Jeremiah 40:1-16.  Today we start a new section that is about Jerusalem after the fall in 586 BC.  The previous section contained messages involving kings who reigned under the control of Nebuchadnezzar.  The last three chapter involved events during the final siege of Jerusalem. This next section contains chapters 40-45.

In today’s reading we are told that Jeremiah had received a message from God.  Remember that this part of the book was written or put together by someone other that Jeremiah, probably his secretary Baruch; that is why it is written in the “third person”.  Interestingly we don’t hear Jeremiah speak until chapter 42.  First the author sets the stage; gives us the background for the message from God.  In chapter 39 we saw the military leader of Nebuchadnezzar’s forces in Jerusalem release Jeremiah into the hands of a guy named Gedaliah.  It is interesting that Nebuchadnezzar even knew who Jeremiah was.  Jeremiah had sent letters to the exiles already in Babylon and perhaps he had heard about him in that way.  We also know that Nebuchadnezzar took leading members of the people he conquered and had them become advisors to him.  Daniel was an advisor to him and it is very likely that Daniel knew of Jeremiah and his messages.  In verse 1 of today’s reading we see that Jeremiah is in chains in Ramah among the people who were gong to be taken to Babylon.  Jeremiah was in the care of Gedaliah but that does not mean that Gedaliah controlled his every move.  Jeremiah was “among the people’ when we last saw him in Jeremiah 39:14.  He took his role as God’s messenger to the people very seriously.  He probably traveled the five miles from Jerusalem to Ramah to give the exiles one last talk; one last encouragement that this would not be forever; their kids would come back but they should settle down in Babylon when they arrived (Jeremiah 29:4-14).  The guards watching the prisoners might have though he was stirring the people up (maybe they did get stirred up, they had always reacted badly to him) and put him in chains.  However it happened, Jeremiah was in chains at Ramah with the other people of Judah who were waiting to be deported.  Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard (the same guy who released him in Jerusalem from the ‘court of the guardhouse”) found him in Ramah and released him.

In verses 2-5 we have what Nebuzaradan said to Jeremiah when he released him (again) and it is astounding.  In verse 2 he tells Jeremiah that Yahweh is the one who destroyed Jerusalem and Judah, just like he promised.  In verse 3 he even tells why it all happened, the people of Judah had missed Gods mark for them (the literal meaning of ‘sinned”); they had not listened to and obeyed God.  In verse 4 Nebuzaradan then told Jeremiah that he was letting him go and he was free to go wherever he wanted to go.  He could go the Babylon and be personally protected by Nebuzaradan or go anywhere else in the empire he wanted to go (and Mario Lopez though that Subway Black Gift Card (unlimited free sandwiches at Subway) was cool).  In verse 5 Jeremiah seems to be “lingering” with the people at Ramah and Nebuzaradan encourages him to go back to Jerusalem and the care of Gedaliah.  Jeremiah must have decided that that was what he was going to do because he left, but not before Nebuzaradan gave him some food and a gift.  Maybe this story is the “word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD”; maybe it was a personal message to him about what to do; where to go. We also see in verse 5 that Gedaliah was made governor of the “cities of Judah” (this would be a province of Babylon, think county

In verse 6 Jeremaih went and found Gedaliah in a town called Mizpah.  Archeologists aren’t really sure exactly here it was but it was north of Jerusalem near Bethlehem and was the city where the very first king of Israel was crowned (1 Samuel 10:17-27).  With Jerusalem in ruin evidently this was to be the new capital of the province, Gedalaih wqs there with the people who were going to be left behind.

In verses 7-12 we see that some people, including soldiers and military leaders had escaped when Nebuchadnezzar showed up.  Some of them were wandering around in the hills and other had gone to neighboring kingdoms like Moab, Ammon, and Edom.  These are called countries but this whole region was under the control of Nebuchadnezzar to one degree or another.  You might think of them as states.  These people heard that Gedaliah had been made governor by Nebuchadnezzar.  The military men came to him to see if he would be open to their return and protect them.  In verses 9-10 Gedaliah assured them that they didn’t need to be afraid of the Chaldeans (Babylonians) and that he would stay in the new capital and stick up for them if and when representatives of Nebuchadnezzar visited the area.  He told them all they needed to worry about was coming home and picking grapes and other fruit that was getting ripe on the trees in Judah.  Evidently they stayed.  When the rest of the Israelites in the surrounding “countries” heard that Gedaliah had been made governor over the poor people left behind they also returned to Judah to live.  In verse 12 we are told that they  came home and picked grapes and fruit in “abundance”.

