I have made the earth, man and beast that are upon the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give them unto whom it seemeth right in mine eyes.
Judah's king was plotting revolt against Babylon when this message came. God answers by going back to first things: He made the earth, so He decides who holds it — even a foreign, idol-worshipping king.
Nebuchadnezzar's rise looked like conquest. One writer names the real source of his power:
His power was not the result of mere chance, or inheritance, or military success; it was assigned to him by God. … Here we see more than the transfer of royal privileges away from Israel, the nation God had appointed as His central authority on earth (an appointment still to be made good). We also see the Gentile king of Babylon given those privileges. The point is that God placed this supreme worldwide rule in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. So he stands unrivalled in the list of emperors.
In the next verse God calls Nebuchadnezzar "my servant." One writer weighs what that title meant for Israel:
That is a remarkable word. It was no longer Zedekiah, My servant, but Nebuchadnezzar, My servant. The children of Israel and of Judah were about to lose their special place as His nation too. It was now a question, not of being His servant as a special honour, but merely in providence. Nebuchadnezzar, the idol-worshipping Gentile, could be His servant in this way as much as anyone else.
The title says nothing about the man's heart. Another writer sets him beside others God used without their knowing it:
God may see fit to call a man His servant who has no spiritual qualification for the place. Take Cyrus, or Balaam, or, in later days, someone like Judas Iscariot. A servant's place is certainly not the best… So we shall see that this mighty instrument, whom God used to correct His people, knew nothing of the hand that moved him.
The verse names the animals as well as mankind. One commentator sets that grant beside a greater rule still to come:
Dominion in the fullest sense, as well as the kingdom, belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of Man. But here we learn that God (Jer. 27:5-7) made all things — the earth and everything on it. He had now given to His servant the King of Babylon all the beasts of the field, as well as all nations to serve him. Daniel 2:38 says that the birds of the heavens were given into his hand too. Genesis 1:28 shows that the fish of the sea were also to come under man, but they are not named as part of Nebuchadnezzar's dominion. When Psalm 8 speaks of the dominion of the Son of Man, all these are included, and indeed much more.
Zedekiah, the king in David's line, had to hear a pagan emperor called God's servant. The same word that gave Babylon its power also set its limit:
What a rebuke this was, above all to Judah and to the guilty son of David! They heard "the God of Israel" proclaim Nebuchadnezzar as "His servant" — and not only the Jews heard it, but their Gentile neighbours too. The divine grant was as detailed as it was wide: Jehovah gave him "the beasts of the field" to serve him, as well as "all these lands." But Babylon's supremacy had a limit. It was no purpose of mercy. It was only a sovereign arrangement in providence, carrying out the needed chastisement of Judah and the nations.
Judah's king was trying to shake off Babylon's yoke. One writer weighs that plan:
For a set term God had given him a dominion unlimited in title… Rebellious thought! For the God who gave the king of Babylon this large place of authority was openly chastising His own people. Their evil refused every remedy. And when God is judging sin, only one feeling in man fits. It is repentance in dust and ashes, with a heart that submits to His ways.
A prophet named Hananiah promised in God's name that the yoke would soon break. One writer names what that really was:
To do such a solemn thing, however pious and hopeful it might sound, was to speak "revolt against the Lord" (Jeremiah 28:16). God had made Nebuchadnezzar His servant and given him power and dominion.
- Made — therefore given. God's claim rests on creation. He made the earth, mankind and the animals — so the Maker chooses who holds His world.
- Given — not won. Nebuchadnezzar's empire came from God, not from chance, inheritance or military success.
- Given — to a servant without faith. "My servant" describes a use, not a heart; God has used men who never knew whose hand was moving them.
- Given — but measured. The grant covered lands and beasts alike. But it was providence for a set term — not mercy, and not permanent.
- Given — so submit. While God judges sin, the fitting response is repentance and submission. Promising a quick escape from the yoke was revolt against the Lord.
