Jeremiah 27

CHAPTER 27

Judah to Serve Nebuchadnezzar (27:1–22)

1–7 The scene shifts now to early in the reign of Zedekiah, Judah’s last king. Envoys had come to Jerusalem from Edom, Moab and Ammon (south and east of Judah) and also from Tyre and Sidon (two cities north of Israel) to discuss how to throw off the yoke of Babylon (verse 3). Nebuchadnezzar had already attacked Jerusalem, carried off King Jehoiachin, and made Zedekiah a vassal king in his place (2 Kings 24:15,17). Earlier Jeremiah had warned Zedekiah not to resist Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 21:110), but Zedekiah had not listened. Now the Lord again sends Jeremiah to urge Judah and its neighbors to submit to the yoke of Babylon.

The Lord instructs Jeremiah to act out his message by placing an actual yoke on his neck (verse 2). The yoke was a symbol of political submission; just as Jeremiah placed himself under a yoke, so the nations were to place themselves under Babylon.

Jeremiah is to say to the envoys that the Lord Almighty can give the nations of the earth to anyone He pleases (verse 5), and He has chosen to give them to Nebuchadnezzar (verse 6). The nations will serve him until the time for his land comes (verse 7)—that is, until he is overthrown by many nations and great kings (see Jeremiah 25:12–14).

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.