Hebrew writers are master storytellers and the author of Jeremiah is showing great skill here, we have a picture of many displaced people coming home to an almost perfect life.  They’ve been on the run but now they have their pick of houses and literally their pick of the grapes and fruit.  He consistently says “summer fruit”; schools out, Nebuchadnezzar is gone, and life is easy.  It’s like a movie where the camera is moving from person to person to person and they are all happy, laughing, joking, kidding around and then the camera zooms out out out and you see a dark alien ship or an asteroid or some other ominous threat, in the distance but coming.  Verses 13-16 are that dark threat.  In verse 13 a military leader named Johanan, with the other leaders, comes to Gedaliah and warns him of a threat.  A neighboring “king” has hired one of them, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, to kill Gedaliah.  We are not told why this king, Baalis, wants Gedaliah dead or why Ishmael is willing to do the deed but the commanders inform Gedaliah, none the less.  In verse 14 Gedaliah basically tells them, “No way, dudes!”  He was probably looking at all the happy full people around him; all the people who had been on the run and now were enjoying peace and plenty, and figured there was no way anyone would want him dead.  But the seed has been planted, who is right, Gedaliah or the commanders?  We will have to wait until tomorrow to find out.  There are some possibilities as to why Baalis and Ishmael would work together against Gedaliah.  In Jeremiah 27:3 Jeremiah warned several kings, who had sent representatives to Jerusalem, not to listen to their “prophets” and advisors and not to resist Nebuchadnezzar, his son, nor his Grand-son.  Ammon is named in that group.  The advisors were probably in Jerusalem to form an alliance against Nebuchadnezzar.  If Baalis was the king of Ammon at that time he may have been quite unhappy with Jeremiah and the Jewish leadership.  Gedaliah, in his mind, would have been a puppet of Nebuchadnezzar and worth killing.  Ishmael we are told was the son of Nethaniah.  In tomorrow’s reading we will find out more about his family and get some clue as to why he might want to help Baalis.

A couple of things stand out to me from this story.  First I’m very impressed at how dedicated to the people Jeremiah was.  He gets released from prison and put in the care of the new governor of the territory.  He had warned and warned and warned the people and their leaders about this invasion for years.  Now it was done and most people would have thought that they were done too.  And think about this, it 586 BC and Jeremiah has been actively delivering messages from God since 627 BC, that’s 40 years, and most of them hard, especially the most recent ones.  He is at least 60 years old.  Nebuzaradan offered him a good life in Babylon, the people left behind were going to have a good life too, but Jeremiah was a prophet, a messenger from God, as long as he lived he seemed to feel that that was his deal.  Out of prison and out to the deportation site to help the deportees cope with what was coming.  And of course more trouble.  Go to Babylon and retire?  “No way, got to stay with the people here to keep their focus on God and His plans!”  Jeremiah had a clear picture of who he was; of who God wanted him to be; and he was going to be that until his last breath.  Amazing dedication; amazing vision.

I’m also impressed at how far his influence had reached; his commitment to God had even infiltrated the highest ranks of Nebuchadnezzar’s army.  Nebuzaradan knew that Yahweh had performed; had given his “boss” the win.  Even Nebuchadnezzar, THE KING OF BABYLON, knew of Jeremiah and his message.  It’s amazing how far faithfulness to God can go.

