Jeremiah 14 - Jeremiah 21-22 - Preaching to Bad Kings

[Music] Jeremiah chapter 21 let me just begin by reading the first couple verses the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent him to pasture the son of melchi ax and to Zephaniah the son of messiah the priest saying please inquire of the Lord for us for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful works that the king may go away from us now notice the first phrase there of verse 1 where it just simply says the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord friends what are the difficulties when we read the Bible and when we read a book like Jeremiah is we tend to read it with our sort of Western mind and in our Western mind chronology in telling a story is very important and we just kind of expect that the events of Jeremiah chapter 21 would come immediately after the events of Jeremiah chapter 20 we have to tell you that to the Asiatic or to the Eastern mind chronology is not so important or at least strict chronology therefore when we come to Jeremiah chapter 21 we are 20 years after the events of Jeremiah chapter 20 before Jeremiah chapter 20 began Israel had yet to be or I should say Judah had yet to be invaded by the Babylonians by the time we get to Jeremiah chapter 21 there had been two invasions by the Babylonians and now the final devastating one was just a few months or years away you see what we're happening right here see in Jeremiah chapter 20 when happens in the year 588 and suddenly here we are at the final stages of the city of Jerusalem before its fall it's a little bit confusing but let me just see if I can lay it out for you about 17 years before the time of Jeremiah chapter 21 nebuchadnezzar first came to jerusalem it was in the reign of a named Jaya Kim and he subjugated the city he took the best and the brightest from Jerusalem including Daniel and his friends that's when they were taken captive that happened again in about 605 BC then about 10 years before the events of Jeremiah chapter 2021 Nebuchadnezzar came back again in the reign of a man named Joachim he carried away a lot of treasure he carried away more captives and he set up a man named Zedekiah to be a puppet king upon the throne now we fast-forward to jeremiah chapter 21 and we are in the last months or years of the reign of King Zedekiah because he had rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar came back to establish a little bit more Babylonian order and he's there to devastate the city and carry away the final remaining captives now notice this Zedekiah had a question for Jeremiah that he sends through the messengers look at verse 2 perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful works that the King may go away from us do you see what he's asking he's asking right there in verse 2 hey Jeremiah do you have a word from the Lord for us maybe God will tell us everything's going to be ok maybe God's gonna pull a miraculous victory for his people at the last minute that's a remarkable statement that he asked there in verse 2 and it makes you wonder have they been listening to Jeremiah at all at all because for 30 or 40 years Jeremiah has been prophesying doom and now when the doom has almost come the king sends a message goes hey is everything gonna turn out ok it's gone gonna work a wonderful work on him on our behalf that's his question now look here starting at verse 3 then Jeremiah said to them thus you shall say says to Zedekiah thus says the Lord God of Israel behold I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands in which you fight with against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who precede you outside the walls and I we'll assemble them in the midst of this city I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm even in anger and fury and great wrath I will strike the inhabitants of this city both man and beast and they shall die of a great pestilence Zedekiah had a question for the Prophet Jeremiah prophet Jeremiah is God gonna work a wonderful miracle for us Jeremiah's answer no matter of fact no way look at what he says in verse 4 it's pretty radical behold I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands in other words I'm gonna defeat your efforts to defend yourself friends I want you to think about it's the startling thing set the stage for yourself there you are in the city of Jerusalem in the kingdom of Judah the Babylonian armies have not yet started their siege of Jerusalem but it's only a matter of time because they're beginning to filter into the country the armies are gathering you can read the writing's on the wall we're dead men if this goes much longer you send a message to the Prophet Jeremiah is some miraculous gonna help any help going to come from God and he says not at all not in the slightest look at what he says there in verse 4 he says I will assemble them in the midst of the city in other words the Babylonians are going to come through those walls in the midst of the city and God says I will do it God says matter of fact look what he says in verse 5 I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand with a strong arm but seized almost staggering words God says the King Zedekiah not only do you got to worry about fighting the Babylonians you've got to worry about fighting me I am NOT for you in this battle I am bringing my judgment against you that's how heavy it is and so there's going to be great anger and fury and great wrath and people who don't die by the sword as he says there in verse 6 they will die by disease and a great pestilence now verse 7 here's a message to Zedekiah personally he says an afterword says the lord I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah his servants and the people