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Reflect
No, you’re not suffering from déjà vu. This passage is essentially another account of the events that were described in Jeremiah 39. What is new here is the description of the looting of the Temple. The Babylonians looted all the precious objects from the Temple.
The silver and the gold could presumably be turned into cash. The bronze was useful for making into weapons.
Seeing the Temple desecrated like this must have been agonizing for the Jews. It was not just the loss of precious objects, though that was bad enough. But the Temple was where they met with God.
But there was no more meeting with God. He had warned them, over and over again, through the prophets, what would happen if they failed to obey his commands and live in his way. They had been given plenty of opportunity to repent and change their behaviour. But they would not listen. So, yes, he did what he said he would do. You can read about it in Deuteronomy 29:19-28.
Many people think that a loving God would never do a thing like that. But God is a God of justice as well as a God of love. It’s not just the Old Testament that teaches this. It’s throughout the New Testament as well. Read what Jesus had to say in Luke 6:46-49.
This is the end of the Promised Land – for the time being. But fortunately God was still at work behind the scenes, and the chastened exiles would return. Even then, things were not what they had once been. Until Jesus came.
There is a way back. But that’s another story.
Respond
Heavenly Father, please forgive me if I’ve ever thought that I could do as I please and you would forgive because you are Love. Nurture in me a faith more mature than that. Help me to take your words seriously and to respond to you with a love that wants to obey you. Amen.
Annabel Robinson
Annabel was born in Kew, near London, England. She committed her life to Jesus Christ at a Scripture Union camp when she was 16, and immediately found joy and peace. At Oxford she was active in the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, where she met her husband, Reid. They emigrated to Canada in 1965, where she taught Classics at the University of Regina until 2007. She has two children, Heather in Oslo and Alasdair in Calgary.