Truth and Consequences:
A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah
Lesson Twenty-seven: Hook up with Babylon—it works!
INTRODUCTION
Today’s study I’ve entitled “Hook up with Babylon—it works!” Now if you know much about this time of Jewish history and really anytime we related with kindness and sympathy with foreign nations, it had unusual and often dire consequences, and certainly and more particularly with Babylon it was almost never a good idea. But in today’s lesson, God through the prophet Jeremiah tells the Jewish people that it’s not only a good idea; it’s the only idea for survival. This is going against the grain, but it’s the only way.
Let’s dig in and find out what God has to say to us as 21st Century people and how he wants us to live today.
1. Jeremiah speaks to the foreign kings (.1-11)
Once again the date is recorded and the entire Quadruple formula is there, too. including date, word-event, and messenger formulas followed by a command.
From my reading of this, there seems to be an event, with five kings of the surrounding region, including the king of (read: Mayor) Ammon, Edom, Moab, Tyre and Sidon. All Gentiles; all former enemies of the Jewish people. These five kings had representatives at some kind of gathering, perhaps the G7 of its day or such. And once again, God tells Jeremiah to do something using an object to teach a lesson to his people. This time, it’s an oxen’s yoke. Now, I grew up in Kansas, but not in rural Kansas, rather in suburban Kansas City, and since 1979 I’ve only lived in suburban major cities or the urban centres themselves, so I will be the first to admit that I’ve never arranged an oxen’s yoke on any animal. I’ve seen them in country musea, but no, I’ve never carried one. What I know from reading and from seeing them up close is that a yoke is no light thing; oxen’s yokes weigh about 9 kilograms, ok about 15 pounds. And oxen weigh about 680 kilograms (1500 pounds), so a yoke of 15 pounds is nothing for them. But to put one of those yokes on a human who might weigh 80 kilograms would mean much more focused weight and I imagine a harder carry. And Jeremiah was meant to put this on himself and make a statement of serious conviction to the invited guests at this G7 of the day. What does he tell them? And why a yoke anyway?
Yokes are designed to be links between two animals. They share the burden together of work in the field. The Talmud teaches that two can do three times the work of one. Do you ever feel that way? Our work seems to be multiplied when we cooperate with another. And yokes are also used in Scripture to remind us of the ‘to whom’ we are yoked often, more than the work we are assigned.
I’m going to read to you from the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, a thousand-page tome of great help to any serious Bible student, on page 975, about the yoke. READING
The one reference the Dictionary cited for our chapter today is about political alliance (and next week’s release from the yoke is also cited). So here we are, 15 years after last week’s chapter, 593 BCE (we learn that from 28.1). Zedekiah is the puppet king placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar who wanted things in decency and good order, but rebellion ever rises in the Jewish people. They are supposed to join with Neb, but people want alliances with other nations round about them. God sends the warning through the prophet to hook up with Babylon. That’s the only way to win.
Look at verse 4. Into the G7 conference stumbles Jeremiah with a yoke or at least half a yoke on his neck. He is carrying the other half. He tells the G7 leaders to go to their masters, Hebrew word ADON, and that must mean either the bankers or the gods of these nations, and to advise them of their wrong alliances. Listen to the Broadcast of Jeremiah to the 5 kings:
Verse 5: I made the earth. I’m the creator. You think you rule over a section of the earth; I made the whole earth. Your land is only part of the earth; Israel and Judah are part of the earth. I’m Sovereign over the lot. Your gods are not really God at all. Even animals are under my authority.
Verse 5: I will give it to whoever I want. I’m Sovereign over all that happens among the nations. This is a universal truth, and we need to understand that in relation to Ireland and to Ukraine and to your world just now.
Verse 6: the particular about Babylon is stated. You, 5 kings, all thought that you run your world, but God is Sovereign, and IN THIS CASE, you have no claim for Neb is going to rule. Your alliances are laughable. It’s almost like a group of my friends putting up their hands to play 80 minutes of rugby league in our own State of Origin clash with the Blues. It’s a “no contest” contest.
What is God telling them? Hook up with Babylon if you want to win.
Verse 7: Even that is temporary. Neb is going down. He is not the eternal king; he’s an ephemeral one. He will fail. His kingdom will terminate. So, you MUST LISTEN to me. When it’s time to link with Neb, do so. That’s what verse 8 means about putting your neck in the yoke with him. Then when it’s time to walk away from an alliance with him, do so. The real truth is that God is YOUR Sovereign and you must listen to him. Amen?
Remember our theme of this book, Truth and Consequences. Verse 8 and 9 show us the consequences of failing to link with Neb. “Sword, famine and pestilence” The threefold threat of “sword, famine, and pestilence” ending in destruction is also found in 27:13; 24:10; 29:17 (plus six other times in Jeremiah),
One more thing about ‘yoke’ that I didn’t mention before.
The parallelism in 5:5 suggests that bearing the LORD’s yoke involves walking in the LORD’s way and living according to God’s justice. This interpretation is not far removed from the rabbis’ expression, “taking upon oneself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven,” which they used to indicate the significance of reciting the Shema. (Deut 6:4–9; Weinfeld, UF8 [1976] 406, citing m Ber. 2:2). Jesus’ invitation to “take my yoke upon you” (Matt 11:28–30) is spoken against the background of these biblical and Jewish uses.
