Jeremiah 27

8–11 To resist Nebuchadnezzar, therefore, would be futile; it would be the same as resisting God, and it would result in the destruction of any nation that tried to do so (verse 8). Jeremiah tells the envoys not to listen to the false prophets and teachers in their countries who say that Nebuchadnezzar will never rule over them (verse 9). Their only hope will be to submit to Babylon’s yoke (verses 10–11).

12–15 Jeremiah then repeated to Zedekiah the same message he had delivered to the envoys.

16–22 Next Jeremiah went to the priests and people of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar had already taken some articles from the temple (2 Kings 24:13; Daniel 1:1–2), and the false prophets of Judah were saying that they would soon be brought back (verse 16). Jeremiah tells the priests and the people not to listen to these prophets. Instead of the articles being brought back, all the remaining articles would be taken away too—if Judah did not submit to Babylon.⁸⁷ And in Babylon the articles would remain—“until the day I come for them,” says the Lord (verse 22). That day came when the Jewish exiles returned to Judah (see Ezra 1:7–11).

There is a lesson we can learn from the Jews of Jeremiah’s day: we must not trust in outward things but in God alone. The Jews had placed too much importance on the temple and its articles. These material objects had taken the place of God in the religious life of the people. And so God allowed the temple to be destroyed and its articles removed. During their exile in Babylon, the Jews learned to trust in God once more.