September 18, 2020: Day 27 – Jeremiah 27

So, remember when Harrison Ford was looking for the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark?  Well, this is our best guess as to where the ark ended up, in Babylon.  We read in this chapter that all the instruments of the temple will be taken up to Babylon and then later one day returned.  Well, it is thought that they made their way there, but they never returned.  Look at vs. 18-22 where we see that some of the vessels of the temple had already gone, not all of them, but it is foretold that they would be going and then coming back.  

We see another metaphor used in this chapter.  The metaphor of the yoke where Jeremiah is told to give a very, very strange message to the surrounding countries.  He was told to tell the surrounding countries, including Judah and Israel, that they should submit to Babylon as an ox submits to the yoke and that way they could remain in the land and not be destroyed.  Can you imagine God telling his prophet that you need to allow a foreign country to come in and take you over and submit to them?  In fact, it gets even worse.  God calls the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, his “servant” in vs.6, and that he has given him not only all the land, but also all the wild animals as well.  

But there is a bit of a silver lining.   Look at vs.7: “All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.”  Bide your time, for now allow him to rule and allow him to put you under this yoke.  But the time will come when all of this will be reversed.  If you fight it then it will only be worse for you and you will not survive to see the day when things are reversed.  It is quite a message to give to the people of God.  Let another nation take you over for that is God’s will.  Can you imagine that being the message today to the people of the US?  Give up your land because it is God’s will.  Don’t worry, you’ll see a reversal soon enough.  Yeah, I don’t see that as being well received.