The Politics of Rubble: Jeremiah 40:7-12
Introduction: After the Fire
The smoke has cleared over Jerusalem. The walls are breached, the Temple is a ruin, and the best and brightest of Judah have been hauled off to Babylon. The judgment that Jeremiah had warned about for forty years, the judgment the false prophets said could never happen, has now come and gone. The fire is out, and all that remains is rubble and a stunned silence.
This is the world of Jeremiah 40. It is a world after the catastrophe. And it is in this world, a world of ash and ruin, that God begins to show His hand in a different way. We often focus on the thunder of God's judgment, but we must pay just as much attention to the quiet whisper of His providence in the aftermath. God's purpose was not annihilation; it was purification. And so, even in the desolation, He leaves a remnant. He always leaves a remnant.
But this remnant is immediately faced with a critical test, a test that every remnant faces. After the big battle is lost, after the culture has collapsed, after the institutions have been torched, what do you do? What does faithfulness look like in the rubble? Does it mean launching a guerilla war from the hills? Does it mean nursing your grievances and plotting a glorious, impossible comeback? Or does it mean something far more humble, far more practical, and far more difficult?
The choice presented here is between two kinds of politics. The first is the politics of resentment and rebellion, the kind that Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, will represent in the very next chapter. It is a politics of hot-headed pride, a refusal to accept reality, a trust in the sword and in secret plots. The second is the politics of Gedaliah, the politics of submission, settlement, and supper. It is the politics of accepting God's verdict and getting on with the task of living faithfully and fruitfully in the place where God's judgment has left you. One path leads to more bloodshed and ruin. The other leads to a harvest of wine and summer fruit in great abundance. The choice should be obvious, but it rarely is to men whose hearts are still simmering with pride.
The Text
Then all the commanders of the military forces that were in the field, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the land and that he had appointed him over the men, women, little ones, and those of the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, along with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, both they and their men. Then Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, “Do not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans; stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, that it may go well with you. Now as for me, behold, I am going to stay at Mizpah to stand for you before the Chaldeans who come to us; but as for you, gather in wine and summer fruit and oil and put them in your storage vessels and stay in your cities that you have seized.” And also all the Jews, who were in Moab and among the sons of Ammon and in Edom and who were in all the other lands, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant for Judah and that he had appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan. Then all the Jews returned from all the places to which they had been banished and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered in wine and summer fruit in great abundance.
(Jeremiah 40:7-12 LSB)
The Remnant Gathers (vv. 7-8)
We begin with the situation on the ground after the main deportation.
"Then all the commanders of the military forces that were in the field, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the land and that he had appointed him over the men, women, little ones, and those of the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah..." (Jeremiah 40:7-8a)
Notice who is left. First, you have "the poorest of the land." These are the ones Nebuchadnezzar didn't think were worth the trouble of deporting. They were the forgotten ones, the overlooked. But God's economy is different from Babylon's. He often builds His kingdom with the people the world discards. Second, you have these "commanders of the military forces that were in the field." These are the holdouts, the soldiers who weren't killed or captured. They are scattered, leaderless, and likely paranoid. They are men of war, and their entire world has just been demolished.
Into this power vacuum, the king of Babylon makes a shrewd appointment: Gedaliah. He is not a king from the line of David. He is a governor, appointed by a pagan emperor. His authority is entirely derived from the very power that just crushed Judah. This is a bitter pill to swallow. And yet, this is God's provision. God's providence is not sentimental. He uses pagan kings and foreign armies to accomplish His will. He had just used Nebuchadnezzar to judge His people, and now He is using Nebuchadnezzar to govern the remnant.
The military commanders hear about this new arrangement and they come to Mizpah. They are coming to take the measure of this man, Gedaliah. They are faced with a choice. Do they submit to this Babylonian puppet, or do they fight on? Do they accept God's plain providence, or do they try to force God's hand with their own schemes? This is the central question for the remnant.
The Counsel of a Statesman (vv. 9-10)
Gedaliah's response to these hardened soldiers is a masterclass in godly wisdom and practical statesmanship.
"Then Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, 'Do not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans; stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, that it may go well with you.'" (Jeremiah 40:9 LSB)
Gedaliah's first words are "Do not be afraid." Fear is the enemy of faithfulness. These men were afraid of the Chaldeans, afraid of being sold out, afraid of looking like cowards. Gedaliah meets this fear head-on. He tells them to do the very thing they fear: serve the Chaldeans. This was not a compromise of their faith; it was the very substance of it in that moment. For decades, Jeremiah had been telling Judah that their only path to life was submission to Babylon. Resisting Babylon was resisting God's ordained judgment. Now, Gedaliah echoes that same prophetic message. True courage was not found in a suicidal last stand, but in the humble obedience of accepting God's discipline.
