The Book of Jeremiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter records the event Jeremiah had preached for four decades: the fall of Jerusalem. The dates are exact, the siege beginning in Zedekiah's ninth year and the wall breached in his eleventh, "the fourth month, the ninth day." The Babylonian officers take their seats "in the middle gate," a sign the city is theirs. Zedekiah, who would not obey and surrender, now tries to flee by night, but is overtaken "in the plains of Jericho" and brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah for judgment. His punishment is horrific and pointed: "the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes... Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes." The last thing he ever saw was the death of his sons; then darkness, and chains, and Babylon. This is the bitter harvest of the fear that would not obey God (chapter 38). The city and temple are burned, the walls "broken down," and the people carried captive, "exactly as the LORD had warned. Only a merciful detail closes the section: "Nebuzaradan... left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields." The very ones the world counted as nothing were left to inherit the land, a quiet reversal in the midst of ruin.

Gospel Focus

The fall of Jerusalem is the terrible vindication of God's word. For forty years the prophets, priests, and kings had dismissed Jeremiah's warnings; now every word came to pass to the day. "God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). This is a sober reminder that God's patience, however long, has a limit, and that His warnings are not empty threats but sure truth. Zedekiah's end is especially tragic because it was avoidable: he had been offered life again and again if he would only obey (38:17-20), but the fear of man cost him his sons, his sight, and his freedom. Sin's consequences, long delayed, arrive at last with full weight. Yet even here mercy is not absent. The two prophecies about Zedekiah's eyes, seemingly contradictory, were both fulfilled with perfect precision, a testimony that Scripture is exact and trustworthy in the smallest detail. And the poor who "had nothing" were given "vineyards and fields," an echo of the gospel pattern in which God exalts the lowly and fills the hungry with good things (Luke 1:52-53), and has "chosen the poor of this world rich in faith" (James 2:5). When judgment falls on the proud, it is often the humble and empty-handed who are given an inheritance. Better to be the poor who receive a field than the king who lost everything by refusing to obey God.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

In the middle of a conquered, burning city, God quietly keeps His servant. "Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah," and the order is remarkable: "Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee." The most powerful man on earth commands that the imprisoned Hebrew prophet be protected and given whatever he asks. Word of Jeremiah's counsel to surrender had evidently reached the Babylonians, who regarded him favourably; but behind their decision stood the hand of God, who had promised long before, "I am with thee... to deliver thee" (Jeremiah 1:19). So the officers "took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison," where he had sat through the siege, and "committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam," to be carried home and to "dwell among the people." The prophet who had been beaten, dungeoned, and left in the mire by his own countrymen was set free and cared for by their conquerors. God's timing and God's means are His own; He kept His word to Jeremiah exactly.

Gospel Focus

God's care for Jeremiah in the hour of Jerusalem's fall is a beautiful picture of His faithfulness to His own. God had promised at Jeremiah's calling, "they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee... to deliver thee" (Jeremiah 1:19), and now, decades later, He made even the king of Babylon the instrument of that promise. "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD... he turneth it whithersoever he will" (Proverbs 21:1). When God means to protect His servant, no prison holds him and no enemy can harm him beyond God's permission; and God can move the hearts of the powerful, even the ungodly, to accomplish His care. This is deep comfort for anyone who has suffered for faithfulness: the God who let Jeremiah be mistreated for a season did not forget him, and brought his deliverance in the very collapse that destroyed his persecutors. "The LORD knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations" (2 Peter 2:9). Notice too the faithful family of Shaphan, who sheltered Jeremiah generation after generation. God often works His protection through ordinary believers placed just where they are needed. Be that kind of person, and trust that when you are faithful, God will "look well" to you, setting His watchful eyes upon you for good.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter closes by circling back to a word God had given earlier, "while he was shut up in the court of the prison," and placing it here for its fulfillment. God tells Jeremiah to carry a personal promise to Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian who had rescued him from the pit (chapter 38). The message is honest about the coming disaster, "I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee", Ebed-melech would witness the ruin firsthand. But for him personally there is deliverance: "I will deliver thee in that day... thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid... thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee." And God gives the reason, the heart of the whole chapter: "because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD." Ebed-melech had shown his faith by his courageous action, risking himself to save the prophet, and God honoured that trust with a promise of life. The contrast could not be sharper: Zedekiah, the covenant king who feared men, lost everything; Ebed-melech, the foreign servant who trusted God, was kept safe. In the day the whole city fell, God had His eye on the one man who believed Him.

Gospel Focus

"I will surely deliver thee... because thou hast put thy trust in me." Here, at the end of the account of Jerusalem's destruction, God spotlights a single foreigner and gives the reason for his rescue in words that shine with the gospel: he trusted the LORD. This is the great dividing line running through the whole Bible. "He that believeth on him is not condemned" (John 3:18); "whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed" (Romans 10:11). Ebed-melech had no covenant pedigree, no priestly rank, nothing but faith in God shown through faithful action, and that was enough. He is a preview of the gospel's reach to all peoples, "in every nation he that feareth him... is accepted with him" (Acts 10:35), and a proof that God sees and rewards the trust of the humblest, least-expected believer. Set him beside Zedekiah and the lesson is unmistakable: it is not position but trust that saves. The king with every advantage perished for fear; the servant with every disadvantage was delivered for faith. In the day when everything shakes, and there is a day of shaking coming for all the earth, the one thing that will keep a soul is trust in the Lord. "They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed" (Psalm 125:1). Have you put your trust in Him? On that hangs everything.