Jeremiah 52:24-34.  Today we come to the end of the messages by the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was chosen by God to be a prophet “to the nations” and he was. He warned Judah and several nations of the consequences of disobedience and disrespect toward him. Yesterday we read a brief history of the invasion and destruction of Jerusalem. It is very similar to the history contained in 2 Kings and some Bible experts think that Jeremiah wrote most of 1 and 2 Kings (except for the last paragraph or so of 2 Kings). The history is contained at the end of Jeremiah probably to show the certainty of the earlier prophecies. God said it and it happened. As we read the rest of chapter 52 I think there is another reason for the history we read yesterday.

Verses 24-27 contain the last little bit of the history of the siege and destruction of Babylon. In these verses Nebuchadnezzar’s general (I know it calls him a captain but the word being translated actually means “many” or “great”, he was a leader in charge of many men) takes certain people from Jerusalem to his king in Riblah where they are executed. Some of the people in the list sort of make sense, religious and political and military leaders, but what about the sixty? Although the sixty could have been other leaders you would think we would have been told that, of course Jeremiah might not have know who all sixty were. They could have been average citizens though, chosen at random and used as an example of the absolute power of Nebuchadnezzar. Remember in the book of Daniel 4 that Nebuchadnezzar had a very big opinion of himself, demanding worship and honor, claiming that it was his power alone that built the Babylonian empire, and God disciplined him for that attitude. He also threw Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego into a raging furnace for not worshipping him. He also threatened to have certain advisors literally ripped apart if they could not tell him the content and meaning of a dream he had that bothered him. Nebuchadnezzar had a very large ego, that is for sure and he ruled with an iron hand.

IN verses 28-30 we are told how many captives were take during different attacks on Jerusalem. The first one would have been in 597 BC, the second in 586 BC when Jerusalem was destroyed and the third was in 581 BC probably after Gedaliah the governor was assassinated, the time when many Jews took Jeremiah and fled to Egypt. The number is different from numbers in 2 kings and may reflect the fact that sometimes only men old enough to fight were counted in theses sorts of lists and other times women and children would be included.

Verses 31-34 pick up the history many years later. If you remember in 598 BC Jehoiakim was king of Judah. Judah was a state of the Babylonian Empire and expected to send money to Nebuchadnezzar. Jehoaikim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and looked to Egypt for help. Jeremaih had warned him that God did not want him to rebel or to look to other nations for help. Jehoaikim died a few months before Nebuchadnezzar arrived and his 18 year old son Jehoiachin took the throne and faced the invasion by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar easily took control of the situation and took Jehoaichin and many others captive. Jehoiachin was placed in prison in Babylon. Verse 31 picks up the story 37 years later. Nebuchadnezzar had died and his son Amel-marduk (Jeremiah spells his name Evil-merodach, but remember he wouldn’t have used vowels, the consonants are very close). In the first year of his reign (probably the first full year 561 BC) we are told that Amel-marduk took Jehoiachin from prison and made him an advisor in his government. He also gave him a permanent allowance. Amel-marduk was only king for two years (562-560 BC) but edicts made by Babylonian kings were permanent so Jehoiachin’s allowance would have lasted until he died. Archaeologists excavated the ruins of Babylon and found records (stone tablets with writing inscribed on them) in one of the store houses in the wall of the city. One of these tablets actually contained the record of Amel-marduk releasing Jehoaichin from prison and taking care of him. This is real history not a fairy tale.

It may seem odd that Nebuchadnezzar’s son and successor would release a troubling little nobody king from prison give him a place in his government. After 37 years who even knew the guy was there, he was probably put in prison before Amel was even born. It is interesting that Jeremiah interrupts his history to include numbers of people taken captive right before this part of the story. Even more interesting is that the numbers here are smaller than the numbers in 2 Kings. Scholars think that the numbers here only include adult men while the numbers in 2 Kings include women and children. I have been married 32 years and have 5 children and 8 grand-children (so far), that makes 13 people beyond my generation that come from me (just looking at the man side of the equation here). If there were 4600 men and now it is 37 years later that would make around 60,000 descendants for those guys. And remember there would young boys in the larger number in 2 Kings who are now grown up with children too. Remember too that the Jewish people would have considered Jehoiachin there last real king. With such a large Jewish population in Babylon Abel may have needed someone to help him understand and rule these people. The Jewish people considered Jehoiachin their last real king. They may have petitioned the king to release him over the years, after all hadn’t he been a victim of his father’s actions? For whatever human reasons Amel released Jehoiach and cared for him. On the spiritual level it has been clear that it ia Yahweh who is in ultimate control. Although Jehoiachin never took the throne in Jerusalem again his release from prison would have been a sign of hope for all the Jews living in exile, they had not been abandoned. It would be another 22 years before their return to the land, they had a seventy year sentence to serve but God was faithful. In fact he would use the very person Isaiah had told them he would use, a guy named Cyrus. That prediction was given about 150 years before it happened. It would be like Abraham Lincoln adding to the Gettysburg Address that one day a guy named Barak Obama would be president of the United States.

