Modern-Day Bible Burning Fails of Its Purpose

“He proceeded to tear it apart with the secretary’s knife, pitching it also into the fire that was in the brazier until all the roll ended up in the fire that was in the brazier.”​—Jer. 36:23.

1. Why is the burning of the Bible in whole or in part not new?

BURNING of the Holy Bible in whole or in part is not new. The first reported case of such a thing took place more than 2,600 years ago. This was in the days of the third-last king of the nation to which the Bible had originally been given.

2. What led up to the making of Jeremiah’s written prophecy fuel for the flames?

² The season was that of winter at Jerusalem, where King Jehoiakim was seated near a brazier in which a fire was burning to heat up the throne room. Just how a vital part of the Holy Bible came to be fuel for the flames in this brazier, the factual account informs us. From it we here quote:

Now it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, that this word occurred to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying: “Take for yourself a roll of a book, and you must write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations, since the day that I spoke to you, since the days of Josiah, clear down to this day. Perhaps those of the house of Judah will listen to all the calamity that I am thinking of doing to them, to the end that they may return, each one from his bad way, and that I may actually forgive their error and their sin.” (Jer. 36:1-3)

If we read the preceding 35 chapters of the book of Jeremiah, we can appreciate how unpopular his written message was certain to be.

3. Why was Jeremiah not trying to make a nuisance of himself, and how much time yet remained for people to do something about the situation?

³ Today the message that corresponds with what Jeremiah was told to write on the “roll of a book” proves to be just as unpopular. However, the purport of the message is not just to irritate people, to nag them, to plague them with calamity howling. Those Christians who today correspond with the prophet Jeremiah are not trying just to make a nuisance of themselves. No, but they render a public service by warning all the people about the oncoming international catastrophe. This could stir some people to repentance and reform while Jehovah is still favorably inclined. For this course, these could then be spared during the world calamity ahead. Back there in Jeremiah’s day the nation of Judah had just 18 years yet to go till the Babylonians destroyed the holy city Jerusalem. Today, after 60 years of activity by the modern Jeremiah class, how much time does Jerusalem’s counterpart, Christendom, yet have before her calamitous destruction starts off the “great tribulation” for the whole world?​—Matt. 24:21, 22.

PUBLIC DELIVERY OF THE MESSAGE OF DOOM

4. After Jeremiah completed the compiling of his prophecies from the start onward, how was the message presented to Jerusalem, and why?

⁴ Obediently Jeremiah dictated the message to his secretary, Baruch the son of Neriah. The resulting manuscript contained all the words of Jehovah to Jeremiah from the 13th year of the reign of King Josiah onward, the year when Jehovah raised up the young priest-designate Jeremiah to be a prophet. On completion of the manuscript, Jeremiah felt unable to go to Jerusalem, just about three miles (5 km) from his Levite hometown of Anathoth, to read aloud the manuscript in the temple courtyards. Hence, he sent his secretary Baruch there to do so, adding: “Perhaps their request for favor will fall before Jehovah and they will return, each one from his bad way, for great is the anger and the rage that Jehovah has spoken against this people.”​—Jer. 36:4-7.

5. What would seem to be the appropriate time for the manuscript of Jeremiah’s prophecies to be read in Jerusalem’s temple?

⁵ How would any of us have liked to do such an audible reading in a public place through which people coursed? It must have called for courage on Baruch’s part. Yet, with the strength of his God, he did it! But we must remember that it took time on Baruch’s part to copy down all that Jeremiah dictated to him. (Jer. 36:17, 18) Since the manuscript contained Jehovah’s stern messages against all the nations, including Israel and Judah, a public event would furnish the fitting time for such a manuscript to be read aloud. Say, a national fast day! Then the fasters would be thronging Jerusalem’s temple. For such an occasion, time must wait!

6. During the year that Jeremiah wrote his manuscript, how did it become manifest who would be the one used to carry out Jeremiah’s prophecy about Jerusalem’s overthrow?

⁶ So Baruch’s reading of the completed manuscript publicly did not take place in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, during which year King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated the military forces of Pharaoh Nechoh of Egypt and established himself as the world’s new dominant ruler. This Nebuchadnezzar was the Gentile ruler whom Jeremiah foretold as the one to overthrow Judah and Jerusalem, this to be followed by the land’s lying desolate without man or domestic animal for 70 years.​—Jer. 36:6; 25:1-11.

