the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Jeremiah 39:1-18
Here we have the tragic taking of Jerusalem! Zedekiah and his soldiers escape through the garden. But too late! They are overtaken, chained up and brought to the king of Babylon. Eleven years earlier, this king of Babylon had himself set Zedekiah on the throne of Judah and had made him take an oath of loyalty swearing by God (2 Chronicles 36:13; Ezekiel 17:18-20). By revolting with Egyptian support (Jeremiah 37:7), Zedekiah had broken his word and shown to the enemies of Israel how little he valued the name of the LORD, to which Nebuchadnezzar had, in contrast, attached great worth. Hence the cruel punishment which the king suffered for being a coward and not keeping his word.
A personal word is addressed to Ebed-melech in vv. 15-18. God knows his fears (v. 17) – just as He knows all our worries – and He does not condemn them. But whereas Zedekiah’s fears had led him to rely on men to escape from other men, the fear which Ebed-melech experienced made him fall back on the LORD. "Thou hast put thy trust in me", the LORD says. This good testimony gives this humble foreign slave access to the promises of grace found in Jeremiah 17:7-8 (cf. Psalms 37:3; Psalms 37:39-40; Ruth 2:12).
