The Fall and the Fallen

Jeremiah 39–41

Main Idea: We fall when we don’t kill the beast of pride.

1. The Fall (39:4-10)
   1. Capture and judgment (39:4-5)
   2. Torture (39:6-7)
   3. Destruction (39:8)
   4. Exile (39:9-10)
2. The Rescue (39:11-14; 40:1-6)
3. The Deliverance (39:15-18)
4. The Fallen (40:7–41:18)
   1. Gedaliah appointed governor (40:7-15)
   2. Gedaliah assassinated by Ishmael (41:1-8)
   3. Ishmael routed (41:11-18)
5. Conclusion: How Did He Get So Low?
   1. Creation of an echo chamber
   2. Rejected counsel
   3. Prideful heart

Then there was the fateful day. It happened. We have been reading for thirty-eight chapters of God’s pending judgment. Now the judgment falls.

When Rome fell, it was the most cataclysmic collapse of a world power. Politically, nothing greater happened before or since that time. It was so profound that it still is in our collective minds the metaphor for a great power falling. Many remember the collapse of the USSR, although that was more of a reshuffle. Many more will remember the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein. Yet evil in the Middle East continues to exist to the point that it is hard for us to keep up with the constant character changes that still have elements of evil and totalitarian rule.

However, the fall of Jerusalem is unique. For those on the inside it seemed sudden. The flow of this narrative is that King Zedekiah is caught by surprise with all of the activities of the moment. Yet one cannot forget that this was long in the making. Ever since the superficial reforms of Josiah, Jeremiah had been predicting that this time would come. The only people who didn’t expect this to happen were those willfully rejecting the message. Yet the main reason this was unique is that this is an act of God. God is using unwitting evil powers to accomplish his will. This is something that has been in the mind of God for a long time.

The Fall

Jeremiah 39:4-10

The fall is described in horrific terms of capture, judgment, torture, destruction, and exile.

Capture and Judgment (39:4-5)

When King Zedekiah and his guard saw that the Babylonian contingent had broken into the city, they attempted to escape to the south; nevertheless, they were captured, arrested, and sentenced. This fulfilled the downside of Jeremiah’s prediction in 38:17-18 when, in a private conversation, Jeremiah told the king exactly what would happen if he surrendered and what would happen if he did not.

Jeremiah therefore said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If indeed you surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned, and you and your household will survive. But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans. They will burn it, and you yourself will not escape from them.’”

If Zedekiah had surrendered as God had directed him to do, there would have been much less destruction. He had every opportunity to surrender, but he did not. He kept doing what he wanted to do the way he wanted to do it. There was no stopping him. There was no stopping the Chaldeans either.

From the capture came torture.

Torture (39:6-7)

Zedekiah’s sons were killed, his nobles were killed, and perhaps he wished he had been killed, but instead he was blinded. They did not take his life but his ability to see life.

Destruction (39:8)

The Chaldeans next burned down the king’s palace and the people’s houses and tore down the walls of Jerusalem.

Exile (39:9-10)

The Babylonians deported all those who remained in the city—those who had assumed God wouldn’t let Jerusalem fall (ch. 7). The description is horrific and poetic. There is a descent from invasion to capture, execution, destruction, and exile. Zedekiah woke up a king and went to bed a prisoner, destined to die alone at the hands of his captors.

Yet in the midst of the story is a note of rescue and deliverance.

The Rescue

Jeremiah 39:11-14; 40:1-6

Why Jeremiah is shown favor in this situation is uncertain. He is captive, but he is treated in a manner well suited to a faithful man of God, and he is eventually taken to the home of Gedaliah. We can only speculate that the Babylonian king had heard about Jeremiah and wanted to treat him well since what he had been saying surely did, in fact, come to pass.

The Deliverance

Jeremiah 39:15-18

The story of Ebed-melech the Cushite is an interesting insertion here. Why is it included? Remember, he is the one who saved Jeremiah from the cistern (ch. 38). However, God did not save him for this act alone. No, God saved him because “you have trusted in me” (39:18). Whatever the reason for the insertion here, it stands as a massive contrast to the king. Here is a foreigner who is willing to risk his life for Jeremiah. Like Rahab, here is someone who trusted in God. This trust was illustrated by the fact that he had both faith and works.

