We want to continue our study through the book of Jeremiah. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 39. I want to help you picture what Jeremiah is experiencing.
As he began the study in Jeremiah, when Jeremiah was called by the Lord, way back in chapters 1 and 2, Jeremiah came to be called by God to be a prophet of Israel, just about the same time that Josiah was king in Israel. And Josiah and Jeremiah knew each other. And it must have been a blessing for Jeremiah to see a king like Josiah, who loved God and desired to instruct and bring the people back to the knowledge of the Lord.
And all that happened during Josiah’s reign. But when Josiah really died prematurely because he didn’t consult God and didn’t do what God really wanted him to do, and he went to war against Egypt when God didn’t want him to. And the Egyptians killed him.
It ushered in the rule of three of his sons and one of his grandsons. And everything in Israel turned, it seemed, very quickly and overnight from what had been a press towards godliness to an abandonment of faith and a turn to worshipping false gods and idols and going in what people wanted to do. And really, in modern terms, it would be they became relativistic in their views.
They no longer saw the importance of the truth of God’s word in his absolutes. And what happened is we’ve been studying, and this has been a 40 year period that we’ve been looking at, and everything has become worse and worse and worse as Jeremiah has been calling the nation to repentance. Last Sunday we saw that Zedekiah came to Jeremiah secretly and wanted a word from the Lord and wanted to understand what God’s desires were, but then he really had no desire to follow even though he came seeking.
Everything that Jeremiah had said is going to happen in the text that we’re going to look at this evening. The false prophets had risen up against Jeremiah, and if you can imagine how foolish people are to follow a lie. The false prophets are talking about the fact that there’s peace and prosperity around the corner, that the nation of Judah doesn’t have to worry, that even as Nebuchadnezzar is surrounding the city of Jerusalem, don’t worry, God’s with us, and you can almost hear it as the walls are breaking down, they’re still saying the lies.
And Jeremiah is weeping because he sees the reality of everything that God had him share with the nation of Judah. Let’s take a look at chapter 39, beginning at verse 1.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
Jeremiah 39:1
Now, I want you to remember Jeremiah foretold about this besiegement, and he said that there was going to come three things out of this, unless Israel, and even as we saw on Sunday, he told them that they should go and give themselves over to the Babylonians and let them take them into captivity, because if they stayed and tried to fight against Babylon, it would result in one of three things, they would either die of pestilence, famine, or by the sword.
We’re going to see that everything that Jeremiah said about that is going to happen in the text tonight. Nebuchadnezzar is there, and he begins to besiege the city. He besieges the city for just about two years.
Now, a city could probably stand for a few months, but two years without being able to get food in and get supplies in, all of a sudden you’re facing real crisis. And that’s where Jerusalem was. And it’s just as Jeremiah had foretold.
And it says, and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. Nebuchadnezzar began to attack and assault the walls. Now, I want you to see the princes of Babylon come and really make a mockery of all that Judah should have stood for.
2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
3 And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.
Jeremiah 39:2-3
Now, when it says that they came and sat in the middle of the gate, that would indicate they’d taken over the city.
The gate was the position of power. The gate was the position of authority. The gate was where the people would meet to conduct business.
And when the princes of Babylon came over and they took over the city gate, they, in essence, had taken over the city. The king was no longer in control. The princes of Judah no longer had any power.
Where they thought they had all this power and they were listening to the false prophets and they were thinking, oh, it’s peace and prosperity. Babylon will never be able to take us over. Now they’re taking us over.
And I want you to see what the leaders do. Oftentimes, it’s a mark of their lack of relationship with the Lord in their response.
4 And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.
Jeremiah 39:4
It’s interesting, they recently have done some excavation in Jerusalem and they have found additional tunnels and passages. And there are indications of passages that will go all the way from Jerusalem to Jericho. And you could get into these underground tunnels and passages and not be seen.
And Zedekiah and the princes and the leaders of Israel would have known about these. And they think that there’s a way that they can escape. They’re not concerned about the people of the city.
And Jeremiah was concerned about the people of the city. They’re not concerned about them, they’re concerned about themselves. And that’s been the whole problem all the way through.
All they’ve been concerned about is themselves. Remember that when the Egyptian army came up, and for a time it appeared that they had the power to defeat the Babylonian army. And for a period, a short period, Nebuchadnezzar withdrew and his troops went back.
Some of his troops had been killed. Everybody thought, well, see, we don’t have anything to worry about. And then the Egyptians went back to Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar came back with a fury.
A lot of times, that’s the mark of a lack of true faith. And it’s a mark of what we refer to often as foxhole religion. What we see oftentimes, even in people that profess to be Christians, is that type of faith.
