Hope in the Worst of Times
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Hope in the Worst of Times
Jeremiah 52
Main Idea: God’s plans are in process, so we wait through suffering.
- The King Is Fallen (52:1-11).
- The Temple Is Fallen (52:12-16).
- The People Are Taken (52:17).
- Jehoiachin Is Free (52:31-34).
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Thus begins Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. The line is remarkable for its sheer beauty and symmetry and for the fact that it accurately summarizes what the reader will find in the rest of the book. Indeed, that opening line is so powerful that often its context is lost. In its immediate context it makes more sense while also demonstrating the remarkable giftedness of its author. Dickens wrote,
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. (A Tale of Two Cities, 1)
The novel is set in the events leading up to the French Revolution, a revolution that, in hindsight, was a good revolution. The nature of the events that lead up to revolutions, the clumsy nature of those revolutions, and the jagged realties that necessitate them, made this the worst of times.
Perhaps Jeremiah could have related. His time was the best of times. God was protecting his people through discipline. He was propelling them back to the promised land by taking them from the promised land. He was leading them in by first leading them out. He was giving them a future and a hope but first exile and desperation. It was good precipitated by bad. However, the composer of the book ends it in a minor key. It is low, but it is not discordant. The note he sounds is consistent with the hope-through-judgment theme that drives the book. The book ends with a recounting of the fall of Jerusalem, and it develops in four movements.
The King Is Fallen
Jeremiah 52:1-11
In this passage we see great disparity. Zedekiah is rebelling against the king of Babylon, yet we know what is really happening. In chapter 38 he was given a private audience with Jeremiah. God blessed him with a confidant in the hour he needed it the most. He rejected Jeremiah, he rejected God, and eventually he rebelled against the king of Babylon. It is not every day that rebellion against a wicked king is rebellion against God. However, the presence of Nebuchadnezzar did not cause his heart to be cold; rather, it revealed a heart that was already cold against God.
The Temple Is Fallen
Jeremiah 52:12-16
The tragedy of the lost temple would mean more for the first readers than we can imagine. They were not just reading about a demolition of bricks but of their faith.
It was not their fault that their faith was visual. God commanded it to be so when he carefully instructed the way the temple should be orchestrated. Perhaps this is why it was all so confusing. They were demolishing what God had planned. God commanded that the temple be constructed. God commanded that the capitols be arranged in certain ways. God laid the blueprint for the outside and specified the décor for the inside. This was his vision, realized by his people. So, how could it be God who allowed this destruction to happen?
The answer of course was that all of this was instigated by Israel’s own rebellion. God was overseeing the exile of his people and the destruction of his temple in a way that would eventually lead to the furthering of his plan.
The People Are Taken
Jeremiah 52:17
The leading people of the city are taken and killed. Over the next few waves of exiles, 4,600 become deportees. Jerusalem is empty. The population of Babylon increases. Now what they really need is an exodus. They need a Moses to lead them out. And in God’s timing they will have one in the form of Ezra. Ezra will begin the scribal culture, he will seek the heart of God through the Word of God, and then, eventually, he will be used of God to extract his people. Yet for now the city is decimated, and the people are scattered.
Jehoiachin Is Free
Jeremiah 52:31-34
It is much like the flavor of the book to include some of the “best of times” in the midst of the worst of times. In the midst of this horrendous tragedy, thirty-seven years into the exile, Jehoiachin is set free. The king of Babylon is even kind to him and, remarkably, “changed his prison clothes” and carried him financially the rest of his life.
It’s almost like Jehoiachin is the prototype, the model, the beta test, for the thousands who will later cast off the bondage of the exile. They will return to their country, and they will be free.
There was a day when Jehoiachin woke up a prisoner and went to sleep a free man. One day he ate prison food, and the next he dined at the king’s table. This little hint, this little clue, subtly embedded at the end of the book, is a hope for a people who will come out of exile and all be set free.
The people would return to the land, they would provide space for the coming Messiah, and they would be the people who would welcome the one who can cause all exiles to come home and all prisoners to be free. It was no comfort to them at the time, but it is of enormous comfort to us that, one day, Christ will cause all the chains of this earth to fall and we will be free in the heavenly home for which we were created.
Jehoiachin is a part of this. He is in the story that leads to the ultimate story. The action of his life is the action that God is using to make all of us part of his story. And that’s what we can’t miss here.
