So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments and every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table. And for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king according to his daily needs until the day of his death, as long as he lived.
– Jeremiah 52:33–34
And that’s how the Book of Jeremiah ends. This book that focuses so much on God’s judgment upon his people for their sin and their idolatry, for their rebellion against him over and over and over again. They did not listen to me. They did not obey my voice. And God’s people ended up in exile in Babylon. And yet this picture of hope is what the book ends with. This picture of the Davidic king Jehoiachin having been brought out of prison by the king of Babylon to dine at his table, the Davidic king dining at the table of a pagan king who provides for Jehoiachin’s needs all the way until his last breath.
Jeremiah 52:33–34 reminds us God never forsakes his people.
Don’t miss the point. God disciplines his people, but he does not forsake his people. The Lord disciplines his people with hope, with redemption as the goal. God loves his people and will not leave them to their sin. He will save them from what they deserve. Oh, let this picture, these verses that close the Book of Jeremiah be an encouragement to you today.
One, to receive the discipline of the Lord when God disciplines us in our sin, when he refines us, when he purifies us. Let’s receive that. Let’s turn quickly from sin and ourselves. And let’s die to ourselves more and more every day. And in disciplining days under the hand of a good and gracious God, let’s turn to him and trust in him that he disciplines us for our good. That he is bringing about a picture of redemption in us. And that as we look to him and we trust in him, we always have hope.
He does not forsake his people. “Nothing,” Romans eight says, “can separate us from his love.” We can always trust in our God, even in dark, hard days. We can trust that God is ultimately working all things together for our good. And he will be faithful to every single one of his promises to us.
Jeremiah 52:33–34 teaches us God is our only hope of redemption.
And so we pray with hope, oh God, you are our only hope. You are our only hope of redemption. You’re the only hope of strength amidst weakness in our lives. You are our only hope of wisdom amidst confusion in our lives. You are our Father and we praise you for your love for us. We praise you for your discipline of us. God, we want to be refined. We want to be purified. Lord, we want to be holy as you are holy. We want to live with total trust in you and not trust in ourselves.
So God amidst everything that’s going on in any of our lives right now, help us to seek you, to turn from ourselves at every moment and to trust in you, not to trust in ourselves, but to trust in you and to hold fast, to hope in you that you are with us and you are for us and you are working all things together, all things, even the hardest things together for our good, that you will be faithful to all your promises.
We love you, God. Lord, we praise you. We trust in you. And we pray for your help. God, we don’t presume that this was easy in Jeremiah 52. And God, some of us are walking through things that are not easy right now, but God, you are our hope. You are our joy. You are our strength. God, you are our peace. You are our help. God, you are our wisdom. You are our life. Lord, you are our everything. And we turn our eyes to you.
This verse challenges us to continually focus on God.
Help us to continually turn our eyes to you, not to ourselves, not to the things of this world, but to you. And to trust that you will lead us, that you will work all of this together for our good, ultimately for our conformity to the image of Jesus, to make us the sons and daughters you’ve created us to be. Jesus, we praise you for the hope we have because you have conquered sin and death. You have risen from the grave. All glory be to your name, our hope that has conquered sin and death itself.
God, we pray for the people of this world who don’t know this. God, we pray for people around us. Help us to spread the good news of your hope to people around us today. Help us to speak about you, Jesus, and the power of your Spirit so that others might know the hope we have in you, the hope they can have in you amidst all the sin and suffering and death, darkness in this world.
Prayer for the Maldivian People
And God, we pray today for Maldivian people in the Maldives, almost half a million of them, Muslim men, women, children who’ve never heard the good news of your grace in Jesus, most Maldivian people totally in the dark when it comes to the hope of the gospel. God, we pray change that. And we know it’s hard.
God, we know there are so many challenges, but nothing is too hard for you to reach the Maldivian people with the good news of your grace. And may it be so. Send workers, cause the gospel to spread to them. We pray. Use our lives, however you want to use us and our resources toward that end. God, we pray so that they might know the hope that’s found in King Jesus. We pray all of this in his name, according to your Word in Jeremiah 52:33–34. 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.
