Jeremiah 27
February 3, 2024 1:57 PM
Solitary Man
solitaryman.substack.com
20240203
Jer 27:1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
This verse is probably the most problematic to satisfactorily explain in the entire text. The difficulty is that the verse clearly states that this word came at the start of Jehoiakim’s reign, who was the son of Josiah. It’s the same terminology used at the start of the previous chapter. Thus it would be dated at 609 BC or shortly thereafter.
The problem is that Jeremiah is told to make yokes to put on his neck and send them by messengers to 5 Gentile nations that surround Judah during the time of Zedekiah, which did not start reigning until 597 BC. Verse 12 and 20 also seem to definitively indicate that this word was spoken during Zedekiah’s time, not Jehoiakim’s. To try and make the verse as a sort of conclusion of the previous chapter is quite untenable, as the verse ends with the word ‘saying’, which indicates it pertains to what is to come, not what has already seen said.
How do we resolve this? The typical solution by those intellectual giants in our hallowed halls of learning from our once great educational institutions is to default to the tired and lazy explanation of a copyist error. That it really should of said Zedekiah. As rightly noted by one properly conservative commentary, such a conclusion is dangerous. Why? Because if you admit to even one copyist error in our best manuscripts that have stood the test of time, then why not a second? A third or fourth? Why not then look at all manuscripts and take the wording that is in the most of them, or in the oldest one, or the one you prefer theologically? Once you open that door, it will open wider and wider until you begin to doubt the supernatural composition of the sacred word of God and you end up shipwrecking the faith of yourself and others.
By God’s grace, I will never take that position. Stating copyist error is just plain lazy, and is the refuge of an unbelieving heart. Here are the possible explanations:
1. Some think Jehoiakim was a common name to all the sons of Josiah, and that Zedekiah is here called Jehoiakim. However there is no reason to believe this, as someone simply thought up this excuse out of thin air.
2. Some say certain obscure manuscripts from the Syriac and Arabic have Zedekiah in the text, but he was not a son of Josiah like Jehoiakim was, so you just create another problem.
3. The command for Jeremiah to build these yokes was indeed given at the outset of Jehoiakim’s reign, but was concealed, or not publicly spoken, until Zedekiah took the throne.
The third explanation makes the most sense. It is logical, reasonable, and treats holy writ with the respect that it deserves. It is not a stretch to believe that God reveals a word to someone, but then has them wait for the appointed time to release it. The pattern can be found in the book of Daniel, where God tells Daniel that the words he has just been given will not be unlocked until the end (Dan 12:4,9). It would of taken time to build at least 5 sets of yokes. This also indicates that these judgments were sure, but perhaps they were delayed for a season, due to some limited repentance, or intercession by some one or some group in those lands. Many of us believe that God gave America a four year reprieve in 2016. Certain judgments were already set and could not be changed, but the timing could be adjusted. This could of easily occurred in this instance. Combined with the fact that these prophecies were written and rewritten, could of caused some confusion for the modern reader. With a little bit of digging, there is always a reasonable explanation for why something does not seem to make sense at a casual glance.
I think this is a good time to share something that should help you to understand why so much scholastic biblical criticism is utter nonsense and can be safely discarded without having to feel that you are somehow less intelligent by doing so. These liberal scholars love to make the claim that some of the oldest new testament manuscripts contain alternate readings, or are missing certain verses. The most famous one is the last passage in Mark, where Mk 16:9-20 is not found in certain scrolls. Because they love to tell you that Mark was the oldest gospel account, and Matthew and Luke derived from them (with John coming much later), since Mark never really had an eyewitness account of anyone actually seeing the resurrected Jesus, that that story was a myth, and added by the disciples. Thus they destroy the faith of entire denominations and send all their adherents to hell in the process.
The real story behind this doctrine of devils is that they only have gotten one thing correct. Some of the oldest preserved manuscripts do indeed not contain that passage. The reason is simple. Any orthodox gospel account would of been handled by many, many disciples. They would of worn out. There were early Christian cults, such as the Gnostics (whom Paul warns about in Colossians), who altered the gospel accounts to fit their heresies. They didn’t believe in the bodily resurrection. Because there were far fewer adherents, these corrupted texts would of been handled far less and chances were much greater that some of them would of survived up to this day. Whenever you see a liberal scholar try to undo 2000 years of church history and practice with ‘new’ scholasticism, it is because he has found one scroll written by a heretical cult, and they try to undo the many, many scrolls that say otherwise. Don’t be deceived by these false teachers. Scholarly study has its uses, but there are very real limitations.
