062. I. The Downfall Of Judah And The Closing Years Of Jeremiah

I THE DOWNFALL OF JUDAH AND THE CLOSING YEARS OF JEREMIAH

Jehoiakim only lived to see the beginning of the calamities which resulted from his folly and selfish indifference. He died in 597, during the first siege of his capital by the Babylonians, leaving to his queen and young son Coniah, or Jeconiah, who assumed the name of Jehoiakin, a baneful heritage of war. Possibly the dirge preserved in Jeremiah 22:24-30 was uttered by Jeremiah in connection with the accession of the boy king. “Jehovah declares that, even though Coniah was his most cherished and valuable possession, he would deliver him into the power of the Babylonians. Both the king and the queen mother are condemned to die in exile. Worthless, as a ruler, is the son of Jehoiakim. Neither he nor his descendants shall sit again on the throne of Judah.”

Three brief months, while Jerusalem held out against its besiegers, Jehoiakin reigned. Then he was dragged to Babylon at the head of the prominent Jews, who constituted the first group of captives. Henceforth Jeremiah’s interest was divided between his countrymen in Babylon and those remaining in Judah. Among the former were most of his friends and the best elements in the nation. Those who remained and directed the counsels of Zedekiah, the well-meaning but inefficient son of Josiah, whom the Babylonians appointed as a vassal king over the kingdom of his father, were as self-confident as they were ignorant of the art of statesmanship. In their sordid natures there was little respect for the messages of the true prophet. Besides, the circumstances of the period called forth a group of designing men, who counterfeited the formulas and style of the true prophets so perfectly that the unsuspecting masses were constantly misled by messages which purported to be divine. Whether these so-called “false” prophets were in every case pure impostors, or honest and merely self-deceived, cannot be determined. Their communications voiced so completely the hopes of the people that it is obvious why the masses accepted them, while they rejected the stern, unwelcome warnings of men like Jeremiah.

Hence the environment of the aged prophet was then even more unpleasant than during the reign of Jehoiakim. Zedekiah, it is true, retained a genuine respect for him, but the character of the king was so weak and his power so slight that his secret regard bore little fruit. On the other hand, Jeremiah’s influence with the Jews who remained in Judah was diminished; he himself became the object of open and persistent persecutions. At first he succeeded in keeping the people from again rushing into foolish rebellion against Babylon. The empty promises, however, of Babylon’s rival, Egypt, and the deceptive messages of the false prophets, at last, in 587 B. C., led the nation to take the fatal step.

Jeremiah, whose inspired insight enabled him to appreciate the absolute impossibility of Judah’s coping successfully with the powerful armies of the great conqueror, Nebuchadrezzar, had but one message for king and people. “If you would save yourselves and nation, surrender at once.” Naturally, he did not change this advice when Babylonian armies encircled Jerusalem and overran Judah. That he would thereby incur the charge of being without patriotism was inevitable. Tragic indeed is the picture of the aged prophet, branded as a traitor and subjected to shameful indignities at the hands of the nobles, simply because his loyalty to God and to his nation would not allow him to be silent. Through it all he wavered not, although it was a thankless return for his life of complete self-sacrifice. As the end of the state which he loved so intensely drew near, an inspired hope concerning its future filled his soul, and found ever clearer and more frequent expression. If no prophet suffered more than he, certainly none saw farther into the very heart of the Eternal and recognized the character and loving purpose revealed there. Sitting among the ruins of Jerusalem, he proclaimed the new and universal kingdom of God which was to be established in the heart of the individual. Like all true prophets, he uttered his brightest predictions in the time of greatest national distress. Amidst the closing scenes he moved with the same simple grandeur. When the end came, and the king of Judah and his guilty advisers were carried off to Babylon, Jeremiah, who had constantly preached loyalty to Nebuchadrezzar, was allowed to remain behind with the few Jews who rallied at Mizpah about his friend, the faithful Gedaliah. For a brief time the little colony basked in the sunshine of a just rule. Jeremiah was the accepted pastor of the flock. Fugitives came streaming back, and prosperity promised again to abide with them, when suddenly all their peace was destroyed by the treacherous murder of Gedaliah and his supporters by the hand of certain renegade Jews. Despite the advice and exhortations of Jeremiah, the survivors of the massacre, fearing the wrath of the Babylonians, fled to Egypt Thus it was that the closing days of the prophet were spent among the refugees in Egypt. At the Jewish colony in Tahpanhes, on the borders of Palestine, he made his home.

Among his countrymen in the land of the Nile he found a needy, although very unpromising, field for his prophetic activity. Repeated national disasters had sadly shaken their faith in the God of Israel, while the polytheistic tendencies amidst which they now found themselves proved wellnigh irresistible. As a result, the masses went back to the worship of the ancient deities identified with the sun, and especially the moon,—“the queen of heaven.” With all his early energy and courage, Jeremiah attacked the widespread apostasy. To impress upon the doubting Jews the fact that the national calamity which had overtaken them was in perfect accord with Jehovah’s eternal purpose, he predicted that the Egyptians also would soon fall before God’s messenger of judgment, Nebuchadrezzar.

Fearlessly he declared to those who had turned from Jehovah to the old heathen deities that they would be destroyed, and that only those who were faithful to their nation’s God would again see the land of their nativity. A bitter defiance is reflected in their answer to the prophet, which suggests that the tradition that he met a martyr’s death at their hands is not without foundation. Surely, having given to his nation and God his life work, and all that the world counts dear, it was in a sense a fitting sequence that he should pour out his life’s blood upon the same altar. The conditions of his age were such that he lived almost constantly under the shadow of his nation’s sins, and the calamities which followed in their train. At the same time he was a man “tempted in all points as we are.” Through all his varied experiences his humanity found frequent expression. That element, so conspicuous in his character, only deepens our admiration and love for him. But his humanity never turned him from the path of duty. With that calm courage which comes not from earth, but from heaven, he heroically accepted every responsibility, however great. Little wonder that the Almighty confided to him the deepest spiritual truths vouchsafed to any man before the advent of the Son of man. By life as well as by word of mouth he proclaimed them. Oppressed, despised by his own, he “saw seed” in the generations which followed. Certainly no other prophet made such a deep impression upon later Judaism as did Jeremiah. He is one of the two or three inspired men who, perfected by suffering and by faithful service, stood on the threshold of the completed New Testament revelation.