UNROLL
Dusk in a village lane: a woman in a long madder-red dress and head covering kneels at a stone hand-mill in her doorway, grinding grain, a clay lamp just lit on the step beside her and a small child at the door.

Shepherds and prophets

Jeremiah 25

How many times has God spoken to you before you listened?

38 verses≈ 8 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
  2. 2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the north
  3. 7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living God
  4. 11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessions
  5. 21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letterChapter 25
  6. 30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
  7. 34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)
  8. 40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for Baruch
  9. 46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  10. 52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

Seventy Years of Captivity

This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. So the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and all the residents of Jerusalem as follows:

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Jeremiah
First light in the temple’s outer court: the prophet, seen from behind, stands at the court’s edge facing the waking city while a few early passers-by walk on without looking.

“From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—twenty-three years—the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.

Jeremiah

And the LORD has sent all His servants the prophets to you again and again, but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear.

Jeremiah

The prophets told you, ‘Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and deeds, and you can dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.

Jeremiah 25:5

Jeremiah

Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’

God

‘But to your own harm, you have not listened to Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘so you have provoked Me to anger with the works of your hands.’

God
From a terraced hillside in Judah, a shepherd boy among his sheep watches a long column of Babylonian soldiers marching south on the valley road far below in the summer haze.

Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

God
Night inside a small stone house: a clay oil lamp on a ledge has just gone out, one thin thread of smoke rising from its wick; below it a stone hand-mill stands still with a little flour on it.

Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

0:17

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

God
God

But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting desolation.

God

I will bring upon that land all the words I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings will enslave them, and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.’”

Seventy years

Babylon rules25:1: about 605 BCSeventy years25:11: the nationsserveBabylon judged25:12: about 539 BCDaniel reads itDaniel 9:2Cyrus’s decreeEzra 1:1: about 538 BC

Whiteboard

God named the length of the exile before it began. Daniel read this page and prayed, and Cyrus’s decree came as the LORD had said.

The Cup of God’s Wrath

God
Close in deep shadow on a bare stone ledge: one heavy plain clay goblet brimming with dark red wine, a single shaft of gray light across its rim, no hands.

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. And they will drink and stagger and go out of their minds, because of the sword that I will send among them.”

Jeremiah

So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations drink from it, each one to whom the LORD had sent me, to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials; Pharaoh king of Egypt, his officials, his leaders, and all his people; all the mixed tribes; all the kings of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea; Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair; all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert; all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media; all the kings of the north, both near and far, one after another—all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

Jeremiah
Jeremiah

And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too.

EgyptSeir (Edom)MoabAmmonElamMediaJerusalemGazaTyreDedanTemaBabylon

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

The cup passed round

The cup went from Jerusalem to Egypt, Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Arabia, Elam and Media, every nation Judah knew. Babylon, called Sheshach, drinks last.

God

“Then you are to tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Drink, get drunk, and vomit. Fall down and never get up again, because of the sword I will send among you.’

God

If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, you are to tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘You most certainly must drink it! For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of Hosts.’

God

So you are to prophesy all these words against them and say to them: ‘The LORD will roar from on high; He will raise His voice from His holy habitation. He will roar loudly over His pasture; like those who tread the grapes, He will call out with a shout against all the inhabitants of the earth.

God

The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth

because the LORD brings a charge against the nations.

He brings judgment on all mankind

and puts the wicked to the sword,’”

declares the LORD.

God
A vast dark storm front rising over the far edge of a flat plain, its wall of cloud and dust rolling forward, the grain fields in front still lit by low sun.

This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Behold! Disaster is spreading

from nation to nation;

a mighty storm is rising

from the ends of the earth.”

Jeremiah

Those slain by the LORD on that day will be spread from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, gathered, or buried. They will be like dung lying on the ground.

Question

Quick question

Jeremiah gave the exile a length before it began. Look back at 25:11.

How long would the nations serve the king of Babylon?

The Cry of the Shepherds

Jeremiah
Evening at a broken stone sheepfold in the hills: two old shepherds in dark wool cloaks sit in the dust by its gap with dust on their heads, staffs laid down, the fold empty, a shattered fine clay jar on the ground near them.

Wail, you shepherds, and cry out;

roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock.

For the days of your slaughter have come;

you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.

Flight will evade the shepherds,

and escape will elude the leaders of the flock.

Jeremiah
Jeremiah

Hear the cry of the shepherds,

the wailing of the leaders of the flock,

for the LORD is destroying their pasture.

The peaceful meadows have been silenced

because of the LORD’s burning anger.

Jeremiah
Early morning on a high rocky ridge above the Jordan valley: a maned lion stands broadside, head raised, roaring, mist in the valley below.

He has left His den like a lion,

for their land has been made a desolation

by the sword of the oppressor,

and because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

Pray

Pray

Lord, You spoke again and again, and I did not always listen. Before the lamp goes out, I turn to You now. Thank You that Jesus drank the cup of wrath for all who trust in Him. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Jeremiah 25

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A verse to carry with you

Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and deeds, and you can dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.

Jeremiah 25:5

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