“I don’t need to follow God’s Word to get along in life. I can depend on my powerful friends to see me through!” Lots of people think like this, don’t they? Some put their faith in government to provide for them and keep them safe. Others rely on networks of extended family and close friends to take care of them when they’re down. And Christians are not immune to this kind of deception: some put their faith in the Church rather than in Christ, trusting in the advice of their pastors or Christian friends instead of looking to the Word of God.

And the people of Judah in the days of Jeremiah were a lot like us. Some of them were trusting in their ally Egypt, one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations in the ancient world, to protect them from the Babylonian onslaught. And even though King Zedekiah took Jeremiah’s words of warning quite seriously, he was so dependent on his court officials that he allowed them to throw Jeremiah into a cistern to die from starvation and thirst.

And that, after all, is what always happens when we place our trust anywhere else but in Christ alone. For no matter how powerful our allies may seem, they are as unable to thwart God’s will as the Egyptians were able to stand up to the Babylonians. And the more we depend on other people, the greater the danger that their personal interests will become more important to us than God’s Word is.

But the good news, as Jeremiah shows us over and over again, is that regardless of how unpopular its teachings may be, and no matter how few people choose to believe in it, the Holy Scripture is always true. So let’s take our stand on the firm foundation of Christ and His holy, inerrant, infallible Word. For no matter how attractive any contradictory truth may seem to be, all other ground is sinking sand.

Jeremiah 37:6-10 (NASB)

6 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
7 “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Thus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt.
8 “The Chaldeans will also return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.”‘
9 “Thus says the LORD, ‘Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go.
10 ‘For even if you had defeated the entire army of Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men left among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.'”