Jeremiah 24 - Cowardice and Courage - Jeremiah 38-39

[Music] Jeremiah chapter 38 beginning now at verse 1 now shefte Thea the son of Merton Gedaliah the sin apasher do call the son of Shalom aya and posture the son of Malik aya heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people saying thus says the Lord he who remains in this city shall die by the sword by famine and by pestilence but he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live his life shall be as a prize to him and he shall live thus says the Lord this city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of babylons army which shall take it these first few verses of Jeremiah chapter 38 introduced us to 4 princes of the kingdom of Judah these were men who were part of the royal family maybe they were part of the aristocracy aristocracy maybe they're just nobles maybe there were rulers and other subsets but they were leaders under the king over the kingdom of Judah these aristocrats had their own status and their own interest to protect as the Babylonians surrounded the city of Jerusalem preparing to conquer it they didn't like the preaching of Jeremiah the Prophet because what was Jeremiah the Prophet telling them Jeremiah the Prophet was telling the whole city if you remain in the city you are gonna die by the sword your only salvation rests in surrendering to the Babylonians if you don't surrender to them there's a good chance that you're going to be killed there's safety in surrender to the Babylonians now if you were trying to organize the people of the city of Jerusalem to make a bold courageous last stand against the Babylonians how would you feel about a prophet preaching to them telling them surrender right now you wouldn't like it very much would you and these 4 princes of the kingdom of Judah didn't like it very much well let's look at what happens verse 4 therefore the prince has said to the king please let this man be put to death for he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city in the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them for this man does not seek the welfare of this people but their harm then Zedekiah the King said look he's in your hand for the King can do nothing against you so they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malachi of the king's son which was in the court of the prison and they let Jeremiah down with ropes and in the dungeon there was no water but mire so Jeremiah sank in the mire these four Prince's didn't like the preaching of Jeremiah the Babylonian army surrounded the city of Jerusalem it was a crisis time in the city no doubt they felt that Jeremiah was undermining the morale of the whole city so what did they do they went to King Zedekiah King Zedekiah generally liked Jeremiah but he had a bigger problem his bigger problem was that he was fundamentally a weak man he was very easily swayed and stirred by the strong opinions of other people so when the princes came and said did you see this in verse 4 please let this man be put to death what did King Zedekiah do well the King Zedekiah would agree to it notice their argument here in verse 4 they said this man does not seek the welfare of this people but their harm I want you to think about that for a moment what did they accuse Jeremiah of they accused your amaya of not caring about the people of Jerusalem but wanting to do them harm you know what's fascinating about that it is exactly opposite to the truth is that not true Jeremiah loved the people of Jerusalem Jeremiah ached over every prophecy of doom that he had to give forth Jeremiah desperately wanted to say the city of Jerusalem and rescue as many people from the judgement that was certain to come Jeremiah did everything he did out of love for the people of Jerusalem oh no doubt there's a lot of frustration with those hardened sinners but there was love matter of fact if there were people who did not care about the welfare of the people of Jerusalem it was those four princes they were determined to make a stand to the last man in the city of Jerusalem in what God and His Prophet Jeremiah knew would be an absolutely futile battle what Jeremiah and God knew was that there was no way no way they were going to defeat the Babylonians no way and if this was true the Honorable the smart and the gloving thing was to surrender under the best terms that you could I just find this fascinating though that sometimes we and I'll make it more specific sometimes God's servants are accused of exactly the opposite of what they are Moses was a remarkably humble man according to numbers chapter 12 verse 3 but even Moses was accused of pride job was a righteous man but his friends accused him of great sin Jesus was the spotless son of God but he was accused of being demon-possessed friends sometimes men and women of God even as they conduct the work that God has given them to do sometimes they are accused of exactly the opposite of what is true and that was the case with Jeremiah but what did the weak King Zedekiah say look at verse 5 look he's in your hand Zedekiah would not take the courage to stand up to the princes of Judah and he allowed them to do to Jeremiah as they pleased he knew that the princes of Judah were wrong he knew that their accusations against Jeremiah were not correct but he was such a weak man that he was easily swayed by strong opinions around him therefore they lowered Jeremiah down into a dungeon like pit where Jeremiah sank in the mire before we describe that pit I just want us to consider for a moment the weakness of Zedekiah I like what Alexander McLaren said he said this Zedekiah is one more instance of the evil which may come from a weak character and of evil which may fall on it he had good impulses but he could not hold his own against the bad men around him let me be very straightforward with you and I'll speak to you as a son or a daughter of God there will be people in your life who will want to influence you to evil there will be now a they may mean well maybe their intention is good but you will experience it where men and women around you will intend to influence you for evil you must have the strength of character God giving you strength to resist it if you are fundamentally a weak man or a weak woman you will be pushed by whatever