And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field also have I given him to serve him.
God tells Jeremiah to send word to Judah's king and to the kings around him. The God who made the earth has handed it, for now, to the king of Babylon. Two things startle here. God gives away rule over whole lands, and He calls a pagan conqueror "my servant."
Nebuchadnezzar ruled the ancient world. One writer traces that power past his armies and his family line to a decision of God.
His power was not the result of mere fortune, or inheritance, or military success; it was assigned him by God... Here God takes royal rights from Israel, the favoured nation He had planned to be His central authority on earth — a plan still to be made good. And He gives those rights to a Gentile, the king of Babylon. The point is that God placed this supreme worldwide rule in Nebuchadnezzar's hand. So he stands unrivalled in the list of rulers and emperors.
That transfer opens a long stretch of rule by Gentile — that is, non-Jewish — powers. One writer dates its start here:
For now, sovereign power over Jerusalem is in the hands of Gentiles. This state of things started in the days of Nebuchadnezzar with the Babylonian captivity... when God put power over men, and beasts, and birds, into Nebuchadnezzar's hands as the head of gold (Jer. 25:9-11; 27:6-7; Dan. 2:37-38).
God announced the title inside Judah and to the nations around it.
God's people degrade themselves and put His name to open shame. But He does not soften His sovereign will, and He does not hide the claims of His glory. What a rebuke to Judah and to her guilty king from David's line! They heard "the God of Israel" proclaim Nebuchadnezzar as "His servant" — and so did their Gentile neighbours.
The title is no compliment. One writer names the role in blunt words:
The house of David, the throne of Judah, had corrupted itself. The measure of the people's sin was full, and God's patience had run out in Nebuchadnezzar's day. The Lord uses him as the rod of His anger against Jerusalem, and as the hand that takes from Him the sword of rule and judgment in the earth.
The grant reaches past land. It covers animals too, which invites comparison with a greater rule still to come.
Dominion in the fullest sense, and the kingdom too, belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of Man. But here (Jer. 27:5-7) God, who made all things — the earth and all upon it — had now given His servant the King of Babylon all the beasts of the field, as well as all nations, to serve him. In Daniel 2:38 we read that the birds of the heavens were likewise given into his hand. Genesis 1:28 shows that the fish of the sea were also to come under man. But they are not named with Nebuchadnezzar's dominion. When, however, the dominion of the Son of Man is spoken of in Psalm 8 all these are included.
Behind this message lies a piece of politics:
Judah's king tried to join with the kings around him and throw off Nebuchadnezzar's yoke. A pointless thought! God had given him a dominion with no limit in title, and for a set term. If it was limited in fact, that was only because he did not push his armies further. And a rebellious thought! The God who gave the king of Babylon this large place of authority was openly chastising His own people, whose evil refused every remedy.
The grant did not make Babylon safe:
Keeping this rule depended on faithfulness to the trust given by Him who rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He will. Babylon proved unfaithful, and so God set it aside.
Jeremiah's advice looked like treason to his own people.
In a day of ruin faith always recognises the chastening of God and bows to it. Unbelief always resists, and counts it patriotism or perhaps religion to oppose. Jeremiah seemed to the men of Judah a very false Jew for this reason. He always advised them to submit to the king of Babylon. They thought themselves far better Jews, because they were ready to fight the king of Babylon.
God had handed government to Nebuchadnezzar. What was left for Judah to do?
The only right course of action was to acknowledge this fact and to confess the sins that had led to it.
- Given — God assigned Nebuchadnezzar his power. It did not come from luck, family line, or success in war.
- Servant — the title names a job, not a good man. He was the rod of God's anger, and the hand that took the sword of rule from Jerusalem.
- Reach — lands, nations, and even the beasts of the field. Fuller dominion, the fish of the sea included, waits for the Son of Man.
- Limited — the title had no limit, but the term did. Keeping it depended on faithfulness to the One who gives rule to whomever He will.