and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword the famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword he shall not spare them nor have pity or mercy verse 7 you are going to go into the hands of the king of med Babylon Nebuchadnezzar if you're fortunate enough to escape the sword if you're fortunate enough to escape the famine if you're fortunate enough to escape the disease the pestilence which decimates the city if you're fortunate enough to escape all of that then you know what's gonna happen then you're gonna be taken out of your land and they're gonna take you to babylon to be a slave or just a low-class citizen of babylon they're gonna forcibly eject you from your own land you're done friends what a dramatic statement now you know if the book of jeremiah began at chapter 21 we might be saying oh lord isn't this a little rough but we've been in jeremiah Wow haven't we we know for how many decades God has called out to the people saying repent turn get it right with me and friends they refuse they refuse they refuse and then finally the day came when it was no more it's very difficult for us to believe that one day the party will be over that one day all those warnings God gave us will actually come to pass but this is what's happening right now here for Jerusalem and King Zedekiah do you want to know how radical it was for King Zedekiah friend Zedekiah was the last king of Judah that the final conquest of Jerusalem and Judah happens by Nebuchadnezzar against him he's the last king of Judah right there it ends with him and do you know what they did to Zedekiah let me read to you from 2nd Kings chapter 25 verse 7 it says this then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes put out the eyes of Zedekiah bound him with bronze fetters and took him to babylon how do you like that you have your right in front of you and they murder your sons in front of you and then they gouge out your eyes so that's the last thing you ever saw that's what happened to Zedekiah again I don't want anybody to think that God is just in a bad mood against Zedekiah friends do you know how long jedikiah rained 11 years for 11 years Jeremiah spoke to him for 11 years he had the opportunity to repent I don't want anybody think that God's being unfair with this man but as I said before it's very hard for us to believe that there's going to be a time when the party's over it's as if Jeremiah is calling out to Zedekiah and all just party's over I'm sorry it's done verse 8 now you shall say to this people thus says the Lord behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death he who remains in this city shall die by the sword by famine by pestilence but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who precedes you he shall live and his life shall be a prize to him for I have set my face against this city for adversity and not for good says the Lord it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall burn it with fire notice what he says in verse 8 it's a passage Scripture that's kind of familiar he says here verse 8 behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death that's what Jeremiah says to the whole city in Jerusalem hey Jerusalem if you want to live here's how to do it listen to me now here's life and here's death and you might think always telling them to repent no no Prince it's beyond that it's done no repentance on the behalf of any individual or Judah as a whole no repentance is going to turn this back the judgment is set in motion but Jeremiah says I'll tell you a way you can save your physical life you don't want to die physically here's what you need to do now again that suggestive thing of setting before your way of life and death I think a Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 15 Moses said see I have set before you today life and good death and evil and he called upon them to choose and then I think of Joshua chapter 24 verse 50 and if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve whether the gods which your father's served which were on the other side of the river or the gods of the amorite sand whose land you dwell but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord that's what Jeremiah said make your choice you want to serve those pagan gods great serve them but I'm gonna serve the Lord make your choice then I think of what the prophet Elijah said to the people of Israel in first Kings chapter 18 he said how long will you falter between two opinions if the Lord is God follow him but if BHEL follow him again and again throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament as well the choice is put before humankind and it's a real choice choose this day life or death blessing or cursing here it is set before you now how could they save their physical life look at verse 9 he who remains in the city shall die but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who precedes you he shall live do you know what your only hope is people of Judah people of Jerusalem surrender surrender unto the Babylonians that's it that's the only way you're gonna ensure maybe you'll live through the captivity maybe not but if you want to be assured surviving then what you do is you surrender to the Babylonians no friends this way I want you understand when Jeremiah said this it's as if he put a great big sign across his chest that said traitor because wasn't this being a traitor to the patriotic cause of Judah because the King Zedekiah and everybody else they were trying to rally the people of Judah saying fight against the Babylonians we got a chance if we all pull together it's another David & Goliath moment on and on they're trying to inspire them to stick together that and Jeremiah says forget all that give up surrender that's your only hope now we'll touch