The document summarizes key events during the reigns of the last three kings of Judah - Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah - leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC. It describes how the kings rebelled against Babylon multiple times despite warnings from prophets like Jeremiah. Babylon besieged and invaded Jerusalem, exiling thousands of Jews to Babylon. Jeremiah warned Zedekiah not to ally with Egypt, but he did not listen. Jerusalem was ultimately destroyed, the temple burned, and the kingdom of Judah fell as God's punishment for their disobedience.

1. Lesson 10

2. Key Text:
“Also, seek the peace
and prosperity of the
city to which I have
carried you into exile.
Pray to the Lord for it,
because if it prospers,
you too will prosper”
(Jeremiah 29:7, NIV).

3. Jehoiakim Jehoiachin Zedekiah
THE LAST THREE KINGS OF JUDAH
Within a few short
years the king of Ba-
bylon was to be used
as the instrument of
God’s wrath upon im-
penitent Judah. Again
and again Jerusalem
was to be invested
[surrounded] and en-
tered by the besieging
armies of Nebuchad-
nezzar.
Company after company—at first a few only, but later on thousands
and tens of thousands—were to be taken captive to the land of
Shinar, there to dwell in enforced exile. Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin,
Zedekiah—all these Jewish kings were in turn to become vassals of
the Babylonian ruler, and all in turn were to rebel.

4. Severer and yet more severe
chastisements were to be
inflicted upon the rebellious
nation, until at last the entire
land was to become a desola-
tion, Jerusalem was to be
laid waste and burned with
fire, the temple that Solomon
had built was to be destro-
yed, and the kingdom of
Judah was to fall, never again
to occupy its former position
among the nations of earth.”—
As we have seen, and will see, none of this came upon them without plenty
of warnings and pleadings by the prophets, especially Jeremiah. Their
refusal to obey brought only ruin. May we learn from their mistakes!

5. “Furthermore He said to me, ‘Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the
great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far
away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.’”
(Ezekiel 8:6)
Ezekiel the priest was taken to Babylon during the second
deportation (597 BC). He was called to be a prophet there.
There was an idol
at the entrance of
the temple.
70 elders were
worshipping reptiles
and beasts.
Women were
praising Tammuz.
25 men were
worshipping the
sun at the atrium.
He was carried to the temple in vision. He saw the acts
of the Jewish leaders (Ezekiel 8). He also saw the
destruction of Jerusalem.

6. Weeping for Tammuz
Though Jeremiah might
have felt very much alone
at times, he wasn’t. God
had raised up Ezekiel, a
contemporary, among the
captives in Babylon, in
order to comfort and to
warn the exiles as well as
to confirm what the Lord
had been speaking through Jeremiah all these long and hard years. Through
his ministry, Ezekiel was to warn the captives against the folly of believing
the false predictions of an early return from Babylon. He was also to
foretell, by various symbols and messages, the devastating siege that would
eventually befall Jerusalem because of the people’s refusal to repent and
turn away from their sin and apostasy.

7. Read Ezekiel 8
What was the
prophet shown?
What does this
tell us about
how powerful
the prevailing
culture can be,
and how it can
impact even the
most sacred
things?
What warnings
should be here
for us?

8. No matter how often, and
clearly, the writings of Moses
and the prophets warned
against idolatry and worshiping
other gods, these verses show
that this is exactly what was
being done, even within the
sacred precincts of the temple.
“Weeping for Tammuz” was a
lamentation ritual for a
Mesopotamian god. No
wonder 2 Chronicles said:
“Moreover all the chief of the
priests, and the people,
transgressed very much after
all the abominations of the
heathen; and polluted the
house of the Lord which he had
hallowed in Jerusalem”
(2 Chron. 36:14)

9. Look carefully at Ezekiel
8:12. The translation about
the chambers of their own
“imagery” is a little ambi-
guous. It could mean the
chambers where they sto-
red their own idols, or it
could mean the chambers
of their own imagination,
their own hearts. Either
way, the elders, the leaders,
had fallen so far that they
said the Lord didn’t see what they were doing, that the Lord had abando-
ned them. It is another way of saying, “The Lord doesn’t care about these
things; they aren’t important.” Right there, in the sacred precincts of God’s
temple, these people engaged in the grossest idolatry, doing everything
that they had specifically been forbidden by God’s word to do. Even worse,
in their own minds they justified their deeds. Here we see again what Paul
meant when he talked about those who worshiped the creation instead of
the Creator (see Rom. 1:22–25).

10. “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Thus you shall say to the king of Judah,
who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has come up
to help you will return to Egypt, to their own land. And the Chaldeans shall come
back and fight against this city, and take it and burn it with fire.”’” (Jeremiah 37:7-8)
In the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign, he
was carried to Babylon to renew his
obedience agreement. That probably
happened at the same time as the events
in Daniel 3.
Shortly after that, he broke his
agreement. He rebelled against Babylon
and joined Egypt.
Nebuchadnezzar besieged
Jerusalem. Nevertheless, he gave
up when he knew the Pharaoh
was against him.
In that Moment, Zedekiah asked
Jeremiah for advice. Would have
God changed His mind?

