Jeremiah 32

You know, sometimes I think it’s a whole lot easier to see problems or blindspots in the lives of others as opposed to seeing them in ourselves. (That’s probably why Jesus advised us not to forget about the planks in our eyes when we are considering the specks in the eyes of others.)

That being said, I cannot fathom the utter blindness of Zedekiah! I mean, are you kidding me? He has thrown the prophet Jeremiah in prison because he doesn’t like what Jeremiah has to say: “Now Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him there, saying, ‘Why do you prophesy as you do? You say, “This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”‘” (vs 3)

Obviously, King Zedekiah had a problem with this line of reasoning. Yet, when you consider the emergency facing Jerusalem at the time he said this, it’s easy to wonder what sort of fairytale land he was living in. Zedekiah threw Jeremiah in prison and asked him this question during the final months of the siege of Jerusalem, which means that the siege had already been going on for more than a year when Zedekiah made his complaint.

Seriously, Zedekiah, you couldn’t look around and realize that what Jeremiah was saying was reality?

Prophecy after prophecy spoken by Jeremiah had been fulfilled (and some were in the very process of being fulfilled), yet Zedekiah still couldn’t believe that Jeremiah was the Lord’s mouthpiece? It seems unbelievable. But I think it is a very good example of how some people choose blindness over sight.

God provides plain evidence. He works primarily on the basis of demonstration and revelation—which is why we’re living in this mess in the first place. When Lucifer questioned the honesty and integrity of God, God didn’t say, “You must believe Me because I’m God.” He said, “I’ll show you the evidence, and you make up your own minds about Me.”

To every person at some time (or times) in their life, God provides plain evidence of who He is and what He’s like. There are some who see it and accept Him. And then there are others, like Zedekiah, who must see it, but just don’t like it. And in their repeated attempts to deny what they have seen, I believe they end up blind like this poor, old king, unable any longer to respond to what is right in front of their noses.

It is, perhaps, an ironic twist that Zedekiah ended up blind, having had his eyes gouged out by the Babylonians (2 Kings 25). But he was already blind, long before he lost his eyes. In refusing to accept the plain evidence God kept providing, he ruined his own sight.