“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.”” (Jeremiah 39:11–12, ESV)
As I went through a battle with stage 4 cancer, I did not know how the Lord would work this out. It was in His hands as the great physician. As it turns out, I ended up free from the cancer. The doctors called what happened remarkable. They had never seen anything like it, that in such a short time the cancer was totally gone.
Having known others who had fought the same cancer battle and did not make it, I felt a bit odd or saddened. The question was, “Why me and not them?” I voiced this feeling with others. Some said, probably correctly, that it was survivor’s guilt. Yet others stated, “God’s not done with you yet.” In other words, the Lord healed me because there was more that he wanted me to do.
The point is this. God has His hand of protection on every believer until His earthly mission for Him is complete and then He takes the believer home. In my view it is like the soldier in combat. A soldier will leave his place of comfort, go overseas to a hostile, dangerous, and uncomfortable environment. When his tour of duty is over, the military sends him home to a place of peace, rest, and comfort. It is the same for the believer. The believer has the hand of God’s protection until such time as his tour of earthly duty is completed.
Here we see something amazing that happened to Jeremiah. As you know the people of the nation did not like the message that Jeremiah brought to them from the Lord. Thus, he was under threat from the people. Yet the Lord used an unlikely person to see to protect Jeremiah. He used Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon to see to Jeremiah’s fair treatment and safety. The record does not tell us how the king heard of Jeremiah and why he decided to show favor to the prophet. Yet this is what happened. Nebuchadnezzar commanded Nebuzaradan to look after Jeremiah and see to it that no harm would come to him.
The point is this. The Lord is faithful to watch over His servants. He protects us and will often do so in ways that we cannot understand. The Lord used a heathen king to protect God’s choice servant. While how He did this is a mystery, we cannot deny His intervention in the affairs of men. He does watch over us and has all of us, His children, in the palm of His hand. As He chose to protect Jeremiah, He choses to protect us. This protection is eternal. While our life here is brief, we who are of the faith never die. Rather, when our mission is complete here on earth, He takes us to our true home in heaven with Him, a place of rest, comfort, peace, and joy.
Renewing the Heart 