II Kings 25:4-7; Jeremiah 52:7-11; 39:1-7; II Kings 25:8-21; Jeremiah 52:12-27; 39:8-10
It’s 587 or 586 B.C. Jeremiah has been warning of this day for years, proclaiming the destruction of Jerusalem as God’s judgment upon Judah. Ezekiel has said the same, modeling the siege, with its attendant starvation and disease. But the king, the priests, the leaders, and the people have persisted in their sin against the LORD, deluded by the unfounded hopes of the false prophets. Now the horror of God’s judgment is realized. Jerusalem’s walls are breached. The city is burned, the Temple destroyed. The last vestiges of Solomon’s glory are broken up and carried away to Babylon. The priests and leaders are put to the sword. Zedekiah himself is captured and his eyes put out, his last visual memory that of his sons being slaughtered before him. Zedekiah could not see his way to obeying the LORD. Now he cannot unsee the consequences of his disobedience.
It would be a mistake for us to miss this moment in the history of God’s people. We must not turn away. We must force ourselves to take a good long look, to see the depth of this disaster. We should feel the horror of the starvation that drives the people of Jerusalem to cannibalism. (Ez. 5:10; Lam. 2:20; 4:10) We should gasp for air in the spiritual vacuum left by the burning of the Temple and the killing of the priests. So take some time to imagine this ravaged Jerusalem, billows of smoke rising, the stench of death and disease, the blood and gore, the wailing cries of grief and despair. If we do not see the utter devastation, if we do not perceive the complete desolation, then we have not begun to understand the reality of sin. We have understood neither God’s wrath nor His broken heart, and so we cannot begin to properly appreciate His grace and forgiveness.