Zedekiah became king at a young age of 2, but sad to say, that inspite of all the bad examples that had gone before him, he still chose to follow in their footsteps, vs 1,2!

As a result, God was left with no option but to drive them out of their land, vs 3. Right from arrival of king Nebuchadnezzer outside Jerusalem in the ninth year of king Zedekiah’s reign, until the time that the famine in the city became so severe, in the eleventh year of his reign, vs 4-6, the king showed no signs of humbling himself and surrendering to the Babylonian king, inspite of the prophecies given by Jeremiah, at the Lord’s command, to do so! On the contrary, they broke through the city wall and tried to escape, but the Babylonians caught up with king Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and his entire army deserted him, vs 7-9.

He was then brought to Babylon where he was made to witness the death of his sons and nobles, after which his eyes were put out and he was bound in chains and imprisoned until the day of his death, vs 10,11!

In the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard who served the king of Babylon, burnt down all the houses, the temple, the royal palace, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, took certain people as exiles, broke the bronze pillars, its stands and basin and took the bronze to Babylon along with many other items of the temple, as well as the chief priest Seraiah, and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and many of these were executed once they reached Babylon, vs12-30! Thus we see that because the king of Judah refused to humble himself and obey God’s prophetic Word given byJeremiah at that time (for he chose to lean more on his reason that the Word of the Lord) the king, the people, the temple and the city faced tremendous loss of life and property too!

However, on the other hand, as king Jehoiachin, who was exiled for 37 years, learnt to humble himself during his time in prison, he was released from prison by Evil-Merodach, during the first year of his reign, and was given a more prestigious position than the other kings. He was permitted to eat daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life, vs 31-34, and on this note the book of Jeremiah ends!

This goes to show us that, even as we intentionally choose humility, (trembling at God’s Word, by obeying the same, at any cost) in any and every difficult situation that we face, and especially when we are disciplined by the Lord for the wrong that we have done, it is only a matter of time within which God’s grace will be poured out upon us so as to exalt us and deliver us from all the evil that the devil desires to come upon all the proud ones whom he endeavours to take captive to do his will!

For nothing will be impossible with God and for the one who chooses to humble himself/herself by believing and obeying the unchangeable and infallible Word of God! Amen.

Rowena Thomas
Mumbai, India.