happens by those people who want to influence you to evil you see it seems that instead of having a backbone Zedekiah had a wish bone and he wished to just please all the people around him matter of fact I like what one commentator said he said Jeremiah excuse me Zedekiah seemed to graduate from the Pontius Pilate School of Management isn't there aren't they of the same type Pontius Pilate pushed by men who were influencing him in a way that they shouldn't to do something that he knew was wrong in evil now listen it's easy for someone like me to stand back and judge Zedekiah the sort of cluck tongue enough disk disk Zedekiah shouldn't you have the strength but let me tell you something many of us have the same weakness that Zedekiah has it's just not revealed because we're not in the same position that Zedekiah held ladies and gentlemen we need to pray and be men and women a backbone men and women of strength who will not be influenced to do evil just because other people would like us to do so so what did they do look at verse 6 they let Jeremiah down with ropes now I want you to think about that that statement right there in verse 6 is very revealing what was the intention of these princes of Judah verse 4 tells you their intention was to kill Jeremiah that's what they wanted to do is everybody understand that then why did they lower him down into the pit by ropes if you want to kill the guy why not just push him aha it's more complicated than that first of all understand the kind of condition that they put him down into what they did undoubtedly was push him down into a cistern do you understand what his cistern s a cistern very common most homes in Jerusalem at that time had their own cisterns this is a carved out water reservoir it usually has a small opening and then it opens up like a pear or a bulb underneath and in that day they were usually carefully maintained and cemented or plastered on the inside so that you could keep a water supply either from rainfall or a nearby stream and that that house could have its own water supply in a fairly arid land in the city of Jerusalem what they did was they took a cistern that was pretty much empty of water but just had mud or mire or sludge at the bottom but they didn't just push Jeremiah down into it why most likely these princes of Judah did not want to be guilty of bloodshed you see they knew the verses in the Old Testament that say it's a sin to shed the blood of an innocent man so what did they say they said listen we'll find a way to kill Jeremiah with out actually opening a wound on him and shedding his blood we will lower him by ropes down in the cistern and there he will die of famine there he will die of exposure there he will die of disease but he won't die of some wound and we won't be guilty a bloodshed ladies and gentleman let me see you tell you something God sees through those phony-baloney evasions that we try to make when we try to make evasions for our sin God sees right through it oh no you see I didn't really break the law of God on a technicality God sees right through it if you think you can be preserved from that you're just wrong then let me let me say something and I don't mean to be too forward I I don't know why I feel like I should point this out right now but I just feel that I should sexual immorality between a man and a woman goes beyond just actual sexual intercourse and there are many people who think that there are sexual acts short of that that is okay in the sight of God just as long as it's not actual sexual intercourse don't you see that this is the same reasoning as here we didn't actually open up a wound so we're okay we're technically not breaking the law even though were practicing a sex act but it's not the same ladies I just want you to know I just want you to be sense and let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart God sees through these of evasions and if you're guilty of it don't condemn yourself run to a savior you have a savior to forgive you Jesus Christ made provision of this if anyone sins Jesus if we confess our sin he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness but don't don't find evasions in your sin by defining it by technicalities that's exactly what these rulers were trying to do now verse seven now II bed Melek the Ethiopian one of the eunuchs who was in the king's house heard that they'd put Jeremiah in the dungeon when the king was sitting at the gate of Benjamin II bed Melek went out of the king's house and spoke to the king saying my lord the king these men have done evil and all that they have done to Jeremiah the Prophet whom they have cast him to the dungeon and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is where there is no more bread in the city than the king commanded ebed Melek the Ethiopian saying take from here thirty men with you and lift jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies so he Ben Melick took the men with him and went to the house of the King under the Treasury and took from their old clothes and old rags and let them down by ropes into the Jun dungeon to Jeremiah then he bade melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah please put these old clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes and Jeremiah did so and they pulled Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison you can you picture Jeremiah down in the cistern it's dark it's cold there's bugs maybe little animals down there there's a stench of disease he's stomach deep in muck and mire in mud nothing to eat nothing to drink he's very logically thinking I'm probably gonna die down here that was fully the intention what he didn't know that God had prompted a man a man named ebed Melek and this man's a fascinating man did you notice something about this man look at what verse 7 says he describes it as an Ethiopian in other words he was from either what we would call today Ethiopia or Sudan he was either a black man or probably very tall of that skort of nature and he was one of the eunuchs God sent this foreigner to help Jeremiah and to appeal to the king on the prophets behalf this way don't you understand he was a foreigner and he may have been a literal eunuch the ancient Hebrew that's translated eunuch there it was actually used for people