3631.) Jeremiah 44

It’s not Queen of Heaven, but it’s close. Going west on I4 in Orlando, close to the attractions, you will find a beautiful Roman Catholic basilica named Mary, Queen of the Universe. It is my most favorite church name! 🙂

Jeremiah 44   (NLT)

Judgment for Idolatry

This is the message Jeremiah received concerning the Judeans living in northern Egypt in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in southern Egypt as well: ² “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: 

God began this word to these displaced and disobedient Jews by declaring two names. He remained the Lord of hosts, the God of powerful armies. He remained the God of Israel, even though at that time Israel did not even exist as its own kingdom. These things that did not appear to be were nevertheless real before God and in His plan.

–David Guzik

You saw the calamity I brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. They now lie deserted and in ruins. ³ They provoked my anger with all their wickedness. They burned incense and worshiped other gods—gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors had ever even known.

⁴ “Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them, ‘Don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much.’

“‘Oh!’ says someone, ‘sin is a sweet thing.’ No, no; it is an abominable thing. ‘It is a delightful thing,’ says another. No, it is an abominable thing. ‘Oh, but it is a fashionable thing; you can see it in courts of kings, and princes, and the great men of the earth love it.’ Even though they do, it is an abominable thing. Though it should crawl up to a monarch’s throne, and spread its slime over crown jewels it would still be an abominable thing.”

–Charles Haddon Spurgeon

⁵ But my people would not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to these gods. ⁶ And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a desolate ruin today.

The crucifix at the front of the sanctuary is stunning.

The cross is fashioned from hanging glass rods and the body is carved from blond wood.

⁷ “And now the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, asks you: Why are you destroying yourselves? For not one of you will survive—not a man, woman, or child among you who has come here from Judah, not even the babies in your arms. ⁸ Why provoke my anger by burning incense to the idols you have made here in Egypt? You will only destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and mockery for all the nations of the earth. ⁹ Have you forgotten the sins of your ancestors, the sins of the kings and queens of Judah, and the sins you and your wives committed in Judah and Jerusalem? ¹⁰ To this very hour you have shown no remorse or reverence. No one has chosen to follow my word and the decrees I gave to you and your ancestors before you.

There is a sense of wonder in these words from God, as if God could not believe that His people would be so foolish to reject His word and rebel against His command with the devastation of recent judgment so near in their memory.

–David Guzik

¹¹ “Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to destroy every one of you! ¹² I will take this remnant of Judah—those who were determined to come here and live in Egypt—and I will consume them. They will fall here in Egypt, killed by war and famine. All will die, from the least to the greatest. They will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery. ¹³ I will punish them in Egypt just as I punished them in Jerusalem, by war, famine, and disease. ¹⁴ Of that remnant who fled to Egypt, hoping someday to return to Judah, there will be no survivors. Even though they long to return home, only a handful will do so.”

Jeremiah reminded his countrymen that all their calamity came as a result of idolatry; yet they were still worshiping false gods in Egypt.  As a result, they would be utterly destroyed; none would return to Judah except a few refugees.

–William MacDonald

¹⁵ Then all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to idols—a great crowd of all the Judeans living in northern Egypt and southern Egypt—answered Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We will not listen to your messages from the Lord! ¹⁷ We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven (the Babylonian idol Ishtar) just as much as we like—just as we, and our ancestors, and our kings and officials have always done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles! ¹⁸ But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her with liquid offerings, we have been in great trouble and have been dying from war and famine.”

“At the instinctive level, the fallen mind is always ready to assume that God is the adversary, whom we (like these characters) may blame for our past and distrust for our future.”

–Derek Kidner

¹⁹ “Besides,” the women added, “do you suppose that we were burning incense and pouring out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not!”

But the people refused to listen to Jeremiah, claiming that they prospered more when they served the queen of heaven. The men were involved in this false worship as well as the women.

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all of them, men and women alike, who had given him that answer, ²¹ “Do you think the Lord did not know that you and your ancestors, your kings and officials, and all the people were burning incense to idols in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ²² It was because the Lord could no longer bear all the disgusting things you were doing that he made your land an object of cursing—a desolate ruin without inhabitants—as it is today. ²³ All these terrible things happened to you because you have burned incense to idols and sinned against the Lord. You have refused to obey him and have not followed his instructions, his decrees, and his laws.”

²⁴ Then Jeremiah said to them all, including the women, “Listen to this message from the Lord, all you citizens of Judah who live in Egypt. ²⁵ This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You and your wives have said, “We will keep our promises to burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven,” and you have proved by your actions that you meant it. So go ahead and carry out your promises and vows to her!’

I have worshiped here several times, along with some 2000 others. The presiding priest welcomes visitors not by which state or which country they are from, but which continent!

²⁶ “But listen to this message from the Lord, all you Judeans now living in Egypt: ‘I have sworn by my great name,’ says the Lord, ‘that my name will no longer be spoken by any of the Judeans in the land of Egypt. None of you may invoke my name or use this oath: “As surely as the Sovereign Lord lives.”

David Guzik says:  “God solemnly declared that He rejected those who rejected Him and chose to go to Egypt, those who trusted idols more than Him. He would not allow them to speak His name.”

²⁷ For I will watch over you to bring you disaster and not good. Everyone from Judah who is now living in Egypt will suffer war and famine until all of you are dead. ²⁸ Only a small number will escape death and return to Judah from Egypt. Then all those who came to Egypt will find out whose words are true—mine or theirs!

²⁹ “‘And this is the proof I give you,’ says the Lord, ‘that all I have threatened will happen to you and that I will punish you here.’ ³⁰ This is what the Lord says: ‘I will turn Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I turned King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.’”

This was probably Jeremiah’s last recorded prophecy. He ended as he started: faithful to God, trusting in God’s faithfulness. “He had seen his nation decline from a relatively strong independent state to the point of near extinction, and little fruit seemed to have been borne by his ministry. Yet, in these final words, his utter faith in an omnipotent God, and his perception of fundamental truths, are as clear as ever.”

