AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH (Part III)

Theological Bites

The book of Jeremiah is one of the largest books in the Bible and it is considered by many scholars to be the second-largest book, next to that of Psalms since the Book of Isaiah is attributed to more than one prophet by many scholars. Jeremiah is large since even the Lamentations are part of the same content. However, the size of the book has no theological implication but rather has way too much to do with the historical time it covers and the events it records. Therefore, it matters that we give a brief background to the book.

Background (Historical Times)

Prophet Jeremiah served in the very difficult and defining moments of the kingdom of Judah. After the death of King Hezekiah, the kingdom fell into the hands of a politically astute king but religiously apostate and that was Manasseh who ruled for fifty-five years. The reign of Manasseh determined a number of things in the kingdom, both in the current days and the future of the nation. In his reign, the worship of Yahweh and the theocratic governance was lost. While Manasseh was a wrong leader religiously, he politically protected his nation from the woes of international politics.

Manasseh and African Presidents:

Manasseh reminds me of many African leaders who have to alternate between the conflicting interests of western superpowers in leading African states. An African leader must be sensitive and shrewd in his choice of which powers from the West and East to align with. This, however, always happens at a cost. Either the African president will compromise his policies giving supremacy to the interests of the superpower or he will risk being attacked by the superpower nation. Manasseh recognised this and gave up everything national including the religion of Israel to ensure the peace of Judah was maintained. He was faithful in taxing his people and paying tributes and loans of his foreign country bosses and this angered not only the prophets of God but God himself.

He was succeeded by his son Amon who reigned for only two years and followed in the footsteps of his father. After his death, his young son Josiah, aged 8, took over. The young man under the influence of the old men was inspired to change how things operated and he launched a national revival after the book of the Law was miraculously’ discovered in the temple. This was the first revival after fifty-seven years of Apostasy and though it has a national intention, it was shallow for the body of the nation remained idolatrous. The prophet of these times was Jeremiah (11:6) but he was opposed, ridiculed and persecuted even during the Josiah reformation times.

Josiah’s Goodwill with a bad plan:

Josiah’s reformation movement collapsed due to its major blow framed in the flowing events. In 612, there were super-power conflicts and geographically, Israel (Judah) was situated at the centre of the early Mesopotamian civilisation. So what happened in those days was that the great Assyrian city of Nineveh fell to a combined force of Babylonians and Medes. Three years later, Pharaoh Neco II of Egypt marched north to assist the Assyrians and to try to reassert Egypt’s age-old influence over Canaan and Aram (Syria). However, he had to go through Judah since that was the quickest and most strategic route to the battle, so he sent envoys to Josiah to ask a peaceful passage.

Neco had to pass through Judah with his heathen troops to access the battlefield. The political advisors of Josiah instructed that him giving Neco passage to intercept and inconvenience the interests of Babylon (a current ally of Judah since his grandfather Hezekiah’s days) would influence Babylon’s anger to them. The hyper reformation palace priests and prophets advised Josiah that he could not let the unclean heathen troops to go through the land of God which was already under cleansing in the on-going revival. Poor Josiah resolved not to give Neco passage and since Neco insisted, Josiah decided to fight him. At Megiddo, King Josiah of Judah attempted to intercept the Egyptian forces but he and his troops were crushed within six hours at the battlefield (2Kings 23:29–30;2Chronicles 35:20–24).

Prophet Involved in both Political and Religious Affairs

The prophet was involved in the affairs of the time of Josiah. However, he was at the peripheral since he clashed with the palace prophets and priests who surrounded king Josiah. Jeremiah loved Josiah‘s heart and intentions but had alternative views on how to implement the revival (Jeremiah 11:1–8; 17:19–27). However, Jeremiah’s voice and views could not reach the palace. When the king was killed, Jeremiah was one of the chief lamenters (2Chronicles 35:25)

After this, Neco went up but he was late for the Babylonians had already conquered his friends and he too was overwhelmed by the forces of Babylon and he fled. As he returned, he took over Judah and the son of Josiah named Jehoahaz was installed but he ruled Judah for only three months after which Neco installed Jehoiakim, another son of Josiah, as his royal vassal in Jerusalem (609 B.C). Babylon too was raging and had not given up on the Judean vassal.

The Babylonians overwhelmed the Egyptian army at Carchemish (Jeremiah 46:2), and now Judah and his new ally were exposed. In the same year (605 BC), Nebuchadnezzar became king of Babylon and Jehoiakim revolted against Egypt and shifted his allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar. As you can see, it is a game of cards where the leader of a weak country has to evaluate which of the super-powers is in charge to side with. Egypt hit back at Babylon and when it had a stand-off with Babylon; Judah’s political and war analysts concluded Egypt had an upper hand this time, Jehoiakim following their advice switched poles and sided with Egypt against Babylon.

Jeremiah jumped in and told him he was wrong but the king was harsh to the prophet and cut and burnt his scroll (Jeremiah 36:20-23). Throughout the reign of King Jehoiakim, Prophet Jeremiah was a friend and a consultant to the King but when the King ignored Jeremiah’s advice, the prophet was always on the King’s case and the king returned the favour by persecuting the Prophet all the time with beatings and imprisonments (Jeremiah 20:1–2; 26:8–9; 32:2–3; 33:1; 36:26; 37:12–21; 38:6–13, 28). The prophet was directly concerned with both political and religious affairs of the country. Throughout his ministry (Chapters 21-45) the prophets turn political affairs his business and attacks all the four Kings that reign within the period of his prophetic ministry.

The bet on Egypt against Babylon by Jehoiakim failed and things turned out differently for Babylon emerged the winner (2Kings 24:7). Nebuchadnezzar did not take Jehoiakim’s disobedience lightly for he responded by sending a force against Jerusalem, and in 597 B.C, however, Jehoiakim had already died and his son Jehoiachin was ruling. When Babylon invaded, Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin and about 10,000 Jews (2Kings 24:14), including Ezekiel, were exiled to Babylon, where they joined those who had been exiled in Jehoiakim’s “third year” (Daniel 1:1) leaving Jeremiah behind.

Jeremiah stayed behind and was finally taken with those who fled to Egypt (Jeremiah 39:11-12; 40:4-6; 43:6-7). Zedekiah (Jehoiachin’s uncle), was installed by Nebuchadnezzar on the throne in Jerusalem, but within five or six years he too rebelled (2Kings 24:20).

In chapters 21 to 24, Jeremiah has oracles to the four kings and he mentions Josiah and Zedekiah in name (21:3) but Jehoahaz, he calls ‘Shallum’ (22:18) and Jehoiakim he calls ‘Coniah’ (22:24). All these kings never listened to the prophets and actually Zedekiah once accused Jeremiah of being ‘Quisling’ and conniving with Babylon against Judah (Jeremiah 37:12-15). The Babylonians finally laid siege to Jerusalem in 588, and 586, the walls were breached and the city plundered. The city and temple were burned (2Kings 25). And these are the events that lead to the book of Lamentations.

God bless you I invoke TRUTH, WISDOM, and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)

Priest Isaiah White (+256-775 822833 for further inquiries)

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