Jer 27:2 Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
Jeremiah is told to take on a project. God commanded Ezekiel to do things such as this more than once. The command must of seemed very strange. I wonder what was going through Jeremiah’s mind? Did he question God? Did he argue with him? Did he wonder if this was something from his own imagination? What would you of done if you believe God told you to do this?
Then to top it all off, it does seem that there would be a gap of a decade or so before God actually told him what to do with them.
Jer 27:3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers (malak – often an angel) which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;
We have thoroughly covered the explanation back in verse one as to why the king’s name is now Zedekiah so we won’t go over that here. The same word used for angel is used here. Angels’ primary assignment is reflected in their Hebrew name meaning messenger.
These 5 kings were the recipients of a previous prophecy found in Jer 25:21-22. They would of been proposing a mutual alliance with Judah against Babylon. As in the previous word, so here once again, God is making it crystal clear that no matter who you align yourself with, you cannot subvert my holy will of judgment upon all of you via my servant the king of Babylon. Sort of reminds me of all the freedom fighters always trying to grow their movements. While well intentioned, I wonder how many have truly sought the will of the Lord before springing into action? We see the chaos all around us, and our patriotism is stirred. Yet as blood bought believers, whose true kingdom is heaven and not America or Canada, our allegiance must be to the king of kings first and foremost. Only if he directs us to fight for our earthly land, should we go out and fight.
So many trying to fight, and are using the name of Jesus, are as spiritually confused as the Laodicean church at large. Spend time and really research what some of these professing Christians really believe, and you will see countless sorts of mixtures, from new age, to many version of Jesus not found in the bible, just as Zephaniah 1:4-6 describes the illicit mixtures found in Judah’s believers. He preached just before Jeremiah, so again, we find an identical pattern in our culture as existed in Judah’s time.
Jer 27:4 And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters (sovereign);
God told his prophet to send telegrams or registered letters to these five nations. These were usually Judah’s enemies. Circumstances were forcing them to try and work together. Yet God wanted his man to give a word to Judah’s traditional foes. I wonder how well they would receive it? When Judah found out, it would seem to them that Jeremiah was meddling politically, trying to sabotage this strategic alliance. This would give even more ammunition to Jeremiah’s foes to accuse him of treason.
Don’t say that God doesn’t ever want us to meddle in current politics. Jeremiah’s prophecies had strong political ramifications. He was telling all these nations that their political decisions ran completely counter to the will of the Lord. God’s priority is not to keep us out of controversy, but ensuring that we always place obeying his voice as the preeminent duty in our lives.
Jer 27:5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast (be-he-maw) that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet (fit) unto me.
God destroys evolution, deism, and paganism all in one sentence. He has made all things. He is intimately involved in the affairs of his creation. He and he alone rules in the heavens. He is sovereign, and nothing we do or don’t do will alter the overall plans and purposes of the Holy One.
Jer 27:6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant (eh-bed – bondman); and the beasts (khah’ee – life, living creatures) of the field have I given him also to serve him.
And here is where the true will of God clashes with the traditions of men. God never favors the pagan over his own chosen people, does he? Nebuchadnezzar certainly had a special place in God’s plan for all of mankind in that generation. He was even given a special revelation of who God was, and how God operated in the affairs of men (see Daniel chapter 4). very, very few Gentiles were used by God in such a fashion. Why this man was chosen and not any other, only God knows. I believe God does these kinds of things to remind us not to put God in a box of our own making. In our day, we are being cursed and not blessed. God is fighting against the so called Christian west, and blessing our enemies, who do not know him. Will we have the ears to hear and the eyes to see? Will we be able to throw off Laodicean doctrine in favor of reality, or will we wallow in darkness until we are utterly consumed from off the land?
Jer 27:7 And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him(or conversely, Babylon shall become a servant).
The latter phrase can be taken both ways, in that great kings shall serve Babylon, or at the end of Babylon’s time, they themselves shall become bondslaves. Both were true.
This is yet another amazing precise prediction. Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach (Jer 52:31). His grandson Belshazzar also ruled (Dan 5:1), under which the kingdom ended. What was really amazing is that there were other rulers between these two, but the prophecy had to be fulfilled. Here is a direct quote from the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary explaining this:
Nebuchadnezzar had four successors—Evil-merodach, his son; Neriglissar, husband of Nebuchadnezzar’s daughter; his son, Labosodarchod; and Naboned (with whom his son, Belshazzar, was joint king), son of Evil-merodach. But Neriglissar and Labosodarchod were not in the direct male line; so that the prophecy held good to “his son and his son’s son,” and the intermediate two are omitted.
