A Word of Warning and Hope

Jeremiah 34:1-7 

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem and all its cities, saying, 2 "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, "Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. 3 And you shall not escape from his hand, but shall surely be taken and delivered into his hand; your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, he shall speak with you face to face, and you shall go to Babylon.'"' 4 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the LORD concerning you: 'You shall not die by the sword. 5 You shall die in peace; as in the ceremonies of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they shall burn incense for you and lament for you, saying, "Alas, lord!" For I have pronounced the word, says the LORD.'"

6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, 7 when the king of Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and Azekah; for only these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.

The word of the LORD is absolute in His warning to king Zedekiah.  Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had all,the surrounding countries in subjection and now fought to take Jerusalem and the remaining part of Judah still left as God had already given them to his control for their rebellion against Him.  Jeremiah therefore approached the king of Judah with the news of their impending captivity yet again.  He added how Jerusalem would not only be captured, but also razed and burned because of their continued sin and idolatry of worshiping dead gods instead of their living one.  He would be given into Nebuchadnezzar‘s hands and he would face the conqueror and consequences personally.  In spite of this bad news, the good news was that the king of Judah would be spared the punishment of death and later die peacefully with a king’s honor and remembrance.  The fighting went on before this, however, until only two fortified cities around Jerusalem were left at this point in the historical account of this chapter.  The final day of judgment approached God’s people.  We read this history of God’s people and wonder what we can learn for ourselves.  One thing is that God’s final judgment comes according to His word in His time and not by our prediction or rationale by assuming what we believe we deserve or claiming our own deliverance as we would like it instead of as God tells us.  Another thing to learn is that though as His chosen people we face the punishment of bondage for our sin (Romans 6:23), there is deliverance which then keeps us in His grace and honor because of His word and work.  In Christ we have been set free from the justice of judgment (Romans 3:20) on our sin embedded in our souls by inheritance from birth (Romans 5:14), yet we have also been predetermined to the grace of forgiveness (Romans 8:30, Ephesians 1:11) in Him with a future and hope of eternal life to see our King of kings and Lord of lords face to face at last (Job 19:26-27, 1 Corinthians 13:12, Revelation 22:3-4) as we heeded the word of warning and turned from sin to Him in the repentance of faith in His word of the gospel hope and redeeming work on the cross!