When life comes crashing in on us with trauma and tragedy, we as believers can question our faith. Why is God allowing this to happen? What are God’s purposes in this moment in our lives? We would all agree that life is not just an enjoyable trip with only amazing adventures. God works at shaping our inner lives to conform us into His image. At times, the spiritual journey with all its twists and turns can be confusing and painful. If we live where disobedience becomes our normal lifestyle, we can anticipate painful outcomes. Yet even God’s discipline is a mercy bringing us back to Himself and illuminating our paths with His beautiful promises that will be realized both in life and for all eternity.
We are now at the final chapter of the book of Jeremiah. The conclusion of the book begins with a distressing note but concludes with a ray of hope. This chapter brings us back to the days leading up to the fall of Jerusalem. It is obvious that Jeremiah is not the author, but the chapter is placed here to show that the prophecies of Jeremiah had been fulfilled. The destruction of the city was because of God’s anger at the continued idolatry and sin of the people.
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. It was because of the Lord’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence.[i]
While this chapter in many ways is a repeated version of what is found in 2 Kings 24:18-25:30, with minor variations, the purpose of the editor in summarizing the book of Jeremiah had a theological point to make. This is more than simply historical narrative as Walter Brueggemann relates.
The concluding line of Jer. 52:3a renders an unqualified theological verdict with the verb ‘cast out.’ The Exile is Yahweh’s work, evoked by anger, not just with the king but with the city and the nation. At last Yahweh does what the book of Jeremiah has long anticipated.[ii]
Tremper Longman explains the purpose of this appendix to the book of Jeremiah.
This final chapter serves two important purposes. First, it makes it clear that Jeremiah’s message of judgment on Judah for its sin came to fulfillment. Second, it anticipates the fact that Jeremiah’s message of hope after judgment (chs. 30-33) will come to realization.[iii]
So, what are the lessons from the book of Jeremiah that this chapter is relaying to us? What we are witnessing is the cycle of sin being played out in a nation and ends with the hope of restoration. When we rebel against God, the only option is for God to discipline us and then when we come to our senses, having experienced brokenness and loss, we find the ray of hope, moving us toward a season of recovery. It begins with the deconstruction of the nation and its stirrings of renewal in exile. It is a pattern that is not only true for a nation but also individual lives. It begins with the fragmentation and chaotic nature of one’s life or nation in crisis. In Jeremiah 52 we discover the steps of a nation or a person in crisis because of their rebellion against God and their hope of future restoration.
THE STEP IN ADDRESSING REBELLION AGAINST GOD IS THE DISINTEGRATION OF STABILITY AND STRUCTURE IN LIFE
One of the significant effects of sin in a nation or an individual is the destabilization of that nation or person. Life becomes chaotic, conflicted, and filled with uncertainty. Hope disappears, despair begins to reign in the hearts of people, and answers fail. We are running from God and, like in the book of Jonah, we are met with a lack of ability to cope, often depression sets in, we discover storms that threaten our wellbeing, and we feel life is swallowing us up.
In the human drama, we discover the rebellion of the king of Judah against his patron, the king of Babylon. In the Divine equation, we will see that the underlying issue was Zedekiah’s rebellion against the word of the LORD. The description of the fall of Jerusalem, the seat of power, in Judah and the abandonment of the city by Zedekiah speaks of his abdication of his responsibility over the people. The exile is as summarized in verse two which states that God was “thrusting them from His presence.”
Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled. They left the city at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah, but the Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him.[iv]
God’s first step in disciplining the nation is to remove the ungodly leaders. Zedekiah is captured, sentenced, blinded, and imprisoned for life. How does this apply to us? When we rebel against God, while ignoring repeated warnings, God moves to discipline our lives to ultimately save us from total and eternal devastation. Like Jerusalem, our lives are besieged and there is a famine that comes to our soul. The walls which represent security are compromised and we find ourselves captured by sin, generally in the form of addictions, which we are simply not able to be freed from. Our lives begin disintegrating, and the losses mount up. People can lose everything from family, friends, and meaningful jobs.
The tragedy is that not only do we suffer for our sins, but those we love will also suffer. We often see that selfishness, which is an expression of sin, is often at the root of marriage breakups, and the real victims are the children involved. In our text, once Zedekiah was captured, he was sentenced and his sons were executed before his eyes, as were all the court officials. The last thing that Zedekiah saw before he was blinded was his children being slain before him. Zedekiah then was taken to Babylon and imprisoned, and this is where he died. He certainly experienced a bleak future. So, too, if we reject God’s word by disobedience to it, we will also experience a bleak future.
