The God Who Keeps His Word Text: Jeremiah 39:1-10
Introduction: The Inevitability of a Settled Account
We live in an age that desperately wants to believe that consequences are negotiable. Our entire culture is built on the sandy foundation of the second chance, the clean slate, the do-over, but without the central requirement of repentance. We want mercy without the admission of guilt. We want grace without the acknowledgment of sin. We want a God who is endlessly patient, endlessly accommodating, and endlessly willing to renegotiate the terms of reality. But that is not the God of the Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a covenant-keeping God. And because He is a covenant-keeping God, He is faithful to His promises, and He is also faithful to His warnings. He is faithful to the blessings stipulated in the covenant, and He is faithful to the curses stipulated in the covenant.
For generations, God had been sending prophets to Judah, His covenant people. He sent them with warnings, with pleadings, with exhortations. He was bringing a covenant lawsuit against them. The charge was spiritual adultery, high treason against their divine King. They had broken the covenant sworn at Sinai. They had bowed down to idols, they had pursued injustice, and they had refused to listen to the voice of their God. Jeremiah was the final prosecuting attorney in this long and drawn-out case. He laid out the evidence, he presented the charges, and he announced the verdict from the high court of heaven. The verdict was guilty. The sentence was destruction. And in Jeremiah 39, we see the sentence carried out with grim and terrible precision.
This chapter is not pleasant reading. It is a record of fire, slaughter, and exile. But it is necessary reading. For in it, we see that God is not a cosmic sentimentalist. He is holy, and He is just. We see that rebellion has a price, and that price will be paid. And we see that God's Word is not a collection of pious suggestions; it is the immovable foundation of reality. When God says something will happen, it happens. The events in this chapter are the terrible fulfillment of the curses laid out centuries before in Deuteronomy 28. God had told them exactly what would happen if they broke faith with Him, and now, the bill has come due.
The Text
Now when Jerusalem was captured in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his military force came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it; in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city was breached. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon. Now it happened that when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they fled and went out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and he went out toward the Arabah. But the military force of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he spoke judgment on him. Then the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. He then blinded Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in fetters of bronze to bring him to Babylon. The Chaldeans also burned with fire the house of the king and the houses of the people, and they tore down the walls of Jerusalem. And as for the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had gone over to him and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard took them away into exile in Babylon. But some of the poorest people who had nothing, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had them remain in the land of Judah and gave them vineyards and fields at that time.
(Jeremiah 39:1-10 LSB)
The Siege and the Breach (vv. 1-3)
The account begins with the cold, hard facts of the military campaign. God's judgment does not happen in a mystical, abstract realm; it happens in history, with dates, names, and armies.
"Now when Jerusalem was captured in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his military force came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it; in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city was breached. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the Middle Gate..." (Jeremiah 39:1-3)
Notice the timeline. The siege lasted about a year and a half. This was not a quick, painless affair. It was a slow, agonizing strangulation. Famine and disease would have been rampant. This was a direct fulfillment of the covenant curses: "The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar... a nation of fierce countenance... And they shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down" (Deuteronomy 28:49-52). The very walls they trusted in became their prison.
When the city is finally breached, the Babylonian officials come in and sit down at the Middle Gate. This is a profoundly symbolic act. The city gate was the place of judgment, where the elders and kings would sit to render verdicts. By taking their seats in the gate of Jerusalem, these pagan lords are demonstrating the transfer of authority. The authority of the house of David has been broken, and the authority of Babylon, God's instrument of judgment, is now established in its place. This is what happens when God's people forfeit their calling. God is sovereign over all nations, and He will use a pagan king, whom He elsewhere calls "My servant" (Jeremiah 25:9), to discipline His own rebellious children. God is not a tribal deity; He is the king of the whole earth, and Nebuchadnezzar is on His leash.
The Cowardly King and the Inescapable God (vv. 4-7)
The response of Judah's leadership is not noble resistance or humble repentance. It is a pathetic, self-serving flight.
"Now it happened that when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they fled and went out of the city at night... But the military force of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho..." (Jeremiah 39:4-5)
Zedekiah, the king who repeatedly refused to listen to Jeremiah, the king who trusted in political alliances with Egypt rather than the word of the Lord, now tries to save his own skin. He sneaks out at night, abandoning his city to the wolves. But you cannot flee from the judgment of God. He is overtaken in the plains of Jericho, the very place where Israel's conquest of the promised land began under Joshua. The history of their conquest ends in the same place it started, a grim bookend to their national apostasy.
