1. Jeremiah 52:1-11

2.  Many people want to follow God  But they want to do so on their own terms  They want God to meet them halfway (at best)  They think they can change the word of God without fear  Perhaps such people could learn a valuable lesson from the downfall of King Zedekiah

3.  Josiah was the last good king of Judah  Followed by Jehoahaz (for 3 mos) then Jehoiakim (11 yrs)  Jehoiachin came to rule at age 18 and reigned 3 months (2 Kings 24:8-9)  Then Zedekiah (Jehoiachin’s uncle) was made king by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:17- 20)  His sins are summarized in 2 Chr 36:11-17

4.  God warned him that his only hope was in submitting to Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 27:12-15)  Zedekiah preferred to listen to those who said to rebel against Babylon Their message conformed to his thoughts  One of the false prophets was killed (Jer 28) to prove Jeremiah spoke truth  But Zedekiah didn’t change  Zedekiah refused to believe a truth that didn’t agree with his own thoughts

5.  Jer 21:1-10  Zedekiah hoped for a miracle  God’s answer was “Surrender”  Zedekiah’s hope remained, he thought he could “patch things up” by doing something right (Jer 34:8-10)  Everyone freed their slaves in accord with the covenant  But look what happened next, after things got better (Jer 34:11-22)

6.  Zedekiah had Jeremiah arrested  After some time, asked “Now what does God say?” (Jer 37:17) No change, Jeremiah reimprisoned  Zedekiah then agrees to let Jeremiah be killed, then authorizes a “rescue” (Jer 38)  He then asks again (Jer 38:14-18) Still no change, Jeremiah reimprisoned

7.  Began in the 9 th year of Zedekiah’s reign  Lasted almost 2 years  Famine became severe inside the city  People began to eat their own dead  When the outer wall fell, Zedekiah tried to sneak out of town (Jer 52:7)  Only got about 15 miles away before caught (Jer 52:8-11)

8.  Man cannot change the will of God  Intimidating God’s messengers does not change the will of God  Man can mock the message, but the result will not be changed (2 Pet 3:3-12)  People can ignore God and try to legislate God out of their lives  But they will still be judged by Him

9.  The world can change their message to conform it to the will of the people  They say “No hell”, “No judgment”, “No baptism”, “No sin”, All go to heaven”  But God’s will is not changed. There is a hell, there is judgment, there is sin, and comparatively few will make it to heaven  Pretending to obey God does not fool God  Gal 6:7-8

10.  If we want to follow God  God won’t meet us on our terms  God won’t meet us where we want Him  God won’t accept changes to His word  God won’t accept a pretense of obedience  If we want to follow God  Learn the lesson Zedekiah never learned  God has told us what we must do The only options from there are Live or Die (Jer 21:8)