The city of Jerusalem was built on two mountains, Mount Zion where the palace and administrative offices of the king stood, and Mount Moriah where the temple towered over the city. Wrapped around the southwest side of Mount Zion was the Valley of Ben Hinnom. It was a convenient place to dump garbage from the palace, so trash fires probably burned there most of the time, and it attracted worms and pestilence.

Part of the Valley of Ben Hinnom was called Topheth. It was here that idol worshipers slaughtered their children and gave them as burnt offerings to the Canaanite god Baal. The word Topheth may refer to drums that were beaten to drown out the cries of the children as the priests of Baal killed them. It was a horrible place, the last place someone like Jeremiah wanted to go.

Jeremiah Prophesies Over the Valley of Ben Hinnom

God sent Jeremiah to buy a clay jar from a potter and go to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the Potsherd Gate in Jerusalem’s wall. He took elders and priests with him and when they arrived he gave them this message:

“‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.

“For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

“They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal – something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.’” Jeremiah 19:3-5

God never required his people to make human sacrifices. It never crossed his mind to demand that because human beings were the dearest part of creation, the part made in his own image. God wanted to save people; he would never have required their deaths as an act of worship.

The Broken Jar

Jeremiah broke the clay pot as the people watched and then he said,

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will smash this nation and this city just as the potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired . . . Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.” Jeremiah 19:11, 15

God called his people stiff-necked because no matter what he said to them they would not turn in the direction he wanted them to go.

Judah’s Sins that Tipped the Scales

God tried for a long time to preserve Jerusalem from destruction, but he could no longer tolerate their abhorrent behavior. It’s important to notice which sins finally tipped the scales.

God hated the idolatry that stole his people’s hearts from him, and he hated the sinful practices inherent in idolatry. He was angry that his people no longer listened to him.

The Israelites forsook God’s Law and then all kinds of sins were acceptable to them. Human life and dignity were treated like commodities to be traded for lust and greed. They practiced sexual sin and they even sacrificed their little children to the fiery god Molech.

Their sinful business practices trampled the poor and disenfranchised the needy. Widows, orphans and immigrants could not get justice. The people who were most hurt by Judah’s sins were the hardest working, lowest paid people in society. They were the ones who had no voice and no one to support them, and they bore the brunt of whatever unfair edicts came down from the king.

God was angriest about the innocent blood that was shed in Jerusalem, but greed, sexual sin, injustice and disregard for the poor all contributed to the Judeans becoming the stiff-necked people who would not listen to God.

Jeremiah Suffers

The priest Pashhur was in charge of the temple and when he heard Jeremiah prophesying against Judah he arrested him, had him beaten and put him in stocks where people ridiculed and mocked him. It was a miserable, painful experience, but it didn’t intimidate Jeremiah. When Pashhur released Jeremiah the next day he prophesied that Pashhur was going to suffer the same punishment as the rest of Jerusalem.

“And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.” Jeremiah 20:6

Jeremiah was tough with Pashhur, but when he got home he broke down and cried to the Lord about what he had suffered. It seemed wrong to him that when he had done exactly what God asked of him he was beaten, put in stocks and humiliated.

“You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.” Jeremiah 20:7-8

The prophet considered giving up his job, but he couldn’t stop God from sending him the prophecies that came to him whether he wanted them or not.

“But if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” Jeremiah 20:9

Jeremiah couldn’t very well turn his back on God when he preached everyday about what happened to people who turned their backs on God.

Nebuchadnezzar Besieges Jerusalem

The king of Babylon brought his army to the walls of Jerusalem and began the process of besieging the city. It was going to take a while for him to fully capture the city, but he gained enough control to arrest King Jehoiakim and take some plunder from the temple.

Then he sent some of his officials into Jerusalem to find the cream of young Israelite royalty and upper class youth and bring them to Babylon. They entered a three-year training program to prepare them to serve Nebuchadnezzar and help run his empire.

Among them were Daniel, Hananiah, Misahael and Azariah, four friends who determined to keep their integrity and live wise, godly lives no matter what happened to them.

Their first test came in the form of the diet they were given, which was too rich with royal food and wine for their tastes. They asked for vegetables and water instead and they did so well on that diet that their condition was better than that of all the other young men in the training program.

When King Nebuchadnezzar met the four young Israelites at the end of their preparation they impressed him in every way. In fact, they were ten times better than all of the other wise men the king had depended upon until that time.

Daniel, Hananiah, Misahael and Azariah were among the first Judeans to be taken into exile in Babylon and they got to go before the ultimate disaster struck their homeland. God planted them in Nebuchadnezzar’s court as the advance team, to make sure things would go the way he planned when the rest of his people came to Babylon.