You may subscribe yourself at the Ascension site here and receive notifications in your email, or just follow along on my blog. Bible in One Year Readings Index
Chapter 25: The Siege and Fall of Jerusalem
The word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his whole army, with all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples, were waging war on Jerusalem and all its towns, "Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, God and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, Yahweh says this; I am going to hand this city over to the power of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. And yourself will not escape his clutches [hands] but will certainly be captured and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon face to face and speak to him personally. Then you will go to Babylon. Even so, listen to the word of Yahweh, Zedekiah king of Judah! This is what Yahweh says about you: You will not die by the sword; you will die in peace ...the prophet Jeremiah repeated all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, while the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and all such towns of Judah as still held out, namely Lachish and Azekah, these being the only fortified towns of Judah remaining.
2 Kings 25:1-7 ~ The siege of Jerusalem
Early in his reign, Zedekiah was called to Babylon, probably to assure Nebuchadnezzar of his loyalty (Jer 51:59). Unfortunately, his loyalty was short lived for in 588 Zedekiah withheld the tribute. Nebuchadnezzar, who faced two revolts from vassal kings, consulted his gods on whether to attack Judah or the Ammonites. The answer was Judah (Ez 21:21-29). Twenty-one ostraca (pottery shards used to write messages) were found in a gate room at Lachish and give testimony of the tensions within the Judean army concerning the approaching Babylonian army. Jeremiah 34:7 refers to the attacks of Nebuchadnezzar's armies on the cities of Judah and mentions that besides Jerusalem only Lachish and Azekah were still holding out against the enemy.
Question: What did God send Jeremiah to tell King Zedekiah? See Jer 27; 34:2-7).
Answer: God sent His prophet to tell the king that Babylonia was acting out God's divine will. He told the king to surrender to save lives and to save his own family, but the king could not bring himself to act on Jeremiah's advice.
The siege of Jerusalem came to an end in June-July of 587 BC (see Jer 52:6). The city had been under siege approximately 18 months. The king, his sons, and his royal guard escaped from the city and made their way towards the Araba, the desolate valley of the Jordan River, probably planning to ford the river near the city of Jericho. He was captured on the Plains of Jericho and taken to Riblah in Syria to face King Nebuchadnezzar. He was found guilty of treason against his overlord and had to witness the deaths of his sons before he was blinded and sent to Babylon.
2 Kings 25:8-12 ~ The sack of Jerusalem and the third deportation
It is still the eleventh year of Zechariah in the month of Ab = July/August 587 BC, and it is the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. The city was set on fire. Solomon's Temple and the royal palace were destroyed, and thousands of Jews were deported to Babylon. This was the third large deportation of the citizens of Jerusalem and Judah into Babylonian lands.
Question: When Jeremiah realized that the city and the Temple were going to be destroyed, what did Jeremiah do? See 2 Mac 2:1-8.
Answer: Jeremiah took the Ark of the Covenant and the remains of the ancient tent Sanctuary and hid it in a cave on Mount Nebo. He also saved the Book of the Law (probably the first five books of Moses) and took some embers that he had saved from Yahweh's sacred altar and gave them to some of the priests who were about to be deported to Babylon.
Nebo was the same mountain where Moses had viewed the Promised Land before he died (Dt 34:1-4). According to Leviticus 6:5-6/12-13, the altar fire was never to be allowed to go out. God had lit the altar fire from heaven in the first liturgical worship service in the desert Sanctuary at Mt. Sinai, and He lit the altar fire again at the dedication of Solomon's Temple (Lev 9:22-24; 2 Chr 7:1). The purpose of taking the sacred flame is that it was a visible promise that the Temple and God's altar of sacrifice will be rebuilt.
Question: But what prophecy did Jeremiah make about the Ark of the Covenant where God's presence dwelled among His people in the future after the return from exile when God reclaimed His people? See Jer 3:16-17 and 31:21-22, 31-34; also see Heb 9:4. Note: the literal translation of Jer 31:22b is: "For Yahweh is creating something new on earth: the Woman shall encompass a man." It is a reversal of the birth of the virgin Eve from Adam's body in a new birth of a man who was encompassed in the body of another virgin.