later on in the Book of Jeremiah how this affected Jeremiah but I want you to see that the battle was not only against the Chaldeans friends if the battle was only against the Babylonians then maybe the wise advice would have been fight on keep it going trust in God but don't you see what we read earlier in the chapter the battle was not only against the Babylonians who else was the battle against the Lord himself and Friends your arms are too short to box with God if God's on the other side then your only hope is surrender that's the only way you can win is by surrendering to God notice what he says there in verse 10 I have set my face against this city for adversity and not for good with God opposing them continuing the battle was foolish and Friends this is an enduring spiritual principle when we struggle against God our only hope for success is surrender that's what God calls upon us to do verse 11 now he's not speaking so much to Zedekiah as he's speaking in general to the house of David and man fact as we get into this you'll see that the timeframe the chronology might be a little irregular what we'll just check this out verse 11 and concerning the house of the king of Judah say hear the word of the Lord O house of David thus says the Lord execute judgment in the morning and deliver him who is plundered out of the hand of the oppressor lest my fury go forth like fire and burn so that no one can quench it because of the evil of your doings no no this is verse 12 he calls out to the house of David again this is the royal lineage that God had established that God had promised that the Messiah would come from the house of David and what does he tell them to do look at verse 12 execute judgment in the morning deliver him who has plundered what God was calling the house of David to do as the rulers of Judah was to administer justice fairly and properly within the kingdom this is a constant theme in the Old Testament and among the prophets in the Old Testament they were constantly telling the rulers rule righteously don't take a bribe don't pervert justice just administer things justly and righteously this is what God is concerned about friends do you understand that one of the basic responsibilities that God has appointed for civil government is the application and the execution of justice God expects the civil government to adjust to administer things in a way that brings forth justice and that's what he called the kings of Judah to do why verse 12 lest my fury go forth and burn so that no one could quench it if they would not radically repent judgment would come and it would be certain now this is one of the things that makes us think that maybe this is an out of chronology prophecy because from the tone of these words there's still a chance where we know by what he was saying earlier in chapter there was no chance but friends we have some of this pattern in the Book of Jeremiah sometimes it's sort a little bit of cut and paste from different errors of chronology verse 13 behold I am against you O habitant of the valley and the rock of the plain says the Lord who say who shall come down against us or who shall enter our dwelling but I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings says the Lord I will kindle a fire in its forests and it shall devour all things around it Francie's using poetic images to speak of jerusalem that is the place that he describes as the place in the valley of the inhabitant of the valley and the rock of the plane these are poetic images to refer to Jerusalem and they thought they were secure but he's saying you aren't secure you need to prepare the judgment is coming verse 14 I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings they had a sense of safety but God's judgment was coming nevertheless now Jeremiah chapter 22 verse 1 thus says the Lord go down to the house of the king of Judah and there speak this word and say hear the word of the lord o king of Judah you who sit on the throne of David and you and your servants and your people who enter these gates thus says the Lord execute judgment righteousness and deliver the plundered out of the land of the oppressor do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger the fatherless or the widow nor shed innocent blood in this place for if indeed you do this thing then shall enter the gates of the house riding on horses and chariots accompanied by servants and people Kings who sit on the throne of David but if you will not hear these words I swear by myself says the Lord that this house shall become a desolation now again we have much the same tone that we heard in the previous chapter he's absorbing the house of David the rulers of the kingdom of Judah to execute justice and judgment and a proper care and concern for justice in their kingdom and he says if you will do this there's a chance you can be preserved this is again something that tells us that maybe this is a little bit of a cut-and-paste when it comes to chronology but now look at how he goes on here into verse 6 because now he speaks again about the coming judgement he says for thus says the Lord to the house of the king of Judah you are Gilead to me the head of Lebanon yet I surely will make you a wilderness cities which are not inhabited I will prepare destroyers against you everyone with his weapons they shall come cut down your choice Cedars and cast them into the fire he uses an interesting phrase here in verse 6 he says you are Gili add to me you're like Lebanon Gilead and Lebanon we're mountainous regions known for their splendid forests especially their marvellous cedar trees and God says these highly-prized these wonderfully valued areas these beautiful we would consider like a Sequoia forest that kind of thing these things that are so