From today’s reading in Tyndale’s One Year Chronological Bible dated 8/19:

“The word of the Lord came again to me, saying: ‘Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,’ says the Lord God.”

Basically, even these three great men of faith couldn’t intercede for the people at this point; they would only save themselves by their righteousness. The multitudes are not saved by the righteousness of a few. We saw this in the days of Noah. Each individual will be judged based on their heart, whether or not they have a heart of stone or a heart of flesh transformed by the power of the Lord. 

The Lord compares Jerusalem to a useless vine. The people believed that the Lord wouldn’t judge them because they were His chosen people, so the Lord says “Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will set My face against them. They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I set My face against them. Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have persisted in unfaithfulness,’ says the Lord God.”

God also compares Jerusalem to an unfaithful wife. He says He cared for her from her birth through His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and He raised her, clothing her in fine linens and jewels. However, Jerusalem is guilty of several things:

• “you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame”
• “you have slain My children and offered them up to [Molech] by causing them to pass through the fire” 
• “you built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place for yourself on every street” 
• “you committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger”
• “you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied” 

God tells Jerusalem that she has become like her older sister, the corrupt capital of Northern Israel, Samaria, that was destroyed by the Assyrians about one hundred and thirty years before the fall of Jerusalem. The Lord goes on to say that Jerusalem is even worse than her older sister, Sodom, whom the Lord destroyed by fire back in the Patriarch Era. The Lord brought judgment upon the cities of Samaria and Sodom, and He is doing the same to Jerusalem. Later in the story, Jesus will also use the comparison to Sodom when speaking about the judgment that will come upon those who reject Him. He will say it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for the ones who reject Him (Matthew 10:15, Matthew 11:24).

However, despite the judgment, the Lord says He will never forget His covenant that He made with Israel and the promise of the new covenant under Christ- “Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your older and your younger sisters; for I will give them to you for daughters, but not because of My covenant with you. And I will establish My covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I provide you an atonement for all you have done.” Keep reading. (Ezekiel 14:1-16:63)

Today Ezekiel sees the temple of the Lord and the four creatures and the four wheels that he saw in the first vision the Lord gave him by the River of Chebar. “Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.”

The Lord has Ezekiel pronounce judgment over the leaders, “For you have not walked in My statues nor executed My judgments, but have done according to the customs of the Gentiles which are all around you.” And while Ezekiel is prophesying, one of the leaders dies. So Ezekiel cries out, “Ah, Lord God! Will You make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?”

Then the Lord gives a word of hope as He looks forward to the day He returns His people to their land and even further, to the day He establishes a New Covenant with His people through His Son Jesus Christ – “Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone… I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel… And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads.”

The Lord says He will be a sanctuary for the ones scattered among the countries because the Lord’s presence is not bound by a building or location. We have seen the Lord’s presence with Daniel and his friends and with Ezekiel while in exile, and we will continue to see His presence with His people throughout the story. 

Then the glory of the Lord departs the temple. “And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city.” This is the Mount of Olives where Jesus will one day sit and explain to his disciples the second coming and end times. When Jesus returns he will execute judgment upon the entire earth. The ones who refuse to accept Him as their Savior will perish. However, Jesus says He will gather all who belong to Him – “He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31). 

The Lord has been patient with His judgment upon Judah because He desires for all to reach repentance, just like the Lord is being patient in sending the final judgment. However, final judgment is coming just like the judgment upon Judah has arrived. Therefore the Lord instructs Ezekiel to correct the people who are prophesying that their days are prolonged. “The days are at hand, and the fulfillment of every vision. For no more shall there be any false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel. For I am the Lord, I speak, and the word which I speak will come to pass… None of My words will be postponed any more, but the word which I speak will be done.”

We end the reading with the Lord rebuking the false prophets who were giving the people a word of false hope – “Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you… My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God… Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace.”

