Surrender to Babylon and Live

Rev. Joel Heckmann, pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Okarche, OK, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Jeremiah 21:1-10.

As King Zedekiah watched the army of Babylon gather around Jerusalem with the intent of complete destruction, he inquired of the LORD through Jeremiah as a desperate last-ditch effort. The LORD remained consistent in His response; Jerusalem would fall to Babylon. The LORD Himself would be behind this; His anger and wrath would fight against His own people. Yet the LORD does not leave His people without a way of life. As surprising as it must have seemed, the LORD told His people that those who would surrender to the Babylonians would live. Those who chose to remain in Jerusalem would be destroyed. In this, we see a foreshadowing of the way of the cross, when the LORD set His face against Jesus in order to bring Him through death and into life.

“A Time to Destroy and a Time to Build” is a mini-series on Sharper Iron that goes through the book of Jeremiah. The prophet calls the people of Judah and Jerusalem to repent of their faithless idolatry and warns them of the destruction that is coming in the Babylonian exile. Yet Jeremiah does not leave us without hope in the midst of such dark days. Jeremiah and all who believe the Word of God he preached survive because of hope that is found in the righteous Branch from the line of David, Jesus Christ.