THE WORD ‘JEREMIAD’ comes from the assignment God gave Jeremiah as a prophet crying out to his nation regarding impending disaster. It means to make a long, loud, and passionate lament against the actions, in fact the heart that promotes the actions, that are bringing about destruction. He warns early in his prophetic calling, and he warns late. “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes.’” (Jer. 11:11-12) It is a warning of woes to come to Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel; these woes will arrive in their time, right on time, specifically because everyone, from king to servant, has descended to false worship and therefore failure to trust Yahweh in national affairs.
This is the last hour for both the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, but they are not listening. Jeremiah is not the first to prophesy destruction, nor will he be the last, but in his lifetime—sixth down to fifth century B.C.—he is the most significant prophet. Soon now, very near on the horizon of time, Nebuchadnezzar will send his massive well-armed forces to invade from the north. Judah will be overwhelmed and taken into captivity in Babylon, and Jerusalem will lie in ruins. The king and three thousand of the Jewish hierarchy of royalty and priests will march to exile. A remnant of people, perhaps the faithful few, will be left to tend to the land. This will last for seventy years. It is a hard object lesson from God to his chosen people.
The Jewish-Babylonian war began in 601 and ended in utter defeat for Israel by 586 B.C. It began despite God’s warning through Jeremiah. He strongly cautioned against the futility of this war, and clearly gave them God’s command that they submit their sovereignty to the foreign power. It is a dire command, laden with the vow of a scourge of disastrous divine discipline. “‘If, however, any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or bow its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation with the sword, famine and plague,’ declares the Lord, ‘until I destroy it by his hand.” (Jer. 27:8)
Paul later speaks of God’s sovereign authority over people and nations, and also cautions the responses that individuals, in fact whole people groups that establish a culture, need to make. “Let everyone be subject, for there is no authority except that which God has established. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (Rom. 13:1-2) Here, Jeremiah’s warning continues. “So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums or your sorcerers who tell you, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ They prophesy lies.” (Jer. 27:9-10a)
In Jeremiah’s time, the die is cast, and just as molten metal cools to a rough form in a mold, the inevitability of the shaping of an exiled nation is set. There will be no easy remedy, no way out of the yoke of slavery. It merely awaits now the unavoidable fastening of it around all their necks. Jeremiah stands alone as the voice of God. The king of Judah, Jehoiakim, listens instead to the false prophets, and calls for the war he will then die in. As his young son, Jehoiachin, succeeds him, the kingdom lies tattered, awaiting only the final fall. God spoke irrevocably. “I will banish you and you will perish.” (Jer. 27:10b) There is one last chance, one plea for reason, a call for submission. “But if any nation will bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let that nation remain in its own land to till it and to live there, declares the Lord.” (Jer. 27:11)
But no, hubris stands tall in self-aggrandizement, and destruction rains down literally as arrows from above. Nebuchadnezzar invades, sieges Jerusalem, which cannot withstand him, and the walls are first breached and then torn down. The kingdom is ruined, the exiles depart. King Jehoiakim lies dead. (cf. Jer. 39:1-10) But, Jeremiah is set free by Nebuchadnezzar to continue to dwell in the land. (cf. Jer. 39:1-40:6)
The destruction of nations is nothing new; history lies littered with the unburied corpses of kingdoms that once were. The story has become jaded and cynical. Moral decline from within is a consistently insidious and poisonous venom that kills its cultural host. The difference in this story is the underlying claim of a supreme God. Yes, other gods and cultures have claimed such a relationship, but the difference here is the prophetic warning and fulfillment, proven throughout particular times in history, and continued in other prophetic warnings and promises that also come to pass. With our God, the integrity of his character is validated by the historically completed prophecies of his prophets.
We live now in a volatile time of nations, unprecedented in human history. The old nationalist western hegemonies are disintegrating, and the rise of globalism is gaining force. There is currently a battle, not just in this realm but also in the powers and principalities above us, between populism and totalitarianism. Powerful new nations are emerging, with visions of conquest. This too is prophesied, and by our Lord himself. “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. All these are the beginning of birth pains.” (Matt: 24:6-8) Notice next the similarity to Jeremiah’s warnings. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” (Matt: 24:9) Always in such times the anxiety levels of the descending cultures rise; the future looks uncertain, and leadership vacillates between increasingly futile mis-informed and co-opted choices as the slide to oblivion becomes steeper and the rate of fall more precipitous.
Brothers and sisters, do not buy in; do not become stakeholders in the common maelstrom of confusion. Turn away, turn away, and fix your eyes upon Jesus. All else may fail, but he says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20)
You have been given not only a gift, but a prophetic voice. Like Jeremiah, be the voice of God in the midst of the cacophonous babble that surrounds you. Someone just might listen.
Q. Do I have a word from the Lord for the circumstances that surround me?
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