who were not literally castrated because it was sometimes use of people were just court officials even though they were not castrated it was a term that kind of changed its meaning over time maybe he was literally castrated maybe not but he was a court official and he was a foreigner if he was literally castrated it was even more reason but it was also reason enough just because he was a foreigner he was not allowed in the house of God to participate in the worship of Israel now you know what I just picture I picture those four princes going up to the temple and participating in some temple ceremony all happy you know we didn't shed Jeremiah's blood we're good and here's this foreigner who couldn't have access to the temple he was a foreigner and perhaps he was literally castrated literally a eunuch he didn't have that access and you know what God says to him you I approve you I'm gonna honor we're gonna see more about ebed Melek before we go by the way do you know what his name means his name means servant of the king it may not even been his actual name maybe it was a description of the man servant of the king but but he came to King Zedekiah he said Zedekiah we got a rescue this man he's gonna die in there now Zedekiah weak as he is he was swayed by the strong opinion to do evil now he's swayed by the strong opinion to do right okay he bet Melek you say we should rescue him let's rescue him mad fact let's send 30 men with you now why did they need 30 men to pull up one old skinny man from a pit well they probably didn't need 30 men to pull him up from the pit but they needed those men as bodyguards in case anybody like these four Prince's tried to stop them in their work so they sent 40 men and they pulled him out of the pit and they were so kind to him look at their in verse 12 please put these old clothes and rags under your armpits it's going to be uncomfortable we're gonna rescue and we're gonna rescue in a way that's kind of cuz we don't want the rope digging into your frail bony skin you're an old man and you're emaciated from malnutrition and so they rest they literally lifted him up out of the mire and brought him up and remained in the court of the prison now look at what happens in verse 14 then Zedekiah the king sent and had jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance of the house of the Lord and the king said to Jeremiah I will ask you something hide nothing from me jeremiah said to Zedekiah if i declare it to you will you not surely put me to death and if i give you advice you will not listen to me so said akka the kings swore secretly to jeremiah saying as the lord lens who has made our very souls I will not put you to death nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life didn't we see this in last chapter chapter 37 Jeremiah is delivered by an act of the king and the king says oh now I want a secret audience with you Jeremiah can we talk about this now Jeremiah has been down this road before because King listen we did this before I gave you a word you didn't like it you put me into prison number one it's just gonna put me in prison again back to that pit number two you're not gonna listen what good is this king I like what Zedekiah did he says I swear to you as the Lord lives we made our very souls I will not believe him I will not put you to death now with Zedekiah a reliable man with an oath not one bit matter of fact don't you know that oftentimes it's the people who swear the most strongly who are the least reliable in keeping their word that was Zedekiah but he regard jeremiah says okay here I'll give you word said a kai you want your word here we go verse 17 here's your final word Malaysia John I want you to picture this this was God's final word to Zedekiah last one I think it's amazing verse 17 then jeremiah said to Zedekiah thus says the Lord the God of hosts the God of Israel if you surely surrender to the king of babylons princes then your soul shall this city shall not be burned with fire and you and your house shall live but if you do not surrender to the king of babylons princes then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans they shall burn it with fire and you shall not escape from their hand look at verse 17 again if you surely surrender to the king of babylons Prince's then your soul shall live now first of all do we understand this was not a new word to Zedekiah did Jeremiah have a new word for him nope but I will say there is something new about this man fact not just new but amazing at this last minute God is still offering mercy to Zedekiah now please understand it's not the kind of mercy that says Zedekiah if you repent I'll call the Babylonians off no way that is determined it's doomed there's no turning back Zedekiah the Babylonians are gonna conquer the city no if ands or buts but I'll tell you something here's God's mercy in it if you surrender right now Zedekiah what happened the city will be spared you will live and your house will be spared if you don't destruction will come to you to the city and to your household later on can we just for a moment marvel at the graciousness of God if you were God over all these years pleading with speaking - begging - King Zedekiah wouldn't you by now just saying that's it that's enough you're gone forget it mister forget it but even at this late hour he's still offering him patience and mercy Zedekiah surrender if you surrender right now if you surrender your soul shall live if you surrender this city shall not be burned with fire if you surrender your house will live your wives your children your royal family will largely be spared from death matter of fact I like how he says it look at it in verse 17 if you surrender to the king of babylons Prince's earlier in the chapter did not Zedekiah surrender to the princes of Judah and agree to put Jeremiah in the pit and try to kill him it's like look you've shown you pretty good at surrendering to princes instead of surrendering to the princess of Judo surrender now to the princes of Babylon and it'll go well with you there will be mercy in the midst of it verse 17 this city shall not be burned with fire laser to him do you understand something here the fate of a city rested on one man it was within the power of Zedekiah to either surrender to God and