Jeremiah 23 - Against the Message and the Messanger - Jeremiah 36-37

[Music] Jeremiah chapter 36 the best way to do it is to just jump right in these first few verses verse 1 now it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel against Judah and against all the nations from the day that I spoke to you from the days of Josiah even to this day it may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversaries hear all the adversities excuse me which I purposed to bring upon them that everyone may turn from his evil way that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin the Book of Jeremiah is not strictly chronological you don't begin a chapter 1 and end it chapter 52 and follow a continuous story it jumps around in the chronology so you gotta have to take each section as it is as far as it fits in the place of Jeremiah's career as a prophet Jeremiah chapter 36 gives us a definite marking point did you see it there verse 1 it came to pass in the fourth year of Joachim now what's interesting about this particular time this was at or very near the first Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem when the Babylonians conquered the kingdom of Judah in the city of Jerusalem they didn't do it all at once they did it in three successive waves and the final wave obliterated the city and burned it to the ground but the first wave here in this fourth year of Jehoiakim came and what they did was they deposed the present king they took a lot of treasure and they took the best and the brightest away from Jerusalem including Daniel and his associates that's the setting for this particular prophecy that time period and what did God tell them to do again it was either at or near that time it could have been right before it could have been right after at or near that time notice what talking to universe to take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you God commanded Jeremiah to not only speak his prophecies but to write them down and this was to include all the prophetic sayings that he had given up to that point notice verse 2 from the day that I spoke to you now perhaps these were already in some kind of written form and what God was commanding Jeremiah to do was to compile them or to restate them but maybe there was just some of the divine work of the Holy Spirit to where he could remember perfectly word-for-word a prophecy that he had given a few years back we don't know exactly how it worked but God wanted him to compile his prophetic work that had been going on for many years up to that time I'm just gonna estimate off the top of my head maybe I should have researched us a little better we're talking about 15-20 years of Jeremiah's prophetic ministry already underway and this this was supposed to be written about halfway through his entire ministry why look at verse 3 it may be that the house of Judah will hear God commanded Jeremiah to do this so that the people could be appealed upon to repent when God announced judgment was coming the desired for response was for people to repent when God doesn't announce judgment he doesn't do it just to bring bad news he does it to invite repentance from his people so that he may actually withhold his judgment and I find it fascinating that God thought that perhaps having it written down might help with this maybe it would make it more firm more establishment would bring the reminder of the prophetic word maybe it could be consulted again and again but towards this end of drawing the people to repentance God said take a scroll and write it down so everybody got that now verse 4 then Jeremiah called baroque the son of Neriah and Baruch wrote on the scroll of a book at the instruction of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had spoken to him and Jeremiah commanded Baruch saying I am confident I am confined excuse me I cannot go into the house of the Lord you go therefore and read from the scroll which you have written at my instruction the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people in the Lord's house on the day of fasting and it shall also you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities it may be that they will present their supplications before the Lord and everyone will turn from his evil way for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord has pronounced against his people and Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all the words that Jeremiah the Prophet commanded him reading from the book the words of the Lord in the Lord's house so what did God command do now Jeremiah was not actually going to do the writing in of the scroll he was going to dictate it to his friend and associate Baruch and Baruch was going to take it and write it down Baruch was by trade a scribe we're not really accustomed with the trade of a scribe today but the ancient world scribes are very important what they were were professional writers and it didn't mean that people who weren't scribes couldn't write by the way just as a little aside literacy was much more common in the ancient world than many people suppose do you know how we know this from an archaeological perspective graffiti now I'm not talking about ancient in times of Israel although it would be interesting study that but when you take a look at Greek and especially Roman ruins there's a lot more graffiti than you would think and friends people don't write graffiti unless they can write it and other people can read it so many people in the ancient world many more than you would expect could read and write but they couldn't read and write nicely and that's what a scribe did a scribe was very well trained to write things out properly and technically well that's what Baruch was he was a scribe so he was going to be Jeremiah's helper with this and it's really sort of wonderful there was a long relationship between the scribe and the Prophet seventeen years later when Jerusalem was about to finally fall Jeremiah left Jerusalem and went to Egypt for refuge Baruch went with him this could have been the beginning of a very long friendship now verse six notice he says you go therefore and read from the scroll jeremiah was confined probably not imprisoned the idea here is that he was probably banned from the Temple Mount probably the priests got sick and tired of Jeremiah doing his thing upon the Temple Mount they said you can't come here anymore I'm banned from the Temple Mount you're not Baruch so we'll write out my prophecies you go and read it out publicly by the way don't you find it fascinating I do that the Prophet didn't need to be present for the words to have power for the words to work ladies and gentlemen Jeremiah does not need to be present here tonight to read his prophecies for us for us to benefit from him especially because Jeremiah couldn't speak English and we couldn't understand his Hebrew here tonight but but to get the point I'm making God's Word did not depend upon the human author for its power Jeremiah could say here is the prophecy you go deliver it Baruch it will have power and maybe it can turn the people's heart to repentance that was the whole idea verse 7 it may be that they will present their supplication before the Lord and everyone will turn from his evil way this was the desired result apparently I got to say it's a little bit fuzzy here in the transition between the first part of the chapter and the second part of the chapter but apparently Baruch did this in the fourth year of Jehoiakim reign now look at what's going to happen next starting at verse 9 now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah in the ninth month that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord in the chamber of gamar the son of shaphan described in the upper court at the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house in the hearing of all the people a couple things to notice in the fourth year they wrote out a scroll he was commanded to read apparently did it now we have this done in the fifth year some people think that this is actually the same occasion and it was actually much later that Baruch did it I'm more inclined to think that this was two different occasions that he read it in the fourth year and he came back and he read it again in the fifth year because if there's anything I know about the way that human beings work and if there's anything I know about the way that we learn the Word of God repetition is essential you got to repeat it it's been said that the three most important principles in learning are repetition repetition repetition it's just the way it is we need this we need to have things repeated so I'm more inclined to say there's a little bit of debate among the scholars whether it was the same reading at the temple or two different ones one in the fourth year one in fifth year I'm inclined to think that there were two separate ones but in some sense it doesn't really matter notice what they did verse nine they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem you see the Babylonian at this point we're conquering all the surrounding nations it was a scary time in the city of Jerusalem and when people are scared even if they're wicked they say listen it can't be wrong for us to do something like this you know you think of a person who is clutching a Buddha in one hand and a rosary in the other hand they're just covering all their bases right and and this is kind of the field that we have here in Jerusalem they called it fast and normally would say praise our Lord they're fasting under the Lord this is a sign of repentance well we don't have much indication this was a repentance actually followed through on it kind of seems to is more like the Rosary in one hand Buddha in the other hand kind of thing that's what we're estimating here in any regard look at it here in verse 10 Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord he publicly read the words and he did it verse 10 in the hearing of all the people so he has a scroll if I was better prepared tonight I would have something like a scroll here you know a paper that's rolled up and they would roll it out from side to side from one side to the other side and they would unroll it and it would be written in columns up and down on the scroll you wouldn't read a scroll like this we get this from watching old movies where the guy goes hear ye hear ye and it's kind of a top and bottom scroll it wasn't like that it was a side-to-side scroll and the text would be written in columns and said they would go they would ride it they would roll the scroll and work it down as they read it this is what baroque did there on the Temple Mount now notice here verse 11 when Micaiah the son of Gemara the son of shaphan heard all the words of the lord from the book then he went down to the king's house into the scribes chamber and there all the princes were sitting Allah Shama described Alya the son of Shem ah a lot on the son of Akbar Kamara the son of shaphan Zedekiah the Simha Hananiah and all the princes then mkhaya declared to them all the words that he had heard when Farouk read the book in the hearing of the people therefore all the princes sent Jodie the son of Nathania the son of Salama the son of cush I - Baruch saying take in your hand the scroll from which you have read in the hearing of all the people and come so Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them