Jeremiah 25:1-14--Seventy Years of Captivity

Jeremiah 25:1-14
English Standard Version

Seventy Years of Captivity
25 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 3 “For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. 4 You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, 5 saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’ 7 Yet you have not listened to me, declares the LORD, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

8 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, 9 behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. 10 Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste. 13 I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. 14 For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

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I've made much reference to this passage since we started looking at the book of Jeremiah, and even as we studied some other books recently, so I wouldn't be surprised if you have a "we're finally here" moment.  After many chapters of prophesied judgment intermixed with some glimpses of hope, the conquering and exile has begun.  Now the question becomes one of how long we will have to wait before the people will be able to return, because we know they will never be good enough to earn the LORD's favor.  We can infer from some of the other prophecies that the first generation will die out in captivity and will not return to the Land (several places say they will never see it again).  The LORD gives Jeremiah this prophecy to give to the people so that they might have hope during their time of exile.

First, Jeremiah starts by reminding the people that this did not just come on them suddenly.  He has been prophesying to them for 23 years and warning them to repent so that this day would not come, but they did not listen.  They not only heard and did not listen, but they chose not even to hear.  However, it was really the LORD that they were refusing to listen to, and they provoked Him to anger by continuing to worship other gods.

However angry the LORD was with them (and He had every right to have a jealous anger because they had committed acts of infidelity by whoring themselves out to these idols and pagan deities), He tempered His response and gave a logical time table based no on His need for vengeance, but for the Land to get the rest that it needed so that it could be even more fruitful for them.  Yes, the LORD would bring Babylon to conquer them and take them into exile (and not just Judah, but all the surrounding nations that also were peoples descended from Abraham and Lot that had not experienced the full weight of the consequences of their idolatry and sin).  The LORD would remove all joy and make it a place of sadness, mourning, ruin, and waste.  Judah and these other nations would become the servants of Babylon for 70 years.  There it is!  Amid this prophesy of judgment is a glimmer of hope.  This exile would not be something permanent.  Daniel the prophet would read this and wonder if this only meant 70 years until the end of the Babylonian kingdom or if the 70 years would mark the end of their captivity and they would no longer be servants to Babylon.  The LORD would do both--He would use another kingdom (the Medo-Persian Empire) to conquer the Babylonians and also put it within the heart of a Persian king, King Cyrus, who will be named in prophecy long before he was born, to be a savior to the people of Israel and Judah.  Cyrus would order the exiles to return, would give them the money and material to rebuild the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem, would let them live tax-free, and would order the taxes collected from others in the region to be given directly to the people of Israel.

The LORD promises that all the He prophesied against His people will come true.  He promises they will be scattered, and many nations will take them as slaves.  However, don't miss that He also promises at the end of the 70 years that Babylonians and Chaldeans would be judged and punished for their wickedness.  You may have had the feeling at this time to wonder how the LORD could use the Babylonians as His chosen instruments when they were so wicked.  The same could be asked for any of us.  God chooses to use individuals and nations at His choosing.  Sometimes He saves them and changes them into His likeness when He uses them.  Sometimes He causes them to think they are rebelling against Him when they are actually doing the very thing He wants them to do (like the Jews and the Romans working in concert to kill Jesus, thinking they had won when He was crucified only to find out after His Resurrection that it was God's plan all along to use them to sacrifice the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world).  Even the pagans can be used by the LORD and the LORD can reach them, and, when He does, they have great songs to sing when their hearts that were in darkness see His marvelous light (see the songs and proclamations of in the books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah as some examples.  In many ways the LORD would use this time of captivity to captivate the hearts of those that took His people into Exile and to save a remnant unto Himself from the Gentile nations.