7. In what year and on what occasion did Baruch read Jeremiah’s manuscript in the temple of Jerusalem?

⁷ Comes now the fifth year of King Jehoiakim of Judah. This coincides with the second year of Nebuchadnezzar as world ruler. The account of Jeremiah 36:9, 10 makes this certain. It says:

Now it came about in the fifth year [624-623 B.C.E.] of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month [Chislev, or, November-December], that all the people in Jerusalem and all the people that were coming in from the cities of Judah into Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before Jehovah. And Baruch began to read aloud from the book the words of Jeremiah at the house of Jehovah, in the dining room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the copyist, in the upper courtyard, at the entrance of the new gate of the house of Jehovah, in the ears of all the people.

8. In what season of the year did Baruch proceed to carry out Jeremiah’s orders to him?

⁸ Reigns of the kings of Judah were counted from the spring month of Abib, or Nisan. The ninth month of their lunar year, which came to be called Chislev, would fall in the winter season. It would include part of what we call December (this Latin name meaning 10th month). In Maccabean times the “festival of dedication” of Jerusalem’s temple came to be held on Chislev 25, and this was said to be in the “wintertime.” (John 10:22) Despite the wintry weather of the month of Chislev, Baruch, the secretary of Jeremiah, proceeded to carry out his orders from Jeremiah.

9. How did the princes of Judah feel about the manuscript as read to them, and what did they tell Baruch, along with Jeremiah, to do?

⁹ Jeremiah’s words that Baruch read aloud to the people at the temple were of concern to all the nation. So the princes of Judah called for Baruch to read the prophetic message to them. (Jer. 36:11-15) If we recall what the previous chapters of Jeremiah’s prophecy had to say about the doomed kingdom of Judah, we can appreciate why the princes felt dread on hearing what Baruch read to them. Nationalistically they felt obliged to tell King Jehoiakim. They took the manuscript book from Baruch, but, feeling kindly disposed to the book’s author and the copyist, they told Baruch to go into hiding with Jeremiah. This worked out well.​—Jer. 36:16-20.

THE FIRST BIBLE BURNING ON RECORD

10. What did King Jehoiakim do as Jehudi read the book to him, and what was the effect of this outcome?

¹⁰ The princes went into the winter house of King Jehoiakim to make their report. He wanted to get his hands on the roll of Jeremiah’s prophecy. So he sent the court official named Jehudi to bring back the book from the temple where it had been left. What happened now as Jehudi proceeded to unroll the scroll and read aloud column after column? “Then it came about that as soon as Jehudi had read three or four page-columns, he [King Jehoiakim] proceeded to tear it apart with the secretary’s knife, pitching it also into the fire that was in the brazier until all the roll ended up in the fire that was in the brazier. And they felt no dread; neither did the king and all his servants, who were listening to all these words, rip their garments apart.”​—Jer. 36:21-24.

11. How did Jehoiakim’s conduct differ from that of his father Josiah on hearing Deuteronomy read, and had Jehoiakim obeyed Deuteronomy 17:18-20?

¹¹ What disrespect for the inspired written word of God! How unlike the conduct of his father Josiah this act of King Jehoiakim was! When the roll of the book of Deuteronomy as written by the prophet Moses had been discovered during the cleaning up of the defiled temple, Josiah had a secretary read it to him. Josiah took it to heart and ripped his garments. Then he led his people in making a special covenant with Jehovah to obey him and to carry out his pure worship. (2 Chron. 34:14-33) Moreover, that very law code commanded any future king of Israel to write an exact copy of the law and read it regularly and keep it. (Deut. 17:18-20) What indications are there that King Jehoiakim did such a godly thing? None! His example was bad!

12. What two incidents are here cited to show whether there are any like King Jehoiakim today?

¹² Are there modern Jehoiakims? Yes, as far as burning copies of the Sacred Scriptures is concerned. Yes, right in the realm of Christendom! Recall how, in the year 1961, down in Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico, a Roman Catholic priest incited a mob to invade and ransack a home where cultural meetings were regularly held, and they seized all the Bibles to be found and burned them in the public square. The local newspaper reported that they did this as though they were committing “an act of faith.” Also, in February of 1962 a communication was issued in Portugal prohibiting the circulation of the literature of Jehovah’s Witnesses through the mail. Though there had been no official notice published by the Portuguese government of banning Jehovah’s Witnesses, large quantities of their religious literature and also Bibles were seized and burned.

13, 14. (a) In this regard, what happened two years ago down in Argentina? (b) What question does that affair raise, and what is the real reason why the religious clergy try to debar Jehovah’s Witnesses from Christian activity?

¹³ In 1976 Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned in Argentina, and just two years ago at their headquarters in Buenos Aires large quantities of their literature was confiscated, including 250 copies of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in Spanish. All of this was sold to paper manufacturers and shredded and boiled to a pulp for cellulose. Furthermore, Jehovah’s Witnesses who were identified when crossing from Uruguay into Argentina had their Bibles taken away from them, and these were burned. Other instances of Bible burning might be set in array before our readers, but all of this raises a question.

¹⁴ What is it that makes the Bible seemingly a dangerous instrument in the hands of Jehovah’s Witnesses, so that, even in lands called Christian, it should be confiscated so unjustly and destroyed? Is it because nationalists look upon Jehovah’s Witnesses as King Jehoiakim looked upon Jeremiah and Baruch​—as being subversive political dangers to the State, obstructors of defensive measures of the nation? This is what religious leaders of Christendom would like political and other elements of the State to believe! But the real reason why government officials and religious clergymen want to put Jehovah’s Witnesses out of Christian activity is this: They serve the same God that Jeremiah and Baruch did, and they get out of the Hebrew Scriptures God’s message similar to that of the prophet Jeremiah. Then, like Jeremiah, they obey Jehovah’s command as set out in those inspired Scriptures and proclaim His message against the present evil system of things, including Christendom and all the worldly elements with which she keeps up an intimate relationship, to get their active support. So, Down with Jehovah’s Witnesses, who expose Christendom!

15, 16. (a) What instances in the seventh century B.C.E. do we have to show whether all subordinate officials go along with the harassment of Jehovah’s Witnesses? (b) What did Jehovah do for his servants?

¹⁵ There have been and still are a few subordinate government officials who do not go along with their superiors in this nasty persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They protest, out of a sense of fairness and out of respect for the God of whom these harassed Christians are witnesses​—but all in vain! This is just as in the outstanding case of the seventh century B.C.E. “Even Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah themselves pleaded with the king not to burn the roll, but he did not listen to them. Further, the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of the king and Seraiah the son of Azriel and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to get Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet. But Jehovah kept them concealed.”​—Jer. 36:25, 26.

¹⁶ King Jehoiakim sent not his royal heir Jehoiachin but his “son” Jerahmeel along with two other officials to hunt down Jeremiah and his secretary. The king’s intent was plainly an evil one. But where they had gone into hiding Jehovah did not allow to be found out, whether in Jerusalem or in nearby Anathoth or elsewhere. At the very beginning of his prophetic career, Jeremiah had been given Jehovah’s assurance: “ ‘They will be certain to fight against you, but they will not prevail against you, for “I am with you,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “to deliver you.”’”​—Jer. 1:19.

17, 18. (a) According to the earlier prophecy of Isaiah 40:8, how was Jehoiakim’s objective in Bible burning to fare? (b) What was Jeremiah commanded to write upon another roll against Jehoiakim?

¹⁷ In the century prior to Jeremiah, the prophet Isaiah wrote: “As for the word of our God, it will last to time indefinite.” (Isa. 40:8; 1 Pet. 1:25) So King Jehoiakim’s burning of the manuscript roll of Jeremiah was bound to fail of its objective, for God saw to that. He purposed that we today should have the full prophecy of Jeremiah, more than two and a half millenniums later. How has this proved to be so? Jeremiah tells us while he and Baruch were being concealed by Jehovah.