beautiful and precious that's how precious you are to me but if you don't turn away I'm just gonna mow it all down in judgment that's the idea there verse 8 and many nations will pass by this city and everyone will say to his neighbor why is the Lord done this to this great city then they will answer because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them and sort of his prophetic imagination Jeremiah imagines people walking by Jerusalem that's been devastated by judgment and the people from the surrounding nations they go well why did this happen I thought that this was the Lord's covenant people what happened and then somebody answers ah but Judah broke the Covenant that God had with them and therefore God has visited this judgment there's the question and then there's the explanation now when we get to verse 10 we have a very interesting section in the remaining chapter of Jeremiah chapter 21 when we get to verse 10 we're gonna have a prophecy that's directed to several of the kings of Judah but here's kind of the difficulty the kings of Judah were not all reigning at the same time some of them Jeremiah is looking back towards some of them are in his present day but he gives a word from the Lord to each one of them let me just sort of give you an idea of the succession of the kings of Judah before the fall of Jerusalem what we have basically is first we have a king named Josiah he was the last godly king over Judah the great King Josiah who tragically died in a battle with Pharaoh Necho at the city of Megiddo so there's Josiah then you have his son who reigns Jehovah has he ranges for a very short period only three months who was succeeded by another son of Josiah named Jehovah Kim he reigned for about 11 years succeeded by Jehovah Kim's son named Jehovah kin or Jin that was his son and he only reigned for three months finally the third son of Josiah comes to the throne and this is the man named Zedekiah so you have these succession of four kings who were all related three of them were brothers but they rained out of order or at least of a normal succession now this would once you understand keep that in mind as we talk about these different Kings verse 10 has to do with a man named shaloom who's also known as Jehovah has again this was the first successor to King Josiah look at verse 10 weep not for the dead nor bemoan him weep bitterly for him who goes away for he shall return no more nor see his native country for thus says the Lord concerning shall the son of Josiah King of Judah who reigned instead of Josiah his father who went from this place he shall not return here any more but he shall die in the place where they have led him captive and he shall see this land no more ok verse 10 it's actually speaking about two kings Josiah and then jehovah has whom he names here Shalom first of all he says in verse 10 weep not for the dead nor bemoan him when he says weep not for the dead he's talking about Josiah King Josiah who was killed in battle but then when he says in the next line weep bitterly for him who goes away there he's talking about Jehovah has or here named Shalom the same man just given a different name in the different context because he was taken away after only three months by Pharaoh Necho taken as an exile to Egypt he says don't mourn for Josiah who's dead he's in heaven mourn for the guy who was taken away and who now languishes in exile in Egypt mourn for him verse 11 concerning Shalom the son of Josiah the king of Judah the fate of Solomon exile was worse than the more heroic death of his father Josiah in battle now starting at verse 13 we have a message to a different King thirteen starts the message to a man named Jehovah Kim the one who succeeded Shalom or his name is also Jehovah has here we go verse thirteen to Jehovah Kim woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice who uses his neighbor's service without wages and gives him nothing for his work who says I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers and cut out windows for it paneling with cedar and painting it with Vermillion shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness then it went well with him he judged the cause of the poor and needy then it was well was this not knowing me says the Lord yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covered business for shedding innocent blood and practicing oppression and violence friends this is the Lord's message to the King Jehoiakim now again let me remind you the succession you had Good King Josiah then you had Jehovah has who just reigned for three months then you had the 11-year reign of Jehoiakim Jehoiakim had 11 years 11 if I may say pivotal years the last time we were in Jeremiah chapter 20 it was the reign of Jehoiakim now in these pivotal years that Jehovah Kim has what does he do with his time he builds himself a spectacular house that's what he does looking at here in verse 13 woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness that's how he build his house he built himself the most magnificent palace in Jerusalem no friends there might not be anything wrong with a king having a great palace but not when your nation is on a crisis point and needs every resource given to other things and not when you build it by unrighteousness and that's exactly what Julia Kim did look at it verse 13 he did it by in righteousness and justice he gave nothing to the workmen for his work verse 14 he said very proudly I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers and then in verse 15 God replied through him - sarcastically saying shall you reign because you enclose yourself and cedar what do you think a fancy house makes you a king you're no king then then he goes on to describe how in verse of 15 