Jeremiah 40

ment to Ebed-Melech (39:15–18)—that he would be delivered when the city was taken and that God would spare his life.

“Hide nothing from me” (vv. 14–28). As far as the record is concerned, this was the fourth and last contact King Zedekiah had with Jeremiah before the city fell to the Babylonians. His request presented Jeremiah with a dilemma: If Jeremiah told him the truth, the king might kill him, and he wouldn’t obey the word of God anyway! God gave the king one last chance to repent, but he only made excuses. If he surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, he might be accused and abused by the Jews who had gone over to the enemy, and what would happen to his family left in the city? Perhaps the men who wanted to kill Jeremiah would kill them.

Jeremiah assured the king that if he obeyed the word of the Lord, God would protect him and the city. But if he disobeyed, even the women in the palace would taunt him before the Babylonians (38:21–23). We can appreciate the king’s concern for his wives and children, but the best way to protect them was to obey the will of God.

Still afraid of his own officers, the king told Jeremiah to keep their conversation confidential. There’s no suggestion that Jeremiah lied to the officers who questioned him. To begin with, we may not have a transcript of the complete conversation between Jeremiah and Zedekiah, and Jeremiah may have asked not to be returned to the house of Jonathan. Certainly in their second conversation, Jeremiah had made such a request (37:17–21). He was under no obligation to report everything to the officers, and he didn’t have to lie in order to keep the conversation confidential.

Sometimes God judges a sinful nation by sending them weak leaders who are hesitant and vacillating and whose leadership (or lack of it) plunges the nation only deeper into trouble. “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them” (Isa. 3: nkjv). The late John F. Kennedy put it this way: “We, the people, are the boss, and we get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.” But Judah wasn’t a democracy; the people didn’t vote on their king. It was God who gave them what they deserved.

God’s Word Fulfilled (39; 52) These two chapters, along with 2 Kings 25 and 2 Chronicles 36, describe the tragic fall of Jerusalem, its plunder, and its destruction, as well as the captivity and deportation of thousands of Jewish people. None of these things would have happened if only one of the kings had sincerely repented, trusted the Lord, and surrendered to the Babylonians.

God’s judgment on Zedekiah (39:1–7; 52:1–11). The siege had begun on January 15, 588 (Jer. 52:4); and two and a half years later, on July 18, 586, the Babylonian army penetrated the city walls. The princes of Babylon set up their thrones in the Middle Gate and began to take over the reins of government. The “times of the Gentiles” had begun on God’s prophetic calendar (Luke 21:24). When that period ends, the Messiah will return to rescue His people and fulfill the promises made by the prophets.

Zedekiah, his family, and his staff tried to escape (see Jer. 34:3; Ezek. 12:1–12), but the Babylonians caught up with them and delivered them to Nebuchadnezzar at his headquarters at Riblah, some two hundred miles north of Jerusalem. There he passed judgment on all of them, and the Babylonians were not known for their tenderness. He slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons and then put out Zedekiah’s eyes. Thus, the king’s last visual memories would haunt him. Ezekiel had prophesied that Zedekiah would not see the land of Babylon (Ezek. 12:13), and his prophecy proved true. The king was bound and taken captive to Babylon, where he died.

God’s judgment on the city (39:8–10; 52:12–34). “For this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My fury from the day that they built it, even to this day; so I will remove it from before My face” (Jer. 32: nkjv). Throughout his ministry, Jeremiah had warned the people that Jerusalem would be captured and destroyed (6:6; 19:8–9, 11–12, 15; 21:10; 26:6, 11; 27:17).

At the same time, the Babylonians pillaged the city and took the precious things out of the temple and carried them to Babylon. The soldiers rounded up the best of the people and took them to Babylon. There had been a previous deportation in 597 BC (52:28), and there would be a third deportation in 582 (52:30). The poorer, unskilled people were left to till the land. After all, somebody had to feed the soldiers who were left behind.

God’s care for His servant (39:11–14). Since the Lord had promised that Jeremiah would survive all the opposition and persecution against him (1:17–19; 15:20–21), He moved upon Nebuchadnezzar to release the prophet and treat him kindly. He was committed to Gedaliah, who later was named governor of the land (40:7). (This Gedaliah was not the one who wanted to kill Jeremiah, 38:1.)

I close with a solemn word from G. Campbell Morgan: “We in our security need to be reminded that for us also there may come the eleventh year, and the fourth month, and the tenth day of the month, when God will hurl us from our place of privilege, as He surely will, unless we are true to Him.”

ILife only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible— not to have run away. Dag Hammarskjold t’s been said by more than one scholar that the one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. This was certainly true of the destitute Jewish remnant in Judah after the fall of Jerusalem. Instead of seeking the Lord and making a new beginning, the remnant repeated the very sins that had led to the collapse of the nation and the destruction of the city: They wouldn’t listen to the Word; they turned to Egypt for help; and they worshipped idols.

The sinful behavior of the people must have broken Jeremiah’s heart, but he stayed with them and tried to get them to obey the Word of the Lord. God had punished the nation, but even this severe punishment didn’t change their hearts. They were still bent on doing evil.

The drama was a tragic one with a cast of characters that is seen in every age. The script of history may change a bit from time to time, but the characters are still the same.