The Fallen

Jeremiah 40:7–41:18

It is often true in organizational life that some things, when they fall, keep falling. Someone is kicked while down. Inertia of problems takes over, and an organization cannot seem to recover. This is the way it was after the land was decimated.^[7] This is the case with Jerusalem. Jerusalem has not fallen. Technically it is still falling. Chapters 40–41 record the tragic story of the first attempt at governance after the departure of Zedekiah. This narrative moves in three scenes.

Gedaliah Appointed Governor (40:7-15)

In the previous portion (vv. 1-6), Gedaliah was quickly appointed governor, and Jeremiah had opted to stay in Jerusalem with the governor. However, Jeremiah is not mentioned in this portion of the story.

The city is smoldering. It is a mess. There is no sense of direction and purpose. Yet, as a calm after a storm, there is a sense of tranquility. The people who were left and not taken into exile have gathered summer fruits and wine (vv. 10, 12), and they have returned from all the places they had been driven during the conquest. It actually seems like a happy time.

Yet the happiness is short-lived.

Gedaliah Assassinated by Ishmael (41:1-8)

A rumor persists that there is an assassination plot against the governor. It is so strong that Johanan suggests that the would-be assassin, Ishmael, be executed as a preemptive strike. Gedaliah foolishly believes well of Ishmael. He could not have been more wrong. Ishmael takes ten men and strikes down the governor and his men while they are eating (41:1-3). But the terror does not stop there. Ishmael murders almost eighty men who were coming to worship.

Ishmael Routed (41:11-18)

Finally Johanan took men and pursued Ishmael. Ishmael escaped and fled. The decimated city was now further reduced to a small remnant. The king has been captured, the city has been burned, the replacement governor is dead, and a massacre of worshipers has followed. Now the warnings of Jeremiah do not seem so hollow.

Conclusion: How Did He Get So Low?

Jeremiah had prophesied that Zedekiah would be taken and that the city would be burned. This did not have to happen. Days before the destruction, the wicked king heard counsel from the godly prophet, and even after all that God had said had been rejected, he still offered the king one more chance: surrender.

We mourn the loss of Jerusalem and cringe at the foolish pride of the king. Still, we have to admit, it’s tough when your only option is surrender. There was no way to save face. There was no way to look good in this situation. If he had taken the surrender route, he would have had to stand and say to his people publicly that he had been wrong. That never happens. When is the last time you heard a sitting monarch admit that his entire foreign relations policy has been wrong and that he needs a course correction? It’s just inconceivable. What would that even sound like? Here is the speech Zedekiah never gave:

Look, I was wrong. We had an approach to survival that was “stand our ground and pretend that defeat is not going to happen.” We were wrong. Based on the latest intelligence, we believe defeat is going to happen. Destruction is imminent. If we try to escape or defend ourselves, the situation gets worse. We will surrender. Yet, in surrendering, we are entrusting our fate to the God who ultimately promises to deliver us.

As hard as it would have been to give that speech, the lost, tortured, blinded Zedekiah would have given anything to turn back time and obey God. Again, I don’t want to be too hard on Zedekiah. I have not been in that situation. Yet I do wonder, How did he get to that place in which he was so defiant toward God? We knew that the fall was coming, but this did not have to happen this way. God made that clear enough. So why did it? The answer could be called “The Anatomy of a Fall.” Here are a few obvious things.

Creation of an Echo Chamber

The king was living in a veritable echo chamber. You’ve heard that term before. The term echo chamber is used to describe a hollow enclosure that, based on the shape of the structure, allows sounds to reverberate. These can be used by scientists to test sound waves or by musicians to produce certain effects. The simple idea is that the sound is not lost. The voice once spoken comes back.

Metaphorically the term has come to describe an individual or a church, business, university, institution, news outlet, or other group that has created its own environment in which all they can hear is the sound of their own voice. The voice of the speaker is so loud that it is the dominant voice, and any other realities are ambient noises and little more than distractions to the main voice. We see this effect throughout the lives of these kings. They surrounded themselves with people who were only willing to tell them what they wanted to hear. There is usually safety in a multitude of counselors, yet the multitude is not effective if they are motivated by anything less than the truth. If they are motivated by a false sense of loyalty, or even a false sense of love, they have not helped when they have not told the truth.

