Secret Faith is No Faith
1 Zedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. 2 But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.
3 King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please pray for us to the LORD our God.”
In the above passage we are reading the final account of Judah, as Babylon begins its final attack on Jerusalem. Zedekiah is now the King, but he is a weak leader. The account tells us that Zedekiah did not “listen” to the prophet Jeremiah. Yet, note verse three above. Zedekiah did send someone secretly find out from Jeremiah the Word of the Lord. This would not be the only time he does that:
16 When Jeremiah had come to the dungeon cells and remained there many days, 17 King Zedekiah sent for him and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house and said, “Is there any word from the LORD?” Jeremiah said, “There is.” Then he said, “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”
Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah Again
14 King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance of the temple of the LORD. The king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you a question; hide nothing from me.” 15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.” 16 Then King Zedekiah swore secretly to Jeremiah, “As the LORD lives, who made our souls, I will not put you to death or deliver you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”
24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no one know of these words, and you shall not die. 25 If the officials hear that I have spoken with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; hide nothing from us and we will not put you to death,’ 26 then you shall say to them, ‘I made a humble plea to the king that he would not send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’”
Zedekiah was “interested” in what God had to say, but not “committed” to being a follower of God. Rather than be public with his faith and live his faith out loud, he preferred to do all this in secret. He had a “fear of man” syndrome. Note:
19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest I be handed over to them and they deal cruelly with me.”
Remember what Solomon told us years earlier in the book of Proverbs:
25 The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.
When we fear man more than God we will be secret in our faith. Being secret in our faith does not show complete loyalty to God. Remember, God wants our complete loyalty. He stated in the first commandment that we are NOT to have any other gods before us. Zedekiah had the god of “mankind” as his god. He had secret faith ... or, no faith at all.
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