But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said unto Johanan the son of Kareah, Thou shalt not do this thing: for thou speakest falsely of Ishmael.
Thou speakest falsely - a mystery of providence, that God should permit the righteous, in spite of warning, thus to rush into the trap laid for them. Isaiah 57:1, "The righteous is taken away from the evil to come," suggests a solution.
Remarks: (1) Nebuzaradan, the pagan captain of Nebuchadnezzar's guard, having as God's instrument executed the divine vengeance on Jerusalem which Jeremiah, God's messenger, had foretold, proceeds to admonish the vanquished Jews that it was their own sins against the Lord which were the cause of all their sufferings. How strikingly thus did God mark that the destruction which overtook His ancient people was no mere work of man, but was His own doing, and was designed to vindicate His unchangeable righteousness, which spares not even His elect people when they transgress His eternal ordinances! The very pagan were constrained to perceive and proclaim this great truth. And how humiliating it must have been to the covenant people of God to have to be admonished of their sin by a Gentile ruler who knew not God! If those who make a profession of religion walk inconsistently with their high calling, the worldly, who make no profession of religion, are sure to observe their inconsistency, and to bring it up a gainst them sooner or later.
(2) It was now that Jeremiah was appreciated aright, after the long period in which he was treated with contumely and opposition. The pagan discerned the true character of his mission as from God, which his own countrymen, through willful blindness, had failed to recognize. Here also his true patriotism, which had been so cruelly mistrusted (Jeremiah 37:12-21), was brought out in brightest colours. He whom his countrymen had dishonoured, and whose prophecies from God their had despised, now, when he had his free choice to go where he would (Jeremiah 40:4-5), of his own unfettered will chose to remain among his own people in their season of deep humiliation and suffering. Like Moses of old, he chose affliction with those who were by God's election the people of God, rather than the pleasures and honours of a pagan court, which were at his command (Hebrews 11:24-26). True religion is the surest basis of true patriotism.
(3) Scarcely had Jerusalem paid the awful penalty of her transgress ions than the Jewish princes and leaders, as Ishmael and Johanan, commenced to hatch fresh plots of violence and bloodshed (Jeremiah 40:13-15). So long as pride, ambition, and revenge are harbored in the breast, men will restlessly form new schemes, which generally end in their own hurt. The rebellion of Zedekiah against the Babylonian king, which ended so awfully for its framers, had hardly been crushed when Ishmael devises a fresh plot. Nothing but the Almighty and transforming grace of God will effectually renew the heart and life.
(4) Meantime it is one of the mysteries of the present order of things that men of unsuspecting generosity and honesty of purpose, like Gedaliah, should be allowed to fall victims to unscrupulous and murderous adventurers (Jeremiah 40:16). This is one of the many proofs of the presence of an enemy in this fallen world. It is the privilege of faith to believe already that God is ordering all things for the ultimate good of His people, whatever appearances there may be now to the contrary; and th at a righteous judgment is soon coming, when all that is dark shall be cleared up, God's ways shall be vindicated, sin and Satan, with his seed, shall forever be cast out, and He who is the rightful King shall deliver the earth from its past misrule and violence.