¹⁸ “The word of Jehovah occurred further to Jeremiah after the king had burned up the roll with the words that Baruch had written at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying: ‘Take again for yourself a roll, another one, and write on it all the first words that proved to be on the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned up. And against Jehoiakim the king of Judah you should say, “This is what Jehovah has said: ‘You yourself have burned up this roll, saying, “Why is it that you have written on it, saying: ‘The king of Babylon will come without fail and will certainly bring this land to ruin and cause man and beast to cease from it’?” Therefore this is what Jehovah has said against Jehoiakim the king of Judah, “He will come to have no one sitting upon the throne of David, and his own dead body will become something thrown out to the heat by day and to the frost by night. And I will call to account against him and against his offspring and against his servants their error, and I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the calamity that I have spoken against them, and they did not listen.”’”’”​—Jer. 36:27-31.

19. Obeying God’s command meant what kind of work for Jeremiah and Baruch, and how extensive was the replacement manuscript?

¹⁹ Obeying God’s command meant underground work for the prophet and his secretary, but did Jeremiah obey? “And Jeremiah himself took another roll and then gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah the secretary, who proceeded to write upon it at the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book that Jehoiakim the king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added to them many more words like those.”​—Jer. 36:32.

20. What kind of burial did Jehoiakim have at death, and did his son Jehoiachin have any sons mount the throne of Jerusalem?

²⁰ As matters turned out, Jehoiakim experienced a disgraceful death and was not buried in the tombs of the kings at Jerusalem, no more than an ass would be. (Jer. 22:18, 19) His son Jehoiachin (or, Coniah) reigned only three months and 10 days in Jerusalem and then surrendered to the Babylonians and was deported to Babylon, from where he did not return. (Jer. 22:24-30; 37:1) Down to the destruction of the rebuilt city of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E., no descendant of Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, mounted a royal throne in Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s prophetic words, written in his underground location, did not fail to come true!

21. When driven underground, what have Jehovah’s Witnesses of today done, and how effective has modern-day Bible burning proved to be?

²¹ Nowadays Jehovah’s Witnesses have been driven underground in many lands. When the Bibles owned and used by them are seized and burned, what do they do? They simply print more Bibles themselves or get translations of other Bibles and use these. Even underground, if necessary, they keep proclaiming the message of doom against the God-defying world similar to what Jeremiah proclaimed. Bible burning, in order to silence Jehovah’s Witnesses of today, has failed of its objective. Neither has it frightened them off from distributing Bible literature nor will it prevent Jehovah’s Word from coming true in full force in the fiery times ahead! Opposers simply prove themselves worthy of eternal destruction then!

Serve the “King of the Nations” and Survive

1. According to the pattern set by King Jehoiakim and his successor, his brother Zedekiah, will the world rulers today change their course due to what the Jeremiah class says?

WHAT if worldly rulers, especially those of Christendom, were to recognize that there is a modern-day Jeremiah class? What if they sent for it to find out what Jehovah’s prophetic word was concerning their fate? Would this mean that they were about to alter their course and to take the course leading to their surviving the foretold “great tribulation” upon this world? NO! Not if we take the last Judean king of Jerusalem as an example, namely, King Jehoiakim’s brother, Zedekiah. King Jehoiakim had forced Jeremiah and his secretary Baruch underground​—for how long it is not recorded. But King Jehoiakim’s brother Zedekiah did worse to Jehovah’s faithful witness, Jeremiah. Just so, too, today’s worldly rulers will not change their headlong course. Too much is involved in the way of political interests. This bodes no good for the peoples whom they govern.​—Jer. 37:2.

2. Under what circumstances did Zedekiah call upon Jeremiah to pray for the Israelites, but what did Jeremiah indicate to him?

² Timewise, it was in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. The third and final siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians was on! Military forces were coming up from Egypt to help the beleaguered city. In order to meet this threat, the Babylonian besiegers withdrew. It seemed like the time for praying to Jehovah for his blessing upon the Egyptian relief columns. So King Zedekiah called upon Jeremiah to pray “in our behalf to Jehovah our God.” But Jehovah had instructed Jeremiah not to pray for this. Jehovah would not listen to such prayer. (Jer. 37:3; 11:14; 14:11, 12) So Jeremiah indicated victory for the Babylonians over the Egyptian relief forces by telling King Zedekiah that the Babylonians would come back and actually cremate Jerusalem.​—Jer. 37:4-10.

