God Rejects Request

 

    When you pray to God with your request, He always listens.  Just because He is listening does not mean that He will grant your request.  There are several reasons why God may deny you something you want or think you need.  Only He really knows His reasons, but we do know a few.  He is not a genie.  He will not grant anything that goes against His word.  He will not grant anything that will distract you from the path He laid out for you.

    Jeremiah was a prophet of God in Judah, during the reign of King Zedekiah, roughly 600 BC.  God warned the people that they would be handed over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  However, the king expected a miracle.  He went to Jeremiah to have God perform a miracle to save them.  He didn't even know how to ask for himself.  This miracle was never going to happen.  They had made their bed and now they had to lie in it.  It's not like Jeremiah hadn't been warning them for years.

    Jeremiah had to go to the king to give Zedekiah God's response.  Jeremiah has a message for the king, the people, and to the house of Judah (the church).  God had turned against the them with a great wrath.  He declared a plague on the people and animals.  It would weaken them where they had no defense against their enemy.  They would be handed over to Babylon and many would die by the sword or famine.  They were meant to feel defeated before it ever began.

    King Nebuchadnezzar would not show them mercy, pity, or compassion.  If the king surrendered then they could live in captivity.  Fight and they would be slaughtered.  Remember, Jeremiah is not being spared from this either.  He is just God's spokesman to the people.  

    God intended this to be hard for the people.  He wanted them to know that their complacency brought this upon themselves.  Jerusalem would burn.  He was using their enemy to administer justice on the oppressors and robbers of God.  He was releasing His wrath against the evil of His people.  Evil deeds will be punished and consumed by fire.

Jeremiah 21