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Day 250: Final Wave of Exile
Jeremiah 39-40
Chapter 39: The Fall of Jerusalem and Zedekiah's Attempt to Escape
This chapter has only one oracle, and it is a prophecy concerning the fate of the Cushite/Ethiopian eunuch who saved Jeremiah (verses 15-18).
Jeremiah 39:1-3 ~ The Babylonians Invade the City of Jerusalem
The passage begins with a summary of the siege of Jerusalem. The "eleventh" year of Zedekiah is, as the ancients counted, from the first year of his reign in 598 BC counting as year #1. It is now 587 BC, and Zedekiah is 31 years old. Jerusalem's city gates, like the gates of other large, walled cities, were fortified complexes with many rooms where guards had their quarters and where the city rulers heard legal cases in chambers lined with benches. Nebuchadnezzar's princes/generals enter the city and take up positions in the Middle Gate to judge important captives.
The Middle Gate was located in the center of the city's northern wall, and its ruins can still be seen in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Babylonians must have entered Jerusalem from the north, as did all Jerusalem's attackers through the centuries, since this was the city's highest elevation and the only side that was unprotected by ravines.
Jeremiah 39:4-7 ~ King Zedekiah's Failed Escape and Capture
Since the Babylonians entered the city from the north, Zedekiah, his sons, and the men still loyal to him made their escape to the south. They headed toward the city of Jericho, probably intending to cross the Jordan River near there. It was near Jericho that was the crossing Joshua and the children of Israel made coming from the opposite direction when they first entered the Promised Land, and it is near the site where St. John baptized Jesus. The Arabah refers to the rift valley that extends from the Sea of Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba and includes the Jordan River Valley.
Question: What was the judgment carried out against Zedekiah?
Answer:
- Zedekiah's sons were killed in front of him.
- All his advisors who misled him were killed.
- Zedekiah was blinded.
- He was taken as a captive to Babylon.
Jeremiah 39:8-14 ~ The Destruction of the Palace and the Fate of Jeremiah
2 Kings 25:9 and Jeremiah 52:13 record that Nebuchadnezzar's chief minister, Nebuzaradan, arrived in Jerusalem one month after the city fell, and at that time he ordered his soldiers to burn the city to the ground and demolish its walls. The royal palace was the magnificent royal dwelling described in 1 Kings 7:1-12; 10:18-20. The Babylonians looted and destroyed it along with the glorious Temple of Yahweh (1 Kng 6:1-38; 7:13-8:13). Both buildings were built by King Solomon in the 10th century BC. During the 35 years of Jeremiah's ministry, he repeatedly warned that Jerusalem and its gates would be burned with fire and destroyed (Jer 17:27; 21:10; 32:29; 34:2, 22; 37:8, 10; 38:17-18, 23) and that the house of the king would also be destroyed (Jer 6:5; 17:27; 21:14; 22:7). With the destruction of Jerusalem, the nation that was Israel perished.
Jeremiah 39:15-18 ~ Oracle Concerning the Fate of Edeb-melech
This passage concludes the story of Ebed-melech that began in 38:7-13. Jeremiah's confinement in verse 15 is after Ebed-melech rescued Jeremiah from the cistern and returned him to the custody of the commander of the Palace Guard. Verse 2 is a special oracle for Ebed-melech, warning him of the ruin that is coming but also reassuring him with a word of mercy concerning God's intention to rescue the kind Gentile eunuch.
Question: Yahweh gives His promise to rescue Ebed-melech for what reason?
Answer: It is because he has put his trust in Yahweh.
Chapter 40: Jeremiah's Freedom and Gedaliah Becomes the Governor of Judah
Davidic king Zedekiah of Judah rebelled against Babylonian rule in 589 BC, forming an anti-Babylon coalition with the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon that planned to form an alliance with the Egyptians. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon responded by leading his armies to deal with the rebel kingdoms. His army commanded by General Nebuzaradan besieged Jerusalem. The siege, counting the first and second siege periods, lasted in total for about two and a half years. The final 18 months of the Babylonian siege began on January 15th, 588 BC. The city fell to the Babylonians and on the 9th of Ab (July), and the Babylonians burned the city to the ground after removing all the starving inhabitants. The Book of Jeremiah provides a more complete description of the fall of the city in the last chapter of the book (52:1-34).
