Jeremiah 25:1–2: “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem”

October 24th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Because Jeremiah tells us this was written in the 4th year of Jehoiakim’s reign, we know the time frame of this chapter in history and the fall of Jerusalem. The prophet Daniel wrote something similar in his introduction a year earlier (the 3rd year of Jehoiakim’s reign) in Daniel 1:1: “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.” The year 605 BC was the year that Nebuchadnezzar made his first successful attack against the city of Jerusalem, taking captives back to Babylon with him. The second captivity took place in 597 BC, and those taken included King Jehoiakim, the prophet Ezekiel, and 10,000 others.

It is interesting that God had 3 prophets, in 3 different groups of Jews, during this time. Daniel was a prophet among the nobles in the castle at Babylon, Ezekiel was the prophet for the common Jews in Babylon, and Jeremiah was still preaching in Jerusalem. God was speaking to all His people so they would be able to understand exactly what He was doing during their discipline.

There is an old story of a young Scottish girl who was a student in a university. She lived with an elderly Christian aunt who read her Bible and believed it. One day the student came home and said to her, “Auntie, you know that verse in Hebrews that you so often quote: `I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ Well, I have found out today that in the Greek there are five negatives in that verse, and it reads like this: `I will never, never, never, never, never leave thee.'” “Oh,” said the old aunt, “one of them is good enough for me, lassie.” Because God said, “I will never leave you,” we should boldly say, “Then I will not fear.”

“Thank You, Lord, that since You have already promised to never leave or forsake us, we will not fear any other person today and serve You fully.”