In this message I would like to give a word concerning Israel's history and the situation of Israel in what may be called the sunset of the divine revelation.
Israel was in Egypt under the yoke of the Egyptians and the tyranny of Pharaoh. God sent Moses to release them from this yoke and tyranny and bring them out of Egypt into the wilderness to Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai the heavens were opened to Israel, and God gave them the revelation concerning the tabernacle and its utensils. He also gave them the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, telling them how to worship God and giving them detailed instructions regarding how to eat, dress, and conduct themselves. From that time Israel began to be a people under the divine revelation in every way.
In the beginning Israel obeyed the divine revelation somewhat. They built the tabernacle according to the revelation they received, and, in keeping with this revelation, they also began to worship God by means of the priesthood and the sacrifices. However, as they were traveling in the wilderness, they began to degrade from the revelation they had received from God through Moses. The book of Numbers records many cases of their degradation from God's law, that is, from God's revelation.
When the people of Israel were about to enter the good land, Moses repeated the divine revelation; he repeated the revelation of God's law. This repetition is found in the book of Deuteronomy. (The word Deuteronomy means "second law" and thus signifies a respeaking of the divine law.) In this repetition Moses charged them especially that when they entered the good land, they were to tear down the idols, destroy the places of idol worship, and slaughter the idol worshippers. For example, concerning the idol worshippers Moses commanded Israel, saying, "You shall utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, nor shall you show them any favor....But you shall deal with them in this way: their altars you shall tear down, their pillars you shall shatter, their Asherim you shall hew down, and their idols you shall burn with fire" (Deut. 7:2, 5).
Israel, however, did not obey the commandment to utterly destroy the idol worshippers. Instead, they spared them and did not wipe them out. As a result, Israel could not fully possess the good land.
Because Israel spared the idol worshippers, there was war again and again between Israel and the people in the land. This war is described in the book of Judges. The judges were the strong ones, the leading ones, who fought for Israel against the idol worshippers. After the period of the judges, David, who was brought in by Samuel, fought all the inhabitants of the land and gained nearly the entire land. Although David was not allowed to build the temple, he received the design of the temple from God and prepared the materials and the temple site on Mount Moriah, the place where Abraham offered Isaac (1 Chron. 28:11-12, 19; 29:1-2; 21:18-26; 2 Chron. 3:1). Following the design which his father received from God, Solomon, David's son, built the temple in approximately 1000 B.C. That was the highlight of the nation of Israel.
Solomon was a wise king. He was so wise that the queen of Sheba visited him in order to prove his wisdom (2 Chron. 9:1-12). However, Solomon did not remain in a good spiritual condition for his entire life. In his old age he was led by his many heathen wives to worship idols (1 Kings 11:1-8). He took the lead to depart from God and to degrade from His revelation. Nearly all of Solomon's descendants continued his apostasy.
This apostasy continued until the time when Jeremiah was charged by God to prophesy. Jeremiah began to prophesy in 629 B.C., twenty-three years before Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar. God charged Jeremiah to condemn Israel's sins in forsaking God and becoming wicked in their conduct. They had forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, and, hewing out broken cisterns, they had turned to idols and were worshipping them (Jer. 2:13). Furthermore, society was filled with murder, fornication, greed, lying, and stealing. Even the king was greedy, for, as we will see, he commanded the people to build him a palace but did not pay them for their labor. The people were not faithful either to God or to one another. For instance, in 5:7 and 8 Jehovah says, "Why should I pardon you? / Your children have forsaken Me / And sworn by those who are not gods. / When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery / And trooped to the house of harlots. / Like well-fed horses they roam about, / Each one neighing after his neighbor's wife."
Before the time of Jeremiah, Isaiah prophesied against Israel, saying that Israel had become like Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa. 1:9-10). However, Israel did not change but continued in her wickedness until Jeremiah's time. Nevertheless, through Jeremiah God spoke to Israel as her loving, sympathetic, and compassionate Husband, saying that He remembered the love of her bridal days (Jer. 2:2). God sighed over Israel and longed for her to return to Him. Israel had forsaken Him as the unique Husband and had gone to many other husbands. Moreover, the people were evil to one another, killing, fornicating, lying, and stealing.
