Week 32 Jeremiah 40-43
Sometimes I’m reading and it’s obvious that a character is important. Abraham. Joseph. Moses. Elijah. Elisha. Key people.
Other times people are non-key. For instance Gedaliah & Ishmael & Johanan. Three guys whose lives were linked in the days after Babylon had levelled Jerusalem.
Nebuchadnezzar needed a compliant local guy to govern so he chose Gedaliah. Gedaliah didn’t last long as sheriff of Judah because he was assassinated. That’s pretty much the Gedaliah story.
Ishmael was the assassin. After killing Gedaliah he fled the country pursued by an avenger – Gedaliah’s friend Johanan. That’s pretty much the Ishmael story.
Johanan had been a guerilla/freedom-fighter during the Babylonian War and he knew Gedaliah personally. The long-&-short is that with Gedaliah gone Johanan replaced him. In what he thought was a smart move he convinced the people to follow him to the safety of Egypt (which was the exact location Jeremiah told him to avoid). Meaning Johanan led Israel down a wrong & deadly path. That’s pretty much Johanan’s story.
The story of Gedaliah-Ishmael-Johanan is pretty interesting. Three guys whose lives crisscrossed like a French braid.
I figure that the story is in the bible so I can know what’s going on. It gives me information that fills gaps. But if there’s any more to it than that I don’t know what it is.
Knowing the Gedaliah-Ishmael-Johanan story definitely helps.
But from what I can see (at this point) not knowing about these three non-key people wouldn’t be too great a loss.