Keep reading. (Ezekiel 10:1-13:23)

As an illustration of the coming judgment on Jerusalem, God tells Ezekiel to shave his head and beard and then divide his hair into three parts: one-third to burn in a fire, one-third to chop in pieces, and one-third to toss into the wind. Then He says to bind a few strands in his garment. This is to show the fate of the people, “Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you… because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.” However, the Lord will save a remnant of the people and restore them to accomplish His plans and purposes.

The Lord says the end has come for Jerusalem and He “will repay you according to your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst. Then you shall know that I am the Lord who strikes.” And on that day, all the worthless material items of the world that they so value and receive joy from will be useless – “Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They will not satisfy their souls, nor fill their stomach, because it became their stumbling block of iniquity.”

About a year and a half after receiving his first vision from the Lord, the Lord gives what one commentator called “the most tragic vision in the book of Ezekiel” as the Lord gives Ezekiel a view inside the temple in Jerusalem. There Ezekiel sees:

• An idol of jealousy in the court of the temple
• Seventy elders practicing idolatry inside the temple
• Women weeping for the false god Tammuz at the gate of the temple
• People worshiping the sun at the door of the temple 

Although idolatry is a trivial thing for the people, it is not for God and He will not tolerate it forever. So the Lord calls for seven angels, with one being a scribe, to execute the wicked ones. He tells the scribe to mark the people who have repented so they would be spared, but the rest were to be killed, beginning with the elders who led the people astray.

“Then He said to them, ‘Defile the temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!’ And they went out and killed in the city. So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?’”

Tomorrow the Lord gives Ezekiel a word of hope for the exiled before the glory of the Lord departs the temple. Keep reading. (Ezekiel 5:1-9:11)

In a vision yesterday the Lord had Ezekiel eat a scroll containing the word of God, illustrating that the Lord expects Ezekiel to digest His word so that he may faithfully relay His message to the people. Today, God calls Ezekiel the watchman for the house of Israel. Ezekiel will be held accountable for speaking the word of God to the exiles, and the people will be accountable for their response. However, if Ezekiel knows God’s word and does not warn the people and they die in their iniquity, God tells Ezekiel “his blood I will require at your hand.” However, if Ezekiel is faithful in sharing the Lord’s message, he will bear no guilt. Then the Lord fills Ezekiel with the Spirit so that he is equipped to handle the job of watchman. And the Lord says, “He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”

After commissioning Ezekiel as the watchman of Israel, the Lord tells Ezekiel to go to his home, where the people will bind him and the Lord will make him mute. But when the Lord speaks to Ezekiel, he is to open his mouth and speak to those who will hear. Then the Lord instructs Ezekiel to perform three symbolic acts in order to get the attention of the rebellious people:

1) Sketch the city of Jerusalem on a clay tablet and lay siege against it like a kid would with a block toy to illustrate the coming destruction of the city.

2) Lie on his left side 390 days and his right side 40 days for the years of Israel’s and Judah’s sins. There are differing views on this symbolic act; some say the years are for their past sins and some say for their future judgment. 

3) Cook your food over human dung. Now Ezekiel does object to this one, so God says he can use cow dung instead. This is to illustrate the food shortage during the invasion and captivity by the Babylonians.

Over in Jerusalem we find out that during the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah, the Lord has Jeremiah wear a yoke to symbolize Judah’s future enslavement to Babylon. God will use Babylon to subdue all the nations and anyone who fights against them will die. Jeremiah warns the people against listening to false prophets and says to trust the Lord and submit to Babylon.

The false prophet, Hananiah, tells the people they will be released from captivity in two years, and he yanks the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck. God rebukes this false prophet for making the people believe lies and for giving them a false timeline of their judgment. Therefore, the Lord gives Hananiah a timeline on his life. He says Hananiah will die within the year — and two months later, Hananiah dies.

