It Eventually Happened
The Lord continually warned the people of Judah and Jerusalem through Jeremiah of the horrifying judgments which would come upon them for practically forsaking the Lord like they had done. This was echoing what God had said in the Law of Moses regarding what would happen to Israel if they forsook His fear and refused to be obedient to His Law.
We read in Jeremiah 16:1-13: “The word of the Lord came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place. For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land; They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat (or, food) for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. For thus saith the Lord, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even lovingkindness and mercies. Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them: Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God? Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favor.”
Another very interesting and educational example of these warnings is seen in Jeremiah chapter 26 (reading the whole chapter): “In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah (Jehoiakim’s reign began in 609 BC by the way- about 23 years before Jerusalem and its Temple were eventually destroyed) came this word from the Lord, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word: If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened; Then will I make this house like Shiloh (Shiloh was the place appointed to be the center of God’s worship in Israel before Jerusalem was appointed as such- you can read in 1 Samuel how the Philistines prevailed over Israel and took the Ark of God away- they likely destroyed Shiloh entirely at this time as well), and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant (my note: the anger of the Jews as a whole against the small remnant of faithful Jews did not begin with the crucifixion of Christ- it can be seen with faithful Joshua and Caleb nearly being stoned to death in Numbers and by Israel’s overall frequent murmuring in opposition to faithful Moses)? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house unto the house of the Lord, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s house. Then spoke the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears. Then spoke Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet (or, fit) unto you. But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears. Then said the princes and all the people (and we can see here how easily influenced and unstable the people were) unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God (that is, consistent with God’s Word in what he spoke). Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah (my note: probably early in Hezekiah’s reign- approximately one hundred years or more before the event being read about in Jeremiah chapter 26), and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest (this is recorded in Micah chapter 3 by the way). Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them (my note: and Hezekiah became an overall righteous king and the Jews were spared from ultimate calamity in his time as king- this is an illustration of the true grace of God)? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls (that is, if they harden themselves against Jeremiah’s warning and put Jeremiah to death). And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt; And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt. And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him (killed him) with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan (one of the princes of Judah) was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.”
The Prophet Ezekiel lived in the same time that Jeremiah did. There were certain Jews who had already been sent captive to Babylon before the city as a whole was destroyed and the Temple were destroyed. Ezekiel, as well as the Prophet Daniel, were among those of the earlier, smaller in number group of captives taken to Babylon. Ezekiel spoke to the early captivity of the imminent, utterly severe calamity yet coming upon the Jews, upon Jerusalem, and upon the Temple.
We read in Ezekiel 12:17-28: “Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness; And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the Lord (my note: the already captive Jews in Babylon were desperately hoping the city would be saved from the Babylonians, hoping that the Babylonian yoke would be broken, and hoping that they would be able to go back to their native land very soon- and by the way, that is what the false prophets were telling them would happen). And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord God; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision. For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel. For I am the Lord: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord God. Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying. Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God.”
And it was done within just a few years from that point.
Jeremiah prophesied for 40 years before it was done (that is, Jerusalem’s destruction, the vast majority of Jerusalem and Judah’s remaining inhabitants being exiled, and the Temple destroyed by the Babylonians). 40 years!. Even now, that is half of an average lifespan. In Jeremiah’s time, it was more than half of an average lifespan.
The judgment which Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others warned about eventually did happen in its fullness. God had never stopped watching nor had any of His warnings of coming judgment ever been made void.
In living to see the calamity which he had warned about for so long, and which eventually happened, Jeremiah said the following concerning Jerusalem.
Lamentations 2:17: “The Lord hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn (or, the power) of thine adversaries.”
After there had been significant repentance and a significant degree of faithfulness among the Jews preceding and proceeding their return from their long exile, the Jews quickly reverted to their old ways. The Old Testament closes with a warning that the Babylonian captivity was not the end of God’s wrath upon the Jews. He demands the fruit of righteousness and doesn’t settle for counterfeits. The destruction of the rebuilt Second Temple is implied in the warning about the land being smitten with a curse if Israel refuses to repent when confronted with their Messiah’s forerunner and with the Messiah Himself (both of whom had already clearly been spoken of in Malachi chapter 3).
Malachi 4:4-6: “Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb (that is, Mount Sinai) for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers (that is, their faithful fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
John the Baptist and Jesus both warned of the coming judgment upon the Jewish nation as well.
Luke 19:41-44: “And when he (Jesus) was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”
Jesus also told His disciples in Luke 21:20-24: “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh (near). Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
The Second Temple was indeed also destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. Forty years after Jesus said the words which we just read.
The times of the gentiles have not ended. The Second Temple was destroyed and God’s appointed worship resides among whatever Christian groups He deems faithful which are scattered throughout the world. The Temple has not been rebuilt, the sacrifices which the Jewish nation might offer in its rejection of Jesus Christ would be rejected anyways, and it is not even within the Jews’ power to rebuild the Temple now despite the fact that many want to do so.
Don’t think that a delay in the judgment is a negation of the judgment.
The destruction of the First and Second Temples, accompanied by Jerusalem’s utter destruction and the displacement of the Jews accompanying each Temple’s destruction, eventually happened. Mass judgment of hardhearted, unrepentant Jews has not happened yet in its entirety either. Be sure of that.
Proverbs 15:3 says: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
Psalm 10:13-14: “Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God (treat God with contempt)? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.”
Ecclesiastes 8:12-13: “Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.”
Psalm 21:8-12: “Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.”
Judgment Day will eventually happen- according to the terms of the Almighty God who has wrought the previously mentioned terrifying judgments.
Romans 2:4-5: “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…”
2 Peter 3:7-10: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word (that is, by the sovereign authority of the One who sent the flood in Noah’s time by simply calling for it- the great flood is another judgment that was warned about for many years before it eventually happened) are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition (eternal damnation) of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward (toward us), not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Going back to Jeremiah, we read in Jeremiah 36:1-10: “And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the Lord: Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the Lord’s house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this people. And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem. Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s house, in the ears of all the people.”
We see in verses eleven to twenty six of Jeremiah chapter 36 how this book full of words of rebuke and judgment was eventually brought before King Jehoiakim and was read in his ears. Rather than presenting his supplication before the Lord and returning from his evil way, Jehoiakim had the book burned in the fire (as if that was going to change anything).
The Lord of course took note of this too. The chapter closes with the guarantee that Jehoiakim had not done anything to prevent the coming judgment by burning the roll. He had rather only made things worse.
Jeremiah 36:27-32: “Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence (from there) man and beast? Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not. Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.”
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