–Arthur E. Cundall

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Music:

In keeping with the pictures, HERE  is Schubert’s “Ave Maria”  sung by Andrea Bocelli.

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New Living Translation (NLT)  Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Mary, Queen of the Universe, view from I4.    http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/c7/99/20/front-view.jpg

church crucifix.    http://www.zimmcomm.biz/images/path/mary-shrine-path.jpg

crucifix close-up.   http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/03/8c/c2/17/crucifixo-de-cristal.jpg

church pews.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Mary,_Queen_of_the_Universe#/media/File:Maryqueenoftheuniverseshrine.JPG

3630.) Jeremiah 43

Jeremiah 43   (NLT)

Jeremiah Taken to Egypt

When Jeremiah had finished giving this message from the Lord their God to all the people, ² Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other proud men said to Jeremiah, “You lie! The Lord our God hasn’t forbidden us to go to Egypt! ³ Baruch son of Neriah has convinced you to say this, because he wants us to stay here and be killed by the Babylonians or be carried off into exile.”

They say, God would have said what we wanted him to say. You are lying to us and you are against us.

“How strange it is that ungodly men always think the Word of God is against them, whereas they are set against it!”

–F. B. Meyer

⁴ So Johanan and the other guerrilla leaders and all the people refused to obey the Lord’s command to stay in Judah. ⁵ Johanan and the other leaders took with them all the people who had returned from the nearby countries to which they had fled. ⁶ In the crowd were men, women, and children, the king’s daughters, and all those whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah. The prophet Jeremiah and Baruch were also included. ⁷ The people refused to obey the voice of the Lord and went to Egypt, going as far as the city of Tahpanhes.

And so, following their own plans, they go to Egypt. They even  drag Jeremiah along with them.

“It must have been for him one of the most tragic events of his life, since it dashed for ever all hopes he may have had to end his days in his homeland, where Yahweh had promised one day to restore the national life of his people.”

–J. A. Thompson

⁸ Then at Tahpanhes, the Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, ⁹ “While the people of Judah are watching, take some large rocks and bury them under the pavement stones at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace here in Tahpanhes. ¹⁰ Then say to the people of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will certainly bring my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, here to Egypt. I will set his throne over these stones that I have hidden. He will spread his royal canopy over them. ¹¹ And when he comes, he will destroy the land of Egypt. He will bring death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and war to those destined for war. ¹² He will set fire to the temples of Egypt’s gods; he will burn the temples and carry the idols away as plunder. He will pick clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks fleas from his cloak. And he himself will leave unharmed. ¹³ He will break down the sacred pillars standing in the temple of the sun in Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of Egypt’s gods.’”

Jeremiah assures them that Nebuchadnezzar will come to Egypt and bring disaster with him both for them and for the Egyptians.

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Music:

Jeremiah goes to Egypt in chapter 43 and after chapter 44 we hear nothing more about him. It is assumed he died in Egypt; tradition has it he was stoned to death by his own people.

HERE  is music composed for the 1978 movie Death on the Nile, based on a book by Agatha Christie.  (Fun movie, with an all-star cast, great scenes of several cultural highlights of Egypt, and Academy Award-winning costumes!)

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New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Tour Egypt.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/jer43-egypt-tour.jpg

3629.) Jeremiah 42

Jeremiah 42   (NLT)

Warning to Stay in Judah

Then all the guerrilla leaders, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, approached ² Jeremiah the prophet. They said, “Please pray to the Lord your God for us. As you can see, we are only a tiny remnant compared to what we were before. ³ Pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go.”

After the brutal massacre at Mizpah (Jeremiah 41), the leaders and citizens of those left in the land were anxious and asked Jeremiah for a word from the Lord.

They say, so it seems, Lord, lead our steps.  Guide our way.

⁴ “All right,” Jeremiah replied. “I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked, and I will tell you everything he says. I will hide nothing from you.”

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever he tells us to do! ⁶ Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us.”

They say, We will follow the Lord our God.

⁷ Ten days later the Lord gave his reply to Jeremiah.

The prophetic word took time to come to Jeremiah. It wasn’t an immediate thing to be called upon whenever he pleased. It had to come in God’s timing. Ten days must have seemed a very long time to the leaders!

⁸ So he called for Johanan son of Kareah and the other guerrilla leaders, and for all the people, from the least to the greatest. ⁹ He said to them, “You sent me to the Lord, the God of Israel, with your request, and this is his reply: ¹⁰ ‘Stay here in this land. If you do, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you. For I am sorry about all the punishment I have had to bring upon you. ¹¹ Do not fear the king of Babylon anymore,’ says the Lord. ‘For I am with you and will save you and rescue you from his power. ¹² I will be merciful to you by making him kind, so he will let you stay here in your land.’

Jeremiah tells them to stay in the land and God would show them mercy.

¹³ “But if you refuse to obey the Lord your God, and if you say, ‘We will not stay here; ¹⁴ instead, we will go to Egypt where we will be free from war, the call to arms, and hunger,’ ¹⁵ then hear the Lord’s message to the remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and live there, ¹⁶ the very war and famine you fear will catch up to you, and you will die there. ¹⁷ That is the fate awaiting every one of you who insists on going to live in Egypt. Yes, you will die from war, famine, and disease. None of you will escape the disaster I will bring upon you there.’

But if unbelief drives them to Egypt, they will not find safety there.

Deuteronomy 17:16   (NIV)

The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”

The Lord’s word continues to be against seeking refuge in Egypt. The issue, as ever, is false trust and the delusion of safety in human power and calculation.  (The Reformation Bible)

¹⁸ “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as my anger and fury have been poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so they will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery. And you will never see your homeland again.’

¹⁹ “Listen, you remnant of Judah. The Lord has told you: ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Don’t forget this warning I have given you today. ²⁰ For you were not being honest when you sent me to pray to the Lord your God for you. You said, ‘Just tell us what the Lord our God says, and we will do it!’ ²¹ And today I have told you exactly what he said, but you will not obey the Lord your God any better now than you have in the past. ²² So you can be sure that you will die from war, famine, and disease in Egypt, where you insist on going.”