There at Riblah the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of Judah. Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till the day of his death.[v]
B. The effects of sin in life.
Sin promises to give, but it only takes from us. We quickly discover the lack that occurs. Provisions come to an end. Here we find the city under siege producing a severe famine. The city walls that provided protection were breached. While those who were supposed to protect the people in the city fled and left the city vulnerable. The world, as they knew it, collapsed before them. The people were now in a state of desperation. No food, no protection, enemies now overtaking their city, nowhere to run and flee, with no hope for tomorrow.
By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled.[vi]
This is the same scenario in life, when people rebel against God, losses begin to mount up. Many people can testify to the high cost of addictions in their lives. When we consider the high cost of what God paid in order to forgive us and deliver us from sin, we must address the issue of sin in our lives in a radical manner.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses hyperbole (exaggerated form of speech) to explain how seriously we need to address the sin issues in our lives.
‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, “Raca,” is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.’[vii]
We are living in a time of hurt, offense, anger, and judgment toward others that is damming our souls. We need to address these issues and seek reconciliation, if at all possible. It is affecting our relationship with God.
What about sexual sin? What about things like pornography? I’m going to explain how God sees it.
‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.[viii]
What did Jesus say we ought to do?
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. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.[ix]
Jesus is not literally stating that we should cut off parts of our body but is giving us the sense of the radical need to address this issue. It is a soul-killing sin. God wants to free us by having us repent, turn from it, and embrace purity in our hearts and minds. The word of God can bring freedom. Listen to the Psalmist’s words.
How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.[x]
C. All is lost, the sacred is violated.
After defeating the nation of Judah earlier, this trend of continuous rebellion leads the Babylonians to destroy the capital city of Jerusalem, the center of their political and religious life, to once and for all end their fickle subordination and constant rebelliousness.
It should be pointed out that the Babylonians had not been quick to destroy Jerusalem. They had tried to pacify the city in other ways since they began to control it in 605 B.C. They had initiated limited deportation in 605 B.C. (Daniel and his three friends) and 597 B.C. (Jehoiachin). They had put a legitimate Davidic descendant on the throne (Zedekiah), whom they thought was pro-Babylonian. Nevertheless, this city kept rebelling, so finally Nebuchadnezzar decided to destroy the city once and for all.[xi]
On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.[xii]
D. The significance of the vessels of worship.
While the looting of the temple vessels brought great wealth to the conquerors, the more important idea is the theological significance of this action.
The loss of the temple vessels means the loss of prestige for the God who presides over the temple. …the confiscation asserts that the Babylonian gods have prevailed over the God of Israel. This seizure of the temple artifacts is a highly symbolic as well as highly profitable act that must have been salt on the open wounds of Jerusalem. …The wealth of the city and the prestige of Yahweh are both forfeited in a single act. This is indeed the Good Friday of the Temple![xiii]
The idea is that God was willing to suffer misunderstanding, humiliation, and shame by the ancient society at large, by disciplining his covenant people. The ultimate expression of this love, that is willing to suffer shame was expressed on the cross (Hebrews 12:2).
The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried all the bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. The commander of the imperial guard took away the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, dishes and bowls used for drink offerings—all that were made of pure gold or silver. The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands, which King Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference; each was four fingers thick, and hollow. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was five cubits high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar. There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; the total number of pomegranates above the surrounding network was a hundred.[xiv]
Jeremiah had prophesied that these vessels would be taken into captivity but had also stated that they would be brought back to Jerusalem; unlike the false prophets who were supporting the rebellion of the king.
For this is what the Lord Almighty says about the pillars, the bronze Sea, the movable stands and the other articles that are left in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take away when he carried Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem—yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says about the things that are left in the house of the Lord and in the palace of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem: ‘They will be taken to Babylon and there they will remain until the day I come for them,’ declares the Lord. ‘Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’[xv]
What is Jeremiah communicating to the people of his hour, and to us today? That it was not the power or might of Babylon, nor its gods that overcame Judah and brought defeat, destruction of the city and temple, followed by the deportation of God’s sacred vessels and people to Babylon. Rather, it was the sin and unfaithfulness to God that caused God to use Babylon to accomplish His Divine purpose in disciplining His people and then restoring them after 70 years in which a new heart and attitude now prevailed among them.