and they said to him sit down and read it in our hearing so Baruch read it in their hearing you get the idea there weren't many notable leading men of Judah listening to Jeremiah on the Temple Mount but there was one his name was macaé and as macaé heard the words of Jeremiah he goes this is God's Word we're in trouble the prophets telling us that God is angry with us the prophets telling us that we have to repent that the prophets telling us that the Babylonians are going to come and pound us and we got to prepare for that we can't trust in the Egyptians we can't think that God's gonna rescue us at the last minute unless we repent this was a stern word from the Lord and it got Makai his attention so mkhaya reported it back to his fellow noblemen fellow princes there you know less or no nobility there in the kingdom he says you guys got to hear this they said well yeah we got to hear it get Baruch over here and have him read it to us so he came in their presence and he read it to them now verse 16 now it happened when they had heard all the words that they looked in fear from one to another and they said to Peru we will surely tell the king of all these words and they asked Baruch Tseng tell us now how did you write all these words at his instruction so Baruch answered them he proclaimed it with his mouth all these words to me and I wrote them with ink in the book then the princess said to Baruch go and hide you and Jeremiah and let no one know where you are isn't that fascinating verse 16 when they heard Baruch read the book they looked with fear at one another can you see their white faces the dumbfounded expressions on their face they think two things first of all we are in such trouble we are convicted of our sin we understand it personally we understand it in the kingdom this is bad they think that but then number two they realize the king is not gonna like this at all we have to tell them you can't not tell the King because if you don't tell the King these kind of things eventually when he finds out and he finds out that you knew but you didn't tell him it could be off with your head they had to tell the King but they knew this is not gonna go down well with King Jehoiakim so they said to Jeremiah and to Baruch hide run for the hills do not make yourself visible you need to find your way to a safe house when we tell the King what's going down I want you to notice something very interesting here in verse 18 I described something about the writing of Scripture we don't find that much in the Bible actually about the writing of Scripture do we but this is what we know that Jeremiah himself did not actually put the pen to the parchment he dictated it to ascribe by the way that was a common way of writing in Bible times both Old Testament and New Testament it was very common that the person who was the author would not actually ride it with his hand sometimes he would but often they would dictate it to ascribe some of Paul's red letters were specifically written that way we know for example the book of Romans Romans 16 chapter chapter 16 verse 22 states how a man named tertius was the pennmen for Paul's letter to the Roman Christians so this was a practice jeremiah was the author Baruch was the pennmen but it's fascinating to see that these Nobles of the kingdom of Judah they wanted to know are you the author or is Jeremiah the author why do they want to know this I think they want to know is that the Word of God we know Jeremiah he's has a reputation as the prophet of the Lord bold courageous for 20 years to be honest Baruch we don't know you but we know Jeremiah he is established as a prophet of the Lord it made them feel better so to speak that it was Jeremiah's words and that Baruch was just the pennmen because it gave it more credibility they told him you go hide and we're gonna bring it to the king all right are you ready for this verses 20 and 21 and they went to the king into the court but they stored the scroll in the chamber of Eli Shama the scribe and told all the words in the hearing of the king so the king sent yahoodi to bring the skull of scroll and he took it from Allah shiner the scribes chamber and Judy read it in the hearing of the King in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king do you have that scene in your mind first they say let's tell the King about it but without bringing the scroll will hide the scroll so they come and they say King Jehoiakim we got to tell you about this guy Jeremiah in a scroll that he wrote and what he's been saying through his messenger Baruch up on the Temple Mount and they explained it all they go through and they explained they paraphrase this is what he said this is what he said this way is it so what does Joe ha Joe Hiatt Kim do strokes his chin and he goes you said there was a scroll didn't you I don't see the scroll where's the scroll all the guys look at each other nervously we can get it if you really want yeah I want it go get it so he gets it and he says I want you to read it before me right here right now I don't want an explanation I don't want to paraphrase I want to hear it word-for-word right now get ready for what happens verse 22 you got a picture this let the movie run in your mind ready now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month with a fire burning on the hearth before him and it happened when Judy had read the three or four columns that the King cut it with the scribes knife and cast it into the fire which was on the hearth until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth yet they were not afraid nor did they tear their garments the king or any of the servants who had heard these