Now the hypocrisy of their prayer is clear. They say, No way!  That is not what we want to do.  We do not want to stay here at the mercy of the Babylonians.

God said to stay but it seems that the people were already determined to flee to Egypt. Jeremiah told them flatly they would meet disaster there.

“Modern Christians often do the same thing:  they ask God for guidance—and they often request counsel from parents, Sunday School teachers, elders, pastors, and others—yet their mind is already made up to do what they want. Unfortunately, such ‘seeking counsel’ is all window dressing.”

–William MacDonald

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Music:

Let’s not say we want God’s direction and then go our own way.  HERE  is “I Will Follow”  by Chris Tomlin.

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New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

I have decided.     https://www.quotemaster.org/How+To+Follow+Jesus#&gid=1&pid=9

3628.) Jeremiah 41

Jeremiah 41   (NLT)

The Murder of Gedaliah

But in midautumn, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and had been one of the king’s high officials, went to Mizpah with ten men to meet Gedaliah. While they were eating together, ² Ishmael and his ten men suddenly jumped up, drew their swords, and killed Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor. ³ Ishmael also killed all the Judeans and the Babylonian soldiers who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah.

Hospitality was one of the most highly regarded virtues of the ancient world. Ancient custom with respect to hospitality normally meant that a host tried to protect a guest from harm. Gedaliah likely assumed that his guests in turn would not harm him, much less kill him.  (The Archaeological Bible)

“Gedaliah’s death was a tragedy. For years afterward, the Jews held a fast to lament the day of his passing.”

–Philip Graham Ryken

**Death count: Gedaliah plus the Judeans and the Babylonian soldiers.

⁴ The next day, before anyone had heard about Gedaliah’s murder, ⁵ eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria to worship at the Temple of the Lord. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, and had brought along grain offerings and frankincense.

These cities were important religious centers in the former northern kingdom that fell in 722 B.C. These men are a remnant of Israel’s population who had made pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great feasts. Their personal appearance reflects their mourning for the fall of Jerusalem. They were bringing bloodless offerings, since the altar of the temple had been destroyed. Even though the temple itself was in ruins, the site was still considered holy.  (The Reformation Bible)

⁶ Ishmael left Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he reached them, he said, “Oh, come and see what has happened to Gedaliah!”

⁷ But as soon as they were all inside the town, Ishmael and his men killed all but ten of them and threw their bodies into a cistern.

“This chapter is full of horrible atrocities. Blow on blow befell the already decimated remnant of Jews.”

–F. B. Meyer

**Death count: Gedaliah plus the Judeans and the Babylonian soldiers plus 70 Israelites.

⁸ The other ten had talked Ishmael into letting them go by promising to bring him their stores of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey that they had hidden away. ⁹ The cistern where Ishmael dumped the bodies of the men he murdered was the large one dug by King Asa when he fortified Mizpah to protect himself against King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with corpses.

¹⁰ Then Ishmael made captives of the king’s daughters and the other people who had been left under Gedaliah’s care in Mizpah by Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard. Taking them with him, he started back toward the land of Ammon.

¹¹ But when Johanan son of Kareah and the other guerrilla leaders heard about Ishmael’s crimes, ¹² they took all their men and set out to stop him. They caught up with him at the large pool near Gibeon. ¹³ The people Ishmael had captured shouted for joy when they saw Johanan and the other guerrilla leaders. ¹⁴ And all the captives from Mizpah escaped and began to help Johanan.

“Ishmael finds how delusive is a victory that wins no hearts, as his whole captive company delightedly deserts him.”

–Derek Kidner

¹⁵ Meanwhile, Ishmael and eight of his men escaped from Johanan into the land of Ammon.

**Death count: Gedaliah plus the Judeans and the Babylonian soldiers plus 70 Israelites plus two of Ishmael’s men.

¹⁶ Then Johanan son of Kareah and the other guerrilla leaders took all the people they had rescued in Gibeon—the soldiers, women, children, and court officials whom Ishmael had captured after he killed Gedaliah. ¹⁷ They took them all to the village of Geruth-kimham near Bethlehem, where they prepared to leave for Egypt. ¹⁸ They were afraid of what the Babylonians would do when they heard that Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the Babylonian king.

This terrible account is included to show how chaotic and unsafe conditions were in Judah and the region after the fall of the Kingdom of Judah. Many felt they were safer in Egypt than remaining in that lawless land.

–David Guzik

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Music:

There are classic country music songs which tell the stories of murders!  Johnny Cash and “Folsom Prison Blues” — “I shot a man in Reno / just to watch him die” — does it get more cold-blooded than that?  “Papa Loved Mama” by Garth Brooks — “Mama’s in the graveyard and Papa’s in the pen.”  And of course, “Frankie and Johnny” — “He was her man, but he was doin’ her wrong.”  But for a good laugh when thinking about murder (?!), there’s nothing better than the Dixie Chicks and “Goodbye Earl.”  HERE  it is for your listening pleasure!

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New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

murder.    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c8/Murder_title.jpg

3627.) Jeremiah 40

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Jeremiah 40   (NLT)

Jeremiah Remains in Judah

The Lord gave a message to Jeremiah after Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had released him at Ramah. He had found Jeremiah bound in chains among all the other captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being sent to exile in Babylon.

² The captain of the guard called for Jeremiah and said, “The Lord your God has brought this disaster on this land, ³ just as he said he would. For these people have sinned against the Lord and disobeyed him. That is why it happened.

The Babylonian Nebuzaradan believed the word of God more than Yahweh’s covenant people did.

⁴ But I am going to take off your chains and let you go. If you want to come with me to Babylon, you are welcome. I will see that you are well cared for. But if you don’t want to come, you may stay here. The whole land is before you—go wherever you like. ⁵ If you decide to stay, then return to Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan. He has been appointed governor of Judah by the king of Babylon. Stay there with the people he rules. But it’s up to you; go wherever you like.”

Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, gave Jeremiah some food and money and let him go. ⁶ So Jeremiah returned to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and he lived in Judah with the few who were still left in the land.

The Lord takes care of his prophet through the kindness of the Babylonian captain of the guard! And Jeremiah chose to live among his people because he loved them. “Jeremiah was not a vindictive man, nor did he feel the slightest elation at the downfall of his adversaries. They were his people, he loved them, and he wept bitterly for them, as the book of Lamentations shows.”

–Arthur E. Cundall

Gedaliah Governs in Judah

⁷ The leaders of the Judean guerrilla bands in the countryside heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam as governor over the poor people who were left behind in Judah—the men, women, and children who hadn’t been exiled to Babylon. ⁸ So they went to see Gedaliah at Mizpah. These included: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, Jezaniah son of the Maacathite, and all their men.

⁹ Gedaliah vowed to them that the Babylonians meant them no harm. “Don’t be afraid to serve them. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well for you,” he promised.

Gedaliah assures the officers and their men that truly, their best and wisest action was to surrender to God’s judgment through the Babylonians and make the most of the life they had.

¹⁰ “As for me, I will stay at Mizpah to represent you before the Babylonians who come to meet with us. Settle in the towns you have taken, and live off the land. Harvest the grapes and summer fruits and olives, and store them away.”

At the moment of judgment, we are given a glimpse of future blessing in the land.  (The Reformation Bible)

¹¹ When the Judeans in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and the other nearby countries heard that the king of Babylon had left a few people in Judah and that Gedaliah was the governor, ¹² they began to return to Judah from the places to which they had fled. They stopped at Mizpah to meet with Gedaliah and then went into the Judean countryside to gather a great harvest of grapes and other crops.

So the Jews who did not go to Babylon remain in Judea with a sense of a new normal.

A Plot against Gedaliah

¹³ Soon after this, Johanan son of Kareah and the other guerrilla leaders came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. ¹⁴ They said to him, “Did you know that Baalis, king of Ammon, has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to assassinate you?” But Gedaliah refused to believe them.

¹⁵ Later Johanan had a private conference with Gedaliah and volunteered to kill Ishmael secretly. “Why should we let him come and murder you?” Johanan asked. “What will happen then to the Judeans who have returned? Why should the few of us who are still left be scattered and lost?”

¹⁶ But Gedaliah said to Johanan, “I forbid you to do any such thing, for you are lying about Ishmael.”

Unfortunately, Gedaliah is wrong . . . (cue ominous music)

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Music:

I think what it must have been like for Jeremiah and the others — their king deported, their temple burned, the walls of Jerusalem knocked down, Babylonians in charge. How helpless and lost many may have felt! What kind of future was possible for them now? Fortunately, God is still on his throne and his word still stands true.  HERE  is an Isaac Watts hymn to encourage us all:  “I Sing the Mighty Power of God.”

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New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

map of Babylonian Empire.    https://empireearth.fandom.com/wiki/Babylon?file=Babylon.gif

grapes and olives.    https://tavolamediterranea.com/2018/03/03/mediterranean-triad-grapes-grains-olives-barley-porridge/

3626.) Jeremiah 39

Jeremiah 39   (NLT)

The Fall of Jerusalem

“The Fall of Jerusalem was so important that Scripture relates it four times – here, in Jeremiah 52, in 2 Kings 25, and in 2 Chronicles 36.”

–Charles L. Feinberg

In January of the ninth year of King Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar came with his army to besiege Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar used the common method of attack in those days of securely walled cities — a siege. A besieged city was surrounded, preventing all business and trade from entering or leaving the city, and eventually starving the population into surrender – or the defenses of the city gave way and the surrounding army poured into the weakened city.

–David Guzik

² Two and a half years later, on July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the Babylonians broke through the wall, and the city fell.

This was 586 B.C.

³ All the officers of the Babylonian army came in and sat in triumph at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Samgar, and Nebo-sarsekim, a chief officer, and Nergal-sharezer, the king’s adviser, and all the other officers.

In a modern setting, this sitting in the gates of the city was similar to an enemy conquering Washington D.C. and then sitting in the Oval Office.

⁴ When King Zedekiah and all the soldiers saw that the Babylonians had broken into the city, they fled. They waited for nightfall and then slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.

⁵ But the Babylonian troops chased the king and caught him on the plains of Jericho. They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who was at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah. ⁶ He made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons and all the nobles of Judah. ⁷ Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.

This fulfilled the mysterious promise God made through Ezekiel regarding Zedekiah shortly before the fall of Jerusalem: I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there.  (Ezekiel 12:13)

“But to make the sight of his slaughtered sons the poor wretch’s last sight, was a refinement of gratuitous delight in torturing.”

–Alexander Maclaren

⁸ Meanwhile, the Babylonians burned Jerusalem, including the palace, and tore down the walls of the city. ⁹ Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, sent to Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city as well as those who had defected to him. ¹⁰ But Nebuzaradan left a few of the poorest people in Judah, and he assigned them vineyards and fields to care for.

It happened just as God said.

Jeremiah Remains in Judah

¹¹ King Nebuchadnezzar had told Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, to find Jeremiah. ¹² “See that he isn’t hurt,” he said. “Look after him well, and give him anything he wants.” ¹³ So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard; Nebushazban, a chief officer; Nergal-sharezer, the king’s adviser; and the other officers of Babylon’s king ¹⁴ sent messengers to bring Jeremiah out of the prison. They put him under the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, who took him back to his home. So Jeremiah stayed in Judah among his own people.

Jeremiah had to wonder what would become of him when the Babylonians eventually conquered Jerusalem. God cared for His faithful servant, keeping him safe and in favor with Nebuchadnezzar and his captains. Now an old man, Jeremiah was released from prison and allowed to live among the people once again.

¹⁵ The Lord had given the following message to Jeremiah while he was still in prison: ¹⁶ “Say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will do to this city everything I have threatened. I will send disaster, not prosperity. You will see its destruction, ¹⁷ but I will rescue you from those you fear so much. ¹⁸ Because you trusted me, I will give you your life as a reward. I will rescue you and keep you safe. I, the Lord, have spoken!’”