The Babylonians gathered the Judaean captives, including Jeremiah and Baruch, at Ramah, but they sent King Zedekiah, his sons, and his officials to Nebuchadnezzar's headquarters at Riblah, a town north of Damascus (Syria) on the Orontes River. There the royal officials were executed, the king's sons were murdered in front of their father, and Zedekiah was blinded before he was sent to die in Babylon (2 Kng 25:8-21; Jer 39:8-9; 52:12-27).
King Nebuchadnezzar gave his commanding general, Nebuzaradan, specific instructions to send men to find Jeremiah and to deal kindly with him. After the Babylonian ministers found Jeremiah in the palace Court of the Guard (39:13-14), they transferred him to Ramah where he was kept with other captives from Jerusalem and Judah. Ramah was located about five miles north of Jerusalem. Chapters 40-45 relate the words of God which came to Jeremiah when the Babylonian commander released him at Ramah and the events that followed his release.
Jeremiah 40:1-6 ~ The Babylonian Commander Gives Jeremiah His Freedom
King Nebuchadnezzar's commander, Nebuzaradan, found Jeremiah among the captives on the plain at Ramah and released him. It is interesting that the text describes Nebuzaradan's words to Jeremiah as coming from Yahweh (verse 1a). Yahweh puts into the mouth of the pagan Babylonian general a summary of the oracles Jeremiah preached for the 35 years of his ministry.
Question: The Babylonian general gives Jeremiah what three choices?
Answer:
- He can come with him back to Babylon where the general will look after him.
- He does not have to accept the general's offer and is free to go wherever he likes.
- He can join Gedaliah and the people staying in Judah at Mizpah.
Jeremiah 40:7-12 ~ The Babylonians Appoint Gedaliah the Governor of Judah
This part of the narrative from 40:7-41:18. continues in seven sections that are linked by the repetition of certain phrases that come at the beginning of each section in the Hebrew text:
- Then ... all the military leaders (40:7)
- ... and all the military leaders (40:13)
- And it happened (41:1)
- And it happened (41:4)
- And it happened (41:7)
- ...and all the military leaders (41:11)
- ...and all the military leaders (41:16)
Jeremiah 40:13-16 ~ Johanan Warns Gedaliah
Johanan son of Kareah, from the first group of officers to come to Mizpah in verse 8, first warns Gedaliah about an assassination plot and then offers to eliminate the threat. Baalis king of the Ammonites was a ruler who continued to hold out against the Babylonians.
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CHALLENGE: “Christmas is based on a pagan holiday.”
DEFENSE: There are multiple responses to this challenge.
First, which pagan holiday are we talking about? Sometimes Saturnalia—a Roman festival honoring the god Saturn—is proposed. But Saturnalia was held on December 17 (and later extended through December 23). It wasn’t December 25.
Another proposal is Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (Latin, “The Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun”), but the evidence this was the basis of the dating of Christmas is problematic. The Christian Chronography of A.D. 354 records the “Birthday of the Unconquerable” was celebrated on that date in 354, but the identity of “the Unconquerable” is unclear. Since it’s a Christian document that elsewhere (twice) lists Jesus’ birthday as December 25, it could be the Unconquerable Chris —not the sun—whose birth was celebrated.
Second, correlation is not causation. Even if Christmas and Sol Invictus were both on December 25, Christmas might have been the basis of Sol Invictus, or the reverse, or it might just be a coincidence. If you want to claim the date of Sol Invictus is the basis for the date of Christmas, you need evidence.
Third, that evidence is hard to come by. Even if the Chronology of A.D. 354 refers to Sol Invictus being celebrated on December 25, this is the first reference to the fact, and we know some Christians held that Jesus was born on that date long before 354.
For example, St. Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170–c. 240) stated in his commentary on Daniel that Jesus was born on December 25, and he wrote around a century and a half before 354 (see Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, 2nd ed., §562). Further, Sol Invictus wasn’t even an official Roman cult until 274, when the Emperor Aurelian made it one.
Fourth, if Christians were subverting Sol Invictus, we should find the Church Fathers saying, “Let’s subvert Sol Invictus by celebrating Christmas instead.” But we don’t. The Fathers who celebrate December 25 sincerely think that’s when Jesus was born (ibid., §§562–567).
Finally, even if Christmas was timed to subvert a pagan holiday, so what? Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and celebrating the birth of Christ is a good thing. So is subverting paganism. If the early Christians were doing both, big deal!
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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