Carried Captive Into Babylon
301
him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.”
Jeremiah
39:11, 12
.
Released from prison by the Babylonian officers, the prophet chose
to cast in his lot with the feeble remnant, certain “poor of the land” left
by the Chaldeans to be “vinedressers and husbandmen.” Over these
the Babylonians set Gedaliah as governor. Only a few months passed
before the newly appointed governor was treacherously slain. The
poor people, after passing through many trials, were finally persuaded
by their leaders to take refuge in the land of Egypt. Against this move,
Jeremiah lifted his voice in protest. “Go ye not into Egypt,” he pleaded.
But the inspired counsel was not heeded, and “all the remnant of Judah,
... even men, and women, and children,” took flight into Egypt. “They
obeyed not the voice of the Lord: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.”
Jeremiah 43:5-7
.
The prophecies of doom pronounced by Jeremiah upon the remnant
that had rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar by fleeing to Egypt were
mingled with promises of pardon to those who should repent of their
folly and stand ready to return. While the Lord would not spare those
who turned from His counsel to the seductive influences of Egyptian
[461]
idolatry, yet He would show mercy to those who should prove loyal
and true. “A small number that escape the sword shall return out of
the land of Egypt into the land of Judah,” He declared; “and all the
remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there,
shall know whose words shall stand, Mine, or theirs.”
Jeremiah 44:28
.
The sorrow of the prophet over the utter perversity of those who
would have been the spiritual light of the world, his sorrow over the
fate of Zion and of the people carried captive to Babylon, is revealed
in the lamentations he has left on record as a memorial of the folly
of turning from the counsels of Jehovah to human wisdom. Amid
the ruin wrought, Jeremiah could still declare, “It is of the Lord’s
mercies that we are not consumed;” and his constant prayer was, “Let
us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.”
Lamentations
3:22, 40
. While Judah was still a kingdom among the nations, he had
inquired of his God, “Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? hath Thy
soul loathed Zion?” and he had made bold to plead, “Do not abhor
us, for Thy name’s sake.”
Jeremiah 14:19, 21
. The prophet’s absolute
faith in God’s eternal purpose to bring order out of confusion, and
to demonstrate to the nations of earth and to the entire universe His