GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (14) “Breaking Zion: The Life & Times of Jeremiah”, part VIII

 

“How the Lord in his anger
    has humiliated daughter Zion!
He has thrown down from heaven to earth
    the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered his footstool
    in the day of his anger.

The Lord has destroyed without mercy
    all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down
    the strongholds of daughter Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor
    the kingdom and its rulers…

The Lord has become like an enemy;
    he has destroyed Israel.
He has destroyed all its palaces,
    laid in ruins its strongholds,
and multiplied in daughter Judah
    mourning and lamentation.

He has broken down his booth like a garden,
    he has destroyed his tabernacle;
the Lord has abolished in Zion
    festival and sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned
    king and priest.

The Lord has scorned his altar,
    disowned his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
    the walls of her palaces…

The Lord determined to lay in ruins
    the wall of daughter Zion…

(Lamentations 2.1-8)

 

     The siege of Jerusalem continued…for the better part of two years (cf. Jer. 39.1-2).  Once again, the fate of the descendants of Abraham hung in the balance (14 centuries had passed since God had called Abraham out of Babylonia).  Jeremiah had been warning the city for 40 years, and some were still in denial, the earlier deportations of 605 and 598 notwithstanding.  This time, Nebuchadrezzar wasn’t going to give Jerusalem/Zedekiah a slap on the wrist.  This time, it was for keeps.  Upon receiving a request from the king to pray for him and the city, Jeremiah sent Zedekiah a terrifying message: Yahweh is fighting on the side of the Babylonians; God is against you! (Jer. 21.1-7; cf. 37.1-3).  What’s more, God’s message to the inhabitants of Jerusalem summons them to leave the city and surrender themselves to the enemy forces!  God says, “I’m giving you a choice – life or death” (21.8-10; cf. 38.2).  This is covenant language (cf. Dt. 30.15-20).  While in the time of Moses, the “life” which would result from keeping the covenant was a life in the Promised Land, the “life” that God offers his besieged people is that of exile!  The capital of the nation, the “home of Yahweh” (i.e., the Temple), has become a place of death.  Once again, safety – as counterintuitive as it sounds – is to be found with the enemy.  Since the Babylonians are God’s instrument of judgment, it is they who are doing God’s will!  The pagans are being used for God’s purposes, while the people of God are in open revolt against Yahweh and have thus doomed themselves to destruction.  They have chosen death.  The world has been turned upside-down and inside-out.

     Half-way through the siege, the Babylonian forces withdrew to deal with an Egyptian offensive against their rear (Jer. 37.4-10).  As he attempted to make a trip home while the way was clear, Jeremiah was arrested at the Benjamin Gate of Jerusalem, and accused of desertion; Jeremiah was beaten and thrown into a dungeon below the house of the secretary of state (37.11-16).  When Zedekiah consulted him in order to hear the word of the LORD, Jeremiah managed to have himself transferred to the court of the palace guards (37.17-21).  After once again proclaiming to the people that the only way to survive was to surrender to the Babylonians, a cabal from the royal court put pressure on the weak-willed Zedekiah, who gave them a carte-blanche to deal with Jeremiah any way they saw fit (Jer. 38.1-5).  They proceeded to throw Jeremiah into a mud-filled cistern and left him to starve.  Ebed-melek the Ethiopian (a court official) came to Jeremiah’s aide, and interceded with Zedekiah, who once again allowed himself to be persuaded, this time to have Jeremiah removed from the well and returned to custody in the court of the guard (38.6-13).  Later, Zedekiah summons the prophet to a secret tête-à-tête in the Temple.  Jeremiah offers the king a chance to save himself, his family and the city – surrender to Nebuchadrezzar (38.17-18).  However, Zedekiah vacillates, and he instructs Jeremiah what to tell his enemies at court when they question him about this conversation, which they do, and Jeremiah does as he was ordered (38.19-28).

     Finally, in 587, the Babylonians broke through.  Zedekiah and his family fled the city, but were overtaken in the wilderness of Jericho and taken to Nebuchadrezzar’s headquarters in Riblah.  The verdict was cruel and effective – Zedekiah’s sons were killed as he watched (ensuring that no one would claim the throne of Judah[1]); the deposed king was then blinded, bound and brought to Babylon (Jer. 39.1-7; cf. 2 Kings 25).  The Babylonians proceeded to sack Jerusalem, destroy the Temple and tear down the walls.  However, Nebuchadrezzar gave orders to spare Jeremiah, and he was set free (39.8-14).  Jeremiah had lived to see the fulfillment of his prophecies; in the end, the enemies of the people of God had more respect for him than the rulers of Jerusalem.  As he watched the columns of exiles led away from the ruins of Zion, Jeremiah began to lament the fate of the city where Yahweh had chosen to “put his name” forever (cf. 1 Kings 9.3; Jer. 7.10-14; cf. also Ezekiel 24.1-2, 33.21-22).

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[1] Jehoiakim seems to be the only son of Josiah to die in relative peace; Jehoahaz and Zedekiah both died in exile, in Egypt and Babylon, respectively.  Josiah’s grandsons were killed in the “theatre of military operations”, with the exception of Jehoiachin, who died in exile in Babylon.  Thus ended the Davidic line of kings.