The Prophet Kidnapped
- 43:2 “You are lying!” - based on 40 years of telling the truth, and
every prophecy of doom for the unrepentant fulfilled to the letter.
- 43:3 “Baruch put you up to it!” - Chaldean collusion!
- 43:4 “disobeyed the command of the Lord” - the remnant is doomed.
- 43:5 “took .. Jeremiah and Baruch” - kidnapping Jeremiah and Baruch as well.
- 43:7 “they went as far as Tahphanes” - in direct defiance of God.
- 43:9 “pick up large stones and bury them” - Jeremiah continues his service
as a prophet, and commences yet another object lesson.
- 43:10 “I will set his [Nebuchadnezzar] throne over these stones” - again
emphasizing that God is using Nebuchadnezzar for judgement. So don’t get
in the way.
- 43:12 “take their gods as captives” - Nebuchadnezzar
took the idols of every captured city back to Babylon as a sign that the
gods of that city were now in submission to Marduk. “wrap himself with
the land of Egypt as a garment” - the Chaldean stripped Egypt of everything
of value. “depart from there unscathed” - unlike Tyre and Sidon, Egypt
was a easy victory, as promised in
Ezekiel 29:17-21.
- 43:13 “burn down the temples” - the total destruction of the trappings
of their false religion cured the Egyptians much as the destruction of
God’s temple cured the Israelis of their idolatry.