“The LORD has
sent unto you all His servants the prophets … but you have not hearkened, nor
inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn again now every one from his evil
way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has
given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever; and go not after other
gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke Me not to anger with the
works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet you have not hearkened unto
me, says the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Because you have not
heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,
says the LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will
bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against
all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them…. Moreover I
will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of
the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and
the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an
astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. And
it shall come to pass, when 70 years are accomplished, that I will punish the
king of Babylon and that nation, says the LORD, for their iniquity” (Jer.
25:4-12).
The prophet
addresses himself to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, not to the rulers as
such. For 23 years he had exercised his office among them, declaring the word
of the LORD. Since the 13th year of Josiah, when the reforms were going on, to
the present, when idolatry prevailed everywhere, he had spoken unto them,
“rising early and speaking,” but they would not hearken. Other servants and
prophets had preceded him, but to them likewise they had turned a deaf ear. The
messages of all had been in a great measure alike. They said, “Turn again now
every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings … and I will do
you no hurt.” But there had been no response nor sign of repentance that He
might not be provoked to anger.
Because the
people had refused to hearken, the northern army led by Nebuchadnezzar, whom
the LORD calls “My servant,” should be brought against them and the nations
round about them who had seduced them into their idolatrous practices. All joy
and gladness, as well as all that told of a people pursuing the ordinary
avocations of life, should cease, and the whole land should become a
desolation. It was not to be forever, however, but “these nations shall serve
the king of Babylon 70 years.”
This period is
a most significant one. When the children of Israel were about to enter the
promised land, the LORD told them that every seventh year was to be a sabbath
in which the ground was to lie fallow. Here is the commandment:“Speak unto the
children of Israel and say unto them, When you come into the land which I give
you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years you shall sow
your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the
fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the
land, a sabbath for the LORD:you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your
vineyard. That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap,
neither gather the grapes of your vine undressed:for it is a year of rest unto
the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for you, and for
your servant, and for your maid, and for your hired servant, and for your
stranger that sojourns with you, and for your cattle, and for the beast that
are in your land, shall all the increase thereof be meat” (Lev. 25:2-7).
A promise of
assured prosperity, if observed, was also given, for we read, “And if you shall
say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather
in our increase, then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year,
and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And you shall sow the eighth
year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in
you shall eat of the old store” (Lev. 25:20-22). Thus there would be no
lack, but an abundant supply, if they kept the year of rest and gave the land
its sabbath, in this way acknowledging their divine ownership and themselves
Jehovah’s servants.
Not only did He
promise blessing if His Word was obeyed, but through Moses He solemnly warned
them of judgment if they failed to give ear to His commandments. If they walked
contrary to Him, He would walk contrary to them; and He declared, “I will
scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you:and your
land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her
sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, and you be in your enemies’ land …
because it did not rest in your sabbaths when you dwelt upon it (Lev.
26:33-35). And in verse 43 of the same chapter He says, “The land also shall be
left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lies desolate without
them; and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity because …
they despised My judgments, and because their soul abhorred My statutes.”
Selfish Judah,
doubtless, reasoned that time would be gained and wealth more rapidly
accumulated if the year of rest were allowed to pass unobserved. They had to
learn the truth of the words, “Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who
despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam. 2:30). So it has been with many
self-seeking children of God ever since. Time spent in waiting upon Him has
been esteemed as time lost. Many are too busy to give Him His portion.
Business, pleasure, everything that begins and ends with self, in short, must
come first, leaving little or no time for Him. But He invariably balances things
at last. Many a saint has spent long, weary months and years on a bed of
languishing, for the simple reason that the things of God were crowded out and
neglected in days of health and vigor. Yet, blessed be His name, as in the case
of His earthly people, the days of captivity have been made to become days of
great fruitfulness. It was in their subjection to the Babylonian yoke that
Judah learned to abhor idols. Never has the nation offended on that ground
since. The seasons of the Lord’s chastening are not lost time. Afterward they
yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby”
(Heb. 12:11).
The discipline
over and the lost sabbatical years made up, the nation of Judah was to be
permitted to return to their land “When 70 years are accomplished, I will
punish the king of Babylon and that nation, says the LORD, for their iniquity”
(Jer. 25:12). The overthrow of Babylon would be the signal that Israel’s
redemption had drawn nigh. Daniel, it will be remembered, was a student of the
writings of the former prophets, and it is recorded that he “understood by
books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the
prophet, that He would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem”
(Dan. 9:2). He had God’s sure word, and he knew that he could rely on it.
Jeremiah but spoke the words that, by the inspiration of the Almighty, had been
given him.
It is
noticeable that Babylon, having been permitted to destroy Jerusalem, and having
been the instrument of Jehovah’s discipline, should in her turn be utterly
destroyed for her manifold abominations. “Judgment must begin at the house of
God” (1 Pet. 4:17). However, the nations will not escape. Jer. 25:15-26 gives a
list in detail of the various peoples to whose lips the wine cup of Jehovah’s
fury must be pressed. “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the
ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Pet. 4:18). How the nations were made to
drink and to fall before the might of Jehovah has been for long ages a matter
of authentic history.
(From Notes
on Jeremiah, Loizeaux, Neptune, NJ; used by permission.)