Deeper Commentary
Jeremiah 27:2 Thus says Yahweh to me: Make bonds and bars and put them on
your neck- Jeremiah personally was to experience the bonds and bars
which he was telling others about. The "bonds" refer to the bonds
connecting the two pieces of wood which formed the yoke. He was human and
therefore in the position of everyone else. And this is to be the basis of
our appeal to people likewise.
Jeremiah 27:3 and send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to
the king of the children of Ammon, to the king of Tyre and to the king of
Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah
king of Judah- All this effort was to try to convert those nations;
by humbling themselves beneath Babylon they were humbling themselves
beneath Yahweh's word and will. It was His intention that the peoples
around Judah should repent along with Judah. "The messengers" were the
representatives of those nations invited by Zedekiah in a bid to make
alliances with them and thus form a coalition to protect them from
Babylon. This is described elsewhere as prostitution. These envoys were to
be sent back with yokes they were invited to wear, symbolizing their
subjection to Babylon rather than their opposition to Babylon. Edom joined
in the destruction of Jerusalem along with the Babylonians, but Babylon
later turned against Edom and destroyed her. Jeremiah's appeal at this
point was not heard, and so we can imagine that the messengers refused to
carry the yokes back to their rulers.
Jeremiah 27:4 and give them a command to their masters saying, Thus says
Yahweh of Armies the God of Israel, You shall tell your masters-
Yahweh had armies of Angels controlling and manipulating all human armies.
The God of Israel was therefore in control of all the eretz; and
Yahweh wanted them to accept that, which was tantamount to inviting them
to accept Him as their God.
Jeremiah 27:5 I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on
the surface of the earth, by My great power and by My outstretched arm;
and I give it to whom it seems right to Me- The nations on the
eretz were no more than the animals, to whom God had also given their
allotted portion. We note that there is no empirical reason given, no
attempt at apologetics. This huge claim was simply made, and there was an
internal credibility to it. And that is just the same today. God's amazing
claims are of themselves the appeal and their credibility is within their
own message, and is not strengthened by any appeal to other back up
support. The "outstretched" arm of Yahweh is a term associated with God's
redemption of Israel from captivity and bringing them into the eretz.
This was to be His continued endpoint in view, the objective He
had set in history, even if it were delayed, rescheduled and reapplied.
Jeremiah 27:6 Now have I given all these lands into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the animals of the
field also have I given him to serve him- These animals may be simply
parallel with the nations of :7; the same figure is in Ez. 31:6; Zeph.
2:14. Note how Nebuchadnezzar is presented as serving God; and the other
nations serve him, and if they do this willingly, then by extension, they
would be Yahweh's servants.
Jeremiah 27:7 All the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s
son, until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great
kings shall make him their bond servant- I have repeatedly observed
that God's prophecies are conditional; indeed there are many different
scenarios of judgment presented in Jeremiah, because the human variables
(particularly of repentance) were themselves not forced by God, but the
results of genuine human freewill decisions. And so the nations serving
Babylon for the next three generations of Babylonian rulers is another
example of one possible scenario which didn't come about because various
preconditions (perhaps invisible to us at this stage) weren't met. The 70
year period of servitude to Babylon (Jer. 25:11,12; 29:10) would certainly
have to be understood not literally but as a round number.
Jeremiah 27:8 It shall happen, that the nation and the kingdom which will
not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put
their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon- The symbolism of
the yoke is explained in Lam. 1:14, where it represents the yoke of sins.
It is this which is lifted by the saving work of Yahweh in Messiah. To
willingly place their necks under the yoke was to recognize they had
sinned and deserved this. As noted on :6,
Jeremiah 27:9 But as for you, don’t you listen to your prophets, nor to
your diviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your
sorcerers, who speak to you saying, You shall not serve the king of
Babylon- This is an appeal to the nations to not listen to their own
prophets, but to Jeremiah as the only true prophet. We marvel at God's
breadth of vision, initiative and wideness of hope to save- even these
Gentile nations.
Jeremiah 27:10 for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your
land, and that I should drive you out, and you should perish-
Jeremiah 27:11 But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke
of the king of Babylon and serve him, that nation will I let remain in
their own land, says Yahweh; and they shall till it, and dwell therein- This
prophecy was consciously disobeyed by the Jews who remained in the land
after Jerusalem fell; they fled to Egypt. We note the same conditions were
given to Judah as to the Gentile nations around them; clearly it was the
Divine intention that they should all repent together. To serve the king
of Babylon was effectively to serve Yahweh, seeing he was Yahweh's
servant. "Till" and "serve" are the same Hebrew words. Serving their own
land was to be service to Babylon. But they all wanted so much more,
attracted as people are today by the promise of absolute freedom; when
this is only possible through service to God in repentance.
