Sunday, October 10, 2004 (Tone 2)
The Martyrs Eulampios and Eulampia
Kellia: Jeremiah 39:11-14; 40:1-6 Epistle: 2nd Corinthians 11:31-12:9
Gospel: St. Luke 6:31-36
Jeremiah 39:11-14; 40:1-6, especially vss. 2, 5:
"The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him....'If you remain, then return to
Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon appointed governor of
the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever you think it right to
go.' So the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a present, and let him go."
St. John Chrysostom's observation about God's providence describes with amazing accuracy
how the holy Prophet Jeremiah survived the days of the fall of Jerusalem: "[God] is Master of all
things both on high and below, and extends the exercise of His providence and care everywhere."
Despite the ardent desire of a hostile bloc of officials within the now-defunct government of
Judah who would have put Jeremiah to death, God spared him for a continuing ministry. Yes,
they thrust him into a cistern, and terrors stalked the streets at the fall of Jerusalem, yet he
endured the misery of being "bound in chains along with all the captives...who were being exiled
to Babylon" (vs. 40:1). Overtaken by all this violence, still he was "sheltered in the shelter of
[God's] wings" (Ps. 60:4 LXX). In the words of St. Maximos the Confessor: the Lord cared for
him providentially, "showing...that divine help is stronger than anything else."
Saying that the situation in the city of Jerusalem at the time of the breaching of the walls was
chaotic barely captures the truth that the survivors experienced. The command staff of the king
of Babylon set up their headquarters "in the middle gate" (Jer. 39:3); King Zedekiah and his
soldiers, seeing them, "fled at night by way of the king's garden through the gate between the two
walls" (Jer. 39:4); a detachment of Chaldeans pursued closely behind them. The populace was
starving (Lam. 1:11); young and old, men and women lay dead in the streets, slaughtered without
mercy (Lam. 2:21); streams of the people were rounded up, put in chains, and led north to the
town of Ramah (Jer. 40:1), from whence convoys of prisoners were being marched over 800
miles into slave settlements in the lower Mesopotamian valley (S. Iraq today); and everywhere
fires were burning while the destruction and looting of the city advanced (Jer. 39:8).
In the midst of all this, providentially, the Prophet of God, Jeremiah, was taken from the court of
the royal guard along with others, including probably even his jailers. Their hands were bound
with chains and they were marched off in a small group to the dispatch center at Ramah; but
there, on orders from the highest Babylonian authority, the captain of the guard recognizing
Jeremiah, released him to "go wherever [he] thought it good and right to go" (Jer. 40:4). No
doubt the Prophet's reputation was well known to Babylonian intelligence, so that God was able
to work through the power of King Nebuchadnezzar to effect the release of His servant.
Divine providence even arranged for Jeremiah to choose either exile with Ezekiel, Daniel, and
others of God's Prophets or to pursue the new life in Judah "among the people who were left in
the land" (vs. 40:6). Discerning that the Lord had provided for witnesses among the exiles, he
chose to remain with "those of the poorest of the land, who had not been taken into exile" (Jer
40:7). As always, God's heart went out to the poor and lost of His People. In this instance, the
Lord gave them his Prophet to help them sort out the choices facing them in their new life. In
the person of the Babylonian-appointed Jewish governor, Gedaliah, God also provided an
agreeable authority under whom Jeremiah could minister (Gedaliah's father, Ahikam, earlier had
saved Jeremiah's life (Jer. 26:24)). May the Lord provide for us so in all our necessities!
Almighty God, our Help and Refuge, without Whom I can do nothing, assist, direct and provide
for me that I may live faithfully, according to Thy will and to the glory of Thy Name.
