“And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it.”
-Jeremiah 52:4
So this is the last chapter in the book of Jeremiah, and what happens in this chapter is basically we find a summary of all the results of Jeremiah’s preaching. So Jeremiah 52:4, really is recapping what was stated earlier in the book of Jeremiah about the fall of Jerusalem. But when you get to the end of this book—you’re coming to this conclusion of all that Jeremiah has said—the point is crystal clear. What Jeremiah prophesied about the fall of Jerusalem to come came true.
God’s Word came true. That is a massive reality for every one of us to soak in. God’s Word came true here in Jeremiah 52:4. It will prove true always. God’s Word will always prove true. So if that is true, then shouldn’t we trust His Word? Shouldn’t we trust God’s Word? Hear it, listen to it, read it, meditate on it, memorize it, non-stop. What do we know in this world that will absolutely prove true forever? This Word.
“The grass withers, the flower fades,” the Bible says, “but the Word of God stands forever.” This Word will prove true. This is a rock to stand on. Don’t try to build your life on anything else. This is what Jesus says: Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, hear my word, bank your life on it, obey it, will be like a man who is standing on the rock. When the rains come, when the wind blows, you will have your foundation. You’ll still be standing because you’re on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine doesn’t put them into practice, you’re like building your house on sand. Rains come, the wind will blow, and your house will be gone. Your foundation, totally unreliable.
The most reliable foundation for life, the only reliable foundation for eternal life is the Word of God.
And yet over and over throughout this book, through the book of Jeremiah, God’s people didn’t trust it. They didn’t hear it. They didn’t listen to it, and they didn’t obey it. And here in Jeremiah 52:4 God’s word comes true.
God, help us to learn from their error. God, help us not to follow in their footsteps. Help us to believe Your Word, to realize it’s true, and to read it and memorize it and meditate on it and soak it in. Not just to hear it, but to obey it. Not just to learn it, but to do it. God, please please please make us a people of Your Word. Fill our lives with Your Word. Fill our families with Your Word, our conversations and marriage with Your Word, our conversations with our kids with Your Word.
Help us to talk about it all the time. And in Deuteronomy 6 kind of way, just everywhere we go, help us to talk about Your Word. From the beginning of our day to the end of our day, help us to hear Your Word. Help us to learn Your Word. Listen to Your Word. And God help us to obey it. God help us not to trust in our ways. Help us to trust Your Word. Make us a people, when we gather in our churches, may Your Word be supreme. Maybe it be proclaimed, non-stop, all of it, proclaimed in our churches and exalted in our churches.
“You have exalted above all things,” Psalm 138:2, “your name and your Word.” God, exalt Your Word in our churches. We know that it will prove true. It will last forever. So help us to bank our lives today and every day on it. On hearing it, learning it, and obeying it. Doing it. Living according to it. God, may it be so. We pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
