There is nothing glamorous or heroic about surrender. Surrender is what someone does when they see they can’t win. It’s when you give up; when you Tap Out. However, Surrender is the very thing that is at the root of living for and with Christ. A person may attend church, say prayers, read the bible, home school, witness, write a blog, or do any number of good things out of their own strength and capacity. However to do “something” of spiritual significance we must surrender our lives to Christ (John 15:5). This means coming to Him on his terms, not ours. Putting down our silly religious games and showing up as a defeated foe ready for our fate. Graciously our LORD extends his loving hand to His defeated enemies who humble themselves and come before him SURRENDERED. Here is an incredible lesson from the Old Testament. Let me set it up and the scripture will play it out.
It’s around 586 years before Christ. The Israelites have been in continuous rebellion from God since the kingdom was divided; after Solomon pursued other things (like 1000 women). So after hundreds of years of sending prophets asking the people to repent; God sends judgment on the remaining Jews in Jerusalem by sending the Babylonians to completely destroy the walls, temple, and city.
The King of Judah at the time is Zedekiah. So he does what most do in times of major fear (Remember Sept 11?). He wants to talk to the preacher/ I mean prophet, Jeremiah.
Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live.
18 But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from their hands.’”
19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.”
20 ”They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the LORD by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared.
21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has revealed to me:
………… 23 ”All your wives and children will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself will not escape from their hands but will be captured by the king of Babylon; and this city will[5][[23] Or and you will cause this city to] be burned down.”
Jeremiah 38:17-24
So Zedekiah tells Jeremiah thanks and asks him not to tell others what they were talking about. So the time finally comes. The walls are broken through and the Babylonians have free reign on the city. So what does King Zedekiah do? You guessed it, he runs for it. But as, God predicted through Jeremiah, he is quickly captured. Jeremiah 39:5-7 records the scene,
But the Babylonian[[5] Or Chaldean] army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him.
6 There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah.
7 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
There is a Halloween story for ya! But the point is clear, we suffer and the people closest to us suffer when we refuse to surrender to God and his purposes for our lives. It’s not that God is out to get us. Actually the bible does teach that we have multiple enemies who surround us (in the spiritual realm) every day. Yet we want to fight them in our own strength, primarily without God and his ways. God’s way is the way of surrender. It is THROUGH surrender that we see God and his Surrendered Son, and His all surpassing power to us who believe (2 Cor 4:7). There is no resurrection power unless we deny our self, and self denial comes through surrender.
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
– Jesus in Luke 9:23