Tomorrow, God has Ezekiel perform some more unusual acts in an effort to get the people’s attention. Keep reading. (Ezekiel 3:16-4:17, Jeremiah 27:1-28:17, Jeremiah 51:59-64)

After the Chaldeans return home for fear of the Egyptians, Jeremiah leaves Jerusalem to go claim his property in the land of Benjamin. A guard falsely accuses Jeremiah of defecting to the Chaldeans. So Jeremiah is beaten and thrown into a dungeon.

Many days later, Zedekiah secretly visits Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord. However, the Lord is consistent with His message to Zedekiah – “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” Then Jeremiah asks not to go back to the dungeon where he will die. So Zedekiah places Jeremiah in the court of the prison and gives him a daily ration of bread.

When some of Judah’s officials hear the Lord’s message from Jeremiah, that the people should go with the Chaldeans to live or stay and die, they want Jeremiah dead. The officials say that Jeremiah’s message is bad for morale, and they accuse him of being against the people. However, Jeremiah could not have been more for the people. He was speaking hard truths from the Lord so that the people may listen and live. But Jeremiah’s message from the Lord was not a popular message because it was not what the people wanted to hear. As one commentator said, “in a time of national crisis, religious fakers always flourish because many people want to hear only comforting messages, which may often be untrue.”

The weak King Zedekiah tells the officials they can do what they want with Jeremiah. So they lower Jeremiah into a muddy dungeon with no food or water where he is left to die. However, when Ebed-Melech, an Egyptian eunuch working in the king’s house, hears about the state of Jeremiah, he pleads for Jeremiah’s life, and Zedekiah allows him to rescue Jeremiah from the dungeon. 

This suffering servant, Ebed-Melech, who was taken as a slave, castrated, and forced to work in the king’s house, has more compassion on Jeremiah, a suffering servant of the Lord, than the high and mighty officials of Judah, who were going through all the religious motions with a heart of stone. Because of Ebed-Melech’s faithfulness, the Lord will later say to Ebed-Melech when Jerusalem is being besieged, “Behold, I will bring My words upon this city for adversity and not for good, and they shall be performed in that day before you. But I will deliver you in that day…and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me” (Jeremiah 39:16-18) — once again illustrating that the Lord provides salvation for the ones who trust Him.

After Jeremiah is rescued from the dungeon, he is placed in the court of the prison. Then Zedekiah secretly inquires of Jeremiah again, and again Jeremiah is consistent with the Lord’s message. He says to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you surely surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul shall live; this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans; they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.’”

Zedekiah is afraid to surrender because he thinks the Jews who already defected will kill him. But Jeremiah assures him that all will be ok if he will just obey the Lord! Then Jeremiah is placed in the court of the prison where he will remain until the invasion of Jerusalem. And soon we will see if Zedekiah will obey the voice of the Lord and live, or choose to ignore His word and die.

Then we meet Ezekiel who served as a priest in the temple and was taken to Babylon during the second wave of captivity in 597 BC. Four and a half years later, while by the River Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans, Ezekiel has his first vision from the Lord. Ezekiel tries to explain what he sees, but he has never seen anything quite like it before. There are four marvelous creatures and four spinning wheels and at the sound of a voice the creatures appear to submit. Ezekiel sees the throne of the Lord and a splendid being – “Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.”

The Lord tells Ezekiel to rise and while He is speaking to him, the Spirit of the Lord fills Ezekiel. God says that He is sending him to speak to rebellious people who may or may not listen, but Ezekiel’s job is to say just what the Lord has said. Ezekiel then eats a scroll that tastes like honey, “And written on it were lamentation and mourning and woe.” Then the Lord says, “But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”

“Moreover He said to me: ‘Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.” However, the Lord says if Ezekiel knows God’s word and does not faithfully warn the people of the coming judgment, he would be held responsible for the bloodshed of the ones who die in their sins. But if he speaks the truth from the Lord, he will bear no guilt.