words nevertheless Elna 'then Daliah and gomorrah implored the king not to burn the scroll but he would not listen to them and the king commanded Jameel the king's son Sariah the son of Israel and she Lamia the son of AB deal to seize Baruch and the scribe Ruth the scribe and Jeremiah the Prophet but the Lord hid them did you just did you just read what I read go back here to verse 22 do you have the scene firmly in your mind there is in the winter house it's the ninth month so it's December the the weather in Jerusalem can be a lot like the weather here in California December can be cool it's probably not freezing cold occasionally because Jerusalem is up high you'll get some snow but it can be cool so there they are they're in a probably a warmer room or section of the palace the implication is not that it was a separate Palace but a section in the pal is probably a floor that they used in the winter there they are you got the nice little thing burning there in the center of the room right and the King says oh good good you could read this goal would you read the scroll for me and he reads a column or two three and they sought Yehudi would you just stop just for a moment here just pause can you hand me that scribes knife now scribes in those days would use a knife it was a very sharp small knife and it was used for sharpening the reed that you would use to dip in ink and write on the parchment but you would also have to make little trims to the parchment here and there I mean it was like made of leather or papyrus so a scribe would have a small knife and what did King Jehoiakim do so would you pause just for a moment to hooting he went over to the scroll and he would cut off the last two or three columns and he just read excuse me here let me just cut this he cuts it and then he puts it in the fire and burns it is difficult to think of a more deliberate horrible insult to make to the profit or more importantly to the God who inspired the profit in his word but because Jehoiakim did not say this get this book out of here I don't want to hear it he didn't say that nor did he say give me that scroll and just throw it into the Father No slowly deliberately methodically to gain full attention and to drag it out as long as possible he kept cutting and burning cutting and burning cutting and burning how long do you think it went on half hour 45 minutes everybody's just standing around watching he cuts and he burns he cuts and he burns notice their verse 23 the King cut it with the scribes knife these general when Jehoiakim wanted to show his spite for the Word of God the first thing he did was cut it before he burned it he cut it and people have not stopped cutting the Word of God to this very day today and I'm not saying it's only today it's been throughout history but it's certainly present today maybe more than before but today there are people who want to cut the Bible they want to decide this is true and this is false this really happened this didn't happen I know it says that there was an Adam and Eve but there wasn't really an Adam and Eve I know it says that Jesus walked on water but he didn't really walk on water I know it says this but it didn't really happen what are they doing just like Jehoiakim they're getting out their knife and they're saying let me cut some people want to decide what teaching from the Bible should be for our present age and what they believe we have progressed beyond oh yeah look I know that the Bible teaches this about sexual morality I know the Bible teaches this about the way we should live I know the Bible teaches this about homosexuality man that's where we have progressed beyond it cut it there are people who in our present age they want to cut out the biblical authors and cut up the book so completely that the biblical authors have no connection or harmony between them and so they say things like an an esteemed professor professor emeritus at Westmont College who rightfully is an esteemed man I don't know the man personally but everything I've heard of him is a wonderful reputation the community a godly wonderful man he says that I'm talking about dr. Robert Gundry at Westmont College he says that Matthew teaches that Peter was an apostate going to perdition and if you try to say well no but but look Luke and and Mark and John explained it differently he goes no no no you can't harmonize those you have to take just what Matthew writes and you can't you can't let the other Gospels inform it is this not cutting up the Word of God is this not saying you got to cut out Mathew and pretend it has nothing to do with Luke or John remark that scribes pen is still sharp that scribes pen is still sharp when people say let's cut out the part of the gifts in the work of the Holy Spirit let's cut out the part of repentance in the word of God today let's cut out the part about this let's cut out the part about that friends people don't burn the Word of God until they cut it up first but then look at what he did verse 23 I'll read it to you again the king cut it with the scribes knife and cast it into the fire I can let me emphasize he took the sections that he he did it methodically he did it repeatedly and he put them into the fire that heated the room can you smell the burning we don't know if it was a scroll made of papyrus or leather I want to think it was made of leather because think of how it would have smelled in that room think of how it would have flamed up if it was perfect this wasn't just something to see this was a little show here and he did it again and again until the entire scroll had been worked through this was a deliberate and dramatic way to insult and to reject the