I have now finished the synopses of 39 chapters of the Book of Jeremiah which has 52 chapters, so three-quarters of the book are done. Jerusalem has just been captured by the Babylonians, King Zedekiah no longer has eyes or sons, but the prophet Jeremiah is fine.
Last night Pastor Murilo and I led the service and Pastor Rafael preached on Psalm 32. Missionary Sacha and Marina led the praise and worship. It was a lovely service.
Azariah, Johanan and all the arrogant Israelites called Jeremiah a liar because he opposed them going to Egypt. Then "they entered Egypt in disobedience to the Lord". Now Jeremiah buried some large stones at the entrance to Pharoah's palace symbolic of Israel in Egypt and then said that Nebuchadnezzar would soon attack Egypt setting fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt and bring death and captivity to all. Thus the very place that the Israelites had sought refuge against God's will would be their doom.
Then Johanan and his accompanying army officers asked Jeremiah to pray for God's guidance for them and promised to obey come what may. 10 days later Jeremiah received word from the Lord telling them to stay put and God would bless them, but if they refused to stay and insisted on going to Egypt then all will die by sword, famine and plague. In this case "you will be an object of cursing, horror, condemnation and reproach, and you will never see this place again".
Jeremiah 41 tells of how Ishmael came with 10 men and murdered Gedaliah and all the Jews with him. However before word had spread about the killings 80 men arrived bringing grain offerings and incense to the temple, so Ishmael slaughtered them all and threw their bodies into a cistern. Then Ishmael took everyone else there captive. When however the word got round about all the killings Ishmael had carried out Johanan and some army officers came after Ishmael, but he and 8 of his men escaped. Then Johanan and all the survivors of Jerusalem fled to Egypt.
The commander of the Babylonian army, Nebuzaradan, found "Jeremiah bound in chains among all the captives" and released him and told him he was free to chose whether he went to Babylon or stayed in Jerusalem, and Jeremiah chose to stay. Then the king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah as governor of Judah and he encouraged everyone to "settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon". So all the Jews of the diaspora came back to Judah and planted and harvested bumper crops. Rumours however spread about a conspiracy to kill Gedaliah involving the king of the Ammonites, but Gedaliah didn't believe the story, although some Israelites wanted to carry out a preemptive killing of King Baalis's hitman Ishmael.
Jeremiah 39 tells of how the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem finally led to the city wall being broken through and all the Babylonian officials took up seats of authority in the city. Thus King Zedekiah and his soldiers fled but they were pursued and captured the king in the plains of Jericho taking him before Nebuchadnezzar. He slaughtered all the King's sons before his eyes as well as all the Israelite nobles. Then he removed King Zedekiah's eyes, put him in Bronze shackles and sent him to Babylon. The Babylonians then broke down the walls of Jerusalem and torched the royal palace and houses, but they left poorer people in the city. Jeremiah was left unharmed amongst his people.
Jeremiah 38 tells of how the prophet warned everyone that if they stayed in Jerusalem they would die and told everyone to go over to the Babylonians who will capture the city. The Israelite officials said Jeremiah "should be put to death" for reducing the morale of the Israelite soldiers, and King Zedekiah handed Jeremiah over to them and they put Jeremiah in a muddy cistern. However Ebed-Melech went and appealed to the king against this and the king sent 30 men to hoist Jeremiah out of the cistern. Then King Zedekiah consulted Jeremiah giving him life assurance, so he told the king that the only way for him to survive was for him to surrender to the Babylonians. Then Jeremiah stayed under house arrest in "the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured".
