant? Will we cast our lot with the world, or with the sometimes unimpressive, often struggling, local body of Christ? The faithful choice is to stay with the people of God. It is to invest our lives, our families, and our futures in the church, the outpost of the kingdom of heaven in a fallen world. It may look like we are choosing the losing side. It may look like we are staying in the rubble. But we are staying in the land of promise. And we do so in faith, knowing that our God, who was faithful to judge, will be just as faithful to restore. Our calling is to be faithful in our Mizpah, building, planting, teaching, and living among the people of God, until the King returns to rebuild the city.