Year 2, Week 12, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 12, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 20-22.

Today’s reading concludes the second collection of declarations against Judah. The first segment of Jeremiah (chapters 2-20), contains two collections of declarations against Judah. Jeremiah 20 reports the fierce opposition that Jeremiah faced as well as the struggle he felt in remaining faithful in the face his opposition: “If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (Jeremiah 20:9). Today’s reading also begins the second segment of Jeremiah. While the first segment of the Book of Jeremiah (chapters 2-20) were not set in any historical context; by contrast, the second segment of Jeremiah (chapters 21-29) consists of two sets of messages that provide specific historical contexts. Interestingly, the messages are in reverse chronological order. The first message (chapters 21-23) is set in the year 588 BC, just before the fall of Jerusalem. The second message (chapter 24) is set about a decade earlier in 597 BC. The third message (chapter 25) is set in 605 BC, some eight years before the second message. Jeremiah 21 records Jeremiah’s response to King Zedekiah’s inquiry: “Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war” (Jeremiah 21:8-9). Jeremiah 22 documents the LORD’s judgment on Judah and His threat to terminate the Davidic line: “O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah” (Jeremiah 22:29-30).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was Jeremiah’s explanation concerning the fall of Jerusalem: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence” (Jeremiah 21:4-6). The LORD would not fight for Judah; the LORD would be fighting against them. King Zedekiah’s future fared non better: “Afterward, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion” (Jeremiah 21:7). Zedekiah, who would be placed into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, would be taken captive and killed. Nebuchadnezzar would be an instrument of the LORD’s justice.

King Zedekiah inquired of Jeremiah concerning the Babylonians: “Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us” (Jeremiah 21:2). Perhaps King Zedekiah had hoped for a similar outcome from when King Hezekiah had inquired the prophet Isaiah when an Assyrian attack on Jerusalem was imminent: “It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left” (Isaiah 37:4). The Assyrian threat was annihilated; but Zedekiah was not a good king like Hezekiah; and the people of Judah were much more entrenched in their wicked and idolatrous way in Jeremiah’s time then they had been in Isaiah’s time. While there was still time to repent, there was little indication it would occur: "But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation” (Jeremiah 22:5).

The LORD would display His powerful justice toward Judah. Ironically, the descriptions of LORD’s “outstretched hand and strong arm,” was a metaphor of judgment. Previously, such a description was used in regard to the LORD’s judgment against the enemies of Israel: “Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” (Deuteronomy 4:34). But now, the “outstretched hand and strong arm,” was against Judah. The LORD was against Judah because of their response to what the LORD had expected of them: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.” Jeremiah’s words concerning the way of life and death echoes Moses: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD…then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you…But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish…I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse” (Deuteronomy 30:15-19). Judah would choose death.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe