An Unrepentant City

by: Michael Wilcock

You don’t need to be able to pronounce the names of the Jewish leaders in verse 1 to know that they represent the majority in Jerusalem, which is now being besieged by enemy armies for the last time. The long history of the Hebrew kingdoms, stretching back to David and Saul, has come to an end.

Nearly twenty years have passed since the events of yesterday’s reading, when Jehoiakim burned Jeremiah’s book. The present king, Zedekiah, admires the prophet but can’t bring himself actually to do as he says. He will be punished along with the rest of the unbelieving, disobedient citizens of Jerusalem. Jeremiah remains faithful through much suffering, and an African man named Ebed-melech, an official serving in the court of Zedekiah, shows himself the prophet’s true friend and ally. They will both be preserved; the promise to Ebed-melech is spelled out at the end of the next chapter (see 39:15-18).

So the word given to Jeremiah back in chapter 1 comes true. An entire city – indeed, whole nations and kingdoms – will be destroyed and overthrown according to his words, yet at the same time the faithful remnant is saved with a view to the planting and building of something new (see 1:10). All this is the work of “A God of faithfulness and without iniquity; just and upright is he” (Deut. 32:4).