Ezekiel is now commissioned to be the voice of God to the captives. Tomorrow the Lord has Ezekiel perform some strange symbolic acts to get the attention of the people in exile. Keep reading. (Jeremiah 37:11-38:28, Ezekiel 1:1-3:15)

Jeremiah sings praises to the Lord as he remembers that the Lord is the God of Creation – “He has made the earth by His power; He has established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heaven by His understanding… For He is the Maker of all things; and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance. The Lord of hosts is His name.”

However the people of Judah and the surrounding nations do not fear the God of Creation. Instead they walk in the ways of their deceitful hearts and worship gods made by their own hands. Therefore, the Lord is using Babylon to bring judgment upon the nations, including the nation of Judah. The Lord says Babylon is “My battle-ax and weapons of war: for with you I will break the nation in pieces; with you I will destroy kingdoms.”

After the Lord uses Babylon to judge the nations, He says He will then judge Babylon – “And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion in your sight.” This repayment will occur when the Lord raises up the Medes and Persians to destroy Babylon. “For every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.”

In 597 BC Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, “came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, as his servants were besieging it. Then Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers went out to the king of Babylon; and the king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, took him prisoner. And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said. Also he carried into captivity all Jerusalem: all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land. And he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers, and the mighty of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. All the valiant men, seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for war, these the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon. Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.”

Zedekiah is now sitting on the throne as the “puppet king” of Judah. He is the last king of Judah before the fall of Jerusalem. And although Judah still exists as a nation, it is under the rule of Babylon. “Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel. Moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the Lord which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.”

Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar by forming an alliance with Egypt. When the Chaldeans come up against Jerusalem, Pharaoh’s army from Egypt comes to help Jerusalem; therefore, the Chaldeans return home. Then the Lord says to Zedekiah, “Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has come up to help you will return to Egypt, to their own land. And the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city, and take it and burn it with fire… Do not deceive yourselves, saying, ‘The Chaldeans will surely depart from us,’ for they will not depart. For though you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained only wounded men among them, they would rise up, every man in his tent, and burn the city with fire.” The Lord has already purposed to bring judgment upon Jerusalem for their rebellion against Him, and nothing is going to stop the Lord’s plans and purposes. 

Tomorrow Jeremiah is thrown into a dungeon and we meet the prophet Ezekiel who was taken into captivity along with King Jehoiachin, so keep reading. (Jeremiah 51:15-58, 2 Kings 24:10-17, 2 Chronicles 36:10, 1 Chronicles 3:10-16, 2 Chronicles 36:11-14, Jeremiah 52:1-3, 2 Kings 24:18-20, Jeremiah 37:1-10)

“A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” 

Remember Rachel, whom Jacob loved and wanted to marry, was the younger sister of Leah. However, the father of the girls, Laban, tricked Jacob into marrying Leah first. So Leah and Rachel both became Jacob’s wives and Jacob’s sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. The voice is Rachel weeping over the destruction of her descendants, the Israelites, which became Northern Israel, who was overthrown by the Assyrians, and Southern Judah, who is being overthrown by the Babylonians. 

The Lord tells Rachel to stop weeping because there is hope for her children’s future. God says He will bring His people home and make a new covenant with them since they broke the old covenant – “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Throughout the story, the Lord has been working His plan of redemption through covenants with His people. In the Patriarch Era, the Lord made a covenant with Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham, that He would give his descendants land and they would be a nation that would be a blessing to all the families of the earth. In the Exodus Era, the Lord established the Mosaic Covenant where He gave the people the law and established the sacrificial system. And in the Kingdom Era, He made a covenant with King David, promising him an everlasting dynasty from which the perfect King, the Messiah, will come.

This New Covenant to which the Lord is referring will complete His plan of redemption. It will be established through the shedding of the blood of the innocent, Jesus Christ, on behalf of guilty sinners, us. While Jesus is having supper with His disciples before His sacrifice, He will take a cup of wine as an illustration and tell the men, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). And later Paul will explain how this is a better covenant than the old covenant which was based on the law (Hebrews 7:22). 