We are all familiar with the writing on the wall event found in Daniel chapter 5. When God decrees that your time is up, what can man do to stop it? It’s a comforting thought as we endure the most evil rulers in our nation’s history. They will not stay on the throne for one moment longer than God decrees.
Jer 27:8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish (paw-kad – to visit with hostile intent), saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
These nations had a choice. They could resist the will of God, and mostly all die, or they could willingly submit themselves under bondage, and live. They may have their wealth confiscated. They may lose most of their freedoms. They may lose family members to slavery. But they could at least survive. Not a wonderful choice, but that was the way it was going to be.
We are entering into the same kind of situation. The parallel is not completely perfect. One way that is totally different is that God will never ask us to submit to the beast system and the mark, so we don’t need to carry the pattern beyond what God wills. Yet how many of us have had to submit to losing our careers in order to preserve our health? How many have had to let go of family and friends in order to stay true to our conscience? In a completely different context, I wonder how many are fighting for the preservation of the American dream, our western way of life, and God is not fighting alongside us, because he wants us to suffer this loss? He wants us to lose our prosperity, our comfort, our peace and our security, so that we will turn back (shoob) fully to him. We are so proud of our self-sufficiency. In one sense, it is commendable. In another, it replaces faith in God. In this last generation, no doomsday prepper will be able to save themselves. Only the author of doomsday can rescue us now.
Jer 27:9 Therefore hearken (shama) not ye to your prophets (naw-bee), nor to your diviners (kaw-sam – soothsayers), nor to your dreamers (khal-ome), nor to your enchanters (aw-nan – sorcerer, observer of times), nor to your sorcerers (kash-shawl – magician), which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:
Jer 27:10 For they prophesy a lie (deceit, vain thing) unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.
Every tribe had their own shamans and holy men. Those who presume to speak for the gods. No matter what you call them, they are not of God, and get their powers from a different source, and are limited by the sovereign will of God. Jeremiah lumps false prophets and sorcerers together, as they get their inspiration from the same source. The sense is that God influences these charlatans to not only speak what the listener wants to hear, but what God wants them to believe also, so that he has all the more right to punish them in the manner of his choosing.
If there is any one principle that should have become so abundantly clear by now, is that the other forces in the universe that are working to destroy the work of God have limited power. Even when it looks like God could have nothing to do with a situation because it’s so dark and nasty, yet God not only knows, but often is directing the event in some direction for his mysterious plans and purposes. There is great comfort in that, I think. Rather than looking at it like a child, who only sees the immediate effect of evil, we can rest assured that nothing is so spinning out of control that God does not have a plan to counter it.
Jer 27:11 But the nations (goy – Gentiles) that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain (rest, settle down) still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.
God cared enough for those people that weren’t his very own to give them fair warning. If they would obey this initial warning, they would still be allowed to remain in the land. This would make sense, as if any nation surrendered off the bat, Babylon would have no reason to punish them. As long as they could collect tribute, the native people knew how to work the land better than anyone so more money would be made. The only reason to kill and/or scatter them is if they would not accept subjugation. Basically any invading army is at the core of it a criminal enterprise, a band of thiefs. As long as they could steal as much as was realistic, they normally didn’t care who lived where. Genocide based on race was something normal men had no reason to engage in, unless their spirit masters demanded it. The point is that the earlier we can accept God’s chastisement, the easier it will go for us (Lv 26:41).
I submit for your consideration that this is a type of the doctrine of the rapture. Note how if you can embrace God’s judgment completely and early on, then God does not whisk you away out of trouble (thus negating any pre-trib rapture), but will allow you to stay in your land, or your inheritance in Christ. He will protect and preserve you, according to his will. You will till the land, ie, you will be used by God to sow the word and work on the crop via intercession. You will dwell within Babylon, but be preserved therein.
Jer 27:12 I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Most pastors criticize those few brave souls that speak judgment to the political leadership in our land. A certain world famous pastor from Alberta comes to mind. While this is not a word of destruction, it would be considered defeatist talk, bordering on treason. Why would God tell the one nation that worships the one true God to submit to this pagan king? Is not our God the only true god? Would he not always fight on our side?
