Saturday
Saturday
The Fall of Jerusalem
How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations!
Lamentations 1:1
In spite of the two religious reforms pioneered by King Hezekiah and King Josiah, their results were neither radical nor lasting. Jeremiah kept complaining that the people “followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts” (Jer. 7:24). King Jehoiakim, in particular, though another of Josiah’s sons, rapidly undid his father’s good work. He used slave labor to build a luxurious palace for himself (Jer. 22:13–17), and when a scroll containing Jeremiah’s words was read to him, he shredded and burned it (Jer. 36:21–23).
Meanwhile, the mighty empire of Assyria had come to an end, as its capital Nineveh fell to the Babylonians in 612 BC. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Zedekiah to succeed his brother Jehoiakim. But the new king was weak and indecisive, and “did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the LORD” (2 Chron. 36:12). Instead, he openly rebelled against Babylon, and the Babylonian army laid siege to Jerusalem. The famine conditions were appalling, and in 587–586 BC the city fell. Its walls were broken into rubble, Solomon’s magnificent temple was burned to the ground, and the people were taken into captivity.
It is hard for us to understand the trauma that God’s people felt at the loss of their holy city and temple, the focus of their national life. Had God abandoned his people? Only if we read the book of Lamentations can we begin to sense the hopelessness into which the people plunged. Yet the godly remnant did not despair but trusted in God’s unchanging character and covenant:
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:21–23
For further reading: Lamentations 1:1, 6, 12