God is astounding. God cares. God loves and acts but he is holy too and he will not let sin go unpunished (Jeremiah 30:11, 46:28; Exodus 34:7). Think about the contrast between Zedekiah and Jehoiachin. Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and against God (who had repeatedly told the kings of Judah not to fight Nebuchadnezzar). Zedekiah’s family was executed and he was blinded and banished to prison for the rest of his life. In 2 Kings 24:12 we are told that Jehoiachin went out to the King of Babylon with his family and advisors, it sounds like he surrendered. In 2 Kings 24:9 we are told that Jehoiachin was an evil king but in this act of surrender he was obedient and faithful to God. In the end we see the mercy of God in the life of Jehoaichin and I’m sure the Jews in Babylon saw a ray of hope in the release of their king. Maybe one day the kingdom would be restored. Of course it would, God had promised it to their ancestors and it will one day come about. But first hearts need to return to God, a people need to be gathered for that kingdom. By the mercy of God it won’t be just Jewish people though, the message of Jeremiah was for the nations and in the end there will be people from every tribe, language, nation , and people group with God in his forever kingdom fulfilling the plan he has had since the creation of the world, the universe, and mankind. BE a part of his kingdom by surrendering to God today. Let Jesus fix your broken relationship with God, let the Holy Spirit fill you and guide you, and live with God now and forever.

God thank you for loving me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to help me live for you. Thank you for having a forever place for me with you. Help me surrender each day and honor you and not myself. You are astounding.

Jeremiah 52:1-23. At the end of yesterday’s reading we were told that what we had been reading were the words of a Jeremiah. The statement echoed Jeremiah 1:1 and created a sort of envelope (an “enclusio”) of information. Today we cone to the last chapter in Jeremiah. The last chapter is different from the rest of the book, it is a summary of the history of the fall of Jerusalem and also tells the story of the last surviving king of Judah. Much of the chapter is a repeat of 2 Kings 24:18-25:30 (1 & 2 Kings are histories of the kings of the northern and southern kingdoms, Israel and Judah). Because of the change of content and style some modern scholars don’t think that Jeremiah wrote the book and that it was put together by editors over many years. This, of course, contradicts the books claim for itself as being by Jeremiah. It seems to get some scholars crazy when an author changes style or content but we all do that all the time. The way we write an email or text is different from how we write a report. Even those things change depending on the person we are writing to or the subject matter or purpose. It is important to remember that Jeremiah gave many messages over many years to many different people for many different purposes. The book of Jeremiah was a collection of those messages (or at least some of them) for a certain purpose. Jeremiah wasn’t building a history of his life he was making one final message. The difference in style of the last chapter may be because it was written by Jeremiah at a different time and for different purposes that the original messages or it could be because he borrowed it from 2 Kings and used it for his own purposes. Ancient Jewish tradition claims that Jeremiah was actually the author of 1 & 2 Kings. As we saw in chapter one Jeremiah was chosen by God to be a prophet to the nations. We need to remember that he was also a prophet in Judah (one of the nations) and that he was an Israelite (Jew). Finally we need to remember that he was a prophet or messenger for the one true God, Yahweh.

So far in the book we have seen a story of defection, by mankind in general, and by the Israelites and more specifically the people of Judah, in particular. As Paul put it “all have sinned (disobeyed, disrespected, and rebelled) and fall short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23). That word “glory” contains both the idea of God’s perfection and our response of honor or praise of it. One word that can be used to translate the word Paul used for “glory” (doxa) is “excellence”; we have all fallen short of God’s excellence. But we have also seen glimpses of a path back to God, Jeremiah repeatedly called his audience to turn back to God, to obey. So the message of the messenger is a warning that we are speeding down a road that runs right off a cliff into a bottomless endless abyss and an appeal to stop and turn around. For the Jews of Jeremiah’s day it probably seemed like they had already gone off that cliff.   God had promised a forever kingdom and here they were in exile in Babylon, the Temple in ruins. Chapter 52 is Jeremiah’s not to gentle answer to that dilemma. It is his summary of who God is and how he deals with us.

