A friend’s daughter was about to land in Los Angeles, unaware of the inferno engulfing the city. The pilot explained that there were incredible winds ahead and to brace for a rough landing, so she texted her mother for prayer. Later, after landing, she texted back, “I’m coming back to evil. Literally, as I looked out the window being tossed around, the ground below was a fiery ‘hell.’” What a powerful description of the devastation she was seeing.
We have adopted the word ‘hell’ into our vocabulary to speak of the worst kind of situations. Yet, as to believing that such a place of existence is real, most people are living as if it doesn’t exist. What is even more tragic is that many people who profess faith in Christ deny the very existence of hell, as place of judgment for the devil, the fallen angels, and the ungodly. If there is no hell, we can dismiss the idea of eternal punishment or any accountability for the wrongs committed in this life. There is then no sense of justice to come. What is fascinating is how the concept of eternal punishment for sin is addressed in the New Testament.
It should be noted that in the New Testament, Gehenna [which is translated Hell in our English bibles] is used only in the synoptics [first three gospels] except for an occurrence in James (3:6), and that in these synoptic references the word was used only by Jesus Christ. In other words, the knowledge of hell comes almost exclusively from the teachings of Christ, who spoke emphatically on the subject on a number of occasions.[i]
Jesus warns us in the Sermon on the Mount against avoiding this place of judgment. He speaks of the danger of the fire of hell (Mt. 5:22) and warns against the danger of sinning to the point of saying, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell (Mt. 5:29).” It is obvious that Jesus not only believed in hell but came to die in order for us not to end up there.
As I was reflecting on Jeremiah 39, it impacted me how much judgment is a fundamental theme of the bible, but we rarely talk about it. Yet, it should be something that motivates us to avoid it and encourages us to share with others so that they too can avoid or escape the consequences of a broken world.
So, what is the book of Jeremiah all about? Let me briefly recap. God had been warning the nation of Judah to fulfill her covenant with Him for centuries, but under the preaching of Jeremiah, the warning has a sense of imminence. Jeremiah is explaining to the people that God will discipline them by exiling them away from their homeland. His message of warning is a call to repentance, to change their ways, but it had gone unheeded. He had warned that judgment would come from the north, and is now seeing the Babylonian empire’s expansion as God’s instrument of discipline.
Jeremiah tells them that it is God’s will that they surrender to the Babylonians, but the majority refused, persisting in their rebellion. In Jeremiah 38, the armies of Babylon had surrounded the city and had besieged it for 18 months, resulting in many deaths by famine.
Chapter 39 is a summary of the end. The question that might arise in our minds is, why did God bring judgment to the nation? What may be even more applicable to us is, will God judge our world? Considering God’s love, we might ask, why does He judge? I would argue that judgment is an expression of God’s loving nature. Sin, which is a transgression against God’s word, brings about destruction both to the person breaking God’s word and those who are the victims of their transgressions. Sin diminishes us as people, but also it causes pain and hurt in the lives of others we are sinning against. How could God be a loving person and not ultimately address evil? Why wouldn’t God address human evil?
In Jesus’ first coming, we see that His purpose was to seek and to save that which was lost. John tells us that God, the Father, in sending the Son, did so out of his incredible love so that none would perish but have eternal life. Two verses that summarizes this intention is
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.[ii]
To state that our world needs to be saved suggests that there is a problem. There is a need for being saved, but saved from what? We need to be saved from our sin that leads to separation from God, and the separation that causes broken relationships with others. This is one consequence or expression of judgment. But if God came to save us, why would people reject this amazing offer of forgiveness and receive God’s offer of salvation?
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil.[iii]
Chapter 39 not only teaches of judgment to come, but also that God spares the righteous, those who put their trust in Him. The life of the righteous are those who are in a relationship with God, and those who are walking in obedience to His ways will experience God’s delivering grace in the hour of judgment. But what happens when people reject God’s provision of eternal life, the offer of forgiveness and invitation to be reconciled with Him?
