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Journey to Jerusalem Day 27

Monday, March 15 2 Chronicles 36:17-21
17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19 And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. 20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.


When I started to write this reflection, I thought, “What has this to do with the resurrection of Jesus?” This is just a description of when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem.


But these verses are about God’s fulfillment of his promises to his creation. Israel had never observed the seven-year sabbath of the land where the land was supposed to lay fallow and rest. The Babylon captivity was partially to give the land its sabbath rest.


This event was prophesied hundreds of years earlier in Leviticus 26:34-35 “Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies land, then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest; for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.”


But in Jeremiah 29:10, the Lord says “when the seventy years for Babylon are complete. I will attend to you and confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place. For I know the plans I have for you. For I know the plans I have for you, plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’


Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and the Sabbath was made for man to give His creation a rest from their labors. Jesus is also our rest, come and rest in Him, Matthew 11:28 says “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” God fulfilled his promises to the land and to the Israelites. He will fulfill his promises to us, as believes, as well.


Thank you, Lord, that we can rest in you and not have to carry the weight of our burdens ourselves. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
Amen.