Remember Ebed-melech — the court official who rescued Jeremiah from the cistern, even protecting him in the process with soft rags where the ropes might rub him. God shows kindness to him. Amy Carmichael reminds us that “The God who knew the heart of His servant Ebed-melech knows our heart too. And He assures us and reassures us.”

_________________________

Music:

As I look back over my life, I see that even in the hard times, the Lord has always been faithful and I have always had enough, and more than enough. The best response to a difficult situation, I have learned, is always to praise God for who He is and what He is doing, even if it is utterly beyond my understanding. So you can imagine that this chapter strikes a chord with me, and that this song is a favorite of mine.  HERE  is “Praise You in This Storm”  by Casting Crowns.

_________________________

New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Jerusalem falls.    http://oneyearbibleimages.com/nebuchadnezzar.jpg

Middle Gate map.   http://www.generationword.com/jerusalem101/26-middle-gate.html

Isaiah 43:1-2.   https://gardenfaith.com/2020/04/03/god-is-always-with-his-people-isaiah-431-2/

3625.) Psalm 119:81-96

Psalm 119:81-96   (NIV)

כ Kaph

“Some writers…pointed out that for the ancients there was often significance in the shape of the Hebrew letters. Such is the case here. This is the kaph stanza. Kaph is a curved letter, similar to a half circle, and it was often thought of as a hand held out to receive some gift or blessing…. He holds out his hand toward God as a suppliant.”

–James Montgomery Boice

⁸¹ My soul faints with longing for your salvation,
    but I have put my hope in your word.

This verse brings to mind Paul’s similar affirmation of being desperate but not despairing in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 —  We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. In it all, Paul could say, “we have the same spirit of faith” (2 Corinthians 4:13).

⁸² My eyes fail, looking for your promise;
    I say, “When will you comfort me?”
⁸³ Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke,
    I do not forget your decrees.

What can I do to help myself remember the Lord’s decrees? Here are some ideas:

– reading the Bible regularly
– learning Scripture by heart and repeating it 
– hanging Bible verse plaques up around your house
– keeping devotionals in convenient places
– singing hymns and spiritual songs
– carrying Scripture with you (easy now on our phones)

What are other things that you have found helpful?

⁸⁴ How long must your servant wait?
    When will you punish my persecutors?
⁸⁵ The arrogant dig pits to trap me,
    contrary to your law.

⁸⁶ All your commands are trustworthy;
    help me, for I am being persecuted without cause.

“Many a time have these words been groaned out by troubled saints, for they are such as suit a thousand conditions of need, pain, distress, weakness, and sin. ‘Help, Lord,’ will be a fitting prayer for youth and age, for labour and suffering, for life and death. No other help is sufficient, but God’s help is all-sufficient and we cast ourselves upon it without fear.”

–Charles Haddon Spurgeon

⁸⁷ They almost wiped me from the earth,
    but I have not forsaken your precepts.
⁸⁸ In your unfailing love preserve my life,
    that I may obey the statutes of your mouth.

ל Lamedh

⁸⁹ Your word, Lord, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
⁹⁰ Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
you established the earth, and it endures.

The word of God itself is what establishes the earth and causes it to abide. The earth and all of creation began with a word from God (Genesis 1); it is no surprise that they are also sustained and endure according to the word of God.

This gives new understanding to some wonderful statements of Scripture:

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever (Isaiah 40:8)

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away (Matthew 24:35)

These passages put the word of God outside the created world and indicate that the word of God is more permanent and enduring than creation itself. Since the created world came into being by God’s word and is sustained by His word, this makes perfect sense.

–David Guzik

⁹¹ Your laws endure to this day,
for all things serve you.
⁹² If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction.
⁹³ I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have preserved my life.
⁹⁴ Save me, for I am yours;
I have sought out your precepts.

This speaks of the wonderful relationship between the Psalmist and His God, flowing from the word of God. With the Psalmist, we can affirm
– that God is our God!
– that salvation is not in ourselves!
– that God hears and answers prayer!
– that God will indeed save us!
– that God’s word is valuable and necessary for us!

⁹⁵ The wicked are waiting to destroy me,
but I will ponder your statutes.
⁹⁶ To all perfection I see a limit,
but your commands are boundless.

I like how this verse is phrased in The Message:

I see the limits to everything human,
    but the horizons can’t contain your commands!

_________________________

Music:

HERE is a song to feed your heart!  “Speak, O Lord,” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, and sung by Kristyn Getty.

_________________________

New International Version (NIV)

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Images courtesy of:

verse 81.   https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f7/ce/87/f7ce8747c0d93bc5a85da7120561219a.jpg

 help me.   https://d5wt70d4gnm1t.cloudfront.net/media/annika_strom/please_help_me_blue/annika_strom_5293_1024x768.jpg

Genesis 1:1.    http://wallpaper4god.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/genesis1_1.jpg

verse 94.   https://www.pinterest.com/pin/189221621824072423/

3624.) Jeremiah 38

Jeremiah 38   (NLT)

Jeremiah in a Cistern

Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah had been telling the people. He had been saying, ² “This is what the Lord says: ‘Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who surrender to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be life. They will live!’ ³ The Lord also says: ‘The city of Jerusalem will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’”

“Those clamouring princes were unquestionably the politicians who had influenced the king against the word of the prophet; and had advocated resistance to Babylon when Jeremiah had persistently declared its futility.”

–J. Campbell Morgan

⁴ So these officials went to the king and said, “Sir, this man must die! That kind of talk will undermine the morale of the few fighting men we have left, as well as that of all the people. This man is a traitor!”

⁵ King Zedekiah agreed. “All right,” he said. “Do as you like. I can’t stop you.”

“He was, of course, a puppet king, set up by Nebuchadrezzar after the exile of Jehoiachin and possibly not accepted by everyone in the nation as the true king.”

–J. A. Thompson

“Zedekiah seems to have been an alumnus of the same school of politics that Pontius Pilate later attended.”