Prophet and the God whom the Prophet represented Jehoiakim hoped to burn and destroy the word and the Prophet and his God now I wonder if Joe Hakeem thought this pure speculation but I'll just wonder on it Jehovah Kim thought something like this these aren't the words of God these are the words of Jeremiah I see Jeremiah's personality all over this these can't be the words of God ladies and gentlemen when God gave us his word he used the personality of the human authors you see the personality of Jeremiah you see the personality of the Apostle John you see the personality of Isaiah of David on and on I could just keep listening biblical authors but you get it no no just because God used a human author and their personality when he brought us his word he supernaturally governed those people and gave them a unique gift he gave them the gift to perfectly understand his word and relate it to people today and for eternity they were Jeremiah's words but they were also God's words and God was big enough to work through the words of Jeremiah now the other thing that this shows us King Jehoiakim was afraid of God's words I mean why didn't he just ignore it why didn't it just a man I got other things to do why did he just just assure them out of the room no he didn't only hold old the Word of God in contempt and he couldn't bear to simply ignore it no he hoped to destroy the power of the Word of God by destroying the scroll and let me tell you it was not going to work because his blasphemous and ignorant act failed to see the difference between the Living Eternal Word of God and the media for that word I got a Bible here it's kind of a nice Bible was given to me as a gift nice Bible if God forbid somebody would burn this Bible he wouldn't destroy the Word of God it would destroy the ink on these pages but the Word of God stands forever you can't destroy the Word of God by burning the thing that it's written upon because this is what the Bible says it says that the grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever if it is the word of God it can't be destroyed give it your best shot Joachim God's Word is gonna stand forever in the year 300 AD the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered every Bible burned and they destroyed thousands of Bibles and scripture portions all over the Roman Empire because the Roman Emperor directly decreed in one of the worst persecutions that Christians and the Roman Empire ever suffered he said I want every Bible burned every piece of Scripture I want it destroyed you know what happened Diocletian died and the next Roman Emperor said let's present 50 complete Bibles at government expense Diocletian you lost the Word of God one early in the 20th century there was an Armenian man who was a patient in an American Hospital in Turkey and he was given a Bible which was the first Bible that he had ever possessed and when he left the hospital he very proudly took that Bible back to his village and he showed it his friends a Muslim teacher snatched the Bible from him tore it up in pieces you know he tort the binding you know just like you would tear the butt up binding right like that and he threw the pages in the street walked away well there was a grocer in town who used to use little pieces of paper to wrap up fruit and little groceries a good man that's a lot of paper to wrap stuff up in so he grabbed up all the pieces of paper from the Torah Bible he takes it to his grocery store and he doesn't read it but he just uses it to wrap a Apple or wrap a can or app whatever soon the pages of that Bible were scattered all over the entire village and customers read the pages and asked for more sometime later a Bible seller came into the vision and he was amazed to find a hundred people eager to buy a Bible because a muslim teacher decided he was gonna rip it up in the street rocky gave me an even better story that i heard or read actually from Ravi Zacharias he tells a story of a Vietnamese Christian named Hein Tom who was his interpreter in Hine being a Christian and a translator not only for missionaries but also translator for the American military forces he was arrested when South Vietnam fell to the Communists now when he was in that prison camp his faith was really shaken by the terrible conditions by the social pressure and the heavy propaganda placed upon him and even though he went in there a Christian his faith was shaken and he decided one night it's a lie it's all a lie I can't believe this anymore god I am never again gonna pray I'm never again gonna seek Jesus I'm done with this he decided that one night in his prison cell the next day they gave him the worst job in the entire camp he was given the job of cleaning out the latrines and he was commanded to kill to clean out a tin can that was overflowing with toilet paper and as I caught what appeared to be English writing on one of the pieces of toilet paper so he quickly grabbed it and put it in his pocket later off he cleaned it off and that night when everybody else in his little barracks had gone to sleep he took it out and by the faintest light he could imagine he read it because he could read English being a translator it was Romans chapter 8 and he read the words all things work together for though for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose he read the words for I am persuaded that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord the man began to cry knowing that this was God's Word for him having decided just the previous night that he was going to completely give up on God so the prison official who thought that the Bible was only fit for toilet paper they were probably surprised when the next