Jeremiah was given his freedom after the Babylonians captured Jerusalem (39:11–14), but somehow he got mixed in with the captives who were being readied at Ramah for their long march to Babylon. He was released and given the choice of going to Babylon and being cared for by the king or remaining in the land to care for the people. Being a man with a shepherd’s heart, Jeremiah chose to dwell among the people (v. 14; 40:5–6).

The Babylonian captain of the guard preached a sermon that sounded a great deal like what Jeremiah had been saying for forty years! It must have been embarrassing for the Jews to hear a pagan Babylonian tell them they were sinners, but he was right in what he said. As God’s people, we have to bow in shame when the world publicly announces the sins of the saints (Gen. 12:10–20; 20:1ff.; 2 Sam. 12:14).

Jeremiah chose to join Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had appointed governor of the land. Had the people followed the prophet and the governor, the Jewish remnant could have led safe and fairly comfortable lives even in the midst of ruin, but they chose not to obey. Even a severe chastening like the one Babylon brought to Judah didn’t change their hearts, for the human heart can be changed only by the grace of God.

Was Jeremiah violating his own message when he remained with the people in the land (24:4–10)? Why stay with the “bad figs” when the future lay with the “good figs” who had been taken off to Babylon? Certainly Jeremiah knew how to discern the will of God, and the Lord knew how much the prophet loved the land and its people. Ezekiel was taken to Babylon in 597 and would start his ministry five years later (Ezek. 1:1–2), and Daniel had been taken there in 605. There were prophets to minister to the exiles, and Jeremiah was right to remain with the people in the land.

Jeremiah made difficult choices at the beginning and the end of his ministry. It would have been much easier to serve as a priest, but he obeyed God’s call to be a prophet, and it would have been much more comfortable in Babylon, but he opted to remain in the land of his fathers. Jeremiah was a true shepherd and not a hireling (see John 10:12–13).

When the good news got out that Gedaliah was in charge of affairs in Judah, the people who had fled and hidden because of the siege began to come back to the land (Jer. 40:7, 11–12). Gedaliah was a good man from a good family, although events proved that he was very naive about practical politics.

The faithful governor (40:7–12). Gedaliah told the people exactly what Jeremiah had been telling them for many years: Serve the Babylonians and you will live safely in the land. The people couldn’t reap any harvest of grain because the fields hadn’t been sown during the siege, but they could gather the produce that had not been destroyed in the war. The remnant in Judah had to follow the same instructions that Jeremiah gave to the exiles in Babylon: Live normal lives, turn to the Lord with all your hearts, and wait for the Lord to deliver you (29:4–14). God had promised a future for the nation because the nation had important work to do.

The concerned captain (40:13–16). Johanan started out as a courageous leader, but later he led the people astray. We don’t know how he and his associates heard about Ishmael’s plot to assassinate Gedaliah, but their information was certainly accurate. Had Gedaliah listened to them, the governor’s life would have been spared.

Why did Ishmael want to kill Gedaliah? The fact that the king of the Ammonites had hired him (40:14) suggests that he was making money, but much more was involved. The Ammonites had been a part of the “summit conference” in Jerusalem, where the nations allied with Judah had planned to break the Babylonian yoke (27:1–3). As a friend of Zedekiah and the king of Ammon, Ishmael didn’t want to see the Jewish people submit to Nebuchadnezzar even after the war had ended. He was a patriot who used his patriotism to promote his own selfish purposes.

Perhaps the key factor had to do with pride and selfish ambition. Ishmael was a descendant of David through Elishama (41:1; 2 Sam. 5:16), and he no doubt felt that he should have been named ruler of the nation because of his royal blood. Who was Gedaliah that he should take the place of a king? The way the Babylonians had treated Ishmael’s relative, King Zedekiah, was no encouragement to submit to their authority.

Johanan wanted to kill Ishmael, but Gedaliah refused the offer. In this, the governor was right, but he was wrong in not assembling a group of loyal men who could guard him day and night. Not only would that have told Ishmael that the governor knew what was going on, but also it would have protected Gedaliah’s life from those who wanted to destroy him. The governor should have listened to Johanan and not been so naive about Ishmael. “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure” (Prov. 11: niv).

The deceitful murderer (41:1–18). In the Near East, when people eat together, they’re pledging their friendship and loyalty to one another. Ishmael, however, used the meal as a trap to catch Gedaliah and his men so he could kill them. We don’t know how many men were with the governor, but ten of Ishmael’s men were able to dispatch them quickly.

To his terrible breach of hospitality he added hypocrisy, weeping before the eighty Jewish pilgrims who had come to worship, and then killing seventy of them. His greed was revealed when he spared the other ten in order to find out where their supply of food was hidden. He was a cunning and ruthless man who would stop at nothing to get his own way.

Ishmael climaxed his crimes by kidnapping the helpless Jewish remnant and starting for the land of the Ammonites. At this point, however, Johanan came to the rescue and delivered the remnant from Ishmael’s power, but Ishmael escaped. It was a series of tragedies that probably could have been averted had Gedaliah listened to his friends and acted with more caution.

Johanan showed courage in rescuing the Jews, but when he was finally in charge, he revealed his own lack of faith by wanting to take the remnant to Egypt! He didn’t remember the counsel of Gedaliah (Jer. 40:9) or the messages of Jeremiah, both of whom warned the Jews to stay in the land and not go to Egypt. How easy it is for a good man to go astray simply by turning away from the Word of God!