Last Warning from Jeremiah to Jerusalem?
Mar 26, 2012
God gives grace periods to allow people time to repent. Likewise, he sends prophets to warn people and instruct them as to how to avoid divine judgment. He did so in Jeremiah's day. He did so again just before Jerusalem's destruction in 70 A.D. when he sent Jesus son of Ananias to Jerusalem to warn them. Josephus mentions this, and it is quoted by Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., III, 8. You may see the entire quotation in my book, Lessons from Church History, Vol. II, ch. 3,
Now it seems that Jeremiah has come back to life, along with the two men who threw him in prison on account of his warning. Here is a news article dated March 22, 2012.
Two small clay bullae (seal impressions) found in the course of Eilat Mazar’s City of David, Jerusalem, excavations are bringing Jeremiah, prophet of the last kings of Judah, back to life.
The first of the clay bullae, which surfaced during Mazar’s excavation of what may be King David’s palace, bears the name “Yehuchal [or Jehucal] ben Shelemyahu [Shelemiah]” (pictured above left). The second was found in the First Temple period strata underneath what has been identified as Nehemiah’s Northern Tower, just a few yards away from the first, and reads “Gedalyahu [Gedaliah] ben Pashur” (pictured above right).
These two men are mentioned together in the Bible as ministers of King Zedekiah (597–587 B.C.E.). As the Babylonians closed in on Jerusalem during the last years of the First Temple period, Jeremiah, prophet to Judah’s last kings, advised Zedekiah and the people of the city to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar’s men so that their lives and city might be spared. But not everyone liked Jeremiah’s message, including Gedaliah son of Pashur and Jehucal son of Shelemiah.According to Jeremiah 38:1–13, the two ministers had Jeremiah thrown into a pit because they did not like the message of surrender he was preaching to the people of Jerusalem.