Jeremiah 27, Submit to the Yoke of Babylon

Can you imagine the President of the United States holding a conference with several other leaders of nations and a religious leader interrupting the meeting to give all the leaders a message from God? Can you imagine the heads that would roll in security for letting this person through, and the embarrassment of the President that he let this happen? That is what Jeremiah has to do.

^27:1 Early in the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh: ² This is what Yahweh said to me: “Make a yoke out of straps and crossbars and put it on your neck. ³ Then send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. ⁴ Give them a message for their masters and say, ‘This is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Tell this to your masters: ⁵ With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please. ⁶ Now I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him. ⁷ All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him.

Jeremiah comes before these nation leaders wearing a yoke used for yoking oxen, as they confer about throwing off the yoke of Babylon. Yahweh declares that He is the ruler of all the earth and the determiner of who gets what territory, and He is giving all these countries into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. These nations are going to serve Babylon, wear Babylon’s yoke.

⁸ “‘“If, however, any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or bow its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation with the sword, famine and plague, declares Yahweh, until I destroy it by his hand. ⁹ So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums or your sorcerers who tell you, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ ¹⁰ They prophesy lies to you that will only serve to remove you far from your lands; I will banish you and you will perish. ¹¹ But if any nation will bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let that nation remain in its own land to till it and to live there, declares Yahweh.”’”

Jeremiah warns them that failure to submit to Babylon will incur God’s judgment. The various people in these foreign nations whose job is to discern God’s will must stop being listened to when they claim the nations will not serve Babylon. Submission to Babylon will mean the inhabitants of those nations will not be deported by the Babylonians, exiled from their own countries.

¹² I gave the same message to Zedekiah king of Judah. I said, “Bow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and you will live. ¹³ Why will you and your people die by the sword, famine and plague with which Yahweh has threatened any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴ Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying lies to you. ¹⁵ ‘I have not sent them,’ declares Yahweh. ‘They are prophesying lies in my name. Therefore, I will banish you and you will perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy to you.’”

¹⁶ Then I said to the priests and all these people, “This is what Yahweh says: Do not listen to the prophets who say, ‘Very soon now the articles from Yahweh’s house will be brought back from Babylon.’ They are prophesying lies to you. ¹⁷ Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and you will live. Why should this city become a ruin? ¹⁸ If they are prophets and have the word of Yahweh, let them plead with Yahweh Almighty that the articles remaining in the house of Yahweh and in the palace of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem not be taken to Babylon. ¹⁹ For this is what Yahweh Almighty says about the pillars, the bronze Sea, the movable stands and the other articles that are left in this city, ²⁰ which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take away when he carried Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem— ²¹ yes, this is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says about the things that are left in the house of Yahweh and in the palace of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem: ²² ‘They will be taken to Babylon and there they will remain until the day I come for them,’ declares Yahweh. ‘Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’”

Jeremiah gives the same message to his king, Zedekiah. The king’s prophets have been prophesying that the articles that the Babylonians took from the Temple in their two previous incursions would soon be returned, but that is a lie. In fact, the remaining Temple articles, the massive bronze pillars that stand before the Temple, the huge vessel holding water for ritual cleansing, and many other articles will be taken. And it is only in a future day that God will restore them. In fact, this happened after Babylon was defeated by Persia and Cyrus restored the Temple articles to Israel.

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Discussion Questions:

1. How would you react to a prophet of God telling you that if your nation was to survive it must not fight but submit to its enemy?
2. So God has given Russia its domain, and China, and India, and us our domains? What are the implications of that?