- Response — faith bows to God's chastening and confesses the sin behind it. Unbelief fights back and calls the fight loyalty.
And all the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his land also come, when many nations and great kings shall reduce him to servitude.
Jeremiah tells the nations around Judah that fighting Babylon is not patriotism. It is rebellion against God. The God who made the earth handed this empire to Nebuchadnezzar. The verse gives the reach of the grant — every nation — and its end date: three generations, and then Babylon's own turn comes.
The startling word in this passage is not the length of Babylon's rule but what God calls its king. That name had belonged to someone else.
This is a remarkable word. It was no longer Zedekiah, My servant, but Nebuchadnezzar, My servant. The children of Israel and of Judah were about to lose their special place as His nation too. It was now a question, not of being His servant as a special honour, but merely in providence. Nebuchadnezzar, the idolatrous Gentile, could be His servant in this way as much as any other.
So how did such power come into his hands?
His power was not the result of mere fortune, or inheritance, or military success; it was assigned him by God… Here we see royal privileges pass away from the nation God had favoured and appointed as His central earthly authority — a purpose He will yet make good. We also see the Gentile, in the king of Babylon, given those privileges. God placed this supreme universal rule in Nebuchadnezzar's hand, so he stands unrivalled in the list of rulers and emperors.
The grant covers all the nations, and the words just before it add even the wild animals. Yet the same sentence that opens the empire also closes it.
God's grant was as detailed as it was wide. He gave "the beasts of the field" to serve him, as well as "all these lands." But God measured Babylon's supremacy. It was no purpose of mercy. It was only a sovereign arrangement in providence, and the carrying out of the needed chastening of Judah and the nations. When that work was done, many nations and great kings would make the Babylonian king serve them, after the third generation — as surely as all nations would serve him until then. But serve him they must till then, or God would punish them with His severe plagues.
The words "his son and his grandson" set a limit. That limit has a name attached to it, and a reason behind it.
God had foreseen that Nebuchadnezzar and his family would be no more faithful in the place of power than the house of David had been. So in Jeremiah 27:7 He foretold that Babylon's rule would end with Nebuchadnezzar's son's son. This was Belshazzar.
"The time of his own land" came when the conqueror became the conquered. That turn of events served God's people.
Babylon's doom comes under the Medes, led on by Cyrus the Persian. The result that matters most to God is this: the fall of Babylon opens the door for His people to come home from captivity. It is a picture of a final deliverance. Then One greater than Cyrus will be there to destroy the last holder of the last empire completely.
This handover is where a long era of world history begins — one that has still not ended.
Much of God's purpose for the earth is bound up with Jerusalem and with the land of Canaan. The throne once set up at Jerusalem will be restored to her in a coming day. Meanwhile sovereign power over her is in the hands of Gentiles. This state of things began in the days of Nebuchadnezzar with the Babylonian captivity… Those times will run on in line with Nebuchadnezzar's dream. They end when the stone cut out without hands breaks the image in pieces, puts an end to the four monarchies, and fills the whole earth. Then kingly power will be exercised at Jerusalem again, and the times of the Gentiles will be over.
Gentile power outlived Babylon. One writer follows it forward to the day the Lord Himself stood under it.
Power from God, although corrupted, is still with the Gentile nations today, and when the Lord came in lowly grace to His people they were under the Roman yoke. When He stood before Pilate He meekly acknowledged this authority. He even said that Pilate could have had no power against Him unless it was given to him from above… The yoke of kings had usually been oppressive, but the yoke of this gracious King would prove easy and good.
- Given, not won. God assigned Nebuchadnezzar his empire. He did not win it by luck, inheritance, or military success.
- Given away from Judah. God moved the title "My servant" from Zedekiah to an idolatrous Gentile. Royal privileges passed away from Israel, and God will yet make good His purpose for her.
- Given widely. The grant reached all these lands, all nations, and even the beasts of the field.
