“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. 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. 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.”” (Jeremiah 37:1–3, ESV)
I have discovered that when unbelievers have their backs up against the wall, that is when things are not going their way, they will often ask for a believer to pray for them. Why? It is that they have no confidence to approach God themselves, but do believe or perhaps hope that He exists and will get them out of whatever mess they fine themselves. When I am asked by those, I pray for them, but my prayers should go beyond the specific incident. I pray for them to come to a place of true faith and that they by faith will seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Here the problem is demonstrated in Jeremiah’s day. Jeremiah the prophet had been bringing the word of the Lord to the nation, but Zedekiah, king of Judah and his cabinet would not listen to the prophet’s message. The army of Babylon was coming to conquer Jerusalem. It would be total destruction. Then the Pharoah’s army came up from Egypt and the army of Babylon withdrew from its siege on Jerusalem.
What did Zedekiah want? He wanted deliverance from the onslaught of the Babylonians permanently. He probably had hoped to see them defeated by the Egyptians. Yet the king missed his and the nations true need. The message that the Lord had given to them through Jeremiah all along was that the nation needed to repent from their apostasy and idolatry. Thus, Jeremiah went to the Lord and the answer was not what the king wanted to hear.
The Lord tells Jeremiah to speak to Zedekiah regarding the situation. It was that Pharaoh’s army would leave and return to Egypt. With the Egyptian army leaving, the Babylonian army would attack, capture the city of Jerusalem and burn it to the ground.
Now, this is a hard lesson. Yes, we may pray for those who are not seeking the Lord in their times of distress and the Lord may give them a reprieve. However, it may be that the distress is there so that they will receive an important message, one that they really need. It is that they should seek the Lord with a whole heart themselves. They need a personal relationship with Jesus through faith so that they can confidently pray and experience the power of His grace in their lives.
Perhaps we should be part of the greatest answer to their prayers, by sharing this deeper need. We can explain how they too can experience a real and intimate relationship with the Lord by which they can have confidence in their prayer life.
Renewing the Heart 