Jeremiah 27:12 I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these
words saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and
serve him and his people, and live-
In the future, at the Lord's return, we will be saved from wrath (i.e.
condemnation) through Christ (Rom. 5:9). Whilst this has already been
achieved in a sense, it will be materially articulated in that day- in
that we will feel and know ourselves to be worthy of God's wrath, but then
be saved from it. We are all to some extent in the position of Zedekiah
and the men of Judah, who was told that if they accepted God’s
condemnation of them as just, and served the King of Babylon, then they
would ultimately be saved; but if they refused to accept that
condemnation, then they would be eternally destroyed (Jer. 21:9; 27:12).
And the Babylonian invasion was a type of the final judgment.
Jeremiah 27:13 Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the
famine, and by the pestilence, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation
that will not serve the king of Babylon?- Zedekiah refused to
respond, and yet he did not actually die at the hand of the king of
Babylon as here implied- not by sword, nor famine nor plague. He died of
natural causes in prison (Jer. 52:11). Again, God's statements here are in
terms of potential scenarios. Perhaps Zedekiah repented to some degree,
and was as it were given credit for this. See on Jer. 21:7.
Jeremiah 27:14 Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you
saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie
to you- This was the classic message of false teachers- offering
freedom, when in fact their message would make people slaves. Perhaps this
was alluded to in 2 Pet. 2:19: "Promising them liberty, while they are in
fact slaves to corruption. For of whom a person is overcome, of the same
is he also brought into bondage".
Jeremiah 27:15 For I have not sent them, says Yahweh, but they prophesy
falsely in My name; that I may drive you out, and that you may perish,
you, and the prophets who prophesy to you- The impression is given
that the false prophets prophesied so that God could drive them
out. God confirms people in whatever way they choose to go.
Jeremiah 27:16 Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people saying,
Thus says Yahweh: Don’t listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy
to you saying, Behold, the vessels of Yahweh’s house shall now shortly be
brought again from Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you- The
priests preached and taught the word they were given by the prophets. It
was therefore important for the priests to listen to the true words of
Yahweh and not the false ones. Jeremiah was a priest, and was asking his
own family to therefore listen to him rather than the false prophets. The
temple vessels had been taken away so that the temple couldn't function
properly. The idea was that the people would be drawn closer to God
through realizing that He could be served without the ritual of the
temple. And they would be driven to personal relationship with Him rather
than depending upon any religious dimension.
Jeremiah 27:17 Don’t listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live:
why should this city become a desolation?- The rhetorical questions
are powerful; "Why die?" (:13). The city need not have "become a
desolation"; and yet Jeremiah had prophesied 70 years of such "desolation"
(s.w. Dan. 9:2). As explained on :7, there were various prophetic
scenarios possible at this time. God was so sensitive to human repentance,
and the degree of it, that He set up all these various possible scenarios
in response to how far they would repent.
Jeremiah 27:18 But if they be prophets, and if the word of Yahweh be with
them, let them now make intercession to Yahweh of Armies, that the vessels
which are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the house of the king of
Judah, and at Jerusalem, don’t go to Babylon- See on :22. The more
valuable vessels had already been taken in Jehoiakim and Jeconiah's time
(:20). A true prophet would know that Yahweh's word was that Jerusalem and
the temple would fall; and knowing this, and knowing Yahweh, the true
prophets would have prayed that the word in their mouths would not come
true. There is a gap between the Divine statement and its fulfillment, and
within that historical gap there was time and opportunity for repentance
to change the stated outcome. And a true prophet, like Jeremiah, would
have perceived this.
Jeremiah 27:19 For thus says Yahweh of Armies concerning the pillars, and
concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue
of the vessels that are left in this city- The laver remained after
the deportations of :20. This was significant, in that it meant that a way
of cleansing and forgiveness was still open, right up to the last moment.
Jeremiah 27:20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn’t take, when he
carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from
Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem-
Perhaps he didn't take them because they were too heavy to easily
transport. There is a parallel between the remaining vessels, and the
remaining people. They were intended to see themselves as vessels in
Yahweh's service.
Jeremiah 27:21 yes, thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel,
concerning the vessels that are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the
house of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem- The implication is that
some of the temple vessels had been moved to the royal palace, which had
been built of cedar in an attempt to imitate the temple. And the king had
moved some of the vessels of Yahweh's house to his own house. This usage
of the Divine for ourselves remains an abiding temptation, in essence, for
all generations of God's people.
Jeremiah 27:22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be,
until the day that I visit them, says Yahweh; then will I bring them up,
and restore them to this place- The vessels of the temple were to be
taken to Babylon- so says Jer. 27:22 plainly enough.
But if the false prophets had repented and prayed,
the vessels would not be taken to Babylon (Jer. 27:18). Prayer changes
things, even the [apparently] expressly stated intention of God.
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