day he volunteered for latrine duty and he would gather as much of it as he can carefully clean it distribute it the best he can and that prison official who meant to disgrace the Word of God in the most extreme way he ended up rescuing the faith of a troubled believer right there in the camp and leading who knows how many other to faith ladies and gentleman the Word of God stands forever and people can cut it and they can burn it but it will be to their own difficulty and shame not to the problem of the Word of God let me read to you something from G Campbell Morgan he said this sin may so deaden spiritual and moral faculties that men will without fear cast the messages of God to the fire and commit his messengers to death but such action never destroys the Word of God nor invalidates its findings amen now notice this verse 24 says that when they did this the other people who were watching King Jehoiakim do this it says they do they were not afraid nor did they tear their garments friends it's a little bit heavy because not only is a terrible thing to cut and burn God's Word it's also a terrible thing to stand by silently and to express no horror when it's happening right there in your midst God had a condemnation for those people right there we're like ham whatever man no biggie now he's the king you do it every once can't go against the king I mean look he's the king maybe they thought well I'd never do such a thing personally I wouldn't cut or burn God's Word but man he's a king he can do what he wants no God God said that it's a responsibility of God's people to do something at least show some disapproval now some did thank God verse 25 nevertheless L Nathon Daliah and gomorrah implored the king not to burn the scroll there are at least some who said something to the king yeah jehovah can ignore them and commanded that baruch and jeremiah be arrested but verse 26 the Lord hid them now continuing on verse 27 now after the King had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah is saying take yet another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehovah came the king of Judah has burned and you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah thus says the Lord you've burned the scroll saying why have you written in it that with the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and cause man and beast to cease from here therefore thus says the Lord could certain Joachim king of Judah he shall have no one to sit on the throne of David and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and to the frost of the night I will punish him his family and his servants for their iniquity and I will bring on them on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them but they did not heed in this beautiful verse 28 take yet another scroll and ride on it all the former words Oh Jehoiakim you out you burned the scroll big deal we'll make another you're not going to defeat God's Word matter of fact we'll make another one and we'll add more words to it and what's gonna happen to you verse 30 his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day in the frost of the night and even so verse 31 all the doom that I have pronounced against them will come to pass all the doom I wonder I wonder if this was the act that set it in stone that Judah and Jerusalem would be judged at this point the final conquest of Jerusalem is about 17 years away it doesn't happen for 17 years but I wonder if this was the point that set it in motion where God said you're gonna burn you're gonna cut and burn my word and nobody's gonna say a peep about it that's it I will certainly bring the doom that I prophesied verse 32 then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Brooke the scribe the son of Neriah who wrote on it at the instruction of Jeremiah all the words of the book which to hayek him the king of Judah had burned in the fire and besides there were added to them many similar words are you gonna burn my scroll I'm gonna make another school a bigger scroll that's how God works now chapter 37 this happened some fifteen years after the events of the previous chapter verse one now King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Kanaya the Sanja hoyuk in whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made King in the land of Judah but neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land gave heed to the words of the Lord which he spoke by the Prophet Jeremiah now notice this verse 1 says that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made Zedekiah king when Nebuchadnezzar came he saw that jeconiah or sometimes called Kanaya was being unfaithful he posed him right away and he put in place a puppet King Zedekiah who was a descendent of the previous King Josiah going on now verse 3 and Zedekiah the king sent Jeff who call the son of shall might could somebody give me a little bit of a break with the names this chapter good heavens man keep going here verse 3 and Zephaniah the son of messiah the priest of the prophet jeremiah saying pray now to the Lord our God for us now Jeremiah was coming and going among the people for they had not yet put him in prison then Pharaoh's army came up from Egypt and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them they departed from Jerusalem we talked about this last week but notice what happens here before the Egyptians came against the Babylonians well the Babylonians were surrounding the city what happens in verse 3 notice what King Zedekiah says to Jeremiah pray now to the Lord our God for us please Jeremiah I haven't served God or honored him my whole life but the Babylonians are surrounding the city now I've never been a