Israel was so corrupt that it was difficult for God to find a prophet to speak for Him. The princes, priests, and prophets were all corrupt. Where could God find a faithful, honest prophet? Unable to find such a prophet in Jerusalem, God went to the city of Anathoth in the land of the small tribe of Benjamin, and there He called a young man named Jeremiah and commissioned him to speak for Him. When Jeremiah excused himself by saying that he was a youth and that he did not know how to speak, Jehovah said to him, "Do not say, I am a youth; / For everywhere I send you, you shall go; / And everything I command you, you shall speak. / Do not be afraid of their faces, / For I am with you to deliver you" (1:7-8). Jehovah went on to say that He would make Jeremiah into a fortified city, into an iron pillar, and into walls of brass against the whole land. The kings, princes, priests, and people would fight against him, but they would not prevail against him (vv. 18-19). Those who fought against Jeremiah were actually fighting against Jehovah. He was Jehovah's one-person army. No one would defeat him because Jehovah was with him. Thus, Jeremiah could not escape God's commission but was constrained to accept it.
As Jeremiah went forth to fulfill God's commission, he spoke to the king, the princes, the priests, and to the people. Jeremiah told the king that he was sinful and that if he did not repent and return to God, he would be taken captive. He rebuked the princes and the rulers for deceiving the people and for wrongly taking things from them. He exposed the prophets for prophesying falsely and the priests for ruling by their own authority and not by the divine revelation. He told the people that they were not executing justice or seeking faithfulness. Rather, they were treating the needy ones unjustly. Instead of heeding Jeremiah's word, they hated him and even put him in prison. The priests arrested Jeremiah and handed him over to the princes, who then cast him into prison. This indicates that Israel had no regard for God's law, for His revelation.
At that time Israel was in the sunset of the divine revelation. When Israel was at Mount Sinai, that was the dawn of the divine revelation. That was the time of sunrise. But afterward, concerning the divine revelation, Israel was in a situation of decline. Eventually, by the time of Jeremiah, Israel was in the sunset. They had given up everything concerning God and His revelation, and eventually they came to be in a dark night.
Israel's situation forced God to chastise them, to punish them. When God chastised Israel, He regarded Himself as the Husband and Israel as the wife who had fallen into fornication. For this reason, in chapters two through six God's tone in rebuking Israel is that of a husband speaking to an unfaithful wife.
The case of Zedekiah, the last king, is an illustration of God's chastisement of His people. One day Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah, who was in prison. The king questioned him secretly in his house, asking, "Is there any word from Jehovah?" (37:17a). Zedekiah was inquiring concerning Israel and himself as king. Jeremiah told Zedekiah that there was a word from Jehovah, and the word was that Zedekiah would be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon (v. 17b).
On another occasion Zedekiah had Jeremiah brought to him that he might speak privately with him (38:14). He told Jeremiah that he wanted to ask him something and that Jeremiah should not hide anything from him. Jeremiah replied, "If I tell you, indeed will you not put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me" (v. 15). Assured by the king that he would not be put to death, Jeremiah went on to say, "Thus says Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If you will indeed surrender to the princes of the king of Babylon, you will live, and this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your house will live. But if you do not surrender to the princes of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape out of their hand" (vv. 17-18). The king knew that he should obey this word. However, he was afraid of what might be done to him by the Jews who had deserted to the Chaldeans. Although Jeremiah told him that they would not do anything to harm him, Zedekiah did not take Jeremiah's word, but instead dismissed him with the charge that he not tell anyone about what he had said to the king.
Instead of listening to Jeremiah, Zedekiah continued to resist the Babylonian army, which was besieging Jerusalem. After the city was captured, Zedekiah fled (39:4). The army of the Babylonians pursued him and overtook him. Zedekiah was brought before Nebuchadnezzar, who pronounced judgments on him. Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. After this, he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him in bronze fetters to bring him to Babylon (vv. 5-7).
Eventually the Babylonian army burned the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Jeremiah witnessed these things. Regarding Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar commanded that they look after him and do no evil to him (vv. 11-12). Jeremiah was bound in chains among the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon (40:1). However, he was released from his chains. The captain of the guard said to him, "Now, behold, I release you today from the chains which are on your hands. If it is good in your sight to come to Babylon with me, come, and I will look after you; but if it is evil in your sight to come with me to Babylon, let it be so. See, all the land is before you; wherever it is good and right in your sight to go, there go" (v. 4). Thus, Jeremiah the prophet was set free.
Jeremiah 6:9 says, "Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / They will thoroughly glean like a vine / The remnant of Israel; / Pass your hand again over the branches / Like a grape gatherer." This word has been fulfilled. Some years after Zedekiah was captured and Jeremiah was released, the Babylonians came again to "glean" the land of Israel, taking more people into captivity. This was the situation of Israel in the sunset of the divine revelation.