did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness remember your good and godly father Josiah and what a good King he was man Brack notice what he says about Josiah in verse 16 it's very revealing he talks about the good that Josiah did he judged the cause of the poor and needy then it was well and then he says was not this knowing me Jeremiah called upon Jehoiakim to remember his father Josiah he enjoyed a modest life but most of all he did justly he cared for the poor and needy and this is what God says please note that phrase was not this knowing me in other words how could you tell that Josiah really knew God because he did kindly to other people he was a man filled with love friends do not forget that message that this was evidence of Josiah's knowing God because Jeremiah spoke of a principle here mentioned several other places in the Bible especially in first John here's the idea that our love for God can be measured by the love we have for other people and friends that's a very challenging thing don't we think because I'll tell you how I think a lot of times I think along these lines man I love the Lord it's just people I can't stand I get along just fine with God but man of people annoy me to no end listen Jeremiah and John in the New Testament they blow the whistle and throw the flag on that they say no way that's not true because if you really love God the evidence in your life is gonna be as to how you treat other people let me just read you a couple verses from first john ready first john chapter 3 we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren he who does not love his brother abides and death first John 3 verse 17 whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him how does the love of God abide in him you see what he's saying that somebody's profession - no God can be measured by how they treat other people it was true and Jeremiah's day it was true in John's day it is true in our day but look at how it was for King Jehoiakim verse 17 yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your own covetousness you see instead of knowing God what did Joya come knew he knew greed he new covetousness he knew how to feather his own nest and make his own bed God was not impressed so look at the judgment to come in verse 18 therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehovah came the son of Josiah king of Judah they shall not lament for him saying alas my brother or alas my sister they shall not lament for him saying alas master or lasses glory he shall be buried with the burial of a donkey dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem whoa what's gonna happen to you Jehovah Kim they're gonna drag your body out throw it over the walls and you're gonna get buried like a donkey gets buried which I assume is not very well I've never buried a donkey but I assume it's not very well that's the kind of burial you're gonna get it's kind of fascinating because in the narrative of 2nd Kings we don't read anything like this happening to Jahi akin to Jehovah Kim it just gives a very perfunctory statement then he died he rested with his father's blah blah blah but you know what there's reason to believe that he died exactly this way again you got to put a few pieces together but let me put these pieces together for you Joe Hoya Kim died when Nebuchadnezzar came back to Jerusalem and was besieging it and he died during the siege it's entirely plausible although I've got to admit second Kings does it tell us the case but but we would gather it from the prophecy of Jeremiah it's entirely plausible that he was assassinated by his own people in his dead body thrown over to the wall to get Nebuchadnezzar to stop the siege and as a way to surrender it was their way of saying we give up and it's entirely possible that that's what happened because it's always suspicious when a king dies during a siege and that's exactly what happened to Jehoiakim now in verse 20 we get to sort of a general prophesy against Jerusalem and a ruler's he says go up to Lebanon and cry out and lift up your voice and Bashan cry from a bar for all your lovers are destroyed I spoke to you in your prosperity and you said I will not here this has been your manner from your youth that you did not obey my voice the wind shall eat up all your rulers and your lovers shall all go into captivity surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated for all your wickedness o inhabitant of Lebanon making your nest in the Cedars how gracious will you be when pangs come upon you like the pain of a woman in labor verse 20 he says go up to Lebanon and cry out the prophecy turns to Jerusalem and his rulers who were destined for judgment because of their foolish idolatry and alliances now by the way you might want to say how do we know that the prophecy turns from Jehovah Kim to Jerusalem because friends in the ancient Hebrew which again I don't want to give anybody the wrong impression I don't know how to read Hebrew not at all but but I know how to read the guys who can read Hebrew and they explained that when we get into this section of verses it's now talking in the feminine plural instead of the masculine singular to Joya Kim there's a very definite change of the pronouns which tell us that now we're talking about Jerusalem as a she and what he says Jerusalem you as a she you've been looking out to Lebanon and to Bashan and Abram you've been looking out to all these foreign countries and they're prominent places to their high places you've been looking to make alliances with foreign rulers and it's brought to you to you ruin and then notice what he says in verse 21 friends this is a takeaway verse you ready for this I spoke to you in your prosperity but you said I will not hear let me just read that verse again I spoke to you and