Jeremiah 39 reminds me of the words we hate to hear, “I told you so”. Remember as a kid having a parent, a teacher or a coach warning you not to do something? After a failure we knew the question would come, “Why didn’t you listen to me?” It is even worse as an adult because the lessons are much more painful. In today’s chapter the warnings God gave through Jeremiah are at hand. “In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah… Nebuchadnezzar… marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it”. The worst possible place to be is under siege while against God. Hope fades into disheartened waiting for the inevitable conclusion. In “Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city wall was broken through. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and took seats in the Middle Gate”. After almost two years, the city was captured. Yet the king of Judah continued to ignore God’s previous warning. “When Zedekiah… and all the soldiers saw them, they fled; they left the city at night…But the Babylonian army pursued them”. Even with years to prepare, the king never considered God’s Word.
The chapter continues, with the Babylonian army overtaking Zedekiah, “They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar… he pronounced sentence on him… slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes… Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon”. Those around Zedekiah were not spared the damage of his disobedience. They also “set fire to the royal palace and the houses of the people…and broke down the walls of Jerusalem”. Notice that our defenses are most easily destroyed from the inside.
The chapter includes two important reminders. First, God always leaves a remnant to rebuild, “The Babylonians… left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and… gave them vineyards and fields”. All God needs to rebuild, is willingness. We also read, “Nebuchadnezzar… had given these orders about Jeremiah… look after him; don’t harm him but do for him whatever he asks… had Jeremiah taken out of the courtyard of the guard”. Remember, Jeremiah was under guard, but he remained under God. Even in difficulty we can choose to remain under God. Jeremiah was taken “back to his home. So he remained among his own people”. The chapter closes with a word for the man that saved Jeremiah from the muck in the previous chapter, “Go and tell Ebed-Melek the Cushite… ‘I am about to fulfill My words against this city—words concerning disaster… But I will rescue you on that day… I will save you… because you trust in Me, declares the Lord’”. Under guard or in the palace, it does not matter where we are, all that matters is Who we trust. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (1 Peter 1:3). Is it time to rebuild under God? His Word tells us so.