August 30, 2013 – Jeremiah 39 – 40

We see that the king did not listen to Jeremiah and did not surrender to Babylon, but fought and in the end, fled the city and tried to escape and leave them to their own destiny.  He was captured and had to watch the death of his own children and then blinded.  How horrible.  The last image you see with your eyes is the execution of your family and then you are blinded and taken away, alive, to live with that image until you die.  I don’t know the movie, but the quote “there are worse things than death” comes to mind with the imagery of this punishment.

I wonder how the Babylonians knew what Jeremiah had prophesied to.  They obviously have some knowledge because of how they treat him and let him stay if he wants and he is free to go where ever he feels he can be the most useful.

The taking of Jerusalem is not given in too much detail, but it is supposed to be a rather difficult city to capture.  I would recommend the movie Kingdom of Heaven if you want an idea of defending Jerusalem and the walls and what it might look like when they are breached.  Might not be too accurate, but it is the image I used when reading about it.