The people are in need of a new covenant because they are unable to keep the old covenant under the law. Under the New Covenant, the Lord will give the people a new heart which desires obedience to Him, and He will cleanse them from their sins. The sacrificial system only provides a covering for the sins, but the final sacrifice by Jesus Christ will provide a complete forgiveness of sins. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus will ascend to heaven where He currently sits at the right hand of the Lord as the High Priest. Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ will be saved by grace through faith. Therefore, Jesus “has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). As Charles Spurgeon said, “Things required by the law are bestowed by the gospel. God demands obedience under the law: God works obedience under the gospel. Holiness is asked of us by the law: holiness is wrought in us by the gospel.”

We end the reading with the Lord saying that He will punish Babylon because they took such joy in destroying His inheritance just as He destroyed the Assyrians – “‘Israel is like scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria devoured him; now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.’ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. But I will bring back Israel to his home, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan; his soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead. In those days and in that time,’ says the Lord, ‘The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I preserve.’”

Tomorrow, Babylon besieges Jerusalem and takes the final wave into captivity. Keep reading. (Jeremiah 31:15-40, Jeremiah 49:34-51:14)

The Lord shows Jeremiah two baskets of figs; one with very good figs and one with very bad figs. Then the Lord says, “Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.”

“And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad… so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

The Lord has promised to be a sanctuary for the ones who have been taken into exile in Babylon. Jeremiah will warn the people left in Judah that there is no hope in trying to resist the coming judgment. He will repeatedly tell King Zedekiah, whom we will soon meet, that he needs to surrender to the Babylonians and go with them to the land of Babylon and he will live. However, if he resists the Babylonians, he will die along with his family and servants, and Jerusalem will be burned. 

Jeremiah writes a letter to those in exile. He tells them to settle down in Babylon and build homes and lives for themselves there because they will be in exile for seventy years before the Lord will bring them out. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity.”

The Lord says for the ones who have not gone into captivity, “Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will deliver them to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth—to be a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they have not heeded My words, says the Lord, which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; neither would you heed, says the Lord. Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon.”

The Lord warns the people in exile not to listen to the false prophets in Babylon who are saying captivity will be short. The Lord will punish all false prophets who tell lies in His name.

Jeremiah speaks of the day of deliverance as he looks beyond the return of the Jews from captivity in Babylon to the day that the Lord will send the Savior to restore His people – “‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘That I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds; foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them…Your affliction is incurable, your wound is severe. There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines… Your sorrow is incurable because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased… For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord…‘You shall be My people, and I will be your God.’”

We can not cure our sin problem. We need a Savior to come and do for us what we can not do for ourselves. Jesus Christ is that Savior. He is coming soon in the story to live a perfect life that we can’t live and to die on the cross as the final Sacrifice, taking on the sins of the world as the substitutionary atonement for anyone who puts their trust in Him – “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Only through a relationship with Jesus Christ are we healed from our sin sickness, deemed righteous in the eyes of the Lord, and restored to His Father, God of Creation. Keep reading. (Jeremiah 23:33-24:10, Jeremiah 29:1-31:14)

Jeremiah continues to pronounce judgment against the nations:

• Ammon, Lot’s descendants – God will humble them and, “Afterwards I will bring back the captives of the people of Ammon.”
• Edom, Esau’s descendants – “Your fierceness has deceived you, the pride of your heart,” therefore, the Lord will destroy Edom like He did Sodom and Gomorrah.
• Damascus, a prominent city in Syria – Their days of joy will be cut off and turned into days of sorrow.
• Kedar and Hazor, Arab tribes from the east – Babylon will destroy them, and the land will become desolate.

King Jehoiakam dies after reigning eleven years and his son, Jehoiachin, becomes the next king of Judah. Jehoiachin will only reign three months before he is taken off to Babylon with Ezekiel during the second wave of captivity. There he will spend thirty-seven years in prison (2 Kings 25:27).

