Week 24 Jeremiah
I was reading chapters 34-35-36 today.
Jerusalem’s Big Bad Wolf – Nebuchadnezzar – was huffing-&-puffing at the gates and while that was going on the Lord told Jeremiah to: go to King Zedekiah of Judah and tell him… So luckily for me I’d been reading about Zedekiah approximately 28-days ago (May 21 post was the-final-four). At that point I’d decided to track the kings of the southern kingdom for Character Quality but I also decided to eliminate the last four kings because they were puppets to foreign states. Those last four ‘kings’ were: Jehoahaz-Jehoiakim-Jehoiachin-Zedekiah. I remembered Zedekiah and I knew he was the very last king (because his initial was the very last letter of the alphabet).
Anyway the point is that Jeremiah gave his message to Zedekiah – the last king – in chapter 34. So then I started reading chapter 35 and saw this: this is the message the Lord gave Jeremiah when Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah. Hmmmm…
This was a good reminder that the bible isn’t moving ahead in chronological sequence. The 66-books aren’t necessarily chronological and the book’s contents aren’t necessarily either.
That’s not really a glitch. I was reading a modern novel where the author was bouncing back-and-forth from present to past. A chapter would start with something like: Twenty years earlier.
Is writing non-chronologically a problem? I doubt it.
Is it worth keeping in mind? No reason not to.
Note: quotes from Jeremiah 34:2, 35:1 (NLT). I forget which novel – maybe a Jack Ryan story.