The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

466 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
“The words of Jeremiah 25:11, 29.10, Daniel 9:2 and 2 Chronicles
36:20, 21 are all clear and unambiguous: Judah and Jerusalem were
to become desolate and remain in this condition from the final
destruction of the city in 587 BCE until the end of the 70 years ‘for
Babylon’, which period ended in the year 539 BCE, when Babel fell to
Medo-Persia.”
This is what the Bible and history, supported by chronology and archaeology,
agree on in all details.
What was the objective of Jeremiah?
This is RF’s next subtitle, and the rest of page 80 and the better part of page 81
are filled with his speculations along the twisted and contorted trail he has
chosen to follow. Really, it is not necessary to speak of the prophet’s objective
at all beyond his strong desire to complete the task his heavenly father had
given him, about which we read in Jeremiah 1:4-10, NW, from which we may
learn of Jehovah’s objective in appointing Jeremiah as his prophet in Jerusalem:
“Before I was forming you in the belly I knew you, and before you
proceeded to come forth from the womb I sanctified you. Prophet to the
nations I made you.’ ... to all those to whom I shall send you, you should go;
and everything that I shall command you, you should speak. ... Here I have
put my words in your mouth. See, I have commissioned you this day to be over the
nations and over the kingdoms, in order to uproot and to pull down and to
destroy and to tear down, to build and to plant.” (emphasis added; cf. vss.
11-19)
Actually, that is how Jeremiah’s task has been understood by Bible scholars at
all times, not only by Christian ones, but also Jewish ones, such as Dr. Joseph
Klausner who wrote about Jeremiah that he
‘intervenes in the political life of his nation, contending not only with priests
and popular teachers, but also with kings and princes, prophesying not only
against Judah and Jerusalem, but also against the Gentiles and foreign powers, and the
whole of the then known world, enfolding them all in his all-embracing grip, and
scrutinizing them with the acute vision of the eagle.’ – Jesus of Nazareth,
translated by H. Danby, London 1929. (Page 390, emphasis added)
Being a priest himself Jeremiah knew the law well and so he was no doubt
familiar with the contents of Leviticus, the volume that more than any other
part of the Mosaic law addressed the priests, and quite naturally he would also
know the contents of chapter 26 with all its promises of rewards for
faithfulness and dire threats about punishment for disobedience. However,
even at that he never quotes from this chapter, and even though he in his
prophecies mentions the Judean exile reasonably often he never connects it
with a sabbath rest for the land. So, RF’s claim about Leviticus 26 being the
‘theme’ of Jeremiah’s book and his ‘point of departure’ doesn’t hold water, it is
as farfetched as the other parts of his homespun yarn. Actually, the Bible itself
furnishes some very clear evidence about the text from which the Chronicler
took the parts of his statement about the ‘sabbath rest’ mentioned in
connection with Jeremiah’s prophecy: the relevant words in 2 Chronicles 36:21
are shown here, followed by the corresponding ones from Leviticus 26:34, 35: