Daily Guide Devotional: So Judah Went into Captivity

Text: Jeremiah 52:17 - 34

Yes, it was necessary that we are reminded again how it all began. The carrying away of the Jews was the beginning of the end. God needed to remind us again about the last straw that broke the camel's back: Zedekiah and what followed. This last portion of Jeremiah describes again the picking of the temple; the pride of Israel and how the very place of God footstool was picked clean by the Chaldeans. They looted and looted without remorse. Worst still, the book of Daniel would tell us what some of these articles from the temple was used for in Babylonia. Although God promised it, that no single stone will be left on top of the other of the magnificent temple when the children of Israel desert him, yet he is wroth with Babylon for treating the temple with contempt.

As we draw the curtain on the studies from the book of  Jeremiah today, I want us to go away with one thing: the greatness of a nation or any people is directly proportional to the regard they place on God's laws; the respect they have for God. There is false peace and false security. God lifts up a nation to serve his purpose, if in the course of serving this purpose they negate God's principles, he will not spare them nor excuse their iniquities. No! His justice will not allow it. We should know our limits. God is greatly interested in our dealings with people he has placed in our mercy. To him who shows mercy will mercy be shown. Babylon represents all structures and super structures that tries to elevate themselves above God in self sufficiency. All such edifices physical or spiritual must come down. 

Judah was judged. Jerusalem was taken, yet God did not forsake her. God is wherever his people are, note this, he does not live in any edifice. He lives by his holy spirit in the hearts of men and women who diligently place His laws before their eyes to obey it in everything they do. Obeying God is not a matter of choice, it is what keeps us safe here and hereafter. Israel is of God and very important to her both the spiritual and physical Israel. We must pray continually for the two. God is interested in how we show love to her in our prayers and our actions.

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