–Philip Graham Ryken

⁶ So the officials took Jeremiah from his cell and lowered him by ropes into an empty cistern in the prison yard. It belonged to Malkijah, a member of the royal family. There was no water in the cistern, but there was a thick layer of mud at the bottom, and Jeremiah sank down into it.

This was likely a deep pit with only a small opening in the top. Whether it was empty from water shortage or disuse is not clear. They may have hoped Jeremiah would die there.  (The Reformation Bible)

⁷ But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, an important court official, heard that Jeremiah was in the cistern. At that time the king was holding court at the Benjamin Gate, ⁸ so Ebed-melech rushed from the palace to speak with him. ⁹ “My lord the king,” he said, “these men have done a very evil thing in putting Jeremiah the prophet into the cistern. He will soon die of hunger, for almost all the bread in the city is gone.”

“A stranger, but (as that good Samaritan in the Gospel) more merciful than any of the Jewish nation, who gloried in their privileges.”

–John Trapp

¹⁰ So the king told Ebed-melech, “Take thirty of my men with you, and pull Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹ So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to a room in the palace beneath the treasury, where he found some old rags and discarded clothing. He carried these to the cistern and lowered them to Jeremiah on a rope. ¹² Ebed-melech called down to Jeremiah, “Put these rags under your armpits to protect you from the ropes.”

Then when Jeremiah was ready, ¹³ they pulled him out. So Jeremiah was returned to the courtyard of the guard—the palace prison—where he remained.

from Whispers of His Power,
by Amy Carmichael

The dungeon where Jeremiah was kept was one of those horrible pits that were used in olden times as prisons. The king only told Ebed-melech to take thirty men and pull Jeremiah out of the dungeon with ropes, before he died. But that kind man, whose name means “Servant of the King,” took the trouble to go and fetch pieces of cast-off clothes and old soft rags. He told Jeremiah to put them under his armpits to keep the ropes from hurting him as they pulled him out.

In Matthew 25:40 we read what the King of Kings must have said to Servant of the King, Ebed-melech.  Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.

Think of it, every little thoughtful kindness we do for someone in need, our Lord notices. He takes it as service done to Him. Let us serve Him by serving others, however humbly, today.

Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah

¹⁴ One day King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and had him brought to the third entrance of the Lord’s Temple. “I want to ask you something,” the king said. “And don’t try to hide the truth.”

¹⁵ Jeremiah said, “If I tell you the truth, you will kill me. And if I give you advice, you won’t listen to me anyway.”

¹⁶ So King Zedekiah secretly promised him, “As surely as the Lord our Creator lives, I will not kill you or hand you over to the men who want you dead.”

¹⁷ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the Babylonian officers, you and your family will live, and the city will not be burned down. ¹⁸ But if you refuse to surrender, you will not escape! This city will be handed over to the Babylonians, and they will burn it to the ground.’”

“All he had to do was trust the prophet, to lift his head high, take up the flag of truce, walk past the princes and out to the Chaldean armies. This simple act of contrition would have saved the city.” 

¹⁹ “But I am afraid to surrender,” the king said, “for the Babylonians may hand me over to the Judeans who have defected to them. And who knows what they will do to me!”

Such weakness of character for a king! He knew the right thing to do, but was afraid to do it.

²⁰ Jeremiah replied, “You won’t be handed over to them if you choose to obey the Lord. Your life will be spared, and all will go well for you. ²¹ But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has revealed to me: ²² All the women left in your palace will be brought out and given to the officers of the Babylonian army.

The loss of a harem was a humiliating consequence for a king defeated in war.  (The Reformation Bible)

Then the women will taunt you, saying,

‘What fine friends you have!
    They have betrayed and misled you.
When your feet sank in the mud,
    they left you to your fate!’

²³ All your wives and children will be led out to the Babylonians, and you will not escape. You will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down.”

“Nothing is more marked throughout all this story than the absolute and unswerving loyalty of Jeremiah to the message of judgment which he was called on to deliver.”

–G. Campbell Morgan

²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Don’t tell anyone you told me this, or you will die! ²⁵ My officials may hear that I spoke to you, and they may say, ‘Tell us what you and the king were talking about. If you don’t tell us, we will kill you.’ ²⁶ If this happens, just tell them you begged me not to send you back to Jonathan’s dungeon, for fear you would die there.”

²⁷ Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the king’s officials came to Jeremiah and asked him why the king had called for him. But Jeremiah followed the king’s instructions, and they left without finding out the truth. No one had overheard the conversation between Jeremiah and the king. ²⁸ And Jeremiah remained a prisoner in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

Jeremiah went back to the prison; Zedekiah went to the palace. It would turn out better for the prophet than for the king. “Zedekiah returned to the palace to suffer the anguish of knowing what was right to do but lacking the courage to do it.” (Thompson)

_________________________

Music:

Yes, the Lord has won the final victory but, like Jeremiah in prison, we sometimes may feel overwhelmed by some of the difficulties in our life. People who are unkind and misdirected seem to be in control of our circumstances. Even so, let us not lose faith, but let us hold on to grace. Our God will supply all our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus!  HERE  is Tenth Avenue North and “Losing.”

_________________________

New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Jeremiah in the cistern (Biblical illustrations by Jim Padgett).   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Book_of_Jeremiah_Chapter_38-2_%28Bible_Illustrations_by_Sweet_Media%29.jpg

Jeremiah is rescued.    http://alaskabibleteacher.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/ebedmelech.jpg

You can’t handle the truth.  http://plantsvszombies.wikia.com/wiki/File:You-cant-handle-the-truth-meme-generator-you-want-the-truth-you-can-t-handle-the-truth-9789dd.jpg

3623.) Jeremiah 37

Jeremiah 37   (NLT)

Zedekiah Calls for Jeremiah

Zedekiah son of Josiah succeeded Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim as the king of Judah. He was appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. ² But neither King Zedekiah nor his attendants nor the people who were left in the land listened to what the Lord said through Jeremiah.

Specifically, Jeremiah told them that the Babylonians would completely conquer Judah and Jerusalem and resistance was futile. They would be better off surrendering to the Babylonians and submitting to God’s correction.