Today’s reading is a short history of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Verses 1-3 set up the action. Zedekiah was king in Jerusalem and he had been a bad king, at least in the eyes of Yahweh (By the way the Jeremiah here is no t the same Jeremiah as the prophet who wrote the book). We also are told in verse 3 that because of the evil actions of Zedekiah (and the rest of the people too no doubt) that what was about to happen was being orchestrated by Yahweh. The exile was a punishment from God. We also see that Zedekiah has responsibility, God didn’t just throw Nebuchadnezzar down there to fight, Zedekiah provoked the invasion.

In verses 4-11 we see the details of the invasion. The city was under siege by Nebuchadnezzar for eighteen months.   The people inside Jerusalem were starving and eventually broke down parts of their own wall and tried to escape. Zedekiah and his army were part of the people who tried to escape. Zedekiah was caught near Jericho (about 15 miles north-east of Jerusalem) and take to Nebuchadnezzar’s base camp in Riblah about 200 miles north of Jerusalem. There Zedekiah’s children were executed along with certain leaders in his kingdom. Those executions were the last thing Zedekiah would see, Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah’s eyes “put out”, and then put Zedekaih in chains and took him back to Babylon as trophy and a warning to all who might think of rebellion.

In verses 12-16 we see the details of the invasion of the actual city. Remember that Zedekiah and his army fled and were chased by the Babylonian army. Verse 12 tells us that it is a month later and Nebuzaradan, one of Nebuchadnezzar’s generals, invades the city of Jerusalem. He and his men burhed the Temple and other important buildings (think palaces and the houses of the leaders in Zedekaih’s government, remember that often homes were where leaders would do business too, like the White House). The Babylonian army also tore down the wall surrounding Jerusalem. Archaeologists have uncovered part of that old wall and tell us that the destruction was very complete. I guess after eighteen months of sitting outside Jerusalem, away from friends and family, the Babylonian Army wanted to make sure they wouldn’t have to wait if they ever came back. In verse 15 we see a list of people who were taken captive and exiled back to Babylon. This is the third group taken captive, the first was in 605 BC and the second was in 597 BC (when Zedekiah was made king). Nebuzaradan left some people behind to tend to the fields that had been neglected for the last year and a half.

In verses 17-23 we see details about Nebuzaradan’s looting of the Temple. Tons (probably literally) of bronze items were broken up and taken as well as lots and lots of silver and gold pots, pans, shovels, tongs, bowls, cups and more. The description is very detailed and echoes details found in 1 Kings 7, the story of Solomon building the Temple. The amount of detail given here could be for two reasons. The first reason could be that the description would make it clear that it was the temple built by Solomon for honoring Yahweh that was destroyed. Of course by the time of the destruction of the Temple it had lost a lot of its true meaning and purpose, Yahweh was more of one god among many and the Temple was similar. The second and probably more important reason for including all this detail is that Jeremiah was rubbing salt in an open wound. The Temple was still a symbol of Yahweh and was a grand and beautiful place and Jeremiah was making sure they understood that the whole thing was completely destroyed. The people would probably think the total destruction of the Temple meant total abandonment by God.

We need to be careful that we don’t associate God and his presence with things or events. There are some Christians who think that God promises us health and wealth or peace and prosperity. They are taught that if they don’t have theses things it is because they haven’t claimed them from God or that their faith is too small. These people see trouble as judgment from God, always. As we have been studying the book of Job in Sunday School we have learned that believers do suffer. The book of Ecclesiastes teaches the same thing, life here and now is a mess. In Hebrews 11:36-38 we are told that some faithful servant of God suffered greatly. We have seen that in the life of Jeremiah (he was forced to go to Egypt against his well, he was thrown in a cistern and left to die, he suffered in Jerusalem during all of Nebuchadnezzar’s campaigns). Jesus himself suffered and promised his followers that they would suffer too (John 15:18, Matthew 10:22). In Romans 8:31-39 Paul assures us that nothing can separate us from the love God has for us. God promised the Israelites certain things and they will certainly come to pass and so will the promises he has made to us. We need to not let events in our current lives make us doubt that. In 2 Peter 3:9 Peter was dealing with people in his day, more than 1900 years ago, who were challenging God’s faithfulness. “Where is the promise of his coming?” they asked. His answer was that God is not slow in keeping his promises but he is patient, God is waiting for every last person who will trust in Jesus to stop and turn around from that abyss they are headed for. God doesn’t want any to perish, though many will. We need to trust God and his promises and decide whether or not we want to be a part of his forever kingdom, God is waiting, but he won’t wait forever. Decide for Jesus today.

God help us not get caught up in religion; our own efforts and creations. Help us understand your purity and our lostness. Help us see your love for us and your mercy. Let us cling to you and appreciate how much you care. Let us not get distracted by the trouble in our world. Let us trust you now and for eternity.