“When the Villain Said”
How One Verse in Jeremiah Sparked a Novel
April W Gardner
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But let’s set the stage first.
It’s 586 BC, and Nebuzaradan, the commander of the imperial guard, is under orders from King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to destroy Jerusalem, strip the temple of wealth, and take the people captive.
After a long siege, he succeeds. Jerusalem is in rubble.
The temple lies in ash, and the survivors have been rounded up and are at Ramah, the beginning of their hard journey to exile in Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah stands among them in chains.
But Nebuzaradan, our villain, finds the prophet bound and releases him. Then he says the words that stopped me in my tracks: “The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. And now the Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would.” (Jer. 40:2–3)
Wait. What?
This isn’t Jeremiah speaking. It’s the guy who violated the temple, carried off the sacred vessels, and set the whole thing aflame.
When that reality settled in, a dozen questions exploded in my brain.
Why is this Babylonian crediting the God of Israel—instead of his own gods—for his actions?
How does he, a pagan military officer, know of the prophecies? Had he heard Jeremiah preach? Did he know Daniel before ever leaving Babylon?
Did he understand the weight of his responsibility? Did it terrify him?
Was Yahweh real to him, or did he simply recognize the prophecies had come true?
What else did these two men say to each other in this moment? Might Jeremiah have blessed him? Prayed over him? Forgiven him?
Questions, questions, questions.
And when a novelist can’t find the answers, she makes them up. Within reason, of course.
Biblical fiction is engaging not just because it brings biblical characters and events to life, but because it gives us permission to imagine what might have happened between the lines.
The scriptural text is the bones and the boundary of the story. The history and research are the muscles that hold the story world up to standards. The imagination is what gives the story movement and life.
So when I ask myself, “Was Nebuzaradan afraid of Yahweh’s wrath?” I can answer, “Absolutely. Because he’d heard the prophecies, and he knew the history—Yahweh had already shown His might by destroying Assyria for attempting the same. A good (very successful!) general would educate himself on the history and on his enemy.”
Scripture: Nebuzaradan is aware that his destruction of Jerusalem has fulfilled prophecy.
Research: Babylonian culture, religion, and military, plus Nebuzaradan’s official title (chief butcher) and Jeremiah and Daniel’s timelines, add depth to the story.
History: One hundred years earlier, Assyria besieged Jerusalem, and God struck the army.
Imagination: General Nebuzaradan became the Butcher of Babylon. And I asked myself, “What if he besieged Jerusalem under the orders of a brutal king, all while knowing a mighty God might make him and his army the next pile of corpses? How might that play out?”
And that is how a novel is born.
With a verse. With questions. With history, research, and imagination.
Whether you’re a writer or a reader, don’t rush past the intriguing bits of Scripture. Stop. Reread. Sit with the Holy Spirit a while and see what He reveals.
When I do, sometimes He exposes sin. Sometimes, He gives a glimpse of His holiness. And sometimes, a novel takes shape.
This time, it happened when the villain said, “The Lord your God decreed.”
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