Saturday, October 9, 2004
The Holy Apostle James, the Son of Alpheos
Kellia: Jeremiah 39:1-10 Epistle: 1st Corinthians 15:58-16:3 Gospel: St. Luke 5:17-26
Jeremiah 39:1-10, especially vss. 6, 7, 8:
"The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes; and the king of Babylon
slew all the nobles of Judah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters to take
him to Babylon. The Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people, and broke
down the walls of Jerusalem." Without question, the fall of Jerusalem was horrific. With one
stroke the Babylonians ended Judah's national existence, discontinued all social institutions, and
suspended the state cult of Temple worship. Nothing was left but a group of uprooted, exiled,
and beaten people who lacked most of the distinguishing marks of a nation.
As it was the Lord God Who allowed such calamity to fall upon His People, so also it was He
Who would enable them to survive, chastened and humbled, to build a new way of life. The
power of the events that came upon God's People when the "breach was made in the city, when
Jerusalem was taken" (vss. 2,3), is deeply felt when reading Jeremiah's prophetic psalms of
lamentation, for they express the universal pain, lived and felt at the fall of the nation. Much is
pressed into these words: broken down, burned, bound, slain, deported, and left.
"Jerusalem was taken" (vs. 3). Jeremiah cries out, "Her foes have become the head, her enemies
prosper, because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions" (Lam. 1:5).
As the Prophet had declared, the Lord was true to His word: He brought defeat, destruction, and
exile as just retribution for the people's many transgressions.
"The princes of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate" between the upper and
lower portions of the city (Jer. 39:3). The Prophet declares, "The Lord has done what He
purposed, has carried out His threat; as He ordained long ago...He has made the enemy rejoice
over you" (Lam. 2:17). The Lord ordained that pagan enemies would rule in the holy city.
"When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled" (Jer. 39:4). They cried:
"Thou hast wrapped Thyself with anger and pursued us, slaying without pity....panic and pitfall
have come upon us...I have been hunted like a bird" (Lam. 3: 43,47,52).
"The Chaldeans...overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and...they brought him up to
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, at Riblah" (Jer. 39:5). What a horror for God's People: "Her
princes have become like harts....they fled without strength before the pursuer. When her people
fell into the hand of the foe, and....the foe gloated over her" (Lam. 1:6,7).
"The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah and all the nobles of Judah" (Jer. 39:6). The
Prophet and others who survived could only weep: "on the day of the anger of the Lord none
escaped or survived; those whom I dandled and reared my enemy destroyed" (Lam. 2:22). "The
Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people, and broke down the walls of
Jerusalem" (Jer. 39:8), and, worst of all, God's Temple was destroyed: "As in a forest of trees,
with axes they cut down the doors thereof together....with fire have they burned down Thy
sanctuary, they have profaned...the habitation of Thy Name" (Ps. 73:7,8 LXX).
"Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people
who were left in the city" (Jer. 39:9). They were taken away from ashes: "The Lord Himself has
scattered them, He will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the
elders. Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help" (Lam. 4:16,17). This is just a small taste
of the People's pain. We commend the whole of Lamentations for meditation.
Thy steadfast love, O Lord, never ceases, Thy mercies never come to an end; they are new every
morning.. When Thou hast laid it on, there is hope. (see Lam. 3:22,23,28,29).