Where when they’re in trouble, they turn to God, but when things are going well, they forget all about Him. And say, see, I don’t have anything to worry about, things are going well. It’s often told the stories of soldiers in the heat of the battle, and they’re in a foxhole and bullets are whizzing over their head.
And they’ll cry out to God and say, Lord, just get me out of here, and I’ll serve you the rest of my life. But many of them, once they get out of the battle, and the bullets quit flying, and they’re back home with their families, forget all about God. That was the princes of Judah.
That was even Zedekiah himself. When he looked out and became worried, and he went privately to Jeremiah to seek what options he had, according to the will and purposes and what the Lord had to say, he really didn’t want to fall and confess his sin and turn to God. He just wanted to be delivered out of this difficult situation.
Oftentimes, God places us in difficult situations so that we will turn to Him, as we realize that there is no other hope besides Him. One of the reasons that he told Jeremiah that the people would be spared, their lives would be spared if they turned them over to Nebuchadnezzar and allowed him to take them back to Babylon, is because this was part of God’s judgment against them because of their lack of honoring the years of the Shabbat years, or the Sabbath years. And we see that because the majority of the leaders failed to do that, that destruction came.
And now they’re trying to flee. And they think they’ve got it made because nobody can see them fleeing. Well, what’s going to happen?
5 But the Chaldeans’ army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.
And just as Jeremiah said, Zedekiah would stand and look eye to eye with Nebuchadnezzar. And this happened.
And as Nebuchadnezzar brings him up for his day of judgment, he’s standing eye to eye. He’s looking at him. He sees him. But also, Nebuchadnezzar does some things before Zedekiah.
6 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
All those that had mocked God and had thought, We know better than God and we’re the leaders of the people. The people should listen to us. And don’t let Jeremiah go out and talk to the people lest he be discouraged.
Remember that was the comment he made on Sunday? Don’t let Jeremiah go out and talk to the people lest they become discouraged and their hands become weak as they see that he’s prophesying that the city of Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. But rather let our message go out. Fight and we can conquer Babylon.
Well, they couldn’t conquer Babylon. The people were lacking food and provision. They were lacking courage and strength.
And the Lord had caused judgment to come upon them. And the ultimate judgment was brought against the leadership, the princes and the king’s sons. Now all the king’s sons weren’t killed here because Jehoiakim, well he was the grandson, had been taken away to Babylon already.
And Jehoiakim had been taken away. But we see that evidently Zedekiah, those were Zedekiah’s sons, not his brothers and the nephew, but his sons were slain before his eyes. And Jeremiah had referred to this as well. And then he also says that then judgment would come against Zedekiah.
7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.
Now if you can imagine, he’d gone in secret to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah told him, if you give yourself over to the Babylonians, you’ll live and you’ll take your way to Babylon. And all that do that will live. He hadn’t done it and now the last thing that he sees before he’s blinded by Nebuchadnezzar is all of his children killed before him. If you can imagine that. And then he’s bound and taken away to Babylon.
8 And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.
Remember we’ve been studying under Nehemiah on Sunday mornings. And as we’ve been looking at Nehemiah, Nehemiah is coming back after 70, it’s over 70 years when Nehemiah comes back because Ezra comes back at 70 years to rebuild the temple. Nehemiah comes back a little later to rebuild the walls.
But when Nehemiah gets there, he sees what happened by Nebuchadnezzar when he attacked Jerusalem and broke everything down. It was in shambles. And on Sunday I mentioned that they had rededicated the walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah.
And then one of the things they had to do was get the people to move back into the city. Why? Because it says right here what the condition of the housing was in the city. It was in pretty bad shape because everything had been destroyed.
They destroyed the wealthiest houses and they destroyed basically the whole city of Jerusalem lay in shambles. And so when people moved back under Nehemiah, the walls were rebuilt so they had protection. But the problem is they had to go back and rebuild the houses and rebuild the whole city because it had all been destroyed when Zedekiah was king and Nebuchadnezzar came against them.
And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the houses of the people with fire and break down the walls of the city.
9 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained.
Now the majority of the people that were taken away into captivity were those that lived within the city and that also were not the poorest.
The ones that we see that we’re going to see that there’s some people that are going to be left that Nebuchadnezzar is going to leave, but he leaves those that are the poorest, those that didn’t have the authority because he doesn’t want them to rise up against him again. And so we see that the majority of the people are taken away into captivity. There’s a minority that are left behind.
Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left the poor of the people, which had nothing in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. And it’s interesting, some of the same tactics that are used by conquerors today to get the people on their side. It’s talked about when Russia came in and would conquer, come into certain countries, what they would do is they’d tell the people, if you just would let us rule, we’ll give you the land.
Well, it’s kind of the same thing here. Just follow us, let us rule, we’ll give you the land of the people that were taken into captivity. We’ll give you the vineyards, we’ll give you the fields.
And that’s exactly what they did. Well, what is Jeremiah going to do with all of this? Well, in verse 11 it says,
11 Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,
And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gave charge concerning Jeremiah, that Nebuchadrezzar, the captain of the guard, saying, Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm, but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee. Now, God looked out for Jeremiah.
Even though all the city was destroyed, just as Jeremiah said, and even though the majority of the people that lived were taken away into captivity, Jeremiah lived. When we left Jeremiah, he was still in the prison in the king’s house. And now the captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s guard has been told to go and get him, to release him, and to listen to what he’s got to say.
And it’s interesting that Nebuchadnezzar would do this, but really God inspired him to do that because of what Jeremiah’s faithfulness to the Lord.
11 Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,
12 Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.
13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rabsaris, and Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, and all the king of Babylon’s princes;
14 Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.
15 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying,
And this would be the poor people that were left in the city of Jerusalem and in Judah.
15 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying,
16 Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.
17 But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.
If you remember, he was the eunuch that had come and preserved Jeremiah’s life. He went and spoke to the king so that Jeremiah was released from the, really it was a pit, they called it a dungeon, but it was really a pit.
And there was no way that he had food, water, he was in miry clay and muck. And this man had come and spoke to the king and Jeremiah had been released and God remembered it and said that I’m going to honor you, and that this is all going to happen, but I will be with you.
18 For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.
And so I want you to see that a lot of times there’s been many cases where people have been in situations where they put their life on the line for God’s people, or they put their life on the line to deliver a message for God. They put their life on the line to do what God has called them to do and that’s what this man had done. And as he was faithful to the Lord, when he had nothing to gain and everything to lose from the world’s perspective, God remembered what he had done for Jeremiah and God remembered what he had done for him.
And so he honors him and says, I’m going to honor you and your life will be preserved. You won’t die by the sword like the rest of the people. Because he was in the prince’s homes, so even though he wasn’t a prince, he was a servant to them, he probably would have been killed with the princes had it not been God protecting him.
And so I want you to see who’s ultimately in control. God’s in control. And a lot of times we forget that.
And a lot of times our attitudes can become like the princes of Judah, where when things are going bad, Nebuchadnezzar’s surrounding them, they go and say, what do we have to do? We’ll do everything we can, we’ll go back and we’ll obey the law. And then the minute that the pressure comes off, they go back and renege their word and go back and continue in their sin. And this man didn’t do that.
Instead what he did is when he was called by God, he did what he was told to do instead of looking out for himself and just looking at the circumstance and saying, well it wouldn’t be beneficial to me to go and get Jeremiah released. But God called him to do that and so he did it. We need to be like Jeremiah, and no matter how bad the situation continues to get, to do what God calls us to do.
And we need to be like this man, Ibn Milak, that obeyed God when God gave him a task to do and he did it. And sometimes we don’t understand the importance of what we’re called to do at the moment, but God knows because he’s placed us in situations for us to do his work. As you come to the conclusion of this chapter, just imagine what Jeremiah has been going through.
Going from being with Josiah and seeing what appeared to be revival occurring in Israel, to seeing Zedekiah, Josiah’s son, blinded and taken away in captivity, all his sons killed, all the princes killed, Jerusalem destroyed, and just as God had said it would happen, and all because of the sin of the people, and no one listening to his message. We need to understand that our hope and trust relies in the Lord and not in our circumstance. And that’s where Jeremiah’s hope was, it was in the Lord and the Lord’s word was true, and the message he had given him was the message that needed to be preached, and that it would come about if the people wouldn’t respond.
May we understand the seriousness of the hour and the day in which we live, that there are people that are literally going to hell because they will not believe in the finished work of Jesus and the gospel message that God is calling them to believe. And may we be like Jeremiah and not stop giving the message, but continue to give it even though the circumstances become worse around us. Let’s just close in prayer.
Lord, I pray you just help us to understand your word. Help us to really look and see all that Jeremiah went through in 40 years. And Lord, he cared about the people.
And Lord, he cared about their souls. And Lord, he loved you and desired to do your will and did your will, even though at times it cost him dearly. Lord, I pray that you would just help us to have a spirit of Jeremiah and desire to be able to share that people would turn and repent and come to know you. Prayer by Pastor Glenn