In Jeremiah 39 we find two different outcomes or consequences based upon their response to God’s word. What we discover is the means to escape the consequences of a world that is about to be destroyed. There are two truths about what transpired, and a foreshadowing of what is about to happen in our world, and how we can escape the consequences of a sinful society that is in rebellion against the God who created all of us.
THE FIRST TRUTH IN ESCAPING THE CONSEQUENCES OF A BROKEN WORLD IS THE REALIZATION THAT JUDGMENT IS COMING
After decades of Jeremiah’s preaching, which was a call to repent and to change their minds and turn to God in obedience, the warnings now became reality.
This is how Jerusalem was taken: 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. And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city wall was broken through. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and took seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officials of the king of Babylon.[iv]
What does this mean that they were now in the Middle Gate? “In essence, their position in the gate indicates that they now controlled and ran the city.”[v] In other words, the nation was in a state of crisis and retribution, or judgment was about to happen, but some would be spared. Who were these people and why were they spared among the multitudes? Again, the more important question is, how does this apply to us at this time? How can we escape from the impending judgment that God is about to bring to our planet, it we chose to ignore God’s escape plan? Judgment and redemption are major themes of life, as seen throughout history and described by Peter.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought a flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.[vi]
How many people are in denial about things that are about to destroy them? We may intellectually know things that are unhealthy for us, but if we don’t act on that information, it does not benefit us. Here in our text, we see that the leader of the people has been dismissing and disregarding God’s word and now we see the consequences of that disobedience. In the previous chapter, the Judean king, who was appointed by the Babylonians and who was now rebelling against them was being warned by God’s servant that he needed to change his course.
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. But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from them.[vii]
A. Zedekiah’s response to the crisis was to try and flee.
However, Zedekiah refused to listen, the city was surrounded, the walls were breached, and the king ran away.
When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled; they left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, and headed toward the Arabah.[viii]
Here the leader, after failing to lead the city to safety, continued to rebel, and then once the city is conquered, flees, but does not escape God’s judgment.
Tremper Longman describes the flight of Zedekiah.
[The Arabah] was a desolate area to the east and southeast of Jerusalem, that is, to the Jordan River valley or to the small wadis that drain into it. It may be significant that the text specifies that he departed from his garden (a cultivate and pleasant natural environment) to the Arabah (a wild and inhospitable area). They may have been seeking refuge in the many caves in the area that served as places for refugees through the centuries…[ix]
That is always the way of sin when it runs its full course. It leaves you emotionally empty and diminished in some fashion. Shame and guilt are the emotional response, broken relationships are often found in the wake of sin.
B. There comes a time where it is evident that repentance will not occur and then judgment happens.
When we keep rejecting God’s message of forgiveness and grace, our hearts harden and we become indifferent to the warnings. Here we see the outcome of Zedekiah’s rebellion against God.
But the Babylonian 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. 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. The Babylonians set fire to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard carried into exile to Babylon the people who remained in the city, along with those who had gone over to him, and the rest of the people.[x]
What a terrible consequence that sin brings. Now Zedekiah is taken captive and brought before Nebuchadnezzar. The last thing Zedekiah would see, his last visual memory, is the destruction of his family and then his eyes are blinded, and he is taken in chains to Babylon. While others experienced a swift end to their suffering, Zedekiah continued to suffer the torment of his folly.
What are the lessons we learn from this perpetual rebellion and refusal to listen to the warnings of impeding judgment? If we persist in rebellion against God, we will suffer. There are some who argue that it seems unjust for God to punish people for eternity for sins committed in time, but what we fail to realize is what sin does to us. We perpetuate and become what we sin. When we lie, we become liars. We either are moving toward God or away from God and the barrier to God is sin, which is only addressed when we confess it and forsake it because the power of sin has been broken through the cross of Christ. He takes our sin upon Himself and dies paying our penalty because the effect of sin is death.
THE SECOND TRUTH IN ESCAPING THE CONSEQUENCES OF A BROKEN WORLD IS THAT THOSE WHO PLACE THEIR TRUST IN GOD WILL BE SPARED
However, those who believe and act upon the warnings by putting their trust in God and His word, when judgment comes, will be delivered. We have already seen this in the example of Lot who was spared the destruction of Sodom. While Abraham petitioned God to spare the city of Sodom if ten righteous men were found living there, God in His mercy spared the one righteous person though he judged the city.