religious man I haven't honored Yahweh the God of Israel but would you please pray for us pray for us because we're hurting we're in trouble we're going down I don't know what Jeremiah said to him doesn't really say does it but this is what it says happens next the Egyptians came up from the south to engage the Babylonians in battle the Babylonians said we got to break off the siege of Jerusalem they went down to meet the Egyptians in battle and so the siege was broken everybody said praise the Lord we're delivered we talked about this last week the siege was broken and they thought they were delivered but look at the news here verse 6 then the word of the Lord came to the Prophet Jeremiah saying thus says the Lord the God of Israel thus you shall say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me behold Pharaoh's army which has come up to help you will return to Egypt to their own land the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against a city and take it and burn it with fire thus says the Lord do not deceive yourself saying the Chaldeans will surely depart from us for they will not depart for though you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you and there remain only wounded men among them they would rise up every man in his tent and burn the city with fire here's the story of Zedekiah ya the Babylonian army left the siege is broken here's the bad news they're coming back the Egyptians are not going to fight against a matter of fact the Egyptians did not fight against him when the Babylonians assembled in battle against the Egyptians Pharaoh said check please he went home he didn't even engage the Babylonians in battle the Babylonians said back to Jerusalem let's finish off this siege what Jeremiah said to Zedekiah was basically this it's going to happen don't be fooled by the fact that this siege was broken for a few weeks the Babylonians are coming back and it is so certain that they will conquer Jerusalem look at the way that they stayed at there in verse 10 if there remained only wounded men among them they would rise up and conquer the city Zedekiah I don't care if if the whole Babylonian army was wounded and sick and impaired they would conquer the city God is so committed to bringing this judgment upon Jerusalem continuing on now verse 11 and it happened when the army of the Chaldeans left the siege of the Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to claim his property there among the people and when he was in the gate of Benjamin a captain of the guard was there whose name was Asia the son of Shalom aya the son of Hananiah and he sees Jeremiah the Prophet saying you are defecting to the Chaldeans then Jeremiah said false I am NOT defecting the Chaldeans but he did not listen to him so IRA's sees Jeremiah and brought him to the princes therefore the princes were angry with Jeremiah and they struck him and put him in the prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe for they had made that prison the siege is broken at least for a few weeks jeremiah says hey a couple chapters ago I bought a piece of property remember the property purchase from prison so I should go take a look at it so he goes out he's gonna go to his village of Anna not that's is not far from Jerusalem it goes out and as he's going out he gets arrested for being a defector to the Babylonians to the Chaldeans the Friends of once you understand this is not as crazy as it might seem Jeremiah has urged other people to desert to the Babylonians Jeremiah had been crushing the morale of the people of Jerusalem anybody who was committed if I think this you're gonna lose surrender now to the Babylonians it was a message of certain victory for the Babylonians you could see where they would think that he was a traitor so what did they do verse fifteen they struck him they beat him and they put him in the present in the prison verse sixteen when Jeremiah entered the dungeon in the cells and Jeremiah had remained there many days then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out the King asked him secretly in his house and said is there any word from the Lord Jeremiah said there is then he said you shall be delivered into the hand of the Babylonians oh what a scene I'd pay money to see this Jeremiah is there in a prison and as we're gonna find out this was a pretty wretched dungeon a wretched dungeon that Jeremiah thought if I stay here much longer I'm not gonna live disease filth malnutrition who knows what else may be scary other prisoners I don't know what it was but Jeremiah said I'm not lasting long in here then one day a guard comes he said Jeremiah come here the king wants to see you Jeremiah saying oh man it's off with my head he goes and he's not going to like the courtyard of the stockade he's going to the king's palace goes to the king's palace they clean him up a little bit obviously they take him in they sit him down in the room the King comes in tells all his assistants leave the room leave the me and Jeremiah just us they kind of nervously leave the room do you want to leave the king alone with a crazy prophet the King leans into Jeremiah and he asked him secretly did you see that in verse 17 the King asked him secretly is there any word from the Lord Jeremiah says yeah you know kink it's really funny I got a word from the Lord for you verse 17 you shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon King I got a word for you it's exactly everything I've been saying for the last thirty years there's nothing new you want a secret revelation here's a secret revelation I could show you it written on a scroll here it is king you thought that God had some privileged unique word