 ³ Nevertheless, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest, son of Maaseiah, to ask Jeremiah, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.” 

They intentionally ignore the word of God and yet expect God’s blessing.

⁴ Jeremiah had not yet been imprisoned, so he could come and go among the people as he pleased.

⁵ At this time the army of Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt appeared at the southern border of Judah. When the Babylonian army heard about it, they withdrew from their siege of Jerusalem.

Egypt and Babylon were in contention for the region. Many in Judah were looking to Egypt for support; the Babylonians would have withdrawn to counter the Egyptian advance.  (The Reformation Bible)

⁶ Then the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: ⁷ “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: The king of Judah sent you to ask me what is going to happen. Tell him, ‘Pharaoh’s army is about to return to Egypt, though he came here to help you. ⁸ Then the Babylonians will come back and capture this city and burn it to the ground.’

⁹ “This is what the Lord says: Do not fool yourselves into thinking that the Babylonians are gone for good. They aren’t! ¹⁰ Even if you were to destroy the entire Babylonian army, leaving only a handful of wounded survivors, they would still stagger from their tents and burn this city to the ground!”

It is an unpopular message . . .

Jeremiah Is Imprisoned

¹¹ When the Babylonian army left Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s approaching army, ¹² Jeremiah started to leave the city on his way to the territory of Benjamin, to claim his share of the property among his relatives there.

Jeremiah 32:6-12 describes the property that Jeremiah purchased as a testimony of God’s promise of restoration to Judah. With the siege temporarily broken, Jeremiah could see the property he bought from prison.

¹³ But as he was walking through the Benjamin Gate, a sentry arrested him and said, “You are defecting to the Babylonians!” The sentry making the arrest was Irijah son of Shelemiah, grandson of Hananiah.

¹⁴ “That’s not true!” Jeremiah protested. “I had no intention of doing any such thing.” But Irijah wouldn’t listen, and he took Jeremiah before the officials. ¹⁵ They were furious with Jeremiah and had him flogged and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary. Jonathan’s house had been converted into a prison. ¹⁶ Jeremiah was put into a dungeon cell, where he remained for many days.

¹⁷ Later King Zedekiah secretly requested that Jeremiah come to the palace, where the king asked him, “Do you have any messages from the Lord?”

“Yes, I do!” said Jeremiah. “You will be defeated by the king of Babylon.”

It is an unpopular message but Jeremiah keeps on giving it . . .

¹⁸ Then Jeremiah asked the king, “What crime have I committed? What have I done against you, your attendants, or the people that I should be imprisoned like this? ¹⁹ Where are your prophets now who told you the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land? ²⁰ Listen, my lord the king, I beg you. Don’t send me back to the dungeon in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for I will die there.”

It is an unpopular message, but Jeremiah keeps on giving it, and the king cannot deny the truth of it.

²¹ So King Zedekiah commanded that Jeremiah not be returned to the dungeon. Instead, he was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace. The king also commanded that Jeremiah be given a loaf of fresh bread every day as long as there was any left in the city. So Jeremiah was put in the palace prison.

There was a small blessing for Zedekiah in his kindness to Jeremiah. “For this courtesy of his to the prophet, God granted him a natural death, and an honourable burial in Babylon.”

–John Trapp

Thy Word, O Lord, like gentle dews,
Falls soft on hearts that pine;
Lord, to Thy garden ne’er refuse
This heavenly balm of Thine.
Watered by Thee, let every tree
Then blossom to Thy praise,
By grace of Thine bear fruit divine
Through all the coming days.

Thy Word is like a flaming sword,
A wedge that cleaveth stone;
Keen as a fire, so burns Thy Word,
And pierceth flesh and bone;
Let it go forth o’er all the earth
To cleanse our hearts within,
To show Thy power in Satan’s hour,
And break the night of sin.

Thy Word, a wondrous guiding star,
On pilgrim hearts doth rise,
Leads those to God who dwell afar,
And makes the simple wise.
Let not its light e’er sink in night,
But in each spirit shine,
That none may miss Heaven’s final bliss,
Led by Thy light divine.

_________________________

Music:

Verse 17 has a poignant question that many people ask today: as the NIV puts it —  “Is there any word from the Lord?” Yes, there is! Genesis through Revelation! How many times we think we need something new from the Lord, when we would do well to go back to the Word we have  and listen attentively with the help of the Holy Spirit!  HERE  is The Scottish Festival Singers and “Lord, Thy Word Abideth.”

1 Lord, thy word abideth,
and our footsteps guideth;
who its truth believeth
light and joy receiveth.

2 When our foes are near us,
then thy word doth cheer us,
word of consolation,
message of salvation.

3 When the storms are o’er us,
and dark clouds before us,
then its light directeth,
and our way protecteth.

4 Who can tell the pleasure,
who recount the treasure
by thy word imparted
to the simple-hearted?

5 Word of mercy, giving
succour to the living;
word of life, supplying
comfort to the dying.

6 O that we discerning
its most holy learning,
Lord, may love and fear thee,
evermore be near thee!

_________________________

New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Jeremiah in prison (Biblical illustrations by Jim Padgett).   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Book_of_Jeremiah_Chapter_37-2_%28Bible_Illustrations_by_Sweet_Media%29.jpg

Jeremiah and the king.    http://navigatornate.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/jeremiah-king.jpg

Psalm 119:89-90.   https://i.pinimg.com/236x/d9/ff/fd/d9fffd36c5b59d2108acabfcc3551843–psalm–psalms.jpg

3622.) Jeremiah 36

Jeremiah 36   (NLT)

Baruch Reads the Lord’s Messages

During the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king in Judah, the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: ² “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message, right up to the present time. ³ Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings.”

 “If Jeremiah’s life were in danger, if he had no sons to carry on his word (Jeremiah 6:2), if the nation and the whole fabric of society were about to collapse, then a scroll would preserve the message.”

–Frank C. Thompson

⁴ So Jeremiah sent for Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated all the prophecies that the Lord had given him, Baruch wrote them on a scroll.

