_Cowardice and Treachery._
Gedaliah had governed in Mizpah seven months when he was pleased to
welcome back to his fatherland, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, a Judean
chieftain of the royal family, who had been driven to Ammon during the
guerrilla warfare with Babylonia, under Jehoiakim.
A few days later, Johanan, son of Kareah, who was one of the
governor's chief assistants, came to Gedaliah with the news that
Ishmael was not sincere in his protestations of loyalty, that he was
in the employ of Baalis, King of Ammon, and that his mission to Mizpah
was to put Gedaliah out of the way. Baalis, Johanan reported, was
contemplating rebellion some time in the future, and did not want in
Judah a governor faithful to Babylonia. In addition, Johanan said,
Ishmael was hoping, through the assistance of Baalis, to regain the
throne of Judah for his family.
Gedaliah, nobleman that he was, refused to suspect Ishmael of
treachery. On the contrary, a few days later he prepared a great
banquet in Ishmael's honor and invited, in addition, all the Chaldean
nobles whom Nebuchadrezzar had left behind in Judah to assist Gedaliah
in restoring order and in establishing law and government.
Ishmael came with ten followers who had accompanied him from Ammon. At
a given signal, Ishmael and his ten men fell upon the unsuspecting
Gedaliah and his Chaldean guests and turned the banquet hall into a
house of death.
On the next day, word came to Mizpah that eighty men from Shechem,
Shiloh and Samaria, were coming to Mizpah, on their way to Jerusalem
to offer sacrifices in the Temple ruins. These men had been selected
by the survivors in that section of the country to express their
thanks to God, in this manner, for having been spared by the
Babylonians.
Ishmael went out to meet them. With tears in his eyes he told them
that he was a messenger from Gedaliah to welcome them to Mizpah. Once
in Mizpah, however, these eighty men were slaughtered by the ruthless
and treacherous cowards from Ammon. Under Ishmael's direction, all the
dead were thrown into the great reservoir that was built by King Asa
of Judah at the time when he was at war with Baasha of Israel.
His work completed, Ishmael gathered his men to return to Baalis,
in Ammon.
Johanan, who had warned Gedaliah of Ishmael's treachery, did not
propose to let the murderer escape. He gathered up such faithful men
as he could. By a quick march of two miles to the north, his little
force confronted Ishmael just outside of Gibeon, on the well-traveled
road leading to Beth Horon.
Before the little armies came to an engagement, Johanan sent word to
Ishmael demanding surrender. Ishmael answered with a request for a
parley on the next morning, which was granted.
During the night, however, Ishmael's men deserted him and went over to
Johanan. Ishmael, himself, escaped to Ammon, and Johanan did not even
pursue him. On the next morning all returned to Mizpah.
In Mizpah, Johanan was confronted with a new problem. What would
happen when the news reached Babylon that all the Chaldean officers in
Mizpah had been slain? The entire population knew what Nebuchadrezzar's
vengeance meant. They feared to remain in Judah and, at a council of
elders called by Johanan, it was determined to leave the fatherland
altogether and emigrate to Egypt.
Before making a definite move, however, Johanan and the elders sought
the advice of Jeremiah. They came to the prophet with this petition:
"Permit us to bring our petition before you that you may
supplicate the Lord your God for us, even for all this
remnant, for we are left but a few out of many--you yourself
see us here--that the Lord your God may show us the way
wherein we should walk, and the thing that we should do."
Jeremiah answered them:
"I have heard you; behold I will pray to the Lord your God
according to your words, and whatever the Lord shall answer
you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back
from you:"
To which the leaders replied:
"God be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not
according to all the word with which the Lord your God shall
send you to us. Whether it be good or whether it be evil, we
will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send you,
that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the
Lord our God."
Jeremiah took ten days to consider the matter. Then the message came
to him from the Lord his God and he delivered it to Johanan and
his chieftains:
"If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you
and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck
you, up; for I am sorry for the evil that I have done to you.
Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, for I am with you to
save you and to deliver you from his hand."
Johanan and the chieftains had hoped that Jeremiah would advise them
to go to Egypt. They were disappointed. They took time, therefore, to
discuss the matter further among themselves.
Jeremiah had had experience enough to know what the result would be.
So he backed up his advice concerning Egypt with a public discourse,
every line of which breathed hope for the future in Judah.
He tried to show that the old order of things had passed; that the old
covenant between God and his people had been broken, never to be
renewed again; that God would enter into a new covenant with them, a
spiritual covenant, not so much with the whole nation, as with each
individual. This is Jeremiah's memorable address at Mizpah:
"Behold the days are coming,
That I will sow Israel and Judah with the seed of man and the
seed of beast,
And as once I watched over them to pluck up and to afflict,
So will I be watchful over them to build and to plant.
"'Behold the days are coming,' saith the Lord,
'That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
the house of Judah,
Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers,
In the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of
the land of Egypt,
My covenant which they themselves broke and I was displeased
with them;
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house
of Israel:
"'After those days,' saith the Lord,
'I will put my teaching in their breast and on their heart will
I write it;
And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people.
And they shall not teach any more every man his neighbor,
And every man his brother, saying, "Know the Lord,"
For they shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest;
For I will forgive them their iniquities and remember their
sins no more.'"
On the day of the meeting to settle finally the question of emigration
to Egypt, another shocking surprise awaited Jeremiah.
He was accused of being a false prophet; of not having received the
message against going into Egypt from God, at all. He was accused of
having conspired with Baruch, who, Jeremiah was told, being of noble
family, had ambitions to become King of Judah. Finally he was warned
that Baruch intended to hand all the remnant over to Nebuchadrezzar.
More than that! It was determined to emigrate to Egypt at once and
that both Jeremiah and Baruch must accompany the self-exiled.