your prosperity but you said I will not hear you know if you ever go to a cemetery there's a lot of times very pleasant inscriptions written on a tombstone is there not very pleasant things you know written about people it should be we always want to remember the dead with kindness inappropriate but if you were gonna be brutally honest wouldn't this be a epitaph over many many lives that God would say God says I spoke to you in your prosperity but you wouldn't listen you know when times were good I tried to speak to you when you were flying high I tried to get through to you I called out you to get right with me to repent and you know what when times are good you were having none of it none of it you were utterly uninterested in me it took a crisis it tooks a catastrophe it took something falling apart before you would listen to me friends can I just say a prayer that I hope every one of us is saying under our breath right now is lord help me to hear you in my prosperity Lord don't make it a being a crisis until I listen to you can't we just come before God right now and say Lord open up my ears now I don't want to wait until I lose stuff until I start listening to you I want to listen to you now friends that's the kind of heart that God wants us to have before him and this is one of the great weaknesses and tragedies of the human condition in our prosperity we frequently refuse to listen to God and oftentimes he only has our attention when things start to go sideways now let me tell you something in the name of Jesus it doesn't have to be like that in your life in the name of Jesus you can say Lord soften my heart open my ears so that I can listen to you even when times are good I want to be guided by you then I don't want it to require a crisis to get me to turn to you because if you don't turn look at verse 22 surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated no maybe then you'll listen to God when you're ashamed and humiliated then maybe at the time for listening will come but it wouldn't come before them now in verse 24 to the end of the chapter now we're talking to another king of Judah this guy's name is Kanaya in the text we have in Jeremiah he was also known as Jeconiah or Jehovah King this man was the son of Jehoiakim and he was the second to the last ruler that ruled in Judah before the fall so look what God has to say to him verse 24 as I live says the Lord though Kanaya the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand yet I would pluck you off not give you to the hand of those who seek your life and into the hand of those who face you fear in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the hand of the Chaldeans so I will cast you out and your mother who bore you into another country where you are not born and there you shall die but to the land which they desire to return there shall be no return verse 24 hey Kanaya king of judah I'm regarding you like a signet ring do you know the signet ring is I've never had one but it's a ring that you make a seal or an impression on a document these were very important things to Kings in the ancient world you know they would seal a document in wax or whatever was it was an important thing for a king to have it was valuable it was precious it did it signified authority you know what God says God says you know what Kanaya jeconiah even if you were like my signet ring I'd take you off and throw you away that's how little I think of you that's how ready I am to judge you and friends this was precisely fulfilled in Kanaya again he's also known as jeconiah or jeho akin after a brief reign he and others of the royal family were taken to Babylon as captives but then God says verse 28 that he's going to put a curse on the line of Kanaya notice this verse 28 is this man Kanaya a despised broken idol a vessel in which is no pleasure why are they cast out he and his descendants and cast into a land which they do not know Oh earth earth hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord write this man down as childless a man who shall not prosper in his day for none of his descendants shall prosper sitting on the throne of David and ruling anymore in Judah he looks at Kanaya and he says verse 28 is this man Kanaya a despised broken idol he's inviting the rhetorical answer yes he is he's despised he's broken he's an idol he's good for nothing and then look at the lament in verse 29 it's so powerful o hear the word of the Lord my friends wouldn't you agree that anything that God says with such a dramatic introduction like O earth earth earth hear the word of the Lord something pretty important is gonna come after those words do we agree on that okay lock in with me we're almost done here this hymn you got to lock in on this he says thus says the Lord write this man down as childless he's using the language of a census it's as if the census taker comes to Kani his house knocks on the door high Kanaya how many children do you have now you know what's interesting Kanaya had I believe seven children first Chronicles list the children he has but you know what God says write that man down is childless I know he had seven children but I want you to consider him as if he has no children why should you consider him as if he has no children look at it there for none of his descendants shall prosper verse 30 sitting on the throne of David and ruling anymore in Judah do you realize what God just says right here that the Kanaya or jeconiah you could call his name either one that this man none of his descendants are going to sit on the throne of Judah now friends I'm gonna say it again even though you'd like okay David move on move on no no trust me on this one God promised he swore an oath to King Kanaya none of your descendants will sit on the throne