The judgment that follows is brutal and specific, a fulfillment of prophecy down to the last detail.
"Then the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah... He then blinded Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in fetters of bronze to bring him to Babylon." (Jeremiah 39:6-7)
Jeremiah had told Zedekiah he would see the king of Babylon face to face (Jeremiah 34:3). Ezekiel had prophesied that Zedekiah would be brought to Babylon but would not see the land (Ezekiel 12:13). Here, both prophecies are fulfilled with terrifying precision. The last thing Zedekiah ever sees is the execution of his own sons, the end of his royal line. Then his eyes are gouged out. He sees the king of Babylon, and then he sees nothing else. He goes to Babylon, but he does not see it. God's word is never sloppy. It is exact. To rebel against this God, to think you can outsmart Him or escape His decrees, is the height of folly. Zedekiah is a living monument to the fact that you cannot play games with the Almighty.
The City in Ashes (vv. 8-9)
The judgment falls not only on the king but on the entire city, the center of their national and religious life.
"The Chaldeans also burned with fire the house of the king and the houses of the people, and they tore down the walls of Jerusalem. And as for the rest of the people... Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard took them away into exile in Babylon." (Jeremiah 39:8-9)
The palace, the symbol of their political pride, is burned. The houses of the people are burned. The walls, the symbol of their military security, are torn down. And the people are deported. Everything they trusted in, their king, their homes, their fortifications, is reduced to rubble and ash. Why? Because they had abandoned the God who gave them all these things. They had turned the temple, God's house, into a den of robbers, and so God gave it, and the entire city, over to destruction.
This is a picture of total covenantal collapse. The land is vomiting them out, just as God warned it would (Leviticus 18:28). This is not just a geopolitical event. This is a theological event. This is de-creation. God is un-making what He had made. He is taking His hand of protection away and allowing the consequences of their sin to run their full and terrible course.
The Remnant of Grace (v. 10)
But even in the midst of this overwhelming judgment, we see a flicker of something else. We see the stubborn grace of God.
"But some of the poorest people who had nothing, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had them remain in the land of Judah and gave them vineyards and fields at that time." (Jeremiah 39:10)
The proud nobles are slaughtered. The skilled craftsmen are deported. The men of war are captured. But the poorest of the poor, the people who had nothing, are left in the land. And not only are they left, they are given vineyards and fields. The pagan captain of the guard, acting as the unwitting instrument of God's providence, enacts a kind of Jubilee. The land is redistributed to the poor. The last have become first.
This is the principle of the remnant. God never completely destroys His people. He always, always preserves a remnant by grace. And He consistently works through the humble, the lowly, the ones who have no claim on Him. "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:26-27). This small, impoverished remnant is the seed of future hope. They are the proof that God's judgment is not His final word. His judgments are severe, but their purpose is ultimately restorative.
Conclusion: The Two Kings
The story of Zedekiah is a terrifying warning. He is a king who heard the Word of the Lord and refused it. He trusted in his own cleverness, in political maneuvering, and in stone walls. As a result, he lost everything. He saw his sons die, his kingdom burn, and he spent the rest of his life in a dark prison. His story is a stark illustration of the principle that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
But Zedekiah is not the last king of Judah. His story points us to another King, a true and better King from the line of David. This King also faced the judgment of God. This King also was taken outside the city walls. This King was also bound and handed over to a pagan ruler. But unlike Zedekiah, this King was not fleeing from judgment; He was marching toward it, willingly, to absorb it on behalf of His people.
On the cross, Jesus Christ took the full force of the covenant curses that we deserved. He endured the ultimate exile, separation from His Father. He experienced the ultimate darkness, so that we might see the light. Zedekiah's eyes were gouged out because of his rebellion. But the prophet Isaiah said of the Messiah, "upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Christ took the blinding judgment so that our blind eyes could be opened.
The fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. is a historical demonstration that God is faithful to His covenant warnings. The cross of Jesus Christ is the ultimate demonstration that God is faithful to His covenant promises. Because of what Christ has done, all who trust in Him are like that remnant of the poor. We have nothing in ourselves. We have no righteousness to offer. But in Christ, we are given a place in the land. We are given vineyards and fields in the kingdom of God, not because we earned it, but because of the sheer, unmerited grace of our covenant-keeping God.