Recovery from Judgment

 

    Recovery is a hard process.  It requires work and creating new habits.  Not everyone will even try.  Some will not succeed because it becomes too difficult.  Then some will selfishly make it more difficult, if not impossible, for other people.

    Gedaliah a governor that worked hard to make Jerusalem a reformed city after it burned during the excile of the Jews.  He was fair and tried to do right by everyone.  This type of leadership made some people angry.  They didn't like his form of recovery for those that were not exiled.  

    Ishmael was the ring leader of the rebels against the reform.  He got 10 men to kill Gedaliah during a meal.  Then Ishmael killed all the Jews and Babylonian soldiers that followed Gedaliah.  Before anyone knew what was happening, 80 men taking their harvest to God's house, cam across Ishmael.  He was crying and had them follow him.  When they did, he had them slaughtered and put them in a 300 year old cistern to rot.  

    Ishmael spared 10 men who promised him hidden harvest.  The nation that remained became prisoners in one night.  It had only been three months since Jerusalem's fall and they were captives yet again.

    Jonathan heard about what happened, so he gathered his men to go fight Ishmael.  Only Ishmael and eight men escaped Jonathan's men.  Now everyone was living in fear.  There was no stability in the nation.  One man did not want peace, so he destroyed the recovery that would have benefitted both the Jews and Babylonians.

Jeremiah 41