He promises them that if they do this, "it may go well with you." This is covenant language. God promises blessings for obedience. Even here, in the rubble, under pagan rule, the principle holds. If they will align themselves with God's stated will, they will find a measure of peace and prosperity. This is a direct challenge to the zealot mindset that says the only way to be blessed is to be on top, to be politically independent, to have "our guy" in charge. Gedaliah says, no, the blessing is found in obedience, wherever God has placed you.
Then he lays out the practical division of labor:
"Now as for me, behold, I am going to stay at Mizpah to stand for you before the Chaldeans who come to us; but as for you, gather in wine and summer fruit and oil and put them in your storage vessels and stay in your cities that you have seized." (Jeremiah 40:10 LSB)
This is brilliant. Gedaliah says, "I will handle the foreign relations. I will be the buffer between you and Babylon. You have a different job." And what is their job? It is not to sharpen their swords. It is to get to work. "Gather in wine and summer fruit and oil." In other words, be productive. Rebuild the economy. Cultivate the land. Fill your jars. This is the biblical blueprint for restoration. It is not found in political agitation, but in fruitful labor. God's call to the remnant was to turn their spear points into pruning hooks. Their task was to bring life and order out of the desolation, one vineyard, one olive tree at a time. This is sanctification in overalls.
The Fruit of Obedience (vv. 11-12)
The effect of Gedaliah's wise and godly counsel is immediate and magnetic.
"And also all the Jews, who were in Moab and among the sons of Ammon and in Edom and who were in all the other lands, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant for Judah and that he had appointed over them Gedaliah... Then all the Jews returned from all the places to which they had been banished and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered in wine and summer fruit in great abundance." (Jeremiah 40:11-12 LSB)
Word gets out. The Jews who had fled the Babylonian invasion, who were hiding out as refugees in the surrounding pagan nations, hear the news. And the news is not that a great military rebellion is brewing. The news is that there is a stable government under Gedaliah and that a remnant has been left in the land. This stability, this simple return to order, is what gives them hope.
Hope is not generated by wild-eyed promises of overthrowing the government. Hope is generated by the sight of ordinary people being allowed to live and work in peace. And so they return. They vote with their feet. They leave the lands of Moab and Ammon and Edom and come back to the land of Judah, to the very place that had been the epicenter of God's judgment. They come to Gedaliah at Mizpah, submitting to his leadership.
And what is the result? They "gathered in wine and summer fruit in great abundance." This is not an accident. This is the direct blessing of God on their obedience. When they submitted to God's providence and got to work, the land produced. The abundance was a sign of God's favor. It was a foretaste of the restoration He had promised. God was showing them that even in the bleakest of circumstances, the path of humble, practical obedience is the path to life and fruitfulness.
Conclusion: Seeking the Welfare of Babylon
This brief, hopeful moment in the rubble of Judah is a powerful lesson for the church in our own day. We too are a remnant. We are living in the ruins of what was once Christendom. The levers of institutional power are, for the most part, in the hands of our modern Chaldeans. And we are tempted, just as those military commanders were, to respond with fear, resentment, and a desire to form a holy huddle and plot our triumphant return.
But God's word to us is the same as Gedaliah's. Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. This does not mean compromise or syncretism. It means we are to be the best, most productive, most honest, most reliable citizens in the land. We are to accept the reality of God's providence. He has placed us here, in this time, under these authorities. Our primary task is not political revolution. Our task is to get to work.
Our task is to gather wine and summer fruit and oil. We are to build fruitful households. We are to start businesses. We are to plant churches. We are to have children and teach them the fear of the Lord. We are to create pockets of vibrant, joyful, productive Christian culture right where we are. We are to "seek the welfare of the city" where God has exiled us, for in its welfare, we will find our welfare (Jer. 29:7).
The politics of rubble is the politics of the long haul. It is the politics of planting trees whose fruit you may not eat. It is the politics of faithfulness in the small things. It is the politics of trusting that as we humbly and joyfully obey, God will bless our labor, and our communities will become places of peace and order that attract others out of the chaos. And in His time, He will produce a harvest of great abundance, to the glory of His name.