Jeremiah

 

LeRoy Eims

 

 

Jeremiah lived about 100 years after Isaiah. Isaiah had been used of God to save Jerusalem from Assyria. For 40 years he prophesied in Jerusalem. He saw the city partially destroyed, and then further devastated and finally sacked and burned.

 

During these 40 years of the end of the monarchy, called the death agony of the nation, he was a pathetic, lonely man. He was God's last messenger to the Holy City which had become hopelessly and fanatically attached to idols. He ceased not to cry out that if they would repent, God would save them from Babylon. Just as Assyria had been the backdrop of Isaiah's ministry, so Babylon was the background of the ministry of Jeremiah.

 

The internal situation of the nation was this: the northern kingdom had fallen and much of Judah with it. They had suffered reverse after reverse, until Jerusalem alone was left. Unbelievable as it sounds, they still ignored the continued warnings of the prophets, and grew harder and harder in their idolatry and wickedness. The hour of doom was about to strike.

 

The international situation at the time was interesting. There was a three‑way contest for the rulership of the world between Assyria, Babylon and Egypt.

 

For 300 years Assyria in the northern Euphrates valley with Nineveh as its capital, had ruled the world; but now it was growing weak.

 

Babylon in the southern Euphrates valley, was becoming powerful. Egypt, 300 miles to the southwest, in the valley of the Nile, which 1,000 years before, had been a world power and had declined, was once again becoming ambitious with dreams of grandeur and conquest. Babylon won. It broke the power of Assyria and two years later crushed Egypt and for 70 years ruled the world, the same 70 years as the Jewish captivity.

 

From the outset, 20 years before the issue was settled, Jeremiah prophesied that Babylon would be the victor. All through his incessant and bitter complaints over Judah's wickedness and sin these three ideas are stated time and time again: One, Judah is going to be destroyed by victorious Babylon. Two, if Judah will turn from her sin, somehow God will save her from destruction at the hands of Babylon. Three, Babylon, destroyer of Judah, shall herself be destroyed, never to rise again.

 

Jeremiah unceasingly advised Jerusalem to surrender to the King of Babylon, so much so that his enemies accused him of being a traitor. Nebuchadnezzar rewarded him for this by sparing his life and offering him any honor he would accept.

 

Through it all Jeremiah continued to cry that Babylon was committing a terrible crime in destroying God's people, and for that, Babylon in time would be desolate forever. The Medes are named the conquerors. This was copied in a book and sent to Babylon seven years before Nebuchadnezzar burned Jerusalem.

 

Daniel had been in Babylon 15 years and had already told Nebuchadnezzar of the fall of his kingdom. The book was publicly read, and then in a solemn ceremony submerged in the Euphrates river, with these words: "Thus shall Babylon sink and not rise."

 

Here are a few excerpts from the letter. "Babylon, hammer of the whole earth, a land of graven images, mad over idols, shall be a wilderness, a dwelling place of dragons. It shall no more be inhabited, wild beasts of the desert shall dwell there and Babylon shall be desolate forever."

 

The prophecy came true. The Word of God cannot be broken.

 

 

 

© Copyright 2002, LeRoy Eims