This is why it was a shocking act of grace when God allowed the king to step outside his echo chamber. For some reason the king knew he was not getting the whole truth, so he stepped out to take counsel with Jeremiah (38:14-28). He heard another voice—the voice of truth—but it didn’t matter; he would not respond.

Rejected Counsel

Over and over again in Proverbs, the wisest king Israel ever had gave his son the advice to listen to counsel. Solomon made clear that the success or failure of his son rested on his willingness to receive counsel. Look at the insightful words of Proverbs 1:1-7:

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

For learning wisdom and discipline;

for understanding insightful sayings;

for receiving prudent instruction

in righteousness, justice, and integrity;

for teaching shrewdness to the inexperienced,

knowledge and discretion to a young man—

let a wise person listen and increase learning,

and let a discerning person obtain guidance—

for understanding a proverb or a parable,

the words of the wise, and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and discipline.

While we do not know about all of Solomon’s sons, we do know about his successors to the throne. They rejected the voice of God who was graciously trying to protect them. While we are reading this text, sometimes I feel like I am watching an old movie in which I know people are in danger and I can’t help but yell at the screen. This is Zedekiah. Why won’t he just listen to all the obvious lessons? The answer is the root sin of pride.

Prideful Heart

As Bill Elliff said, “Pride is the mother of all sins” (“The Sin that Prevents Revival”). Pride was driving Zedekiah’s rejection of counsel. Pride produces someone who can hear but not listen. The pride of his heart had a physiological effect: it caused his ears to filter out everything he did not want to hear. The echo chamber was not around him; it was in him. The echo chamber was created by a heart that did not want to respond to God. This is the key issue. We all struggle with pride. Yet when pride is in the heart of a leader, the implications are more profound. The pride of his heart caused him the loss of family, officials, eyesight, and kingdom (39:6-7).

His blindness is a metaphor for what he could not see all along: his pride was killing him. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. He was going to exile, but he could have surrendered. He could have saved his life and the lives of those who were with him. It’s more than ironic that he died blind. He was a great king. All he is now is a metaphor.

This picture of Zedekiah scares me. It scares me in the way a mirror does when you do not know it’s there—you know, when you scare yourself.

A pride monster is inside of me because it is I. We’re attached. Occasionally I take credit for something God has done. It’s food for the monster. At other times I feed the monster from compliments I send down to him and not up to God. Over time he grows so strong that I just imagine he is real. My self-perception is perverted by the organism I keep feeding until, once permeated by the beast, I cannot listen to those who could challenge him. I will only listen to those who want to feed him. He is so demanding.

Christ came to heal us, and we are only whole when the beast is slain. He cannot be kept in the corner and ignored. It doesn’t work like that any more than you would pluck an animal from the wild and let him roam your house.

No, the pet of pride kills and destroys, so the most loving thing you can do for your God and for those you lead is to kill the beast. Kill the beast. Kill the beast.

This is precisely what Zedekiah did not want to do. He did not kill the beast; he coddled the beast. Once fed and cultivated, the beast roared and took everything. The officials, the sons, the eyesight were simply the beast roaring out of control, insatiable, wanting more. He fed the beast that killed him. I understand because I do too.

So, as we saunter through the story of the tragic fall of Jerusalem, as we walk through the rubble and ponder the mysteries of God, we feel sympathy for a blind man who is so much like us.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Reflect on the main idea of this text: “We fall when we don’t kill the beast of pride.” Is this true of your own heart?
2. The irony of the fall in Jeremiah 39 is that, although well predicted, it took the people by surprise. Why?
3. What are some of the terms used to describe the horrific fall of Jerusalem?
4. Does our success or failure rest on a willingness to receive godly counsel? Why or why not?
5. Discuss and reflect on these statements: Pride is the mother of all sins. Pride drives rejection of counsel. Pride produces someone who can hear but not listen.
6. Pride is a beast that rises up within us. What must we do to defeat the monster of pride?
7. In what ways are our hearts like proverbial echo chambers?
8. The book of Proverbs says that “pride comes before destruction” (Prov 16:18). Name the specific acts of pride that led to the fall of Jerusalem.
9. The text gives three consequences of Zedekiah’s prideful heart. Name them.
10. Compare and contrast the wisdom of Solomon and the wisdom of his successors.