This teaches us two things. One, you cannot stand on the word if the word does not apply to your situation. Two, your doctrine may be wrong. Do we have the humility to reexamine everything that we’ve been taught? Most believers cannot make any spiritual headway because there is some unspoken, fundamental core belief that they would never even admit to the possibility that it could be flawed. For example, they might hold as a core belief that God never sends his wrath on his own born again people. Therefore any teaching like this that speaks of God not only being angry, but actually wrathful at his own children is immediately rejected because of a core belief that you refuse to even consider might not be true. In this area you have no ears to hear. Therefore, God cannot speak to you about anything that is based on this truth. That is how almost all the church rejected those very few who claimed things such as 911 was a judgment from God, and not the devil. Sure, the people who did it (and there is a question of who was really responsible!) were full of the devil, but it was God who orchestrated it to give us our first final warning. Think of what might of been if the church in North America had genuinely repented by forsaking the doctrines of the Laodiceans, turned from our narcissistic lifestyles, and pursued genuine biblical holiness. No telling how the fate of America may of been altered. Yet God knew what our response was, so that is why there are so many prophecies is Jeremiah that speak to our generation today.
Jer 27:13 Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
Why? Because of our refusal to let go of our sacred cows, or golden calves, as they may be. Israel had their golden calves at Bethel and Dan. Contrary to what most think, they did not represent some other god, such as some Egyptian deity (though the influence of Egypt sure was in evidence in the choosing of the image). No, they represented Yahweh. This was Israel’s idea of who Yahweh actually was. They thought they were worshipping the one true god, but Yahweh found this utterly reprehensible. It was creating your own version of who God is. Just like most Christians have created their own version of Jesus. Not the Jesus of the bible, but a Jesus that we can comfortably live with. The sins of Jeroboam are mentioned again and again as a particularly detestable sin. It was not because the golden calf was a god worse than Moloch or Baal, but that it was a whole different kind of sin altogether. It’s one thing to worship another god, it’s a whole worse thing to create a god out of your own imagination and call it Yehovah or Jesus.
In Judah’s case, their arrogance at assuming that God would always fight on their side led them to think that they were invincible. Just like America today. When that senile caricature of a president was asked if America could fight two wars at once, he haughtily replied that this is America, of course we can. The one war in Ukraine has utterly destroyed the finances of the nation forever, and depleted its arsenal. Another war would cause their defences to collapse. But God has sent a spirit of blindness to these wicked rulers in order to ensure their doom, even as he did in Jeremiah’s day.
Why will we die? Because we refused to serve God. Since we refused, God has sent judgment. Now we are refusing God’s punishment. So we will die.
Jer 27:14 Therefore hearken (shama) not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
I think few of us could really relate to some of these harsher books of the bible before 2020, because none of us had ever experienced living in a totally corrupt society. Sure we saw sin and evil in our leaders, but 2020 unleashed something never before seen in our lands. Now we live in a world where there is only evil continually. Not only every news story, but every thing we are supposed to believe about every topic contains some form of a lie. Even the weather report is a lie (as normal summer highs are now almost treated as a terror alert)!
Not only does Babylon lie all around us, within the church we are surrounded by lies and half truths. They speak as it everything is normal, they want you to simply forget the vile way they treated you during lockdown and jab time. God never forgets and neither should we.
Jer 27:15 For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out (push you out, chase you away), and that ye might perish (wander away, lose yourself), ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.
The devil sends false prophets to get people to disobey God’s will so that they are not under God’s protection anymore. Note they still dare to use the name of Jesus. God allows this tactic by the enemy because he has decided to get rid of you. Why would he want to get rid of his own children? Because they have continually rejected him. They have continually refused to shama – to hear and to obey. You cannot presume on the grace of God. God’s patience, kindness, and goodness does have its limits. This never means that God is looking for an excuse to get rid of you after each and every sin. Far from it. God is always looking for a reason to save. Yet if you continually ignore and reject his counsel, if time and time again he speaks to you and you refuse to hear, then there will come a day that he will leave you alone. You will then wander away and lose yourself. God did not lose you, you lost yourself.
I love the shallowness of some teachers who try and make certain scriptures say more than what they say, in order to prove some pet false doctrine of theirs. One of the most famous proponents of eternal security used this verse over and over:
Joh 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
If anyone could lose his salvation, then you would have to call God butterfingers because it plainly says here that no one can snatch them out of his hand.
Note how this promises that no other human being could forcibly steal a child of God’s soul away from the son of God’s hand. This says nothing about the child of God himself. You never lost your free will when you came to Jesus. This same gospel tells us what occurs to that same child of God should be choose to depart from his savior:
Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Or this:
1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Or this:
Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Or this:
Jud 1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
Funny how he always failed to mention these, or any other verses, but he almost never failed to mention his one favorite verse about how there is nothing to ever worry about ever again, as once saved, always saved.
Jer 27:16 Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
This is referring to the first invasion and deportation of not only people, but certain of the vessels of the temple of the Lord (2 Ki 24:13, 2 Chr 36:7). In verse 12 Jeremiah spoke to Zedekiah, here he’s summarizing that he also spoke to all the religious authorities, and the public in general.
