Jeremiah 27:16-22

Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Yahweh says, “Don’t listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of Yahweh’s house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon;’ for they prophesy a lie to you. Don’t listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and live. Why should this city become a desolation? But if they are prophets, and if Yahweh’s word is with them, let them now make intercession to Yahweh of Armies, that the vessels which are left in Yahweh’s house, in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, don’t go to Babylon. For Yahweh of Armies says concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn’t take when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem; yes, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says concerning the vessels that are left in Yahweh’s house, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem: ‘They will be carried to Babylon, and there they will be, until the day that I visit them,’ says Yahweh; ‘then I will bring them up, and restore them to this place.’ ”

I don’t believe that Bible trivia exists. I believe the Bible makes it clear that every word of God is there for a reason and because of that, none of it is trivial. Even the parts that repeat or give seemingly insignificant names and details have a purpose. Remember, the same God who made DNA in the human body, made the words we read in the Bible. There were years in which biologists believed that some of our DNA had no purpose. They even called it “Junk DNA.” Later they discovered that it did have a purpose. God’s words are like that too us as well. None of God’s words are a waste and everything God says has meaning so we can get excited about things that may seem trivial.

I learned quite a bit from the detail this time when I compared what we read in this passage to what is recorded in the history books. Here, Jeremiah records that Nebuchadnezzar left the pillars, the sea, the bases and some other vessels. The history of this event was recorded in 2 Kings 25 and in 2 Chronicles 26. If we go all the way back to the building of Solomon’s temple, we discover that the Sea was a huge fixture. It’s not too surprising that Nebuchadnezzar decided not to take it back on his first trip. The bases were pretty big too and I assume that the pillars were the ones with names. They were huge. 2 Chronicles 26:18 tells us that eventually, Nebuchadnezzar took “all the vessels of God’s house, great and small.” Going back to 2 Kings 25, we read about these big items being taken the last time and a little bit about how Nebuchadnezzar did it. It says: “the Chaldeans broke up” the big stuff. The very same items that Jeremiah mentioned here were mentioned there along with the detail of many more items.

These details are not trivial to an investigator. They help us detect the accuracy of the Bible. These writings were written by different people at different times and the details are in agreement. By putting the events and details together, we get a very specific understanding about what happened as well. A person who lies about an event usually attempts to reduce the number of details recorded so that their cover isn’t exposed. We see this practice in other “holy books.” God’s book is the opposite of that. A huge number of verifiable details are provided and they actually help scientists and historians make discoveries today. Instead of being disproven, God’s word is confirmed as more things are discovered.