I think we also need to look at the message.  God was using a foreign power to help the Israelites get back on the right path.  That part involved being an example of all that God is and of mankind’s situation with respect to God  (the broken relationship with God thing, see “The Old Testament Connection”).  We can get on wrong paths too.  We need to be careful not to reject the people around us, even non-beleivers, because they may be what God is using to get us on the right path again.  On Friday nights we are looking at the life of a missionary to the jungles of Columbia, Bruce Olsen; Bruchko.  While other missionaries were pushing tribal people to become Americanized Bruce came to realize that much of their culture was not wrong but was just different.  There is nothing better about shoes and scrambled eggs as opposed to bare feet and monkey meat.  By being isolated with the people he wanted to tell about Jesus, he came to see and learn about them and their culture and then God gave him the insight to see and understand that these people already knew bits and pieces of the real spiritual story.  What Bruce needed to do was fit those pieces together and then add the final piece, Jesus.  Bruce learned and was effective before God because he listened to God and to those tribal people whom God loved and used in his life.  Of course God’s word is always the final say, it’s our ruler to measure all other information with, but God uses other “voices” to talk to us too (Romans 1:16-17, 19-20; 2:14-15).

God help me be a faithful servant of you.  Let me know the things you have for me to do and help me courageously do them.  Help me not look for the easy life but be faithful to whatever life you have for me.  Let my influence be good and reach farther than I could even imagine.  Be honored by all that I am and do.  Thank you for providing for all of us.  Thank you for a way back home and thank you for providing all that we need as we live here and now for you. 

Jeremiah 39:1-18.  Today’s reading is the last chapter in a section about the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar.  Jeremiah has warned and warned the people of Jerusalem and Judah, their religious leader the scribes and priests, the political leaders the “officials”, their kings that Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed.  He offered them hope to spare at least the physical city and many lives; but they would not surrender to Nebuchadnezzar, as God repeated told them to do.  Nebuchadnezzar had made at least three trips to the area 605-604 BC, 597-598 BC, and now 588-586 BC.  I’m sure the repeated trips to put down rebellion did not make Nebuchadnezzar the happiest over-lord for these people.  And I’m pretty sure the people in his army were not too happy about the many trips so far from home.

In verses 1and 2 we learn that the city was besieged from the 10^th month of the ninth year to the 4^th month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign.  Some experts say at this time the calendar being used was the Babylonian calendar and that the 10^th month was December/January 588-587 BC (Neither the Babylonian nor the Jewish months do not line up with ours) and the 4^th month was June/July 586 BC.  These dates evidently line up with dates found in other sources from the time.  I’m not sure we need to be that precise but it is good to know that the record in the Bible agrees with stuff archeologists have found.  What we want to see is that the siege lasted for 18 months as I mentioned in an earlier post.  In the fourth month the Babylonians broke through the wall (breached).  The author then tells us that the “officials of the king of Babylon” came in and sat down at the “Middle Gate”.  When Zedekiah saw the Babylonian officials sitting in the place of judgment he fled with his soldiers.

Experts are not sure where that gate was but one archaeologist thinks he found it in the middle of what had been the north wall of the city in Jeremiah’s day.  It is not surprising that we are not sure since the city was burned down in Jeremiah’s day, and sat unrepaired for 143 years (Nehemiah moved to Jerusalem in 444 BC and began an effort to rebuild the walls of the city.  The temple itself had been rebuilt starting in 538 BC when then king of the empire, Cyrus, commanded that Jewish people be allowed to return home and start to rebuild their Temple.  The work was quickly abandoned with only the foundation stones laid until 520 BC when the work on the Temple was resumed and finished in 516 BC).  Houses were rebuilt on the site of the old city between 538 and 444 BC with most of the activity happening after a second return of Jewish people about 458 BC., about 20 years before the birth of Jesus the Temple had become quite old (500 years) and needed major repair.  The Roman ruler of the area set out to make it as grand as it had once been in the time of Solomon.  A major portion of the Temple was rebuilt over the next 10 years but work continued through out the lifetime of Jesus; at one point the religious leaders challenged Jesus about his ability to “rebuild the temple in three days” when at that time it had been under construction for 46 years (of course Jesus was talking about his body as the “temple” of God (John 2:19-21).  In 70 AD the Jewish people revolted against Roman rule and the city was again destroyed and burned.  The modern city of Jerusalem was rebuilt over the last 1900+ years on that same site.  It is very difficult to know every detail of the earlier versions of the city.

