Lives of Scripture

Seraiah, son of Neriah and brother of Jeremiah's scribe Baruch, served as chief quartermaster for King Zedekiah of Judah. When Zedekiah traveled to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign, Jeremiah entrusted Seraiah with a written scroll recording "all the evil that would come upon Babylon" -- every word of judgment the prophet had spoken against the empire that would soon destroy Jerusalem (Jeremiah 51:59-60). Jeremiah gave Seraiah precise instructions: read the entire scroll aloud once he arrived in Babylon, pray over it acknowledging that the LORD Himself had spoken this judgment, then tie a stone to the scroll and throw it into the Euphrates, declaring, "Thus Babylon will sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her" (51:61-64). The act was a piece of prophetic street theater performed at the very heart of the empire Judah feared -- a small, deliberate act of faith proclaiming, in the capital of the world's greatest power, that its fall was already certain in God's plan. Seraiah's obedience carried Jeremiah's message of judgment on Babylon and hope for God's exiled people into enemy territory itself.