“The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. The Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the people who remained.” (Jeremiah 39:6-9)
Judah had repeatedly been called to repent. But they repeatedly refused. Jeremiah had given the Lord’s clear warning of judgment if they refused to repent. Now, the judgment was landing heavily upon them. The king and his security fled as the Babylonians approached. But they were caught and seized near Jericho. From there, they were taken to Nebuchadnezzar’s HQ in Syria, which is where the selected text picks up the story.
The king’s sons were executed before his eyes, then the Babylonians gouged out the king’s eyes. The last thing he saw was his sons being slaughtered! While it is legitimate to point out the harshness of that punishment, we should not forget that the punishment was the result of the king’s refusal to repent. Jeremiah had repeatedly warned the king.
Pointing to the cruelty of eternity in hell has become something of a sport among former evangelicals these days. They are correct that eternity in hell is harsh, but their thought experiment stops short of acknowledging that only sinners who did not repent before a holy God go there.
Similarly, by repenting, King Zedekiah could have avoided God’s wrath. The power of human pride is astounding. And, I’m not talking about the pride of others. I’m talking about mine. Yikes!
Lord, help me to be humble and quick to repent. Amen.
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