Jeremiah 24/Jeremiah 39
Notes
Transcript
A pivotal moment in the book of Jeremiah
After years of faithful service to God and to Israel, the time of Judgement has finally come
it will come without a doubt, we will all stand before Him one day, and God keeps His promises
we have to ask ourselves, “How are we reacting to the Word of God?”
are we being a “stiff-necked” people like the people in Israel? Just living in sin unrepentantly, thinking that we’re doing alright and nothing will happen?
are we receiving it like a Pharisee? Who did not listen at all and thought they were righteous and had it all figured out.
Can we be confident as we sit here today? If judgement happened right now, if you died and faced the Lord right now, how would you feel?
without God having maximum influence in our life, we’d be in trouble
but we have Him, amen, it’s just a matter of whether or not we’re embracing Him with our heart and our way of living.
We’ve seen much imagery in the book of Jeremiah thatt we can compare to today, or just use anytime
we have the potter and the clay stories, we’ll have one about figs today, we have the fact that America today shares many similarities with Israel at this time.
Today, we’ll start to see what the judgement of God looks like upon Israel - but it didn’t have to be that way
God is a great God, and just as much as He’s capable of throwing down, He’s capable of building back up, making anew, providing a paradise for Him and His people
Let’s read a passage talking about the end of days, and what God provides for His people and what those of us who are saved wiill one day experience
1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: Only let us be called by thy name, To take away our reproach.
2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely For them that are escaped of Israel.
3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, And he that remaineth in Jerusalem, Shall be called holy, Even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, And shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof By the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
5 And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, And upon her assemblies, A cloud and smoke by day, And the shining of a flaming fire by night: For upon all the glory shall be a defence.
6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, And for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
“PURGED” - this is important language - purging implies making something that was once dirty, clean
the judgement of God doesn’t just happen for no reason, He does it to purify
so we can either be part of the impurities, the filth, that gets purged, or we can bbe part of the finished product of God’s wonderful plan
We need to be confident in our spiritual position - why would we want to even risk having to be ashamed before God?
God has prepared a place for us, are we going to be able to go in and be happy that day? receiving the rewards that God’s planned for us?
or does it have to be a scary moment? what a shame that would be to have something so great, our great reunification with God be something anything other than totally g reat
we MUST take our spiritual life seriously
(now going to look at what happened in Israel)
1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
so nebuchadnezzar has finally came
this is hapening in the 10th month of the Jewish calendar, which could either be march or april of the year 586 BC
If we think about this for a minute, the Israelites probably figured this would never happen, or never happen in their lifetime
they were NOT taking the Word of God spoken through Jeremiah seriously - Jeremiah had been telling them for YEARS - yet they were just a stubborn, a stiff necked people
we can see the same thing going on today in our world
the Bible tells us that judgement will could come for us at any time - and will come for those who turn from the Lord
yet just like the Israelites who paid no attention to Jeremiah - nobody in our nation is listening to God in the least
we cannot afford to be shortsighted or nearsighted spiritually
sin is like a fog that gets in front of our faith - it stops us from being able to see properly and make decisions properly
and just like a real cloud, sin clouds our judgement as well.
so if we read the passage, we can see that this siege lasted a year and one month
could you imagine how terrible this is? having your cities trade cut off for this long?
they would have started running low on fairly quickly, as well as other supplies that would have been essential
during this, many Israelites may had come to the realization that this is God’s judgement
however, there comes a point where once people put things off for so long - it can become too late
look at the rich man and lazarus, the rich man finally realized the truth, but only after it was far too late
and there will become a point where it’s too late for people if they don’t believe, and live a life that flies in the face of what God has created us for
3 And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.
4 And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.
5 But the Chaldeans’ army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.
this shows us that there will be no escape from the judgement of God
as much as we might try, and as important as we might feel we are, or as righteous as we may FEEL we are
if we are not really saved and made right in the eyes oof God, it doesn’t matter how righteous we think that we are, it matters how we are in reality in the sight of God
our views are NOTHING, everyone has their views, we must care about Gods views
and Gods views are in black and white in the pages of the Bible
it’s there for us to find and read and understand
and even though judgement is coming, we know that He will have mercy upon His people, and we’ll read a bit about that in just a few
6 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
in multiple places in Jeremiah, one can read about God telling the priests that all of this is coming
and the nobles too, the rulers certainly had their responsibilities as well, and God remembers this and now their judgement coming to pass
and coming to pass in a very real way, can you imagine what they were thinking while this was happening
“wow i’d heard the truth, and I just kept living my life ignoring it, Jeremiah tried to warn us about this and we had years to listen to it”
7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.
