This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem. – Jeremiah 29:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 28, 2020): Jeremiah 29

Louis Antoine of France was the eldest son of Charles X, King of France. In what has become known as the July Revolution, masses of angry demonstrators pressured Charles to abdicate his position of King. On August 2, 1830, Charles X gave into that pressure; he renounced his place as King, allowing his eldest son, Louis Antoine, to become Louis XIX, King of France.

Precisely what happened next is unknown, although we do have the gossip of the day that describes the events that took place as the document of abdication was signed. It would have been interesting to have sat in the room with Louis XIX at the moment of his father’s abdication. Apparently, Louis was with his father Charles at the moment of the signing, and, according to the rumors, Charles X wept after had signed the document of abdication. Louis tried to comfort his father, while Louis’s wife, Marie Therese of France, made arguments to her husband about why Louis should not follow in his father’s footsteps by signing his own document of abdication. What we do know is that this situation inside of the palace lasted for about twenty minutes. Because it was less than twenty minutes later that Louis XIX signed his document of abdication, ending his reign as King of France. The signing of the document of abdication makes Louis XIX one of the shortest reigning monarchs, he reigned over France for less than twenty minutes, in the history of the world.

King Jehoiachin came to power in Judah in 598 B.C.E after the death of his father, King Jehoiakim, during the second siege of Jerusalem. The particulars of Jehoiakim’s death is unknown, history leaves us with several scenarios, but what we do know is that the Babylonians took and dealt with the body of the dead King. It was at this stressful moment for the nation that Jehoiachin began his reign as King.

Jehoiachin’s reign lasted longer than Louis XIX, but only because Jehoiachin refused to abdicate his throne. The reign of Jehoiachin lasted for three months and ten days. It ended when the Babylonians came back into Jerusalem and forcibly removed him as King and deported him to Babylon among fears that the young King would try to avenge his father’s death.

It is in the midst of this situation that Jeremiah writes his letter to the exiles, those who had already been taken into captivity in Babylon. Zedekiah, Jehoiachin’s Uncle, was now on the throne of Judah, but the struggle of Jerusalem was far from being over. And, at least in the eyes of Jeremiah, the hope for Judah was now living in Babylon. And he has a two-fold message for this hope. The first and probably most depressing part of the message was that this was not going to be a short battle. The people taken into captivity would likely die in Babylon and never return home. In this, Jeremiah supports one of the central messages of Ezekiel, who was ministering among the captives in Babylon at the same time that Jeremiah ministered in Jerusalem.

But the second part of the message was that God still had a plan. God was still on the throne, and Babylon would not be able to remove him. And God would not abdicate his responsibilities. The letter climaxes with what is probably the most well-known phrase found in Jeremiah’s writing. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 30