Answer: A time will come when the Ark is no longer important. At that time the Virgin Mary, will carry in her womb the new Adam who is the Son of God, Jesus. In a New Covenant that will be established, the Virgin Mary will become the Ark of the New Covenant as her womb held the Living Word of God, the Living Bread come down from Heaven, and He who will die but return to life like Aaron's staff. Jesus will be God's Divine Presence dwelling among His covenant people.
2 Kings 25:13-17 ~ The destruction of Solomon's Temple
The inspired writer describes in detail the destruction of Solomon's Temple. Each of the two magnificent bronze pillars that stood at the entrance to the Temple's Holy Place was 27 feet high and the bronze capitals were four and a half feet high (1 Kng 7:15-22). The bronze sea was 15 feet wide and 7.5 feet high (1 Kng 7:23-25) and the the bronze water stands were each 6 feet x 4.5 feet. Think of the immense quantity of bronze the Babylonians were acquiring not to mention the gold and sliver.
2 Kings 25:18-21 ~ The third deportation
Question: What three groups of the king's advisors were executed for sharing responsibility for advising the king to rebel against Babylon?
Answer:
- The religious leadership: the high priest and his chief priests
- The king's friends = personal advisors
- The king's army commander and chief officers
2 Kings 25:22-26 ~ Gedaliah appointed the governor of Judah
Gedaliah was the son of Ahikam and grandson Shaphan, a royal officer and court secretary/scribe of King Josiah's court (2 Kng 22:8-14). He was appointed the governor of the Babylonian province of Judah. He established an administrative center at Mizpah, about 7.5 miles north of Jerusalem. A number of army commanders rallied around him, including Jaazaniah (verse 23).
Gedaliah was warned of a plot to take his life; however he dismissed their concerns (Jer 40:13-14). A group of 4 military officers and their men who had avoided capture came to him at the stronghold at Mizpah. Gedaliah assured them of fair treatment, but in the seventh month after the fall of Jerusalem, in the early spring, a group of men led by a Davidic descendant named Ishmael and his men assassinated Gedaliah and his garrison. A high quality onyx seal bearing the inscription "Belonging to Jaazaniah, servant of the king" was discovered in a 6th century tomb near what is believed to be the site of Mizpah. It appears that Jaazaniah was killed along with the governor and was buried at the site.
The Judeans who remained in the land were so fearful of what the Babylonians would do in reprisal for the murder of their royal governor and the Babylonian garrison that they fled to Egypt.
2 Kings 25:27-30 ~ King Jehoiachin is pardoned in 562 BC
Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 and was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach (562-560 BC). It was common for kings in the first year of their reigns to offer clemency to certain prisoners in their custody, and so in February/March of 562 BC the new king pardons Jehoiachin, grandson of Josiah and former king of Judah.
Archaeologists have confirmed Jehoiachin's presence in ancient Babylon in the 6th century BC. They discovered a Babylonian tablet from the royal archive listing provisions for the household of the state prisoner King Jehoiachin of Judah.
The Length of Judgment for Judah in Exile and the Prophecy of Return
Until the country had paid off its Sabbaths, it will lie fallow for all the days of its desolation, until the seventy years are complete.
Jeremiah 36:21
Divine judgment within temporal time is not God's final word for His people. He does not want His people to perish; judgment is meant to be redemptive in causing His people, in their suffering, to turn again to Him. Even when His people repeatedly betray Him, God still does not forget His covenant promises. A holy "remnant" will be allowed to survive (Is 4:3; 40:1-11; Zeph 3:11-20). The concept of a "holy remnant" is first introduced by the prophet Amos in 5:15 and is developed in the writings of the prophets who came after him. Down through salvation history, judgment succeeds judgment as crisis succeeds crisis, and the survivors are the "remnant" with whom God's covenant promises will continue and with whom is kept safe the "promised seed" of the future Davidic Messiah (Jer 33:14-18). It is the Davidic Messiah who will redeem Israel and the world and will bring forth from the redeemed "new Israel" the nucleus of the sacred kingdom He is promised to establish that will rule all nations (Is 11:10; 37:31; Ez 37:12-14; Dan 7:13-14; Mic 4:7; 5:6-7; Zec 8:11-13).