A. God delivered the poor and released Jeremiah from his imprisonment.
But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields. Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard: “Take him and look after him; don’t harm him but do for him whatever he asks.” So Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard, Nebushazban a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officers of the king of Babylon sent and had Jeremiah taken out of the courtyard of the guard. They turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him back to his home. So he remained among his own people.[xi]
We now have a contrast between what happened to Zedekiah, the man who continued to live in fear, disregarding God’s promises, and rebelling against his word, and Jeremiah. Outwardly, Zedekiah is a man in authority and power, but at the end he is brought down and judged and suffers. However, Jeremiah as God’s servant, who has obediently communicated God’s word, though at a price of being imprisoned and being threatened, is finally released and restored back to his own home. Walter Brueggemann shares the irony between the fates of these two figures.
Jeremiah’s person now acts out the positive option Jeremiah had announced for the community. He has urged ‘submit and live.’ As one who has submitted, he is permitted to live. His personal destiny is presented as what might have been available for Zedekiah and for all his cohorts, had they not believed their own war propaganda—their silly, false notion of “well-being” (shalom).[xii]
We need to remember from the earlier chapters that false prophets had predicted peace, but they were believing a lie. Obedience to God’s word has brought peace and freedom to Jeremiah, even as our obedience to God’s word brings peace and freedom into our lives.
B. To those who trust in the Lord, they shall be spared.
While Jeremiah had been confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him: ‘Go and tell Ebed-Melek the Cushite, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill my words against this city—words concerning disaster, not prosperity. At that time they will be fulfilled before your eyes. But I will rescue you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be given into the hands of those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord.”’[xiii]
Chronologically, these verses belong in the narrative of events before Jerusalem’s fall. They may have been placed at the end of chap. 39 to avoid an interruption in the account of events leading up to the fall of Jerusalem. More likely, they conclude the account to highlight the veracity of God’s word of punishment (i.e., Jerusalem) and salvation for the individual who trusts (e.g., Ebed-Melech).[xiv]
While the city is under judgment and destruction, God speaks to Jeremiah a word of promise to a man who had placed his trust in God which was demonstrated by his actions in advocating for Jeremiah who had been thrown into a cistern and left to die. He appeals to the king and is allowed to move him to a prison in the courtyard of the guard. What is fascinating is that this non-covenant person of Cushite background believes God’s word through the prophet Jeremiah and acts upon it, while most of the Jews here dismiss this message of warning and are judged accordingly.
We could easily brush aside the significance of this historical account of judgment and think it has no bearing upon our lives. But that would be a grave mistake. The Scriptures from beginning to end challenge us to respond to God’s loving message of salvation and grace but to refuse the message leaves a person without any hope in the hour of judgment. When we come to the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation we discover these warnings.
Then I heard another voice from heaven say: ‘Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered here crimes. Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.’[xv]
These warnings are against Babylon, a symbol for a society that is in rebellion against God and rejects God’s values and ways. To come out means that we are no longer living according to her values but have embraced God as Savior and are living for Him.
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[i] Harry Buis, Hell, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 3, Ed. Merrill C. Tenney, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1980), 115.
[ii] John 3:16-17, the New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[iii] John 3:19.
[iv] Jeremiah 39:1-3.
[v] Tremper Longman III, Jeremiah, Lamentations, New International Biblical Commentary, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2008), 252.
[vi] 2 Peter 2:4-9.
[vii] Jeremiah 38:17-18.
[viii] Jeremiah 39:4.
[ix] Tremper Longman III, Jeremiah, Lamentations, 252.
[x] Jeremiah 39:5-9.
[xi] Jeremiah 39:10-14.
[xii] Walter Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), 372.
[xiii] Jeremiah 39:15-18.
[xiv] F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, The New American Commentary, Vol. 16, (Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1993), 345.
[xv] Revelation 18:4-5, 9.
