Jeremiah 52:10-11 “The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riblah. Then he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.”
Observation: The eyes of Zedekiah were blinded. This had been foretold earlier in the book. As Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was taking captive Zedekiah, king of Judah, he blinded him. Isn’t this interesting? God is showing a pattern. Blindness follows rebellion, and captivity comes next. Verse 10 says that the Babylonian king slaughtered all Zedekiah’s sons and all the princes of Judah “before his eyes,” and then in the next verse, Zedekiah’s eyes were blinded.
Application: Is it an accident of history that the last thing Zedekiah saw before he was blinded was the slaughter of all that affirmed his authority (the princes of Judah) and all that gave him hope for the future (his sons)? Surely the tragedy of Zedekiah’s imprisonment was dramatically magnified by the relentless memory of the last thing he had seen. The army of Babylon continued its assignment in Jerusalem, destroying other remnants of Zedekiah’s life: the temple, the houses and their contents, but it no longer mattered, for Zedekiah’s destruction was already complete.
See what captivity is like? Imagine the constant replay in Zedekiah’s mind of the last thing he saw: the loss of all that had been important to him. No new vision, no new sights would ever again be imprinted upon his mind, for he was now blind. For the rest of his life he had this one mental tape to play. Oh the anguish of his situation! No reprieve from darkness. No fellowship; only separation, forever. No light or vision; only the pitch darkness of the utterly blind. A well-deserved end for Zedekiah’s rebellion. I should understand this: the disciplines of God may seem harsh as I measure things, but they are just and appropriate.
Call to Him, O beloved! Call to Him from captivity. Use His phone number (Jeremiah 33:3) to call to Him, so your end of days will not be in a prison of eternal darkness and separation with no memory except of loss.
Prayer: O God! O God! Answer my call, O Lord, and fill me with Your Holy Spirit, that I might hear from You and live in the light and freedom rather than in darkness and captivity.