This account is of great interest in that it gives the only detailed Old Testament description of the writing of a prophetic book. That Jeremiah dictated to a secretary was normal for the times. Writing was a specialized skill, often restricted to the professional class. Learned men might have been able to read but scorned to write. The document was probably written on a blank papyrus scroll imported from Egypt.  (The Archaeology Bible)

⁵ Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, “I am a prisoner here and unable to go to the Temple. ⁶ So you go to the Temple on the next day of fasting, and read the messages from the Lord that I have had you write on this scroll. Read them so the people who are there from all over Judah will hear them. ⁷ Perhaps even yet they will turn from their evil ways and ask the Lord’s forgiveness before it is too late. For the Lord has threatened them with his terrible anger.”

The prophet didn’t need to present the words himself for the work of the word of God to be effective. The word of God itself had power.

⁸ Baruch did as Jeremiah told him and read these messages from the Lord to the people at the Temple. ⁹ He did this on a day of sacred fasting held in late autumn, during the fifth year of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah. People from all over Judah had come to Jerusalem to attend the services at the Temple on that day. ¹⁰ Baruch read Jeremiah’s words on the scroll to all the people. He stood in front of the Temple room of Gemariah, son of Shaphan the secretary. This room was just off the upper courtyard of the Temple, near the New Gate entrance.

So, in 605 B.C., the year Nebuchadnezzar made his first move against Jerusalem, the Lord commanded Jeremiah to write down all the prophecies he had delivered. These were dictated to Baruch and read by him publicly at the temple a year later.

¹¹ When Micaiah son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan heard the messages from the Lord, ¹² he went down to the secretary’s room in the palace where the administrative officials were meeting.

This Michaiah was a godly man, having been connected with the reforms and revival under King Josiah (2 Kings 22:12-13). He heard all the words of the Lord from the book, and brought the message of the book to the leaders of Judah—sons of nobility and royalty, leaders in the kingdom.

–David Guzik

Elishama the secretary was there, along with Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Acbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. ¹³ When Micaiah told them about the messages Baruch was reading to the people, ¹⁴ the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, grandson of Shelemiah and great-grandson of Cushi, to ask Baruch to come and read the messages to them, too. So Baruch took the scroll and went to them. ¹⁵ “Sit down and read the scroll to us,” the officials said, and Baruch did as they requested.

¹⁶ When they heard all the messages, they looked at one another in alarm. “We must tell the king what we have heard,” they said to Baruch. ¹⁷ “But first, tell us how you got these messages. Did they come directly from Jeremiah?”

¹⁸ So Baruch explained, “Jeremiah dictated them, and I wrote them down in ink, word for word, on this scroll.”

The only mention of ink in the Old Testament (but see also 2 Corinthians 3:3, 2 John 12, and 3 John 13). In ancient times ink was made from soot or lampblack mixed with gum arabic or oil.  (The Archaeology Bible)

¹⁹ “You and Jeremiah should both hide,” the officials told Baruch. “Don’t tell anyone where you are!” ²⁰ Then the officials left the scroll for safekeeping in the room of Elishama the secretary and went to tell the king what had happened.

Once the princes had heard the prophecies, and after authenticating the document, they told Baruch and Jeremiah to hide. They knew the king would be displeased.

King Jehoiakim Burns the Scroll

²¹ The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. Jehudi brought it from Elishama’s room and read it to the king as all his officials stood by. ²² It was late autumn, and the king was in a winterized part of the palace, sitting in front of a fire to keep warm. ²³ Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire, section by section, until the whole scroll was burned up.

This was a deliberate, dramatic way to insult and reject the prophet and the God whom the prophet represented. Jehoiakim hoped to burn and destroy the word of the prophet and his God.

²⁴ Neither the king nor his attendants showed any signs of fear or repentance at what they heard. ²⁵ Even when Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, he wouldn’t listen.

²⁶ Then the king commanded his son Jerahmeel, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch and Jeremiah. But the Lord had hidden them.

The king was not bothered in the least. As his scribe read the scroll (God’s word), the king cut it into pieces and burned it. The others were appalled. 

Jeremiah Rewrites the Scroll

²⁷ After the king had burned the scroll on which Baruch had written Jeremiah’s words, the Lord gave Jeremiah another message. He said, ²⁸ “Get another scroll, and write everything again just as you did on the scroll King Jehoiakim burned. ²⁹ Then say to the king, ‘This is what the Lord says: You burned the scroll because it said the king of Babylon would destroy this land and empty it of people and animals.

This was the aspect of Jeremiah’s message that so upset Jehoiakim. He didn’t want to hear that Nebuchadnezzar was going to come again to Jerusalem and eventually destroy the city.

³⁰ Now this is what the Lord says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no heirs to sit on the throne of David. His dead body will be thrown out to lie unburied—exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. ³¹ I will punish him and his family and his attendants for their sins. I will pour out on them and on all the people of Jerusalem and Judah all the disasters I promised, for they would not listen to my warnings.’”

³² So Jeremiah took another scroll and dictated again to his secretary, Baruch. He wrote everything that had been on the scroll King Jehoiakim had burned in the fire. Only this time he added much more!

Jeremiah rewrote the prophecies, adding an appropriate section concerning the fearful doom of the king!

–William MacDonald

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Music:

God has spoken to his people, alleluia, and his words are words of wisdom, alleluia.  HERE  is Desert Harmony, a children’s choir from the United Arab Emirates.

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New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

the king burns the scroll (Biblical illustrations by Jim Padgett).      http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Book_of_Jeremiah_Chapter_36-3_%28Bible_Illustrations_by_Sweet_Media%29.jpg

2000 year old Hebrew writing on papyrus.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/c2628-1.jpg

scroll and ink.   https://image.shutterstock.com/z/stock-photo-roll-of-parchment-ink-pot-and-writing-quill-medieval-still-life-isolated-white-background-1461624.jpg

the king, seated, burns the scroll.  https://witzend.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/jehoiakim-burns-scroll.jpg