“When Jeremiah had come to the dungeon cells and remained there many days, 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 37:16–17, ESV)
When I was in the Army, I served as an officer in various positions in a tank battalion. I observed many officers in leadership at the Company and Platoon level. In many cases, I was shocked by what I saw. Many officers could not or would not make decisions. My guess was that they were hesitant to make decision for the fear that the wrong choice would hurt their possibility of advancement. Now obviously making poor decisions in combat can result in disaster. However, indecision and waffling between choices can also be deadly. Indecision is a sign of weak leadership.
King Zedekiah was a weak leader. He seemed to waffle between opinions. We see this in this passage. He called for the Prophet Jeremiah to be brought from the dungeon to his house secretly. He wanted to know if Jeremiah had heard anything from the Lord regarding the situation regarding Babylon and the nation. But the question is this. Why did he ask for Jeremiah to be brought secretly? It was because he did not want the people to know that he was consorting with the prophet of whom they did not approve.
There were many prophets in the land who spoke words that the people wanted to hear. Jeremiah was not one of them. He spoke what the Lord had given him, that which the nation needed to hear regardless of the people’s wishes. The king failed to stand firm of the truth of God in lieu of the desires of the people. This is an absolute picture of weak leadership.
In one sense or another, we are all called to be leaders in the world. We must stand firm on the truth, not waffling in opinions based upon the particular people with whom we are associating at the moment. We must not become chameleon Christians who will change color depending on our surroundings. Stand firm on the word of God. Stand firm on your convictions according to the Bible.
Renewing the Heart 