for you no here's the word go back to what was written Zedekiah made the mistake of thinking that there was a secret word for him from God different from what had already been revealed in God's Word even his written word from Jeremiah the secret word was completely consistent with the written word now notices God may and he has in my life maybe in many of your lives brought to me a specific word I would call it a prophetic word God gave me a word of prophecy about my life about something in the future but you know what's interesting these like pivotal words that God spoke to me they never came when I was seeking a secret word from God I would say this I'm still thinking this through in my mind but let me just say it in general don't seek a secret word from God he may bring you a personal word God is fully capable doing that done it in my life and he may do it in yours he's fully capable of doing it praise the Lord for that praise God for that work of the Holy Spirit but if you're gonna seek a word from God open the book don't seek it in a strange way now I think that when you open the book God will speak to you and maybe if you need a spontaneous specific prophetic word for your life God knows how to deliver it to you he knows exactly what to do but I just find it fascinating when Zedekiah was seeking a secret word Jeremiah told him what he had already known verse 18 moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah what offensive I committed against you against your servants are against this people that you've put me in prison where now or your prophets who prophesied to you saying the king of Babylon will not come against you were against this land therefore please hear now o my lord the king please let my petition be accepted before you and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe lest I die there then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah to the court of the prison and that they should give him daily a piece of bread from the Baker Street until all the bread in the city was gone thus Jeremiah remained in the Court of the prison Jeremiah directly but very personally appealed to the king can't give me a break I'm gonna die in that prison if you're gonna imprison me put me in a nicer prison and the king said yea he did not want the death of that prophet on his hands and at least until the siege came and got really bad he said I'm gonna give you bread every day Jeremiah asked that his lot even in persecution be made better and friends I want you to understand something in a time of persecution the persecuted one and others can and should do all that they can to make the condition of that one better I think of our dear brother Saeed who's in a prison right now in Iran I suppose that there are probably some hyper spiritual people who would say take the worst treatment Sayid but if they want to put you in the worst cell and keep the worst human bare it up you know bring it on are you kidding Jeremiah gives us a pattern if Sayid could honorably appeal for better treatment he should do it if others could make the appeal on his behalf they should do it God teaches us in his word that you don't have to deliberately put yourself in the target for persecution it may find you whether it nevertheless but notice it was completely honorable for Jeremiah to say Zedekiah would you give me a break and God worked in and through that and you could even say that Zedekiah did something a little right it didn't spare him the judgment of God but maybe it lessened it at least Zedekiah did not die a horrible death he faced God's judgment in a very severe way no doubt about it but he didn't die a horrible death like Jehoiakim the king that we took a look at in chapter 36 did friends I think a great way for us to conclude tonight is to think about how we need to honor God's Word we don't cut it we don't burn it we honor it but especially shouldn't we pray for our brother Saeed and others whom he kind of represents who were in prison father I don't know how many it is around the world I know if it's numbered in the hundreds maybe Lord it's numbered in the thousands a believers who are imprisoned because they're faithful unto Jesus Christ Lord we think about the terrible conditions that many of them have the danger the disease the deprivation that they face Lord we think specifically of our brother Seyi and we think lord of all that he must ache for Lord just just the separation from his family would be difficult enough Jesus we pray for Sayid but not only for him we pray for him as a representative of Christians all over the world who are imprisoned for their faith and we ask that you would show them mercy we pray God that you would improve their conditions even if they're going to be incarcerated Lord let it be a Jeremiah moment where they're put into a better place and a better provision made for them but beyond that Lord we pray let them be freed let them be spared this and strengthen them and Lord if you're gonna have them in those prisons let them be powerhouses of your work there and lead many to faith Lord here in the West you have not called us as of yet to suffer in such ways we see Lord that one day it may come we pray that you would give us the courage of our faithful brothers and sisters who have gone before us in those ways the Lord now we just want to stand with those who pay that price and cry out to you Lord and say bless them strengthen them we pray this Lord together in Jesus wonderful name [Music] you [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

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Id: nwSlh-g7KF4

Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 16 2019