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:
“I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by My great power....and have given it unto whom it seemed meet (best) unto Me.” Jeremiah 27:5.
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,
“Ah Lord God! behold Thou halt made the heaven and the earth by Thy power....there is nothing too hard for thee.” Jeremiah 32:17.
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. 31:15). 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. 2:17,18.).
How long would God love His people? (Jer. 31:).
Did God say the dishes of the temple should be brought back? (Jer. 27:22).
The promise of the temple things fulfilled. (Ezra 1:9-11).
Where was Jeremiah when he bargained for the field? (Jer. 32:8,9).
What question did the Lord ask? (Jer. 32:27).
ML 03/08/1942