E. The death and deportation of the conquered.
The death of the key political figures in Judah is part of this crackdown. The are two other groups that are addressed, including those who are not killed and are deported to Babylon as we see here in the following texts.
The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers. Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and seven royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land, sixty of whom were found in the city. Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; in his twenty-third year, 745 Jews taken into exile by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard. There were 4,600 people in all.[xvi]
Philip Ryken explains the difference between the numbers of captives taken from the book of Kings and these verses here in Jeremiah 52.
Since these totals are smaller than the numbers given in 2 Kings, they probably include only the male adults. In all, a remnant of perhaps 20,000 Jews were taken into captivity (cf. 2 Kings 24:14, 16).[xvii]
There is one other grouping, the largest of all, which are those who remained in the land to provide a food supply for the Babylonian Empire. “But Nebuzaradan left behind the rest of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields (Jeremiah 52:16).”
THE FINAL STEP IN ADDRESSING REBELLION AGAINST GOD IS THE RAY OF HOPE FOR RECOVERY
The purpose of all discipline and correction is redemptive in nature. In other words, it is not so much about punishment as it is change in the life of the recipients. We correct and discipline our children in order to change their attitude and behaviour. When the people of God resisted God’s verbal corrections through the prophets, God’s actions were powerful enough to deliver them from the ultimate path of destruction and eternal separation from him.
In the conclusion of this historical account of activities surrounding the exile, we have this amazing ray of hope, which in other biblical books reveals the restoration of the exiles and a new liberation and resettlement in the promised land under such leaders as Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, Ezra.
In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed him from prison. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table. Day by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his death.[xviii]
Philip Ryken gives us the significance of these verses in the restoration of the boy king who was taken in the second wave of captives to Babylon being restored to honor.
The hope of a king clearly is held out in the closing verses of the book of Jeremiah. It would be too much to expect Jeremiah to have a happy ending, but it does have a hopeful ending. …This ending is hopeful because it shows that King Jehoiachin was still alive and well, even after nearly four decades in prison. Thirty-seven years after arriving in Babylon, he traded his prison clothes for royal robes. Literally, the king of Babylon ‘spoke good things with him.’ He was given a seat at the king’s table.[xix]
Andrew Dearman relates the significance of this elevation of the 18-year-old king who served for 3 months and was deported to Babylon, while his uncle Zedekiah was enthroned by the Babylonians. There in Babylon he was imprisoned until the death of Nebuchadnezzar.
The account of Jehoiachin’s release comes like a small cloud of Elijah’s ministry during a drought. There is the possibility of change and deliverance to come. The shape of that change is indicated by the person released. He is David’s son.[xx]
It will be David’s greater son, Jesus Christ, that ultimately brings deliverance not only from political bondage, but from spiritual bondage. This is not just a message to the Jewish people, but for all people. So, what are we to learn from the retelling of the story of the fall of Jerusalem? What are we to learn from the promise of restoration?
Christians, like the generation of the Judean exile, live between promise and fulfillment. …We are those who live ‘between the times,’ in the ‘already’ of Christ’s initial coming and in the ‘not yet’ of his second advent, where sin and death still have their influence but where it is known that the future belongs to God.[xxi]
We also discover that to disobey God’s word repeatedly leads to discipline which brings painful outcomes. Let us cry out for grace and mercy to be delivered from our sins and experience renewal and restoration in our lives.
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[i] Jeremiah 52:1-2, The New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[ii] Walter Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), 488-89.
[iii] Tremper Longman III, Jeremiah, Lamentations, New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2008), 323.
[iv] Jeremiah 52:3-5, 7-9.
[v] Jeremiah 52:10-11.
[vi] Jeremiah 52:6.
[vii] Matthew 5:21-23.
[viii] Matthew 5:27-28.
[ix] Matthew 5:29-30.
[x] Psalm 119:9-11.
[xi] Tremper Longman III, Jeremiah, Lamentations, 321
[xii] Jeremiah 52:12-14.
[xiii] Walter Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming, 491.
[xiv] Jeremiah 52:17-23.
[xv] Jeremiah 27:19-22.
[xvi] Jeremiah 52:24-30
[xvii] Philip Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope, (Wheaton, Il: Crossway Books, 2016), 726.
[xviii] Jeremiah 52:31-34.
[xix] Philip Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope,731.
[xx] J. Andrew Dearman, Jeremiah, Lamentations, The New Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 422.
[xxi] Ibid.