Zedekiah was the last king of of Judah, who did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the book of 2 kings
he was idolatrous, and so he was spiritually blind
there is a lot of amazing imagery in the Bible, and just like he was spiritually blind, this led up to him being physically blinded
8 And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.
9 Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained.
10 But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.
this last verse rings of “the first will be last and the last will be first” a phrase which has a lot of meaning, but we see that those who had the most responsibility in the situation ended up facing the most judgement
we can see many places in the Bible where God looks out for the poor whether it be in the OT or when Jesus comes around or wherever
so even though Judah is experiencing this terrible judgement, God is showing discretion down to a person by person level
to every man according to his works
in this pasasge, we primarily see the judgement of the ruling class, however, the looting of the temple and the judgement of the priests is described in 2 Kings
13 And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the Lord, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.
14 And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.
15 And the firepans, and the bowls, and such things as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away.
16 The two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord; the brass of all these vessels was without weight.
17 The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it was brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of brass: and like unto these had the second pillar with wreathen work.
18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:
so just like we saw the judgement upon the ruling class, we now see this judgement upon the priestly class, who had led the people of israel astrayed
and now their wonderful temple has been destroyed and looted
this amazing gift that God had given them, He has now taken away from them - The Lord gives and the Lord can take away
the land that God had given them - He’s now taken away
The freedom that they had was now taken away from them
many of the people’s lives were taken away from them
they took for granted that all of these things were gifts of God and not just regular realities of life
another way we can see God’s discretion in this judgement is how he looked out for His people, and in this example Jeremiah specifically
11 Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard, saying,
12 Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.
13 So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rab-saris, and Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the king of Babylon’s princes;
14 Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.
we know that Jeremiah was not just a special case, if we remember something that we read in earlier weeks, God was going to look out for His people
God will have mercy on His people, in hard times and through hard times, doesn’t mean that they didn’t have to experience the hard times, but at the end of the day, He’s looking out for them
even Jeremiah appears to have initially been caught up in being carried out of Jerusalem - if you read Jer 39.11-14 and Jer 40.1-6 and put them together we can see this
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after that Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon.
2 And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him, The Lord thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place.
3 Now the Lord hath brought it, and done according as he hath said: because ye have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you.
4 And now, behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand. If it seem good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well unto thee: but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before thee: whither it seemeth good and convenient for thee to go, thither go.
5 Now while he was not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people: or go wheresoever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward, and let him go.
6 Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land.
now if we go back and read ch 39.11-14 again it seems this is a viable way to read these two passages together
again, this reminds us of the phrase, “to every man according to his works”
the book of Jeremiah is not exactly in chronological order, it’s kind of ordered according to theme in a lot of ways, so we will go back and look at something out of chapter 24 to end
1 The Lord shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
3 Then said the Lord unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
4 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
5 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the Lord, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:
9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.
just like we saw the goodness of God shine through for His people in the first passage out of Isaiah we looked at, we see it in this passage as well
and just like that judgement that will take place in coming days, this one paved the way for a better world
sin - all sin. is like a disease in that way, a blight upon the soul
if you just leave the blight there, it will wither away at a person, it’s what brought death into this world in the first place
but if we remove the blight, and we know that through God we can, there is a way to a better future
so both of these judgements are, like we talked of earlier, a “purging” of sorts, a purging of the evil of this world
and that will leave behind all the healthy parts, all of the good, because if you get rid of all the bad, then only the good will remain
and that’s God’s ultimate plan in all of this, to eventually have a world full of good that all are invited to
it reminds one of the parable where a man invities some people to a dinner, and those people don’t come, so he turns around and invites the whole area
God has invited us all to be there, in an era where the goodness of God will fill everything and be everywhere, where there will be light, where the lion will lay with the lamb
where we will be able to dwell with God and be His people, and where all tears will be wiped away
God is good to His people, He is so very good to us, and we are showered with blessings from Him every single day, whether we acknowledge it or think about it or not