3. Why did the city princes of Jerusalem have Jeremiah thrown into the “house of fetters”?

³ During the withdrawal of the Babylonians, Jeremiah felt free to leave Jerusalem and go to the priests’ city of Anathoth, in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. When he was arrested in Jerusalem’s northern gate, the Gate of Benjamin, he denied that he was deserting to the enemy Babylonians. Treating him as if he were a subversive element, a traitor, the city princes had him put in the “house of fetters,” where he was detained for “many days.” (Jer. 37:11-16) How like the handling of the Jeremiah class today!

4. How did Jeremiah advise King Zedekiah to make it easier for himself, and why was Jeremiah transferred to the Courtyard of the Guard?

⁴ Would Jeremiah, when face to face with King Zedekiah himself, budge from his hard message? When King Zedekiah had him brought from the house of detention to a concealed place for private questioning, he boldly told the king that he would become prisoner to the Babylonians, whom Jehovah was using as his instruments. Whether the king willingly surrendered to them or had to be caught and taken prisoner against his will, the outcome would be the same. Jeremiah was in favor of the king’s making it easier for himself. Jeremiah gave the king no false assurances. Frankly, Jeremiah was doing no wrong to his own people and to their king, and so why should he be kept in a place of detention where it would mean his early death? At his request, King Zedekiah had him transferred to the Courtyard of the Guard, a sort of military prison for Jeremiah. His diet was bread and water.​—Jer. 37:17-21.

THE WISE COURSE NOT A SUBVERSIVE ONE

5. What was the right and proper thing for King Zedekiah to do respecting the Babylonian Empire, and why was it left to the people to take individual action respecting Jerusalem?

⁵ Zedekiah had been made king of Jerusalem by Emperor Nebuchadnezzar. Yet, after being a tributary king to Nebuchadnezzar for eight years, Zedekiah had rebelled against him. The right and proper course was to cease from his rebellion and peacefully submit to the Empire that Jehovah had let become the Third World Power of Bible history. If he as king refused to do this, then it would be in the interest of the people for them to do so. Yes, do just as Jeremiah had declared to the people in Jerusalem:

“This is what Jehovah has said, ‘The one continuing to dwell in this city is the one that will die by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence. But the one going out to the Chaldeans is the one that will keep living and that will certainly come to have his soul as a spoil and alive.’ This is what Jehovah has said, ‘Without fail this city will be given into the hand of the military force of the king of Babylon, and he will certainly capture it.’” (Jer. 38:2, 3)

King Zedekiah should have taken the lead in following this inspired counsel. But since he did not do so, it fell to his subjects individually to take action with faith in Jehovah’s directives.

6. Why did the princes have Jeremiah thrown into the cistern in the courtyard of the king’s son?

⁶ The princes of Jerusalem clamored for Jeremiah’s death, as they claimed that he was weakening the hands of the armed forces defending the city; he was undermining the will of the people to fight. So, without the king’s consent, they had Jeremiah thrown into a cistern in the Courtyard of the Guard, this being in the home of Malchijah the “son” of Zedekiah. At the bottom of the cistern, Jeremiah sank into the mud. Now he could not follow his own advice to others.

7. Who now came to Jeremiah’s rescue, and on what basis?

⁷ When, now, things looked blackest for Jeremiah, ropes were being lowered into the cistern, with rags to serve as cushions for his armpits, to hoist him out of the miry deep. An Ethiopian eunuch named Ebed-melech, in the king’s employ, had learned of the prophet’s plight. Fearing Jeremiah’s death down there in the miry cistern, he made bold to speak to the king. He got the king’s order to take along 30 men and to get Jeremiah out.​—Jer. 38:10-12.

8, 9. (a) In secret interview, how did King Zedekiah free Jeremiah from any pressure to be a false prophet to him? (b) What unchanged advice did Jeremiah give Zedekiah, setting what alternatives before him?