The story here in Jeremiah is a short version of what happened.  When the wall was breached Zedekiah and his “men of war” ran away at night.  The Babylonians found out and chased them down, near the city of Jericho down by the Jordan River, about 12 miles north-east of Jerusalem.  Zedekiah and his soldiers were caught and taken to the towm of Riblah, about 175 miles north of Jerusalem, where Nebuchadnezzar himself had an encampment.  The Babylonian leaders also brought Zedekiah’s sons and the “nobles of Judah” (the rich and powerful friends of Zedekiah) to Riblah.  Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on Zedekiah and his people and had his sons and nobles slaughtered (the word is one usually used of butchering an animal) before his eyes.  Zedekiah’s eyes were then poked out and he was bound in chains.  He was taken to Babylon where he lived out his last days as a prisoner.

In verses 8-9 we see that Nebuchadnezzar’s military leaders returned to the city which they burned to the ground and destroyed the walls of the city.  According to Jeremiah 52:12-13 they also destroyed the Temple.  This all occurred about a month after the Babylonians first entered the city.  According to verse 9 “the rest of the people” were taken into exile in Babylon.  Verse 10 tells us though that some of the poorest people were left behind and given the fields and vineyards.  It would be unwise to leave a portion of his empire without at least some subjects to care for it.

In verses 11-14 we learn that Nebuchadnezzar gave orders that Jeremiah be treated well by his military leaders.  They took Jeremiah from the place he had been imprisoned and put him in the care of a guy named Gedaliah.  This is not the sme Gedaliah as in Chapter 38 (he was the son of Pashur remember) this Gedaliah was the son of Ahikam and the grandson of Shaphan.  Shaphan had been a scribe or religious leader in the days of Josiah and had a part in the discovery of scrolls of the Old Testament and the renewal of honor for Yahweh in the kingdom (2 Kings 22:3-20).  Ahiakam also had helped Jeremiah back in the days Jehoaikim when he wa son trial for predicting the destruction of Jerusalem; Gedeliah would eventually be made governor of the area by Nebuchadnezzar.  It is unclear whose home Jeremiah went to either his or Gedaliah’s but we are told that he stayed “with his people”.  Jeremiah was a faithful prophet and servant of the people to the very end.

The history of the destruction of Jerusalem ends with a flash back to the life of Ebed-melech, the guy who risked his life by confronting the king and then rescued Jeremiah from the second cistern he had been imprisoned in.  After that rescue while Jeremiah was a prisoner in the courtyard of the guard at the palace (the place where Nebuchadnezzar’s guys found and released him from), Jeremiah was given a promise for his rescuer Ebed-melech the Ethopian.  The promise was from the one true God, “Yahweh over the armies” (see 8/24/14 post).  The promise was that Ebed-melech would survive the invasion.  He is told he will have his life as his reward because he trusted in Yahweh” (when he helped Jeremiah).

This final flash back is a reminder that in the middle of God dealing with the disobedienc3 and rebellion of a whole group of people he sees and remembers the faithfulness of individuals.  We also see that God doesn’t care where you are from if you are faithful to him.  Ebed-melech the Ethopian got what so many Israelites missed out on because he listened and obeyed God with his life.  Jeremiah too was faithful and he too was allowed to remain with his people, the very place he wanted to be (though I’m sure he would have been happier if Zedekiah and the others had surrendered and the city and the Temple had not been destroyed).  We see in this story the seriousness of disobeying God and also his love, faithfulness and protection.  It is a sad story that a whole kingdom went down because their leader failed to stand up for God and accept the path God had given him.  We need to learn to talk to God each day and listen to him through his word.  And then to obey the directions he gives us.  There is no telling who might be affected by it, maybe just us or maybe a whole nations.  We need to be faithful.

God help me be faithful to you.  Help me stay close.  Help me listen and understand.  Help me put your words into actions in my life.  Let me honor you in all I do and with all the people I meet.  Let me stand up fro the broken, hurting, and stepped on people.  You love people and I need to also.  Let me be a clear reflection of your love in my world; and your seriousness too.