Jehoiachin is wicked like his father; therefore the Lord says, “None of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Judah.” God will bring judgment upon all the wicked leaders and false prophets who have scattered His flock and have not attended to them. However, the Lord will gather the remnant of His flock, “And they shall be fruitful and increase.”

The Lord is bringing a Righteous Ruler, Jesus Christ, for His people – “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’”

We end the reading with the Lord warning the people not to listen to the words of the false prophets which will not profit them, but listen to the word of the Lord – “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; they speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said, ‘You shall have peace’; and to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury— A violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.”

Judgment is coming upon the people who do not listen to the word of God just as in the future, when Jesus returns, judgment will come upon the entire earth. And in that day, just as in the days that we are reading about in our Bible, the only thing that will spare anyone from eternal damnation will be whether they chose to listen to the word of God or not; and according to the word of the Lord, the only way for eternal salvation is through His Son Jesus Christ. 

The Lord says, “Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.” The false voices in the world will try to get people to forget the Lord. However, Christians are called to speak His word and to share the Good News of Christ no matter the cost. How the world responds is on them, but that doesn’t stop our mission, as the Lord says – “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.”

In order to speak His word faithfully you have to know His word, so keep reading. (Jeremiah 49:1-33, 2 Kings 24:5-7, 2 Chronicles 36:6-8, 2 Kings 24:8-9, 2 Chronicles 36:9, Jeremiah 22:24-23:32)

The Lord tells Jeremiah not to marry or have a family because the ones born in Judah along with their parents “shall die gruesome deaths”. He also says don’t mourn for the ones who die because they will die as a result of their great sins and unrepentant hearts. 

However, the Lord gives “hope despite the disaster”. He is sending some into captivity, and one day He will bring them back to their land. On that day, the people will no longer say that the Lord lives who brought His people out of Egypt, but, “‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.”

God curses the man whose trust is in man and blesses the man whose trust is in Him. The Lord says that He is the one who knows the heart of each person and He knows the ones who truly have a heart for Him – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” And only the ones who have a heart surrendered to the Lord will receive salvation on the day of His final judgment.

As a potter shapes clay, so the Lord shapes the nations according to His divine purposes. If He speaks to destroy a nation and the nation repents, then He will relent of the disaster He was going to bring. If He speaks to build up a nation and the nation turns to evil, then He will relent of the good He was going to bring. Therefore the Lord tells Jeremiah to tell the people, “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” However, the people reject the warning from the Lord – “And they said, ‘That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.’” 

The Lord rebukes Judah for saying it was hopeless for them to obey Him, and He uses the example of the Rechabites obeying their earthly father as an illustration of obedience. The Lord asks why it is so hard for Judah to obey their Heavenly Father, the God of Creation, when the Rechabites can obey their earthly father. To prove the Lord’s point, Jeremiah commands the Rechabites to drink wine, but they refuse because their earthly father, Jonadab, forbade it. The Lord then tells the Rechabites that since they obeyed their father, Jonadab, they, “Shall not lack a man to stand before Me forever.” But as for disobedient Judah, “Behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the doom that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them but they have not heard, and I have called to them but they have not answered.”

Per “gotquestions.org” – “The Rechabites were descendants of Rechab (or Recab or Rekab), a Kenite and thus related to the Midianites and Moses’ family by marriage (see Judges 1:16). According to Jeremiah 35:6, the Rechabites’ strict rules were put in place by a son (or descendant) of Rechab named Jehonadab (or Jonadab). This is the same Jehonadab who helped Jehu rid Israel of Baal-worship after the time of Ahab (2 Kings 10:15–27). Scholars have differing opinions as to why Jehonadab implemented the rules, but many believe he sought to preserve the primitive lifestyle of his nomadic forebears.”

Tomorrow Judah receives a new king, so keep reading. (Jeremiah 16:1-18:23, Jeremiah 35:1-19)