do what God told him to do or to harden his heart and the destruction of Jerusalem hung in the balance the staggering we sometimes rarely appreciate the difference one man or one woman can make by simply being faithful to God and surrendering to God in his purpose Jerusalem will be absolutely destroyed in a catastrophe or it'll simply be conquered and occupied by the Babylonians Zedekiah it's up to you you pick I find that staggering now look at Zedekiah's response verse 19 and Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans Leslie deliver me into their hand and they abuse me but Jeremiah said they shall not deliver you please obey the voice of the Lord which I speak to you so shall it be well with you and your soul shall live but if you refuse to surrender this is the word that the Lord has shown me now behold all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house shall be surrendered to the king of babylons princes and those women shall say your close friends have said upon you and prevailed against you your feet have sunk in the mire and they have turned away again so shall surrender all your wives and children to the Babel to the Chaldeans you shall not escape from their hand but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon and you shall cause this city to be burned with fire Oh's etic aya you pitifully weak man there you are with your opportunity lives and the fate of a city hang in your balance you can't stop the Babylonians from conquering but you can rescue the city your own household you can rescue your own life this is what you have to do just surrender now do what God tells you to do and what do you say well I'm afraid people say bad things about me literally this is what he says I'm afraid that those who have already defected to the Babylonians will look at me and say huh now you defect when you told us not to defect before well told you so you should have done it a long time ago because one man didn't want to hear I told you so because he was afraid of that he's gonna let his family he's gonna let his city he's gonna let his honor be burned with fire friends the only abuse he had to fear from those people who had defected was mocking and contempt from the people who had already surrendered that's why Jeremiah pled with him verse 20 please obey the voice of the Lord it's the safest thing for you to do do you understand this brothers and sisters but the safest place for you to be is in radical obedience to God you think it's dangerous to obey God listen I'll agree sometimes it's risky to obey God I'll admit it but it's not nearly as risky as it is to harden your heart and disobedience to him do you think you're playing it safe Zedekiah you're a madman no it's not just gonna hurt you but they shall surrender all your wives and children to the Chaldeans and you're afraid of the others mocking you those who have already defected listen your wives and children are gonna sing a song of taunting mocking to you when they are taken and that's why they say verse 23 they shall surrender all your wives and children to the Chaldeans and you shall cause this city to be burned with fire friends we cannot help but be impressed number 1 by the weakness and the cowardice of Zedekiah but aren't you amazed at the courage and strength of jeremiah to the end he faithfully delivers God's Word to the end he brings it to the king and does not fear for his own life verse 24 then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah let no one know of these words and they shall not die excuse me and you shall not die but if the prince is here that I've talked with you and they come and say to you declare it to us now which you have said to the king and also what the King has said to you do not hide it from us and we will not put you to death then you shall say to them I presented my request before the king that he would not make me return to Jonathan's house to die there then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him and he told them according to all the words that the King had commanded so they stopped speaking with him for the conversation had not been heard now Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken and he was there when Jerusalem was taken listen can you just allow this to shock you for a moment the fate of a city hangs in the balance on one man's obedience and what is his concern don't tell anybody about our conversation don't be a tattletale now Jeremiah I don't want anybody to really know what the word of the Lord is towards me I need you to keep this under wraps don't tell please don't tell on me he sounds like a child and in his weakness that's what he is all I can do is give us an exhortation together and I'll speak this to myself we need a continued renewal and revival of Christians who will be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might who will not be like Reed's waving in the wind whatever the culture blows that's what will wave towards but we'll say no we will be men and women of strength God helping us and if we have to bear some abuse from the world around us okay that's the price we'll pay we will pay the I swear we must for being strong in the Lord and in the power of his might but friends it should terrify me and it should terrify you that we would have the weakness of a man like Zedekiah Lord may it never be so among us now chapter 39 in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah in the tenth month Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came up against Jerusalem and besieged in the eleventh year of Zedekiah in the fourth month on the ninth day of the month the city was penetrated then all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the middle gate near Gaza Sam garne bow Sara seemed robbed asaurus Nagle Tsar's air robbed MOG and with the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar and king of babylon his own army came against Jerusalem besieged it the siege lasted or than more than a year it had a slight respite when the Babylonian army had to leave and meet the army of the Egyptians and the Egyptians fled the battle but then they came back and they conquered it and just as was prophesied the city fell the besieged city was surrounded preventing all trade and business from entering or leaving the