Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"The city was penetrated"
Text: Jeremiah 39:2
A HISTORICAL INSIGHT
Jeremiah was one of God’s faithful prophets when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. This text is a notation as to when Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians.
“In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army
came against Jerusalem, and besieged it.
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month,
on the ninth day of the month, the city was penetrated.”
Jeremiah 39:1-2
1. “In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem, and besieged it”
a) Zedekiah was the last king of Judah.
b) Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon.
c) He brought a huge army against Judah and laid siege against the city of Jerusalem.
d) The siege began in his 9th year and in the 10th month of his reign.
e) Jeremiah had been God’s spokesman-prophet all this while.
2. “In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month,
the city was penetrated”
a) The siege lasted for 2 years.
b) In the 11th year of his reign, Jerusalem was penetrated.
i) Its defense could not be sustained.
ii) Babylon began its assault on the capital.
3. A typical siege
a) Food runs out.
b) Pestilences make things worse.
c) Political in-fighting prevails.
d) The spiritual morale of the people is at a very low level.