⁸ King Zedekiah, at whose order Jeremiah had been rescued, called for another secret interview with him in an entryway of the temple. Zedekiah swore by the life-giving Jehovah not to have the prophet put to death for telling him God’s truth, but did not promise to listen to it. Freed from the threat of death that could have turned him into a false prophet, Jeremiah stuck true to the identical message that had earlier put him in danger of death:

⁹ ‘King Zedekiah, either you yourself as king surrender Jerusalem to the Chaldeans or else Jehovah will take it upon himself to surrender it to be burned down by the Chaldeans. Have no fear of being treated abusively by Jews who have already heeded my advice and escaped to the besiegers. If you do not surrender, then what? Then the womenfolk who survive will be led forth singing out how those who kept on peaceful terms with you misled and overreached you and treacherously left you to sink into the mire, whereas they themselves took to flight. Also, your own wives and children will be led out captives. You yourself will not escape from the clutches of the king of Babylon. Alas, you will become responsible for the burning down of the city!’​—Jer. 38:17-23.

10. How did Jeremiah make it easier for King Zedekiah by what he told the inquiring princes, and till what event did he continue confined in his new quarters?

¹⁰ The princes of Jerusalem were the ones who acted as “men at peace” with King Zedekiah. Afraid of these, he told Jeremiah, under pain of death, not to tell them the facts, if they inquired. He was merely to turn their inquiries aside by saying he had been granted an audience with the king, since he did not want to be returned to detention in the house of Jehonathan, the secretary, to die there. By not telling the inquirers the full story about the secret interview, he would make it easy for the king. In agreement with what Jeremiah told the suspicious princes, he was kept prisoner at another place, the Courtyard of the Guard. There he endured confinement till the ninth day of the fourth month (Tammuz) of 607 B.C.E., when the Babylonians breached Jerusalem, captured it, putting King Zedekiah to flight with his troops.​—2 Ki. 25:2-5.

11. On the day that Jerusalem fell, how was escape by means of the Middle Gate blocked to the penned-up Jews?

¹¹ So, as Jeremiah had warned, Jehovah, upon whose earthly throne at Jerusalem King Zedekiah had been sitting, came under the obligation to surrender the city to its besiegers. Consequently, on that summer day of Tammuz 9, 607 B.C.E., instead of Jewish judges sitting in the Middle Gate of Jerusalem to handle cases at law, five Babylonian princes, whose names are recorded, sat in that entryway of the city. Thus they blocked up escape for the penned-up Jews by this exit. (Jer. 39:1-3; 1 Chron. 29:23) Alas!

12. How did King Zedekiah fail to defeat Jeremiah’s prophecy about him, and what spectacle was he obliged to witness in front of King Nebuchadnezzar?

¹² As King Zedekiah and his troops fled from the invaded city under cover of night, he may have congratulated himself that he had foiled the dire prophecy of Jeremiah about him. But he failed to make his way down to Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt, his ally. (Jer. 44:30) Babylonian pursuers overtook him in the desert plain of Jericho, in the Arabah or Rift Valley, some miles to the northeast of Jerusalem. In copper fetters he was taken up north to the city of Riblah in the land of Hamath, to have a confrontation with King Nebuchadnezzar. Before Zedekiah was blinded at Nebuchadnezzar’s order, he was forced to witness the horrifying spectacle of his own sons being killed. Many of his court and military officials were likewise put to death. High Priest Seraiah and his assistant, Zephaniah, who had not backed up their fellow priest, Jeremiah, were killed, along with three temple doorkeepers.​—2 Ki. 25:6, 7, 18-21.

13. (a) How does all that ancient history connect up with 1914 C.E.? (b) Why is it logical to ask whether Ebed-melech prefigured a class today, and with what answer?

¹³ Does all that ancient history have any relation to our 20th century? Yes! About two lunar months after the calamity upon King Zedekiah, his realm, the land of Judah, became totally desolated. There the “seven times” of the nations, “the times of the Gentiles,” began their run of 2,520 years, to end in 1914 C.E. (Dan. 4; Luke 21:24, Authorized Version) Today that which was foreshadowed by Jerusalem of King Zedekiah’s day is nearing its destruction, according to the judicial decision of Jehovah, the “King of the nations.” (Jer. 10:7) How fitting it is, then, that there should be on earth at this critical time a class of worshipers of Jehovah God who were prefigured by the prophet-priest Jeremiah! In the light of this we properly ask, Is there also on earth a class that was prefigured by the Ethiopian eunuch who befriended Jeremiah, namely, Ebed-melech the servant of King Zedekiah? Modern facts indicate that there is.

