Jeremiah Chapter 52 "The Captivity." This Bible Study is written by Roger
Christopherson, and it's transcription/ location is
provided by http://www.theseason.org The close of chapter 51, ended the prophecy of Jeremiah, and what we have in chapter 52 is a review of what was in the other fifty one chapters. God is reviewing to see if we have learned the lessons taught. Jeremiah 52:1 "Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah." King Zedekiah was thirty three years old when Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar's army. The Jeremiah that was the grandfather of Zedekiah was not the Jeremiah that authored this book. It is important to notice the lineage of names, as we read in Jeremiah 35:3. Here was another Jeremiah also, only this Jeremiah was the son of Habaziniah, a Kenite. The Book of Jeremiah should have taught us to pay attention to names, and lineage of who we are discussing. Jeremiah 52:2 "And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done." The evil that was done in the eyes of the Lord, was going to Egypt for protection against Babylon, instead of submitting as God had warned him, through Jeremiah the prophet. Zedekiah did not trust God, but leaned on Pharaoh and his army. Jeremiah 52:3 "For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till He had cast them out from His presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon." King Zedekiah had made an agreement with Nebuchadnezzar as to how Judah would be run, and after Zedekiah assumed the throne, Zedekiah broke that agreement and ran down to Egypt. This is what angered the Lord. Zedekiah's problems came when he refused to listen to Jeremiah the prophet of God. Zedekiah tried to work out his own salvation, and do exactly opposite of what God had instructed him to do. This is history that happened some twenty five hundred years ago, and God is now testing us to see how well we can apply this as a type of the end times, in relation to this history. Jeremiah 52:4 "And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came,, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about." Jeremiah 52:5 "So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah." The first question on the test refers to the statement, "the city was besieged unto the eleventh year"; Remember back in Jeremiah 51:8 where it stated, "Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed." This is how it happens only at the end times, and not part of the historical fall of Jerusalem. Though the times varied, the historical event is an example of what we shall see in our generation. This is the way that God is pointing out to us what part is history, and what part is prophecy to the end days. Jeremiah 52:6 "And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the People of the land." God has pointed out here that this famine that took place in Jeremiah's day, was for the lack of food, however we are reminded by Amos 8:11 that the "famine of the end times is not for bread, or thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord." When we look around us today, we don't hear very much of God's word being taught as it should, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Jeremiah 52:7 "Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and sent forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden: (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain." When the city fell, all the men headed out the gate and ran. Think about this, and compare it to today. When the Babylon of Jeremiah's day came, it was hard to take, and men feared the army that came against them. Today it is just the opposite, for the Babylon of today is confusion, and it is coming over the people and they are fixing their minds to run to it and not away from it. People today are very trusting of their pastors, and they assume that their pastor knows the word, and has the integrity not to deceive them. This is ignorance when you have the Word of God, and refuse to read it and study for the truth, but would rather place the future of your soul on hear-say, traditions, and fairy-tales. Jeremiah 52:8 "But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him." God has stated that Mystery Babylon of the end times is going to come, and with that warning we should strive to keep it out of our family, and church, but overall there is nothing we can do to keep it from spreading over the entire world. The reason is that it is in God's plan. When you run from it, then you get caught up in it. When you are one of God's elect, you know what you are to do when the king of Babylon comes. You are to witness against him, as it is recorded in Mark 13:9, 10. "But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them." [9] "And the gospel must first be published among all nations." [10] Jeremiah 52:9 "Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him." Remember from Jeremiah 35 what the land of Hamath represented? That is the land of the Kenites, the sons of Rechab, the chief Kenite for this time. We see what these Kenites did in I Chronicles 2:55; "And the families of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez [Jerusalem], the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Scuhathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab." They took over the duties of the scribes, which was assigned to the Levites. Satan's children are doing the work that was assigned to God's children, the Levites. Satan's children are doing the interpretation of God's Word, and keeping the records of God's house. This was a type of what we see today, and it will only get worse. This is history, yes. But why did they happen to stop at this place? So that the prophetic utterance would be clear to us that Satan's own children would be passing judgment, with the king of Babylon, who was the Satan, the son of perdition in our generation. Jeremiah 52:10 "And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah." Riblah is right there in the center of Hamath. In a prophetic sense to you and I, it means that all the leaders will be spiritually dead, and if you are not very careful, even in your own church and its system. They will be taken and spiritually killed. This is the history and the type of what will happen. This happens when they start substituting traditions and fairy-tales, and mixing heathen religious thought with the Word of God. If these leaders want to play with the devil, God will turn them over to Satan, the Antichrist. Today most of the religious leaders not only don't know who they are, with respect to the bible, they will fight the knowledge to even be presented to them. Is it any wonder that our people are so ignorant of how they apply to Bible prophecy? In this generation they don't even know who the enemy is. Jeremiah 52:11 "Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death." What does it mean, Having your eyes put out? It means that he didn't have eyes to see. The very one that was to be the king and ruler over all the people was a blind as a bat physically. As this would relate to our generation, spiritually they don't have eyes to see, they are blind to the truth of God's Word. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 13:13-16? Matthew 13:13 "Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing the hear not, neither do they understand." Matthew 13:14 "And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, 'By hearing they shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:" Matthew 13:15 "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.' " Remember we are applying what happened in the physical sense historically as a type, to the spiritual sense in the end times. Matthew 13:16 "But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear." Jeremiah 52:12 "Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem round about." Nebuzar-adan was the top general in charge of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and the killing of the people, and taking some captive. Jeremiah 52:13 "And burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire:" This is a type of what we will see happen. How is it that the Lord's house will be burned in the end times? They are burned with lies and deception that will be taught within. It is no great mystery what this verse means when you visit many churches in our land today. Jeremiah 52:14 "And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about." The men of that army, as well as the captain went through Jerusalem as well as God's house and took everything of value, and what they didn't take, they burned and destroyed. The destruction that is coming now is complete confusion as to what God's Word even says, and watch how the precious thing of our Lord, and the scripture are made light of, and taken out of context and distorted into a joke. Most Christians today sit back and laugh, because they don't know what is of God, or of the devil. They are ignorant of God's holy Word, and when the government agencies attacks a church, they side with the agency, and watch as our freedoms and rights are eroded. The walls are being broken down, and most Christians are completely ignorant of it. Jeremiah 52:15 "Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude." All of the people were taken over, those in the city as well as those in the rural areas. The rich were killed, and the rest were either killed or taken captive. Jeremiah 52:16 "But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen." Those that followed the the Word of God and the warnings that Jeremiah gave were left alone and given what was necessary to live on. Today if you learn God's Word and gain the knowledge for our time, as to what the signs and prophetic events that are coming to pass, you know what to expect. You then know what is to happen and when those prophecies shall come to pass. It will not be great mystery to you. We are to study God's Word to see that we are not deceived when Satan and his fallen angels come on the scene. Jeremiah 52:17 "Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans brake, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon." In the first and second siege the Babylonians took all the gold and silver and things of great value, now they are cleaning up the items of less value. Jeremiah 52:18 "The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away." The Caldrons, shovels, snuffers, bowls and spoons were used in the temple to clean and carry out the ashes after the sacrifices. It was all part of the holy things that was God's. Don't overlook the statement; "wherewith they ministered". This vial king of Babylon and his captain, which are the fallen angels that will come with him, will take everything that was Christ's and His churches. Satan will not just stand in the holy place and claim to be God, but he will give the instructions as to what every good Christian should believe. These are the holy things of God, and spiritually, Satan will bring his confusion to eliminate everything that God holds dear. We know that even the communion shall be done away with, because the church will believe that Satan is the true Christ. Paul warns us that there will be no gathering back to Christ until after this happens. II Thessalonians 2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition," Christ is not coming back until after the "son of perdition" who is Satan is revealed. II Thessalonians 2:4 "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." When Satan stands there in the Temple of God in Jerusalem, and shows himself to be God the communion will stop, because the entire church world will believe that the true Christ is here. What are you betting your soul on, the rumors floating around today, or your heavenly Father's Word? Jeremiah 52:19 "And the basons, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups; that which was of gold, and that which was of silver in silver, took the captain of the guard away." These are all the holy and religious thing that were part of the worshipping of God and they will be taken over by the false Jesus claiming to be Jesus. All of your hymnals and quarterlies, and pulpits, and even the hirelings that stand behind the pulpits. There will be no preaching from God's Word, because those that do teach God's Word will be removed. This will happen because it is all part of God's plan and written in His Word. Jeremiah 52:20 "The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord: the brass of all these vessels was without weight." There was so much of these brass ornaments that it could not be measured, and the men of Babylon took it all. When the king of confusion, Antichrist comes He will take over everything. Satan and his system will own and control everything. God is telling you to get mentally prepared for what is coming upon us today. It is not uncommon today to see the Kenite's system of taxation, or one of the agencies of the United Nations move in and simply take over land and buildings, with nothing in return, or even give due process of law. It is going to get worse right up until the time of Satan's appearance, and then Satan and the fallen angels with him will have complete control over all the earth, except over God's elect. Remember what happened to "certain of the poor" in verse sixteen? They were left alone. It is written and it is going to happen. Jeremiah 52:21