See how the main theme of the false prophets is prosperity, prosperity, prosperity. Reversal, restoration, renewal, revival.
Ridiculous.
Everyone out there – listen and listen very carefully: God does not wink at sin. He is not like us. So many of us as parents may threaten dire consequences for disobedience when speaking to our children. Yet so many (especially single moms) rarely carry out our threats. Thus making the word of the parent void. God is not like that. He means what he says. While our faith preachers try to get us to trust in the integrity of God’s word, they do so only for the positive stuff. God is just as faithful to perform the evil, as well as the good.
Quit listening to these good time charlies – they prophesy a lie unto you. Or should you choose to continue to listen to them, then don’t come running back to God at the last minute and expect him to snatch you away from all trouble and grief, just because of your distorted idea of what you think the true love of God really means.
Jer 27:17 Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?
God keeps urging them again and again. Don’t listen to the false teachers. Don’t do it. No good will come of it. You will die. You may have to give up some of your freedoms. Quit biting, scratching and clawing and fighting every step of the way. Be broken. Submit to the will of your God. Don’t exhaust yourself and your bank account fighting for every little thing the new world order is taking away. It’s just stuff. It’s just the things of this world, which Jesus said to beware of. Why are we willing to expend all our energy and resources to try and hold on to our material things? Do you not value the treasures of heaven far above the treasures of this dying life?
Jer 27:18 But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.
True prophets should not be afraid to have specific short term prophecies challenged. These guys have gone out on a limb. They have said that the vessels already taken are coming back, so that means that the vessels still left are not going anywhere. Let them cry out to God and see if God will listen to them and back them up. Let those who predicted a Trump win in 2020, then a reversal of the election steal in January of 2021, then a re-installation of Trump within a year, now let them predict something specific again. Did not all their demonstratively false prophecies in 2020 and 2021 put paid as to which spirit was speaking to them? Do we need any more proof?
I will add a word of caution here. If a man of God has a good track record, and is living a holy, blameless life, then be careful you don’t misinterpret or over literalize a word that he relates, and conclude he is now a false prophet. I am thinking of a well known pastor who has come into prominence since 2020 for the dreams he has had. He has averaged a dream a month for about 3 years. All were judgment oriented, and all were to serve as warnings to the church to get ready for the hard times to come. I found his dreams believable.
He then had one dream where he saw Russian and Chinese troops on the soil during the time of the 2020 election. Because troops did not physically land on America during that time, certain people wanted to label him a false prophet. That was nonsense. His dreams were always symbolic. The troops represented all the kingdoms of the world arrayed against the last semi righteous superpower in the world. They would try to interfere in the election in order to destroy the USA. Not direct Russian interference, like the lying Democrats claimed, but the wicked spirits represented by America’s natural foes. Taking the dream literally, it made no sense. Symbolically, and it came to pass. The election was interfered with by outside forces (cabal), working within the country (inside traitors).
This particular prophecy in Jeremiah is to be taken literally, as the meaning is very plain. Most of the time the prophecy is couched in terms in such a way that it only becomes clear via revelation after the particular event has come to pass.
Jer 27:19 For thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city,
Jer 27:20 Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
Jer 27:21 Yea, thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
Jer 27:22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.
Most of the time false prophecies are the exact opposite of the true word of the Lord. 2 Chr 36:5-10 speak of this perilous time, when Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiakim in 597 BC, along with certain vessels of the temple and installed Jehoiachin. He lasted 3 months and Babylon’s king also took him to Babylon, along with other vessels and installed Zedekiah.
In verse 18 Jeremiah challenges these lying voices. He says if they are real prophets, then they should have power with God and their prayers should make their prophecies most assuredly come to pass. However, Jeremiah summarizes what has already taken place. He then goes on to prophesy the opposite of the vast majority of those who had the king’s ear. He does leave them with some hope, saying that there will be a day when they will indeed come back, but that day is not today. Instead, more woe and grief is first in store.
The reason why people are susceptible to these liars is that they refuse to accept of the punishment that God has already sent (Lv 26:41). Because we just don’t want to believe that the party’s over and the good times have come and gone, we clutch onto any liar who tells us what we want to hear. If you persist, God will indeed give you your heart’s desire. If you want illusion, he will fill your life with illusionary voices.
For those of us who prefer reality, let us ask God for the courage to face life as it really is. Only then can we hope to be given a mission that will give our life purpose and meaning, in these increasingly perilous times.
Solitary Man
https://solitaryman.substack.com/
Photos courtesy Depositphotos
