Jeremiah 34-Lying

Welcome to Every Thought Captive, I’m Phil Steiger.

There is a great deal of value in keeping our promises. We are too often accustomed to people in the public eye, and often in our own lives, who are untrustworthy, and that can sometimes erode our sense of how important it is to be truth-telling people. In Jeremiah 34 we have the story of King Zedekiah and two promises he makes. The first is a promise of loyalty to a foreign king. The second is a promise he makes to God to free all the slaves in Jerusalem.

Zedekiah was a fool and broke both promises. Because he became disloyal to the king, he suffered a fate worse than death, and because he recaptured all the slaves he freed, God gave him into the hands of his enemies. We discover in this story that the habit of breaking promises—of lying—is a powerful relationship killer. On the other hand, truth telling is a character trait God wants me to develop; it will enrich my relationships with others as well as with Him.

This has been Every Thought Captive, a Christian worldview minute sponsored by Quail Lake Community Church. For more information, please visit quaillake.org.