When National Crises Arise

MEMORY VERSE: “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” —Proverbs 14:34

JEREMIAH 1:1-10; 37 and 38

THE Prophet Jeremiah, who had been ordained by God as a prophet of Israel from before his birth (1:5), experienced many national crises in his lifetime, the most notable being the destruction of Jerusalem and the seventy years’ captivity to Babylon in 607 B.C.

For forty years this so-called “prophet of doom” went forth with untiring zeal and bold confidence to warn the Israelites of their wicked ways and to proclaim the impending disaster that would surely come upon them if they failed to heed the Lord’s instructions. However, his strong denunciations and warning cries of the great national crises that were to befall them went unheeded by the rebellious and stiff-necked Israelites and they were, instead, forced to endure the many hardships that the Lord caused to come upon them for their disobedience.

Jeremiah’s prophesyings were very unpopular and he was accused of weakening the hands of the soldiers, as well as those of the people, and he was singled out as one who deserved a traitor’s death (38:4). They in turn cast him into a cistern to die, but the king released him when an Ethiopian eunuch interceded on his behalf.—38:6-13

Zedekiah, who was the last reigning king of Judah, wanted to believe Jeremiah and follow his guidance, but political pressures prevented him from doing so. In the years prior to the destruction of Jerusalem a rebellion took place that brought quick response from the Chaldeans, who in turn placed the city under siege. Meanwhile an attempt was made to persuade an Egyptian army to help fight the Chaldeans, but they too were repelled. It was during this campaign that Jeremiah, who had gone outside of the city for a time, was captured and put in prison.—37:11-15

Jeremiah’s prophecies came to pass as proof that they were inspired by God. The city was taken and the temple burned, and the king and his princes shared a common fate. The Jewish nation, that had once been planted a noble vine, had turned degenerate. Had Zedekiah surrendered to the Chaldeans (Babylonians), as Jeremiah proclaimed this to be the will of the Lord, then they would simply have had a Babylonian governor to oversee the king, and their family life and city would have remained intact, including their right to worship at their own temple. This is a remarkable prophecy, and is found in verses 17 and 18 of the 38th chapter: “Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house: but if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.”—38:17,18

Had the Jewish nation, who had so many times received special guidance and blessings from the Lord in the past, let God take care of the Babylonian king and his princes in his own due time and way, and had they exercised a greater measure of faith in their God, who had manifested himself to them in so many remarkable ways, then they could have prevented the great disaster that befall them as a nation.

And the end of the scriptural account is indeed a tragic one: Zedekiah, resolving to continue the hopeless struggle against the overwhelming power of the Babylonians, was sorely defeated. Just before his captors bound and blinded him his two sons were killed before his very eyes, this being the last thing that he saw before his blindness cast him into the depths of darkness. The city of Jerusalem was burned and its walls destroyed, and except for a few poor people who owned nothing, the citizens were carried away as exiles into Babylon.

Perhaps the most important lesson pertaining to the Jewish nation, both in Jeremiah’s day and in our own, concerns the necessity of recognizing the Lord’s will in a particular matter and then exercising faith by leaving the matter in his hands. If this simple principle could be applied in the world its beneficial results would be widespread. We know from many other prophecies concerning the Jewish nation that there is yet another and even more astounding experience to come upon them when, in due time, God will bring upon the regathered nation of Israel an incident, called in the Scriptures “Jacob’s trouble,” wherein they will have no other alternative than to turn to the Lord and trust him to save them. Then they will learn righteousness, and their nation will be exalted.

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