Day 206 – Jehoiachin (Southern King 8 years) & Zedekiah (Southern King 11 years)

Today’s final passage is a poem about the events in Jerusalem conveying Jeremiah’s bitter anguish and sadness at the unfolding events.

• Well, this is it. All the chances have come and gone. All the warnings have remained ignored. All the prophets had given their messages from God. The Babylonians (sometimes called the Chaldeans) have attacked and, over a painful couple of years of tortuous and slow starvation, accessed and decimated the city. As promised, Jerusalem, that once proud city with its temple to the Lord, has fallen.
• Which king was on the throne at the final moments? How did he try and get away, and what happened to him?
• Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the invading Babylonians, had Zedekiah brought to him. What horrible events occurred?
• Describe what happens to Jerusalem. What got destroyed? What was stolen? Is anything left?
• The passage in Jeremiah tells a similar story to the one in 2 Kings, but adds more information about Jeremiah himself. What did Nebuchadnezzar say to do with Jeremiah? Does this surprise you? Why do you think Jeremiah remained safe?
• Lamentations is a book of laments. A lament is a poem expressing sadness at something. The Hebrew and Greek bibles call this book “Tears”. You can see why – it’s full of anguish, bitter sadness and sorrow. It’s probably the saddest book in the bible. General consensus is that Jeremiah probably wrote it, although we can’t be sure.
• Think about Jeremiah. For years and years he had been faithfully sharing God’s message to the people of Judah, saying that God’s judgement was coming. He had been laughed at, ignored and imprisoned for his actions. And now he’s seeing the destruction of the city. How would you react if you were him? Would it be “I told you so!”? Such a reaction might be reasonable, if you were only doing your duty as a messenger. But that’s not the reaction of Jeremiah, as he sat on a hill watching these events and penning his words. What does his lament tell you about him?
• In the lament, the phrase “Daughter of Zion” is a name for the city, Jerusalem. Zion is a word you’ll come across regularly in the Bible, often in reference to God’s holy city.
• Pick out the verses that show Jeremiah’s sadness, God’s compassion and God’s righteous anger.

I’ve attached a video about Lamentations. As the introduction says, as you mature in your faith, you will want to rejoice in the things God rejoices in, and feel sadness for the things that God feels sadness for. This is especially true of Jeremiah in Lamentations. He’s weeping, but not because he failed in his mission somehow. He’s genuinely in anguish at the destruction he’s witnessing and the pitiful remains of a once strong nation, just as God is. God’s punishment of His sinful nation was just, but He took no delight in it, for God desires all people to be saved. I hope that as you read these passages you feel something of the emotion that Jeremiah feels.

What now then? We’re lucky that we know that this isn’t the end. Let’s keep reading to find out how God works powerfully in this situation to keep His perfect promises alive…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvw9WDCdTPA