Wednesday Bible Study: The end of all things- Jeremiah

The end of Jeremiah, chapter 52, is actually a replay of the story of the Fall of Judah- a story thought so important by God that it is in the Bible 4 times- near the conclusions of both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Jeremiah 39.  I want to go through the history of it, then tackle the lessons.

So the last good King in Judah, Josiah, had been slain in a battle he was warned not to fight, and now God was ready to begin the punishment of Judah for the sins of the reign of his father Manasseh.    His son Jehoiakim was now king, and he was a ruthless, perverted ruler in every possible way- so much so that God spent most of chapter 22 cursing him.  For me, the line that stands out for our purpose is...

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth! Hear the Word of Jehovah!
Jer 22:30  So says Jehovah, Write this man down as childless, a man who will not be blessed in his days. For no man of his seed shall be blessed, sitting on the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah. 

Note the phrase, "Write this man (Jehoiakim) down as childless, for indeed in Matthew's genealogy he was...

Mat 1:10  And Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, and Manasseh fathered Amon, and Amon fathered Josiah.
Mat 1:11  And Josiah fathered Jehoiachin and his brothers, at the time they were carried away to Babylon.  



Matthew skips both Jehoiakim, the father of Jehoiachim, also known as Jeconiah, and the man that followed Jeconiah and leads off our chapter, Zedekiah.  Jeconiah was either 8 or 18, depending on the chapter/version you read- I'm going to go with 18, since it DOES say he did evil in the sight of the Lord.  He was put in place when evil Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and suffered a pretty grisly death.  But when Nebby got home, someone mentioned to him it might not be a wise idea to put the rebel's son on the throne.  So 3 months into his 'reign', Jeconiah became a guest of the Babylonian penal system, and Jehoiakim's brother (and Jeconiah's uncle) Shallum was elevated to the kingship as Zedekiah.

Zedekiah likewise was a duplicitous schemer, and Nebby had to move against him as well.  Much of the chapters in the 30's of this book involve Jeremiah trying to talk him out of this and him not listening, for reasons we'll hit in a bit.  Despite trying to run as the city of Jerusalem fell, Zedekiah was caught, his sons and buddies executed in front of him, and then he was blinded so his last sight was their deaths.  Then he too became a ward of the Babylon correctional department.


And that was the last man to actually sit a throne in Judah.  But blessings would eventually  return to the line through the children of Jeconiah- notably Zerubbabel.  Funny I should mantion them, but I'll get to that at the end.

The chapter goes on to describe the dismantling of Jerusalem, takes a survey of the exiled population, and finishes on a curious historical note- the lifting of Jeconiah from prison to the table of Nebby's successor, Evel-Merodach.  How this came about is theorized thus:  When Nebuchadnezzar became the 'beast-man' in Daniel, Evel-Merodach his son became regent.  The priests didn't get along with the kings of the day- even in Nebby's reign, though he was too powerful to manipulate, they had prominence, and in Chapter 39 we see that one of the leaders of Babylon that came into fallen Jerusalem after the victory was Nergal-sharezer, chief of the 'soothsayers' or magicians.  They put up with E-M even less, and talked Nebby into briefly putting him into prison.  There, E-M met Jeconiah, who like his great great grandfather Manasseh had come back to Yahweh in a Babyloniah cell.  They became friends, and the Jews say that within 2 days of Nebby's death, new King Evel-Merodach raised his friend Jeconiah into his court.  Not that it did either of them much good, as after a 2 year reign, he was overthrown.  Nergal-sharezer, better known as Neriglissar- a man who had "made peace" with the kingly line by marrying E-M's young daughter- assassinated him and became king for a 4 year turn before he in turn was put out and the Nabonidus/Belshazzar team of later Daniel came in.



So what helpful, other than fun history, did we learn here?

1- This evil didn't come to Judah just because all these evil kings were evil.  In Jeremiah 14, the prophet pleads to an unlistening God to relent, but...

Jer 14:9  Why should You be as a man stunned, as one mighty, yet who cannot save? Yet You, O Jehovah, are in our midst, and we are called by Your name. Do not leave us!
Jer 14:10  So says Jehovah to this people; So they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet; therefore Jehovah does not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins.
Jer 14:11  Then Jehovah said to me, Do not pray for this people for good.
Jer 14:12  When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and a grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the plague.

And as you read on, you discover that, although in some places it might seem like the people are being punished for bad kings, it is the opposite- the bad kings and their stupid decisions are part of God's punishment on the people.  In the end as they say, you get the leaders you deserve.  Food for thought these days.

Jer 52:3  For it was because of the anger of Jehovah in Jerusalem and Judah (until He had cast them out from His presence) that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. (MKJV)

2- The description of the destruction of the Temple caught my eye:

Jer 52:17  And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.


Why bronze?  The Temple had been denuded of Gold when Jehoiakim and Jeconiah were removed, and the grandeur was reduced to bronze (which Jeremiah describes after v 17).  In a way, this symbolizes the falseness of Zedekiah's kingship- a real king has gold, a 'play-king' has bronze.  So either Zedekiah was too proud to realize he was a play king, or like an OT Pinocchio, he wanted to be a real king.  So he plotted with Egypt- who wasn't all that far off from being destroyed by Babylon itself- and even his play kingdom was lost to him.  The price of pride once again.

3- The number of the exiles:

 Jer 52:28  This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans;
Jer 52:29  in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem 832 persons;
Jer 52:30  in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Judeans 745 persons; all the persons were 4,600.

This is important, because even then the Jews were zealous at keeping their tribal lineages kept track of.  Important to us, because it points out the continuity of the genealogies that point to Jesus.


And speaking of...

4- The Signet Ring.

First, let me backtrack to a part of that curse on Jehoiakim's line from chapter 14:

Jer 22:24  "As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off
Jer 22:25  and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

But now, look again at Matthew's Genealogy...

Mat 1:12  And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel...

And then, recall our study of the end of Haggai?  The last verse...

Hag 2:23  On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts." 

And with that, although the curse on the kingship yet remains, the curse on the line is lifted, and God's plan for salvation moves on.