Browse Bible Study Resources

Daily Devotions

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 
Day 
Day 233

"I will make this city desolate"

Text: Jeremiah 19:8

A GREAT CITY DESTROYED

Jerusalem was once a city that had achieved great fame and glory. In the heydays of King Solomon, many were drawn to the city. Many nations traded with Israel and the capital had achieved a very high status. But there was a grim fate that lay ahead.

“I will make this city desolate and a hissing;
everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss
because of all its plagues.
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons
and the flesh of their daughters,
and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege
and in the desperation with which their enemies
and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.”
Jeremiah 19:8-9

1. “I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues”

a) The city of Jerusalem will become desolate.
b) All passers-by would be astonished.
c) It would be like a city that had been badly plagued.
d) They would make a hissing noise as they look at the city of Jerusalem:
i) Hissing of derision.
ii) Hissing of contempt.

2. “And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters,
and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair”

a) This was a solemn word indeed.
b) This was a prophetic word of warning found in Leviticus 26:29.
c) This was even more elaborately forewarned in Deuteronomy 28:52-57.
d) The state of despair would be frighteningly deep and stark.
e) The human survival instinct would become predominant:
i) In war.
ii) In siege conditions.
iii) The average human being will become selfish.
iv) He can even become cannibalistic.

Yet, these words went unheeded! They fell on deaf ears!