- Given briefly. God measured Babylon's rule at three generations, ending with Belshazzar. That family proved no more faithful in power than David's house had been.
- Given back. Babylon fell to Cyrus, and the door opened for God's people to go home. It pictures a final deliverance, when One greater than Cyrus destroys the last empire and the times of the Gentiles end.
And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I visit, saith Jehovah, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
Judah and its neighbours were plotting to throw off Babylon's yoke. This verse names the price of refusing it — and asks why God would back a foreign empire against His own people.
This threat targets kings who were already scheming. One writer explains what prompted the message, and why their plan was doomed twice over:
This word from the LORD came to Jeremiah for a reason. The king of Judah was trying to form an alliance with the kings around the land, to throw off the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. A pointless thought! God had, for a set term, given him a dominion unlimited in title. A rebellious thought! For God gave the king of Babylon this large place of authority, and He was openly disciplining His own people. Their evil refused every remedy. Now when God is judging sin, the only fitting response in man is repentance in dust and ashes. His heart must submit to God's ways.
The yoke looked like plain politics. But God Himself had set it there, and that changed what refusing it meant:
God has given the nations, and even the beasts of the field, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar for a certain time. God establishes the central and universal power. Any nation that refuses to submit to it would be in rebellion against Himself, and would be consumed. God appointed this government. He had forsaken Jerusalem, and would no longer protect her unless she submitted to it.
The verse points back to "this Nebuchadnezzar" — the king God had just called His own servant. That title runs right through the book:
The book speaks of Nebuchadnezzar about forty times, and the Lord calls him "My Servant." God raises him up to carry out His judgment on Israel, and on other nations too. The Lord says, "I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, My Servant… and all nations shall serve him." God gives him this dominion. God takes it away from Israel.
Sword, famine and pestilence are the sentence on any nation that refuses. Yet Babylon's own power had a time limit, and a purpose behind it:
But Babylon's supremacy was measured. It was no purpose of mercy. It was only a sovereign arrangement in providence, carrying out the discipline that Judah and the nations needed. When this was over, after the third generation, many nations and great kings would make the Babylonian king serve them. That was as certain as the fact that all nations would serve him until then. But serve they must till then, on pain of God's punishment with His severe plagues.
Commentators read this passage as more than a local crisis. Rule passed from Jerusalem to Babylon, and world power moved to the Gentile nations outside Israel:
God speaks as Creator. In His sovereignty He appoints Nebuchadnezzar as head over the nations, over the beasts of the field, and over the birds of heaven. This is not forever, but for a time. God appointed a new form of government, because Jerusalem had failed. The rule God had given to the house of David was to pass away. The Lord chose an imperial head from among the Gentiles. He makes Nebuchadnezzar His servant; with him and his rule the times of the Gentiles begin.
The verse pictures a neck that will not bend. Other voices were promising safety from Babylon, so this warning is about who you listen to:
To be stiff-necked and refuse God's word of warning is the sure road to ruin. His word then comes true in our own misery and destruction. To obey is better than sacrifice in the worst of times as much as in the best. But the prophets of men say what suits their masters' wishes and their own immediate interests. They promise safety from the coming evil, and that promise is as hollow as it is loud. In fact they only bring that evil faster.
- Cause — Judah's evil "refused every remedy," so the yoke came as discipline, not accident. Repentance and submission were the only fitting response.
- Giver — God the Creator placed the yoke, so any nation refusing Babylon "would be in rebellion against Himself."
- Servant — God called a foreign emperor "My Servant." He gave him dominion and took it from Israel.
- Limit — Babylon's supremacy was "measured." It lasted three generations, then other kings turned the tables. Sword, famine and pestilence fell on the nations that refused.
- Warning — A stiff neck under God's warning is "the sure road" to ruin. The popular prophets offer safety "as hollow as it is loud."
And ye, hearken not to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, who speak unto you saying Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For they prophesy falsehood unto you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.