Did I mention in chapter 19 this thought about The expression “stiff-necked,” surely relates to the yoke image by describing persons who refuse to bend their neck under the yoke. (When the yoke is removed, a person can walk upright again, Lev 26:13.) Israel is repeatedly called “stiff-necked” following their apostasy with the golden calf (Exod 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9; Deut 9:6, 13), and Jer 19:15 also uses this description.
The danger of false prophets is that they prevent people and nations from responding to God’s word. The consequences here are exile and death. The identical warning command stands at the beginning of the oracle in 23:16–22, which articulates the same reasoning. Prophets sent from God proclaim words that result in repentance (v 22).
2. Jeremiah speaks to Zedekiah (.12-15)
Verse 12 is one I see often in Scripture. Listen, put yourself under the yoke of the king of Babylon AND LIVE. This is not only “the result will be that you live” but also “then live a life of fulness to the Lord.” God really wants us to live, in New South Wales, in Wales, in New Zealand, in New York, wherever we are. How shall we live? By living according to God’s word.
Verse 13: Why will you do wrong? It’s an appeal, a heart-to-heart from prophet to king. It’s an in-house matter now. Again the three-fold warning of sword, famine and pestilence. Again an appeal. And again a rejection. No wonder Jeremiah weeps. Christopher Wright thinks this sounds like Deuteronomy and Moses’ appeal to the people,
Deut. 30:19 “aI call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, bthe blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your 1descendants, 20 aby loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and bby holding fast to Him; cfor 1this is your life and the length of your days, 2that you may live in dthe land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
LIFE, that’s what God wants for each of us, amen?
3. A word for the people of Judah (.16-22)
The final section today is found in verse 16-22. Again Jeremiah now takes the message to the ordinary people. He leaves the G7 and puts this message on his Twitter feed. Why? The same appeal he gave to the king Zedekiah, now he urges the people to go against the grain, to dismiss the false prophets (we’ve met some earlier in the book) and to join, to hook up with Babylon; it’s the only way we will live. And GOD WANTS YOU TO LIVE! Yes, Jerusalem will survive if you go with the other team. You will survive. Trust me. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true.
Dear friends, don’t miss the imagery at the end of that lengthy reading about the yoke. Yeshua used the yoke imagery like Jeremiah does in Lamentations 3 (.26-27) Yeshua invites us to yoke with him, to be joined with him, in a moment, in a forever moment, to be finding his yoke which is easy and his burden which is light. (Matt. 11.29-30).
Will you do that today? Won’t you offer a prayer of surrender to the God of all the earth, to the God who longs to be in good relationship with you. He will help you. He will walk with you. He will take the bulk of the yoke and you get the benefit of good from him. Won’t you do that today?
CONCLUSION
God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life.
PRAYER
Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up.
We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 27. Until then, Shabbat shalom!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnes, Albert, Albert Barnes’ Commentary on the Old Testament.
Craigie, Peter; Kelley, Page; Drinkard, Joel. Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah. 1991.
Henry, Matthew, Commentary.
McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary.
Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.
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ACTUAL TEXT
Jer. 27:1 In the beginning of the reign of 1aZedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying — 2 thus says the LORD to me — “Make for yourself abonds and byokes and put them on your neck, 3 and send 1word to the king of aEdom, to the king of aMoab, to the king of the sons of aAmmon, to the king of aTyre and to the king of aSidon 2by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 “Command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters, 5 “aI have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth bby My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will cgive it to the one who is 1pleasing in My sight. 6 “Now I ahave given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, bMy servant, and I have given him also the cwild animals of the field to serve him. 7 “aAll the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson buntil the time of his own land comes; then cmany nations and great kings will 1make him their servant.
Jer. 27:8 “It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which awill not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the bsword, with famine and with pestilence,” declares the LORD, “until I have destroyed 1it by his hand. 9 “But as for you, ado not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your 1dreamers, your soothsayers or your sorcerers who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10 “For they prophesy a alie to you in order to bremove you far from your land; and I will drive you out and you will perish. 11 “But the nation which will abring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will blet remain on its land,” declares the LORD, “and they will till it and dwell in it.”’”
Jer. 27:12 I spoke words like all these to aZedekiah king of Judah, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live! 13 “Why will you adie, you and your people, by the sword, famine and pestilence, as the LORD has spoken to that nation which will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 “So ado not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they prophesy a blie to you; 15 for aI have not sent them,” declares the LORD, “but they bprophesy falsely in My name, in order that I may cdrive you out and that you may perish, dyou and the prophets who prophesy to you.”
Jer. 27:16 Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the avessels of the LORD’S house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon’; for they are prophesying a blie to you. 17 “Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live! Why should this city abecome a ruin? 18 “But aif they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them now bentreat the LORD of hosts that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. 19 “For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the apillars, concerning the sea, concerning the stands and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, 20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he acarried into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. 21 “Yes, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem, 22 ‘They will be acarried to Babylon and they will be there until the bday I visit them,’ declares the LORD. ‘Then I will cbring them 1back and restore them to this place.’”
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