Jeremiah 39:11-12
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.”
If you have ever been slighted by believers in the body and then respected and treated well by the world, than you know what this verse about Jeremiah is teaching us. Sometimes the world treats us with more respect than our own body of believers. That is what was happening to Jeremiah. God had sent Jeremiah to His people to warn them to return to God. Yet, these countrymen of Jeremiah had not only rejected God's message through Jeremiah, they took that rejection out ON Jeremiah. God was disciplining them for all their years of rejecting Him and yet, rather than repenting, they rejected Jeremiah also. But, Jeremiah wasn't the only one. Note what Jesus will later say to the Pharisees and Religious leaders of his day (who will also reject Him .... their Messiah):
Luke 11:47-49
Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’
Yet, notice what the King of Babylon does for Jeremiah: He instructs his military officers to not only treat him well, but to "deal with him as he tells you." It was only a few chapters earlier that Jeremiah was tossed into a cistern of mud by the King of Israel. One king, who is supposed to love his countrymen, tosses Jeremiah into a mud-pit and another king, who is supposed to hate Jeremiah, not only cares for him but allows him to direct his own path. That is the irony we find in the world vs. the church today. We will often see people talk badly about a member of the body of Christ and have no relationships with that person and yet the world respects and befriends that very same person. What a shame for God's people!! We find members of the church not talking to one another and yet the world in full communication with them. Personally I have been ignored and shunned by members of the body of Christ and, yet, treated with high respect by the world. That is a such a bad feeling. Body members who can't love and non-body members who do. That is like your own physical body rejecting your hands but another body using them with vigor. We ought to make sure that never happens in our churches and relationships with believers. Unless there is a doctrinal issue, we ought to embrace the body ... especially better than the world does. Notice how the King of Babylon treats Jeremiah in the end. He gets all expenses-paid-trip to the city of his choice. This is completely opposite of how his own people treated him:
Jeremiah 40:4-6
Now, behold, I release you today from the chains on your hands. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you well, but if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, do not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think it good and right to go. If you remain, then return to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon appointed governor of the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people. Or go wherever you think it right to go.” So the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a present, and let him go. Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah, and lived with him among the people who were left in the land.
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