Chapter 35—Approaching Doom
The first years of Jehoiakim’s reign were filled with warnings of
approaching doom. The word of the Lord spoken by the prophets
was about to be fulfilled. The Assyrian power to the northward, long
supreme, was no longer to rule the nations. Egypt on the south, in
whose power the king of Judah was vainly placing his trust, was soon
to receive a decided check. All unexpectedly a new world power, the
Babylonian Empire, was rising to the eastward and swiftly overshad-
owing all other nations.
Within a few short years the king of Babylon was to be used as the
instrument of God’s wrath upon impenitent Judah. Again and again
Jerusalem was to be invested and entered by the besieging armies of
Nebuchadnezzar. Company after company—at first a few only, but
later on thousands and tens of thousands—were to be taken captive
to the land of Shinar, there to dwell in enforced exile. Jehoiakim,
Jehoiachin, Zedekiah—all these Jewish kings were in turn to become
vassals of the Babylonian ruler, and all in turn were to rebel. Severer
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and yet more severe chastisements were to be inflicted upon the rebel-
lious nation, until at last the entire land was to become a desolation,
Jerusalem was to be laid waste and burned with fire, the temple that
Solomon had built was to be destroyed, and the kingdom of Judah was
to fall, never again to occupy its former position among the nations of
earth.
Those times of change, so fraught with peril to the Israelitish nation,
were marked with many messages from Heaven through Jeremiah.
Thus the Lord gave the children of Judah ample opportunity of freeing
themselves from entangling alliances with Egypt, and of avoiding
controversy with the rulers of Babylon. As the threatened danger came
closer, he taught the people by means of a series of acted parables,
hoping thus to arouse them to a sense of their obligation to God,
and also to encourage them to maintain friendly relations with the
Babylonian government.
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