11. Read Jeremiah
37:1–10. What
was Jeremiah’s
warning to King
Zedekiah?
Under pressure from his subjects, most likely the nobility, Zedekiah
ignored the warnings of Jeremiah and made a military alliance with
the Egyptians instead, in hopes of staving off the Babylonian threat.
(See Ezek. 17:15–18.) As he had been duly warned, salvation didn’t
come from the Egyptians after all.

12. How difficult it must
have been for Jeremiah,
too, because he was
accused of weakening
the morale of the nation.
After all, when the
people were facing an
enemy from without,
whom they wanted to
fight against, and
Jeremiah had been going around for years and years saying it’s a
lost cause, that they couldn’t win, and that even the Lord was
against them—it’s understandable that you would want to shut him
up. So hardened in sin, they didn’t hear the voice of the Lord talking
to them; indeed, they thought it was the voice of an enemy instead.

13. However difficult the pit was, think about
how much harder it was for Jeremiah to
hear the charge against him that he was
seeking the hurt, not the welfare, of his
own people.
What’s it like to be accused of hurting the
very ones you are trying to help?
REFLECTION

14. “Therefore the princes said to the king, ‘Please, let this man be put to
death, for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this
city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For
this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but their harm.’”
(Jeremiah 38:4)
The king respected Jeremiah, but he
couldn’t contradict his princes. He handed
over Jeremiah to them.
The princes didn’t dare to spill innocent
blood; their conscience accused them.
They threw Jeremiah into a muddy cistern
so he would die by “natural causes.”
Jeremiah longed for the welfare of his
people, but he was accused of trying to
harm them.
Nevertheless, he remained faithful to the
message he received from God.

15. “Then they burned the house of God, broke down
the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with
fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions.”
(2 Chronicles 36:19)
The Babylonian army entered Jerusalem a two-year siege.
Zedekiah tried to escape, but he was arrested. His children died and he was blinded
and taken to Babylon.
The people refused to repent
for the third time, so
Jerusalem was destroyed.
The Temple—the religious
core of Israel—was also
destroyed.
The false prophets died and
the abominable idols they
trusted were destroyed.

16. “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan the
captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him
bound in chains among all who were carried away captive from Jerusalem
and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon.” (Jeremiah 40:1)
Let’s picture the scene... The Babylonian army surrounds
Jerusalem. Some residents come out the city and arrive to
their camp.
They asked them why they are leaving. They reply that God
told prophet Jeremiah that they should surrender to the
Babylonians.
Why did Nebuzaradan release Jeremiah? Why did he treat him respectfully?
The Babylonians could understand that they
were being used by God to punish Judah
thanks to those testimonies (Jeremiah 40:2-3).

17. “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to
you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all
your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13)
God knows the end from the beginning. The people in Jerusalem were fighting against
the Babylonians, waiting for the prophecies of the false prophets to be fulfilled. At the
same time, God was using Jeremiah to show the future to those who already were in
Babylon and those who were going to be deported too.
“Behold, the Lord’s
hand is not shortened,
that it cannot save;
nor His ear heavy,
that it cannot hear.”
(Isaiah 59:1)
They were punished by their
sins, so they could return only
after sincerely repenting.
God was willing to forgive His
misdirected children like He
said many centuries before
Jeremiah (Deuteronomy 30:1-4).
He is still merciful and patient
to us today.

18. “For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at
Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you,
and cause you to return to this place.” (Jeremiah 29:10)
There was no Temple anymore, but God
asked the people to keep praying in
exile. They should pray for the city
where they lived in now to prosper, “for
in its peace you will have peace.”
(Jer. 29:7).
They should live in Babylon as if they
were never coming back (Jer. 29:5-6),
but believing that they would come
back when the right time finally came.
Seventy years after the first deportation
(605 BC), Daniel interceded with God
(Daniel 9) and with Cyrus on the
people’s behalf.

19. The Seventy Years
Jeremiah’s prophecies should
have had a double effect on
the thinking of the captives:
on the one hand they should
not believe what the false
prophets were saying, and on
the other hand they should
not be dispirited. He asked his
captive countrymen to pray
for Babylon. This request
might have surprised those
who had been deported.
What Jeremiah was asking from the captives was unheard of in the earlier history
of Israel. It had been absolutely unknown to pray for an enemy who had done
what the Babylonians had done to them, God’s chosen nation. The prophet broke
all their understandings regarding the temple and Jerusalem; they could pray in a
pagan country, and the Everlasting God would listen to them.

20. “Among the children of Israel who were carried captive to
Babylon at the beginning of the seventy years’ captivity were
Christian patriots, men who were as true as steel to
principle, who would not be corrupted by selfishness, but
who would honor God at the loss of all things. In the land of
their captivity these men were to carry out God’s purpose by
giving to heathen nations the blessings that come through a
knowledge of Jehovah. They were to be His representatives.
Never were they to compromise with idolaters; their faith
and their name as worshipers of the living God they were to
bear as a high honor. And this they did. In prosperity and
adversity they honored God, and God honored them.”
E.G.W. (Prophets and Kings, cp. 39, pg. 479)
We are living in this world while waiting for the release from sin
captivity. Decide to be faithful to God and to honor him like those
captives did.

21. Slideshare.net/chucho1943
We invite you to download and study each one of the 13 lessons
about this serie
THIS SERVICE IS
FREE AND YOU
CAN USE IT
JEREMIAS