"And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it; and the thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow." The pillars were laid over with metal, and hollow inside. Jeremiah 52:22 "And the chapiter of brass was upon it; and the height of one chapiter was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon upon the chapiters round about, all of brass. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like unto these." Everything described here as well as the items inscribed on the brass chapiters were part of the holy things of the temple. Satan will take over from the doorpost coming into the church, to to the altar and every last teaching of God, and they will blind everyone to the truth of God's Word. The Antichrist will bring about a spiritual death to even your own children, if you allow them to listen to those teachings of the false christ. Jeremiah 52:23 "And there were ninety and six pomegranates on the side; and all the pomegranates upon the network were an hundred round about." Remember this fifty second chapter is a test to see how you can relate the Prophecies of historical Babylon, to the spiritual Babylon of Confusion of our end generation. "Hundred" in biblical numerics refers to the "covenant people". This will even happen to the covenant people. Jeremiah 52:24 "And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:" Remember that "Seraiah" means "God has prevailed", God is in this prophecy, and He is allowing it to happen. "Zephaniah" in the Hebrew tongue means "hidden by God". Jeremiah 52:25 "He took also out of the city of eunuch, which had the charge of the men of war; and seven men of them that were near the king's person, which were found in the city; and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the People of the land; and threescore men of the People of the land, that were found in the midst of the city." The captain of the guard rounded up all the people that he could find. Jeremiah 52:26 "So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah." Remember from verse nine, Riblah was in the land of the Kenites, in Hamoth. God warned us, the "house of Israel" that if we turned against him, He would place a curse upon us. This curse is in Amos 6:14 "But, "Behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel [Christians nations] saith the Lord the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness." This Hemath is the same as "Hamath" in Jeremiah, the same word and people. At the end of time in the last generation, Hamath is going to be allowed to come into the house of Israel, the Christian nations and place the curse upon them. Friend the ten lost tribes are not lost, and you had better wake up to that fact. Those nations Hosea identifies in Hosea 1:10, and they are the peoples, or nations that call themselves sons of the living God. They call themselves "Christians". Jeremiah 52:27 "And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land." Babylon took Judah, because God gave Babylon the entire world. There was no where to run and hide, it was a "One Word Order". Today we have another "New World Order" and everything that is done world wide today is in promotion of the new world order. Jeremiah 52:28 "This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty:" This was 3,023 people of the land of Judah, which included all the misfits. Jeremiah 52:29 "In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons:" Jeremiah 52:30 "In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred." The total of all persons taken to Babylon were 4,600 persons. This is all that remained back in Judah that did not obey God, they were rounded up and carried back in the end. They were not disobeying Nebuchadnezzar but God by not going into captivity as Jeremiah instructed. You will have to make the same decision before it is all over. Satan is not coming to murder people, but to cause people to love him, and be deceived by his deception. This is all in God's plan of allowing mankind to choose whether they will love God, of Satan. The whole idea of Satan and his fallen angels coming to earth is to seduce all of mankind to see if they will chose God, or reject Him. The struggle is between God and Satan, and Satan knows that his time is very short. It is like a game with Satan. He know the sentence that is on his head, and Satan feels that if he can convert enough people to himself, that he will defeat God. That simply cannot happen. Jeremiah 52:31 "And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evil merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison," We are talking about king Jehoiachin here, not Zedekiah. We see here that Nebuchadnezzar is gone and his son is now ruling. the term "lifted up the head" means that the king of Babylon freed Jehoiachin, who had been in prison in Babylon for many years. Do you remember king Jehoiachin? God told us to never call this king Jehoiachin by that name again, and renamed him "Coniah", and remove my name from his identity. God even said that if Coniah were His signet, or ring of authority, He would take it off and throw it away. So we see that the king of Babylon freed this no good so-and-so. Jeremiah 52:32 "And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon," This king of Babylon made this no good king Coniah number one in all the empire. The lesson that we get from this, is that Satan will take the no good, worthless people and place them in a place of authority. You can count of it, my friend. It can be quite confusing when the chief religious authority turns the key leadership roles over to the scum of the earth. We are starting to see they turn right and wrong up side down, and back side front. Jeremiah 52:33 "And changed the prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life." We are starting to get some strange leaders assuming leadership roles around the world. Start to look around and see the people that are on top today, and see where they were twenty and thirty years ago. Terrorist are now creating peace agreements, and heading states. A man compared to Hitler, is coddled and treated with dignity and on and on. Look around friend, we have Coniah's all over the place, and it is going to get worse. Expect it, for God wrote it. The king of any realm's chief duty "was the protector of the faith", and this dude will protect nothing, but only tare it down. We have a leader in our nation that is suppose to defend the faith of our nation, and what does he do? he brings in communism and socialism and mixes it up to the point that our youth don't know where we stand. He is the modern day form of Coniah. Are you starting to get the picture. Jeremiah 52:34 "And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life." We are talking here about Jehoichin, the one changed to Coniah. What again was the famine for in the latter days? It was for the the hearing of the Word of God. This old leader is pumped full of the food of the king of Babylon, and fed from the table of the king of confusion. What happened to him when those days ended? He died, and in our generation that means spiritual death, as well as the end of this flesh age. We are not relating this to a physical death in our generation, and a spiritual death, that results in the death of our soul. If you go ahead and listen to the king of Babylon of Revelation that will appear in our generation, you will be deceived by him, and you will have that spiritual death. If you consider yourself saved, then ask yourself, Who am I saved to? The first messiah, or the second, the true messiah? Do you know the difference? If you don't know the difference, you are in a pack of trouble, for you are a set up for the deception that is coming upon the earth today. The time of the end is closer then you think. My friend, our Heavenly Father wrote us a letter, and this is part of the letter. God told Jeremiah to take that letter and throw it at them, well you have just completed part of that letter, and I hope we all are a lot wiser for what we have read.
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