14. (a) As to skin color, what was Ebed-melech? (b) Why did he not try to escape from Jerusalem with his royal master?

¹⁴ Ebed-melech did not try to escape from Jerusalem along with his royal master, Zedekiah. He was an Ethiopian, the kind of man about whom Jeremiah asked the question, “Can a Cushite [or, Ethiopian] change his skin? or a leopard its spots?” (Jer. 13:23, NW marginal reading) Ebed-melech was a Black,a and in Byington’s Bible translation he is called “ʽEbed-Melec the Negro.” (Jer. 38:7, 12; 39:16, The Bible in Living English) He did not need to flee from Jerusalem in an attempt to find safety. He had been given the promise by the God of Jeremiah respecting his preservation. That is why, after we are told what was done with regard to a few poor Jews by Nebuchadnezzar and with regard to Jeremiah, his account connects up with Jeremiah 38:28. In fact, Moffatt’s A New Translation of the Bible transplants Jeremiah 39:15-18 to right after Jeremiah 38:28, to read as an unbroken story.

15. (a) When did Jehovah’s word concerning Ebed-melech occur to Jeremiah? (b) What did this word say respecting the Ethiopian?

¹⁵ So the verses quoted below are to be understood as applying before Jerusalem fell to the besieging Babylonians on Tammuz 9, 607 B.C.E., in the 11th year of King Zedekiah’s reign:

“And to Jeremiah the word of Jehovah occurred while he happened to be shut up in the Courtyard of the Guard [and before the Jewish soldiers fled from there at Jerusalem’s fall], saying, ‘Go, and you must say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, “This is what Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, has said: ‘Here I am bringing true my words upon this city for calamity and not for good, and they will certainly happen before you in that day. And I will deliver you in that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘and you will not be given into the hand of the men of whom you yourself are scared. For I shall without fail furnish you an escape, and by the sword [of the Babylonians] you will not fall; and you will certainly come to have your soul as a spoil, because you have trusted in me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.”’”​—Jer. 39:15-18.

16. So over what was Ebed-melech to rejoice like those who rejoice over the taking of spoil, and what yet remains although we have no further history of him?

¹⁶ So, at the fall of Jerusalem this friend of Jehovah’s prophet left himself at the disposal of Jeremiah’s God. Whether he was deported to Babylon and died a natural death there or was left back in the land of Judah as one of the poor people of the land under Governor Gedaliah, the Bible does not say. At any rate, his soul or life did not fall prey to the Babylonian soldiers but he was allowed to retain his human soul like one who rejoices over spoil. Thus he could live on and worship the God in whom he had trusted, the God whose prophet he had saved from death in the miry cistern of besieged Jerusalem. By this he had doubtless incurred the hatred of the princes who had holed up Jeremiah in the prison to die. But Ebed-melech was not to be given into their hand for them to take vengeance. Under Jehovah’s promised protection he had no reason to be afraid of what those princes might want to do to him in reprisal. At this point he vanishes from Bible history, but not so his name nor God’s promise to him.

TODAY’S COUNTERPART OF EBED-MELECH

17. What does the Ethiopian’s name, Ebed-melech, mean, and in what sense was this name true of him?

¹⁷ Is there really a counterpart today of Ebed-melech in connection with the modern Jeremiah class? Yes! Who, then, make up the modern counterpart of Ebed-melech? Just how he came by that name we do not know. As a name Ebed-melech means “Servant of a King,” or, “King’s Servant.” As a eunuch he may have been castratedb and deprived of raising his own family. But, true to his name, he was in the court service of the king of Judah. Further, due to his trust in Jehovah, he proved to be in the service of more than an earthly king. Zedekiah sat on the royal throne at Jerusalem that was called “Jehovah’s throne.” (1 Chron. 29:23) Logically, then, Ebed-melech showed himself to be, in fact, in the service of the “King of the nations,” Jehovah. For being in the service of Jehovah’s typical kingdom in the land of Judah, he was amply rewarded by being preserved when unfaithful Jerusalem was destroyed.

