Trust in the only one who can be trusted
And Jerusalem fell. Exactly as God had told Jeremiah it would fall.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it. Jeremiah 39:1
They broke through the city wall. King Zedekiah and all his soldiers fled. The Babylonian army pursued him and captured him.
There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah. Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon. Jeremiah 39:6-7
They burnt down the royal palace and the houses and broke down the city walls. Everyone who remained was carried off to exile in Babylon. The only people they left behind were some poor people who owned nothing. The king of Babylon had heard about Jeremiah. He wanted him taken but not harmed. Nebuzaradan commander of the Babylonian imperial guard sought Jeremiah out and offered him his freedom – either to go his own way or to live under his protection. So Jeremiah chose to go back and stay with the poor who had been allowed to remain in Jerusalem.
A man named Gedaliah was put in charge of the little that was left. All the Jews who had fled and were scattered returned to Jerusalem. There were threats made on Gedaliah’s life from some of the army officers who had fled and were still alive. Gedaliah’s men offered to kill the main instigator of these threats, Ishamel, but Gedaliah did not believe them. Ishmael assassinated Gedaliah.
Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who had fled with him came to attack Ishmael and his men for what they had done. Ishmael fled. Johanan planned to lead a surviving group off to hide in Egypt, because they feared what the Babylonians would do once they found out the man they had appointed as governor had been assassinated.
Johanan and the remnant turned to Jeremiah for advice –
Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do. Jeremiah 42:3
They promised to do whatever God instructs. Whether they liked it or not.
Whether it is favourable or unfavourable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God. Jeremiah 42:6
Ten days later, God commanded them to stay in the city. He promised they would not be harmed if they stay.
And guess what? Johanan and his men didn’t like what they heard. They accused him of lying and led all the people, including Jeremiah and Baruch off to Egypt. God told Jeremiah to bury some large stones in front of Pharoah’s palace and prophesy that the king of Babylon would come and rule over these stones and ‘pick Egypt clean and depart’. Because the remnant had disobeyed God. They had abandoned Jerusalem and were still worshipping the Queen of Heaven.
Egypt is a beautiful heifer,
but a gadfly is coming
against her from the north. Jeremiah 46:20
Despite all this, Jeremiah still had a word of hope for those whom God had chosen –
Do not be afraid, Jacob my servant;
do not be dismayed, Israel.
I will surely save you out of a distant place,
your descendants from the land of their exile. Jeremiah 46:27
Jeremiah had words of doom and gloom for the Philistines too. And Moab.
Moab will be destroyed as a nation
because she defied the Lord. Jeremiah 48:42
The time was coming for God to set everything straight. The time for every nation to get what was coming to them. Not one would be spared.
Not Ammon. Or Edom. Or Damascus. Or Kedar and Hazor. Or Elam.
And then Babylon. The mighty Babylon that had wreaked God’s vengeance on all the other nations would not be exempt from God’s wrath either.
I will punish the king of Babylon and his land
as I punished the king of Assyria.
But I will bring Israel back to their own pasture. Jeremiah 50:18-19I will forgive the remnant I spare. Jeremiah 50:20
The people of Israel are oppressed,
and the people of Judah as well.
All their captors hold them fast,
refusing to let them go.
Yet their Redeemer is strong;
the Lord Almighty is his name.
He will vigorously defend their cause
so that he may bring rest to their land,
but unrest to those who live in Babylon. Jeremiah 50:33-34
Jeremiah made sure all these words against Babylon reached the ears of those who needed to hear. He instructed Seraiah to take the scroll and read it aloud in Babylon and when he had read it, to find a stone and attach it to a scroll and throw it in the River Euphrates.
Then say, “So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.”’
The words of Jeremiah end here. Jeremiah 51:64
That’s it, folks!
Words of doom and gloom indeed. Words that we know with the benefit of hindsight came to pass exactly as God said they would. Of course they did.
This is God we’re talking about here. The only God worth serving. The one true God.
He made the earth by his power;
he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses. Jeremiah 51:15-16
We may not understand. We may never understand. How can anyone ever see the whole picture but God?
Whatever needs to be done, He will do it. He will put things straight. He will bring justice. He will set the captives free. He will bring the proud low. He will do this.
So do not lose heart. Have faith. Cling onto hope. Trust in the only one who can be trusted.
Sometimes we are called to stay in the hard places. Whether we like it or not.
But however it looks now, it will not always look like this.