of Judah my friends this presents a problem because this unique and powerful curse seems to contradict a promise that God makes in another place because it was through the Royal line of the kings of Judah by the way where did the Royal line of the kings of Judah start with David God promised that through the Royal line of David through the kings of Judah the Messiah would come and reign not only over Israel but over all the earth and do you see what's happened right here God has pronounced a curse on the line of the kings of Judah how are you ever gonna get a messiah out of a cursed line friends if I could say this and if I could kind of pull back the curtain of satanic strategy because the Bible says we should not be ignorant of his devices let me tell you what I think Satan was doing behind the scenes Satan knew that the Messiah was going to come through the line of the kings of Judah and so they were singled out for special satanic attack and he tried to get them to sin and compromise and disqualify themselves every way that they could and I bet when demons in Hell heard this come from the mouth of jeremiah that there was a curse put upon the bloodline of the kings of judah there is a celebration in the counsels of satan they said we defeated God's plan now the Messiah can't come through a curse line it's never going to happen we've defeated it it's a party everybody gets tomorrow off no I don't know if they say that to the demons or not do you see what I'm talking about here God promised that the Messiah would come through the bloodline of David through the kings of Judah and now there's a curse put on the family of the kings of Judah let me read it to you again for none of his descendants shall prosper sitting on the throne of David and ruling anymore in Judah now you would think that this is a problem for God but you know how God addresses see God knew what he was doing a long time before he has two lineages of descent for the Messiah one of them a bloodline and one of them a legal line do you catch the difference between the two you see the Gospels describe for us to different genealogies of the man Jesus Matthew records the genealogy of Joseph the husband of Mary of whom was born to Jesus called Christ he began at Abraham and followed the line down through Jesus through Joseph that is the legal line through Joseph and the legal line goes through the kings of Judah through Kanaya but notice this the other line the line of Mary does not go through the kings of Judah because it goes through a different son of David entirely I believe it was Nathan the son of David not Solomon who the royal line went through so at David there was a split in the Messianic line and the legal line went one way and ended in Joseph the bloodline went another way and ended in Mary and here's the great thing about it was Joseph the blood father of Jesus not at all only the adopted and legal father the bloodline came through a line that was not cursed at all fancy see God's wisdom from the very beginning establishing this and can you imagine if there were as I'm imagining celebrations in the headquarters of Satan when this curse got pronounced God just smiles and he says you know what devil you can't defeat me you can't outwit me I've got a way around this it's not going to be defeated my plan will be completed and even though in justice and righteousness I announce that Kanaya will never have a man to sit on that throne and by the way it was true there was never a descendant of Kanaya after his time that sat on the throne of Judah the next man to sit on the throne of Judah the last man was not Kenai as descendant he was Kenai as uncle so he never had a descendant to sit on the throne God engineered it so that it didn't disqualify in the slightest the coming of Jesus the Messiah now well we've looked at tonight it's pretty depressing about the kings of Judah don't you agree you're like man David I came to church and I hoping to get a little bit cheered up and I get this I mean the only thing we saw was the glimmer of hope in a good King Josiah who was killed tragically in battle it's like everything is a downer with all these kings of Judah and so we're left at the end of Jeremiah chapter 21 sort of crying out isn't God gonna give us a good king where's a good king where's a good ruler God won't you send somebody come back next week for Jeremiah chapter 23 and that's exactly what God does in the following chapter and we're gonna see how God splashes hope all over the page with the coming of the greatest king the branch the righteous one the Messiah himself the father until then I pray God that you would give me and that you'd give every one of us hearts that can hear you even in our prosperity Lord how crazy and it's kind of stupid and it's kind of wicked then we won't listen to you until some kind of problem gets our attention Lord we understand that's human nature and that's just how we are oftentimes the Lord we're just kind of here to officially say we don't want it to be that way and I pray Lord that even in whatever blessing or prosperity you've given us here tonight then we'd be able to listen to you and respond to your voice and love you Lord um I think we needed to see the disappointment on a human level with all these kings of Judah to prepare our hearts for next week's passage to see the glory of the coming king the Messiah so prepare us Lord bring us to Jesus and bring Jesus to us we pray this in your precious name [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

Views: 5,645

Rating: 4.7866669 out of 5

Keywords: prophet jeremiah, jeremiah, prophecy, king zedekiah, repent, god's judgment, call to repentance

Id: uSOMI0JePl0

Length: 47min 11sec (2831 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 22 2020