Judah's prophets were telling the nation what it wanted to hear: Babylon's yoke would soon be broken. God's answer through Jeremiah is that the message is a lie. Believing it will cost them the land they think they are defending.
God's warning carries a promise with it. The nation that takes Babylon's yoke keeps its land. One writer weighs the cost of refusing that warning against the safety these prophets sold:
"But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, to work it and dwell there, declares the Lord." (verse 11.) To be stubborn and refuse God's word of warning is the sure road to seeing that word fulfilled in our own misery and ruin. To obey is better than sacrifice in the worst of times just as much as in the best. But the prophets of men predict whatever suits their masters' wishes and their own immediate interests, and they only speed up the evil against which they promise a safety as hollow as it is loud.
These men were not crude frauds. They used the words of true prophecy, and the people liked what they heard.
It was more popular to prophesy smooth things and deceptions, and nothing is so dear to the human heart as to have God's approval on its own desires. That is why prophets were popular who would say, "Thus says the Lord," when the Lord had not spoken. We should not suppose that these prophets were always inventing lies, but they corrupted the word of God and made it suit man's taste (2 Cor. 2:17). They had to copy the real prophets in many of their expressions, and yet in the end they produced only their own empty speculations.
Dreamers belonged to the same trade. Scripture gives a test for them.
Scripture groups such dreamers with false prophets. Their dreams may have been a hypnotic state that evil spirits could use, to turn the people away from the Lord to idolatry. If what they predicted came true, the people still must not listen to them for that reason. God allowed it as a test, to prove whether Israel loved the Lord. Deut. 13:1-5. We have the same warning in the New Testament about the gospel and the confession of Jesus Christ come in flesh. Gal. 1:8-9; 1 John 4:1. In Jer. 27:9 the 'dreamers' stand alongside the 'diviners.'
The next chapter names one such man. Hananiah announced that Babylon's yoke was broken, and he used God's name to say it.
The sign of the bonds and yokes meant that God had decreed that all must submit to the yoke of the King of Babylon. In Jeremiah 28 Hananiah speaks against this, and he does it with "thus says the Lord" (v. 11) on his lips. To do such a serious thing was to speak "revolt against the Lord" (v. 16), however devout and hopeful it might sound. God had made Nebuchadnezzar His servant and given him power and dominion. Hananiah's doom was therefore sealed and carried out that same year (Jer. 28:17)! He had spoken a lie like the diviners and soothsayers — the spiritualists of the nations (Jer. 27:9-10).
Timing is part of the test.
It is always a mark of false prophecies that in a day of evil they promised prosperity. When the people of God have turned away from Him, false prophets prophesy smooth things. They have their glowing dreams of progress and of the spread of the Lord's work and blessing. The coming of great things and pleasant things is always their message. A true prophet, by contrast, in a day of evil warns of the coming of the Lord to judge the ungodly.
Obeying God's word here cost the faithful their good name.
Notice that the path of faith at such a time exposed the prophet — and those who needed the Lord's word — to two charges: that they did not care about their country's honour and freedom, and that they proudly refused to submit to the powers that ruled over Palestine and the surrounding kingdoms. This is not the least of the trials of a sensitive spirit. Notice, further, that the path of faith always goes with the actual message of God for the condition His people were in at that time.
- The lie flatters. Men's prophets say what their masters wish and what their own interests need. Their promised safety is as hollow as it is loud.
- The lie borrows God's name. These speakers copied the real prophets' language. They attached "thus says the Lord" to words God never spoke.
- The lie has a tell. Promising prosperity in a day of evil marks the false voice. The true prophet warns of coming judgment.
- The lie kills. Hananiah's hopeful message was revolt against the Lord, and he died that same year. In this verse the promise of freedom ends in exile and death.
- The truth costs. Faith took the yoke and bore the charge of disloyalty and pride. That yoke was what kept a nation in its own land.
