King Nebuchadnezzar set up his command post at Riblah in the northernmost part of Lebanon while he conquered Judah and the surrounding nations. Riblah was where King Zedekiah saw his sons and his officials slain before he was blinded and carried off to Babylon. It was the place where Nebuchadnezzar decided the fate of all his prisoners of war.

Jeremiah had been a prisoner of King Zedekiah, now he became the prisoner of King Nebuchadnezzar. He trudged along with other people captured in Jerusalem toward Riblah, but then word came that Nebuchadnezzar had decided Jeremiah was a unique person, deserving of special treatment.

“Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard: ‘Take him and look after him; don’t harm him but do for him whatever he asks.’” Jeremiah 39:11-12

Jeremiah is Set Free

King Nebuchadnezzar sent his commander of the guard, Nebuzaradan, to find Jeremiah and set him free. Jeremiah was in Ramah, north of Jerusalem and bound in chains among all the other captives when Nebuzaradan explained why Nebuchadnezzar had sent him.

“‘The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. And now the Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him.’” Jeremiah 40:2-3

The Babylonians knew about Jeremiah’s prophecies and they respected him as a prophet. They didn’t want him to go through punishment for Judah’s sins. Nebuzaradan offered to take Jeremiah to Babylon and care for him there, or he was free to go anywhere he wanted in Judah.

Jeremiah chose to stay in Judah, but before he left, Nebuzaradan advised him to go to Gedaliah, the governor Nebuchadnezzar appointed over Judah.

“Then the commander gave him provisions and a present and let him go. So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam and Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left behind in the land.” Jeremiah 40:5-6

Later — in the New Testament — I wonder if Jesus might have had these left-behind Israelites in mind when he said, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5

Terrible News From Jerusalem

Jeremiah was with Gedaliah in Mizpah, just north of Jerusalem, when Nebuzaradan carried out Nebuchadnezzar’s orders to destroy the city. The prophet could probably see the smoke rising and might have heard daily reports as the tragedy unfolded.

The Babylonian army plundered the temple and took away all of its bronze and precious metals. It was a huge job cutting down the massive pillars and the bronze basin with its stands. Solomon had stood in front of these pillars when he dedicated the temple more than four hundred years earlier. The priests used the water in the vast bronze basin to cleanse themselves as they went about their duties.

Nebuzaradan’s soldiers broke into the temple and collected all of the gold and silver implements used in worship, from shovels to incense burners, and packed them up for the trip to Babylon. What had been sacred and used for holy purposes for centuries became loot for a pagan king who saw it merely as the spoils of war.

Death and Destruction

Finally, Nebuzaradan rounded up the chief priests, the doorkeepers and King Zedekiah’s secretary who had been in charge of conscripting citizens to serve the king. There were still sixty conscripts in Jerusalem so they captured them, too, and marched all of their captives up to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar executed them.

The Babylonian army tore down the walls of Jerusalem and set every building in the city on fire. The temple, the palace, the marketplace and people’s homes went up in smoke. The beautiful city on Mount Zion was a complete ruin.

God Warned Them

God never wanted this to happen to his people or Jerusalem. He tried to prevent it.

“The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.” 2 Chronicles 36:15-16

When there was no stopping Israel’s disobedience, God punished them.

“He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.” 2 Chronicles 36:17-19

The remnant left alive in Judah was marched to Babylon as slaves of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors until after Persia defeated Babylon and released them seventy years later.

The Promised Land lay fallow and had years of  Sabbath rest while the Israelites remained in exile. There were some people living in the land, but they were too few to keep up the farms, orchards, and vineyards Israel left behind.

Jeremiah Laments

Jeremiah’s prophecies came to pass and he was finally proven to be a true prophet, but it brought him no satisfaction. He loved Jerusalem and he loved his people. When desolation fell upon Judah, it pierced Jeremiah to the core with sorrow. He mourned and wrote a long dirge of lament.

The first thing people do when they experience great sorrow is try to come to terms with what happened. Often they recount the event over and over, trying to make sense of it. They also want other people to sympathize with how devastating the tragedy was.

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger?” Lamentations 1:12

It was Judah’s sins that brought this burden of loss upon Jeremiah.

“My sins have been bound into a yoke; by his hands they were woven together. They have been hung on my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength. He has given me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.” Lamentations 1:14

Jeremiah said over and over that there was no one to comfort him in his sorrow.

“This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.” Lamentations 1:16

“I called to my allies but they betrayed me. My priests and my elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.” Lamentations 1:19

Jeremiah survived the fall of Jerusalem and was given his freedom, but his days were dark. His lament is painful to read, but as often happens in a time of great sorrow, glimmers of light were about to break through.