This week’s passage is Jeremiah 27-28. We’re getting into the second half of Jeremiah, and the Lord seems to be hammering home the themes of His sovereignty and our submission. As we’ve seen in past weeks, our submission isn’t really a choice. We will submit to the Lord, regardless of if we want to or not. We will either submit to His refining and sanctifying, or we will submit to drinking from the cup of wrath. And this week is no different.
Jeremiah 27-28 comes at a time of turmoil for Judah. The first wave of deportations happened 4 years prior. King Jeconiah/Jehoiachin and his mother, along with the upper portion of society, had been forcibly exiled to Babylon. But in the 4 years since, an insurrection had cropped up near Babylon, forcing Nebuchadnezzar’s attention to focus closer to home. And so, Jeremiah 27-28 comes at a time of relative optimism for Judah. They’re still vassals of the world superpower, but the superpower doesn’t quite hold the same kind of threat it did 4 years prior. And so the leaders of the small vassal states surrounding Judah started discussing the idea of banding together to revolt and throw off the hated rule of the pagan Babylonians.
Now, this presented yet another opportunity for Judah to either go its own way or to submit to the judgment and refining of God. And so Jeremiah is sent to call the people to call them to be yoked to God’s servant, Nebuchadnezzar, and to submit to God’s plan of refinement, regardless of the cost, suffering, and humiliation of exile that comes with that plan. As we consider what it meant for Judah to be yoked to Nebuchadnezzar, we can’t help but also compare it to the yoke that Jesus puts on us. Throughout these 2 chapters, we will see small ways in which Jeremiah fits into the overarching narrative of God’s redemption of His people through His Son, Jesus Christ. In the days leading up to Sunday, I invite you to search through Jeremiah 27 and 28 for those hints of Jesus, the parallels that point us to our true Prophet. See you Sunday!
Frank