Yahweh will bring judgment on the Babylonians for their crimes and a Persian named Cyrus will conquer Babylon. He will be God's instrument for the return of the covenant people to their homeland as prophesied two centuries earlier by the prophet Isaiah.
In the judgment against Judah, Jeremiah gave both the reason for their judgment, which was the failure to keep their covenant with Yahweh and their accumulated sins (Jer 16:10-15; 25:8-9), and the length of time set for the punishment to be completed before the "faithful remnant" would be allowed to return.
The seventy years are probably counted from the destruction of Solomon's Temple and Jerusalem in c. 587 BC to the rebuilding of the new Temple in c. 517 BC (see Zec 1:12, 16).
The Prophecy Fulfilled
As Daniel, the member of the royal family who was taken captive by the Babylonians in 605 BC, was studying the scriptures and counting over the number of years as revealed by God to Jeremiah, he saw that the seventy years were almost up (Dan 9:1-2). He began to pray to the Lord God, confessing his sins and the sins of his people and pleading with God to remember His promise and to redeem His people (Dan 9:3-19). God did remember. He placed Cyrus the Persian on the throne of a new empire and in 539 BC he wrote an edict commanding that all exiled peoples be allowed to return to their homelands.
Then, at the end of the seventy years of judgment, Isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled when King Cyrus of Persia issued an edict for the return of the Judean exiles to their homeland.
The Books of Kings and the New Testament
Had God abandoned the children of Israel and His promise of an eternal covenant to David? He had not! The Books of Kings demonstrate God's great patience and mercy to His covenant people despite their repeated sins, but finally divine judgment could not be withheld. As is always the case in salvation history, judgment is tempered with mercy and the promise of salvation. A remnant of the covenant people was preserved in exile in Babylon where they atoned for the sins of their ancestors and waited for their redemption as promised by God's holy prophets. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah record their return. And it is in the New Testament that we realize God had not forgotten His eternal covenant with David. St. Matthew's genealogy gives the information that Jehoiachin, also known as Jechoniah, grandson of Josiah, who spent the rest of his life in exile in Babylon, fathered children. Jesus' legal claim to the throne of David is through Jechoniah's descendant Joseph, the foster father of Jesus of Nazareth. David's eternal covenant is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth and in Mary His mother who was also a Davidic descendant (Lk 126-33).
CHALLENGE: “Catholics shouldn’t oppose abortion. Nobody really knows when life begins.”
DEFENSE: We know exactly when life begins, but this isn’t the real question.
First, if it were ambiguous whether the unborn are alive, that would not make it permissible to kill them. You can’t kill something just because you don’t know it is a living human being. If a hunter sees something moving in the woods, he can’t shoot it unless he is sure it is not a human.
He must err on the side of caution, and the same principle would apply if the status of the unborn were unclear.
Second, their status isn’t unclear. Scientifically speaking, there is no question that unborn children are alive from conception onward. At no point in their development are unborn children dead. If they ever become dead then a miscarriage has occurred.
There is no point in pregnancy at which inanimate matter suddenly becomes animate. Even the sperm and the egg that unite to give the child his genetic code are already alive, with cellular, biological processes going on inside them. From the moment of conception, therefore, life is present. Even at the single-cell stage, unborn children have metabolisms that consume energy, maintain cellular function, and enable them to grow.
Third, “When does life begin?” is the wrong question. Just because something is alive does not mean that it can’t be killed. We kill living things all the time. We cannot eat without other living things dying. Even vegetarians must consume and digest the cells of plants. There is simply no other way for us to survive.
The question is not whether the unborn are alive. They are. The question is not whether abortion kills them. It does. The question is whether they are the kind of thing that it is okay to kill.
The pro-life claim is that unborn children are innocent human beings, and the logic of the pro-life position is straightforward:
1. Deliberately killing an innocent human being is wrong.
2. Abortion deliberately kills an innocent human being.
3. Therefore, abortion is wrong.
The argument is so simple that even a child can understand it. If the two premises are true then the conclusion that follows from them is also true (see Days 185 and 202).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
No comments:
Post a Comment