18. According to the description of Revelation 7:14, 15, the “great crowd” was prefigured by what individual of Jeremiah’s day?

¹⁸ When it comes to being preserved through Christendom’s “great tribulation,” Revelation 7:14, 15 says concerning the “great crowd” there described: “These are the ones that come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That is why they are before the throne of God; and they are rendering him sacred service day and night in his temple.” As a class, those who make up that “great crowd” of tribulation survivors were prefigured by Ebed-melech, an outstanding survivor of Jerusalem’s destruction.

19. The uppermost desire of the Ebed-melech class is to be in whose service, and what are they willing to incur in behalf of the Jeremiah class?

¹⁹ This class really learns to fear Jehovah and to trust in him. Their uppermost desire is to be in the service of the Universal Sovereign, the “King of the nations,” rather than to be serving the political rulers and kings of man-made governments. They see how power-greedy rulers, like Adolf Hitler who gained power in Germany in 1933 C.E., tried and still keep on trying to exterminate Jehovah’s anointed remnant who were prefigured by his prophet Jeremiah. So the Ebed-melech class raise a protest and make an appeal in the courageous effort to help the Jeremiah class, even though this means incurring the hatred and persecution of the religious and political enemies of the Jeremiah class.

20, 21. (a) The Ebed-melech class came to view from what year on particularly? (b) How does this class try to imitate the Ebed-melech of Jeremiah’s day, and what action do they encourage all people to take with regard to the world empire of false religion?

²⁰ These backers of Jehovah’s anointed remnant of witnesses came to view particularly in the year 1935, when the “great crowd” of “tribulation” survivors was identified.

²¹ Regardless of whether the Ebed-melech class have any influence with the governments of Christendom or not, they have never favored the religious-political endeavor to put the Jeremiah class to death or to make the Jeremiah class ineffective in Jehovah’s public service as if by lowering them into a miry cistern in a guardhouse. In spite of facing the fear-inducing disapproval of the political-religious authorities, they have done all they could to hoist the Jeremiah class out of the miry “cistern” of inoperativeness. To this very day they have been courageously acting world wide at the side of the Jeremiah class, proclaiming the doom of Christendom and of the world empire of false religion, Babylon the Great. They are encouraging people of all kinds to desert this doomed system of things and to take a firm stand on the side of Jehovah’s executional forces under the command of a general greater than Nebuchadnezzar, namely, Jesus Christ. Thus they prove that they have put their full trust in Jehovah, “King of the nations.”

22. By what symbolic “sword” will this class not fall?

²² Because of such unwavering devotion to him and his modern-day Jeremiah class, Jehovah loves this composite Ebed-melech. He promises that this class will not fall by the “sword” of the approaching “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon.​—Rev. 16:13-16.

23. The spoil that they take possession of will be what, and how have they acted like the “sheep” in Jesus’ parable of Matthew 25:31-34?

²³ As a reward from Jehovah, they will have their earthly lives, their souls, preserved for them like the spoil of warfare, deservedly coming into possession of a preserved life. Like the sheeplike ones in Jesus’ parable of the “sheep” and the “goats,” they have done good to the remnant of Christ’s spiritual brothers. When these were “in prison,” in a miry “cistern” or death house, they have visited these underground or openly and have served to free them for further action in the grand finale of Jehovah’s witness work amid a doomed worldly system of things.​—Matt. 25:31-36, 46.

24. For the services of what class does the Jeremiah class of today give thanks to God, and what united action will they carry on after surviving the “great tribulation”?

²⁴ Let it be known everywhere that the Jeremiah class thank Jehovah for raising up the “great crowd” of “other sheep,” prefigured by the Ethiopian eunuch Ebed-melech of the last days of unfaithful Jerusalem, the capital city of the kingdom of Judah. Unspeakable will be the pleasure of the Jeremiah class in surviving the “great tribulation” with the Ebed-melech class at their side. Shoulder to shoulder they will begin working together in the New Order into which they will be introduced under Christ’s millennial kingdom. Such an introduction into the brilliant New Order will be their reward for having now served the Sovereign of the universe, Jehovah, the “King of the nations.”

Another discussion in the series on Jeremiah’s prophecy will appear in “The Watchtower” of March 1, 1980

[Footnotes]