But the nation that bringeth its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serveth him, will I let remain still in its own land, saith Jehovah; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Jeremiah had already sent yokes to the kings around Judah; now he says the same to Judah's own king. Why surrender to a pagan conqueror, and why is God's promise just one word — "live"?
The message came while Zedekiah was working on a way out. One writer gives the plan two names:
What brought this word from the Lord to Jeremiah? The king of Judah was trying to form an alliance with the kings around the land. Their aim was to throw off the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. A pointless thought! God had, for a set term, given him a dominion unlimited in title. A rebellious thought! For God gave the king of Babylon this large place of authority. And that same God was openly chastising His own people, whose evil refused every remedy. Now when God is judging sin, the only fitting response in man is repentance in dust and ashes, with a heart that submits to His ways.
The obvious objection is that Babylon was worse than Judah. Jeremiah's answer never denied it:
But the question was, What had God said? God told His prophet Jeremiah to submit to the king of Babylon. That was the only path of safety, and the only path of honouring Him. The king of Babylon might be very wicked. But God's people were wicked too, and God gave them into the hands of the king of Babylon as a judgment on their evil.
Resistance to God can wear a noble face:
In a day of ruin faith always recognises the chastening of God and bows to it. Unbelief always resists, and counts it patriotism, or perhaps religion, to oppose. For this reason Jeremiah seemed to the men of Judah a very false Jew. He always advised them to submit to the king of Babylon. They thought they were much better Jews, because they were willing to fight the king of Babylon.
There are two ways to get this wrong, and only one way to get it right:
We can make two mistakes about discipline. One is to "faint" under it, the other is to "despise" discipline (Heb. 12:5). Hananiah, and many others with him, clearly despised it. The only right course is to be exercised by it. This is the message of the "bonds and yokes."
Zedekiah was not short of religious advice. All of it contradicted God, and the pattern repeats:
He speaks to the king and to the priests. He calls them to submit to the new government established with Nebuchadnezzar. He urges them not to believe the lying prophets. Their message was false and full of optimism, and they promised smooth things. Every message they spoke contradicted the Word of God. It is the same in the Christian world today.
Obeying this word was costly. It exposed a man to two charges:
Notice what the conduct of faith cost at such a time. It exposed the prophet, and those who needed the word of the Lord, to two charges. One was that he did not care about his country's honour and freedom. The other was that he proudly refused to submit to the powers that ruled over Palestine and the kingdoms around. This is not the least of the trials of a sensitive spirit.
Submission was not the end of hope. Judah's own kings show where each road ends:
We must be broken to be blessed. Discipline will keep us for future exaltation, but leave us "low" in this world. It is a "fruitful field" to the soul. But these are terms we do not particularly like. We would rather reach out for whatever may help us in the world. But that way, which is our own way, will end, as it did with Zedekiah, in shame and ruin. Accepting the judgment of God, and submitting under His mighty hand, ends in blessing and exaltation. That is how it went for Jehoiachin.
The image of the yoke does not stop with Babylon:
Power from God is still with the Gentile nations today, though they have corrupted it. When the Lord came in lowly grace to His people, they were under the Roman yoke. He stood before Pilate and meekly acknowledged this authority. He even said that Pilate could have had no power against Him unless it had been given from above. The yoke of kings had usually been harsh. But the yoke of this gracious King would prove easy and good.
- Cause. Babylon's ambition did not win. God was chastising a people whose evil had refused every remedy.
- Command. Carry the yoke; do not shake it off. Faith bows to God's chastening. Unbelief resists and calls that loyalty.
- Counterfeit. The voices against the yoke sounded religious and hopeful. Every word they spoke contradicted God's Word.
- Cost. Wearing the yoke made obedient men look disloyal to their nation and proud toward their rulers. That is a real trial to a sensitive spirit.
- Consequence. The yoke carried a promise: live. Zedekiah's own way ended in ruin; bowing under God's hand ends in blessing.