Jeremiah 27 to 35
The Lord told Jeremiah to make bonds and yokes and send them to the kings of Moab, Edoni, and other places which were not far from Jerusalem.
The yokes were made of wood, and we suppose were like those used on oxen to draw loads or work in the fields, and we would wonder why they would be sent to kings. It was because God wanted them to know very surely that they and their people would soon be conquered by the powerful king of Babylon, and they would he his servants, or “under his yoke” as oxen must serve their masters.
God said to say to them:
Jeremiah himself put on a yoke of wood which must have been heavy and uncomfortable, but he did so that the king and people in Jerusalem might think how, because of their sins, they, too, would be tinder the “yoke”, or service, of the king of Babylon many years.
One king, Jeconiah, and his mother and many princes and men of skill, had already been carried captives to Babylon, and much of the gold and silver of the temple was also taken there.
Some men tried to make the people believe that the captives would soon come back to their homes, and the things of the temple would be returned. But Jeremiah told them that was not true, but that more people would be taken captive and that the brass pillars and other valuable things from the temple would also be taken to Babylon. He wrote a letter to those who were already in Babylon, telling them to work and make houses in that land for they could not soon return. But God said after many years they should return.
God told Jeremiah to buy a piece of land from his cousin and have the papers signed and sealed before witnesses, to show that the land was his. That was done as a promise to the people that they too should surely again have their land.
Jeremiah prayed to God saying,
God’s words to Jeremiah about the captives and the land all proved true. God also told Jeremiah something which happened several hundred years after. He said there would be bitter weeping in the land, “Rachel weeping for her children” (Jer. 31:1515Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. (Jeremiah 31:15)). Those words were fulfilled after the Lord Jesus was born, when the wicked king ordered young children killed because he wanted to kill the King sent by God, and the mothers could only weep (Matt. 2:17,1817Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. (Matthew 2:17‑18).).
How long would God love His people? (Jer. 31:).
Where was Jeremiah when he bargained for the field? (Jer. 32:8,98So Hanameel mine uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. 9And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. (Jeremiah 32:8‑9)).
ML 03/08/1942