Daily Lesson for August 21, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 52 verses 7 through 16:

7 Then a breach was made in the city wall;[a] and all the soldiers fled and went out from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah. 8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered, deserting him. 9 Then they captured the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him. 10 The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and also killed all the officers of Judah at Riblah. 11 He put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.

12 In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. 13 He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. 14 All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the artisans. 16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.

So we come to the end of the story.

The walls are breached.  The soldiers run and hide and probably try to disguise themselves as poor farmers and herdsmen.  They desert the king in the desert because it is obvious he can do nothing for them now.  They only supported him when he was powerful.  Now that he is powerless they despise him.  The Chaldeans overrun the king.  They make him watch as they execute his sons and then they gouge out his eyes that he may shed no tears.  They burn his house.  They level the house of the LORD.  A sudden and swift end to a long and anxious siege.  This is war.  And it is the end of the story.

But it is not the end.  A long captivity awaits.  Seventy years in Babylon.  The people will have to learn to live in exile.  But it will not be the end.

For as the Prophet said, God knows the plans God has for the people, "Plans to prosper and not to harm them, plan for hope and a future."

Sometimes it may be hard to believe in hope.  Surely it was for those who were sent into exile.  And it is hard for many of us right now.  It may get harder for all of us.

But believe it or not, see it or not, we have one single task before us in our exile; and that is to survive.

NOTE: We're reading the whole Bible through this year.  We've concluded Jeremiah and now.  Over the weekend we will read the book of Lamentations and then begin chapters 1-4 of Ezekiel on Monday.  Have a good weekend and try to hold your hopes.