Conclusion
What is remarkable here are all the verbs. This is a recounting of the actions that have taken place in Babylon’s battle against Jerusalem:
Zedekiah (vv. 1-3)
Reigned
Did evil
Rebelled
Babylon regarding Jerusalem (vv. 4-7)
Advanced against
Laid siege
Broke in
Zedekiah (v. 7)
Fled
Left
Made his way
Babylon regarding Zedekiah and his officials (vv. 8-11)
Pursued
Seized
Passed sentence
Slaughtered
Blinded
Bound
Brought to Babylon
Kept in custody
Babylon regarding the temple (vv. 12-19)
Entered
Burned
Tore down
Broke in pieces
Carried to Babylon
Babylon regarding the people (vv. 15, 24-30)
Deported
Took (x 3)
Put to death
Evil-merodach regarding Jehoiachin (vv. 31-34)
Pardoned
Released
Spoke kindly
Gave a portion
In this dense summary the verbs tell the story of a king in rebellion, a city being taken, people who are exiled, and a king who receives mercy. Yet, with all of this action, it is easy to forget that God is controlling it all. Even all the evil done to Jeremiah was done with God’s oversight. God knew it would take a strong prophet to withstand all that he had asked him to do, so he made him stronger through suffering.
The most quoted verse of the book of Jeremiah is probably 29:11, which reads, “‘For I know the plans I have for you’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” However, the passage is really only hopeful in its context:
For this is what the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place. For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place from which I deported you.” (29:10-14)
Note three things about God that are implied in this passage and that help us understand the ending to this book.
God’s Promises Are Fulfilled in God’s Time
He is not just saying they have a hopeful future. That is only part of it. He is saying, “Despite the fact that you will be isolated for seventy years, you will have a hopeful future.” He will restore them but not at the moment. God is always on time, but he is rarely early. All that he promised would come true but not until seventy years had passed.
God Brings Hope through Suffering
He is the one who sent them into exile. With all the action verbs of this chapter, this is something God is doing. God is allowing them to be punished as a result of their rebellion. Yet God is giving them a hopeful future through exile. And this is what he always does. To every believer God gives a hopeful future through suffering. There is no resurrection without a cross. There is no victory without waiting. There is no glory without pain. There is no heaven without the suffering of this life. This brings us to the bigger picture of the book.
God’s Plans for Us Are Part of a Larger Process
Jeremiah existed to call a nation back to repentance. That nation would not repent, so God allowed them to go into exile. Yet even the exile was redemptive because they would come back to the land. The return was something new, yet it was in the same trajectory of God’s plan. God was in the process of fulfilling his promise to Abraham. He was in the process of fulfilling his promise to Moses. He was in the process of fulfilling his promise to David for an everlasting kingdom. All that Judah was experiencing and all that Jeremiah was experiencing was not wasted. It was all bringing about a plan.
This plan would culminate when the Messiah, the Righteous Branch, would come for his people. He would come to his own, and his own would reject him. He would be led like a lamb to the slaughter for his people, even though they rejected him. All of the pain Christ experienced, all of the isolation he felt from his Father, all of this was allowed by the hand of God in the process of the plan. This was God’s plan to bring peace to the world—peace through suffering.
This was God’s plan for Judah: security through exile, peace through suffering. This is God’s plan for us. This is the way of God. God allowed all of this suffering, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13).
Praise God that there is life in suffering! This is the hope of judgment.
Reflect and Discuss
- Why is patient trust a necessity in times of suffering? In what way does suffering build character, according to Jeremiah?
- Discuss the theology of hope and judgment as portrayed in Jeremiah 52.
- Jeremiah 52 provides four movements in the fall of Jerusalem. Name them.
- Discuss how the action verbs in this passage relate to the four movements of the fall of Jerusalem.
- Does the interpretation of the well-known promise in Jeremiah 29:11 change in light of Jeremiah 52?
- Do you agree with this statement: “God is always on time, but he is rarely early”? Why or why not?
- How does God bring hope through suffering? Think about how he’s given you hope when you were hopeless.
- Was there a redemptive focus in the exile? If so, explain why.
- What does this passage teach us about remaining hopeful through suffering?
- In what way does God show his providential care for Israel through this text?