city and eventually the starving population surrendered or the defenses of the city gave way and the surrounding army poured into the weakened City let me read something to you from lamentations chapter 4 some selected verses I'm gonna read these verses to you and I just want you to picture the scene in the city of Jerusalem described by Jeremiah in the Book of Lamentations when the siege was at its worst if you want to add to the imagination of this you can close your eyes as long as you promise him to open them when I'm done reading this passage ready the tongue of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst the young children ask for bread but no one breaks it for those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets those who were brought up in scarlet embrace ash heaps those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger for these pine away stricken for the lack of the fruits of the field the hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children they became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people the Lord has fulfilled his fury he has poured out his fierce anger he kindled a fire in Zion and it has devoured all its foundations still our eyes failed us watching vainly for our help in our watching we watched for a nation that could not save us they tracked our steps so that we could not walk in our streets our end was near our days were over for our end had come and the city was penetrated verse 2 those defenses around the walls of Jerusalem they couldn't stand forever and they broke through and the Babylonian army started to pour into Jerusalem the Egyptians did not rescue Judah and the Lord did not miraculously deliver them as he did with the Assyrian army about a hundred and thirty years before the false prophets who promised deliverance they were wrong Jeremiah was right let me read you from Josephus describing the bat the battering ram took its last run at the walls darts from the enemy siege mounds arched into the midnight sky and struck their mark in flames they shot flaming arrows famine had already claimed many lives inside the walls five Babylonian princes marched through the streets of Jerusalem their face is illuminated by the flames of destruction that's what the Jewish historian Josephus wrote verse three and then all the the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate it's like conquering to Washington DC walking into the Oval Office and making it your own that's what they did to Jerusalem verse 4 so it was when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them that they fled and went out of the city by night by way of the King's garden by the gate between the two walls and he went out by the way of the plane but the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho and when they had captured him they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to rib law in the land of Hamas where he pronounced judgment on him the Babylonian army starts pouring into the city not even Zedekiah can possibly believe that there's any hope anymore so what does he do does he courageously stand with his City and with his people and say if this is the end I will be there are you kidding me he's like run for the hills and so using secret passageway and the governor of night they sneak out the city and miracle of miracles they make it out of the city then they head for the hills and they go by way of Jericho because he figures if I can just get across the Jordan River I can make it to Egypt and be safe so they make the pass over the hills they make it all the way to the plain of Jericho they get some 15 miles from the city of Jerusalem and you're thinking what kind of makin we're gonna make it and then what does it say the Babylonian army caught up to them and the plains of Jericho Prince do you realize they all most made it it would have been better if he would have just been caught at the walls of Jerusalem but the agony was even more exquisite because I'm gonna make it I'm gonna make it I'm gonna make it I am gonna escape not only the Babylonian army I'm gonna escape the judgment of God that Jeremiah promised I'm gonna make it and then God captured him Brenda's not gonna work you're not gonna outrun God did you know Ezekiel prophesied this before it ever went down this is what ezekiel chapter 12 verse 12 says and the prince who is among them shall bear his belongings on the shoulder at twilight and go out they shall dig through the wall to carry them out through it he shall cover his face so that he cannot see the ground with his eyes he made it out he made it all the way the plains of Jericho but what happened look at verse 13 let me show it to you ezekiel chapter 12 i will also spread my net over him and he shall be caught in my snare Renne it wasn't the Babylonian army that caught Jared's etic ayah it was the Lord he caught him and took him to King Nebuchadnezzar many times before it had been prophesied Zedekiah you're gonna face Nebuchadnezzar face to face this king whom you have rebelled against what's gonna happen verse 6 then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and rib law the king of Babylon also killed all the nobles of Judah moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon and the Chaldeans burned the King's house and the houses of the people with fire and broke down the walls of Jerusalem then never residen the captain of the guard carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who remained in the city and those who defected with him with the rest of the people who remained but never rosid on the captain of the guard left in the land of Judah the poor people who had nothing and gave them the vineyards in the field at the same time time to give a count Zedekiah you got to face the king you rebelled against face to face with Nebuchadnezzar and you know what Nebuchadnezzar did the first thing he did was he murdered the sons of Zedekiah before his own eyes yes he killed all the nobles of Judah too but he killed the sons of Zedekiah before his own eyes and then and friends the EURion Kings we have inscriptions of this of the Assyrian Kings doing this personally so I don't know if the babylonian kings as well but it may be an angel' world that personally Nebuchadnezzar came and gouged out the eyes of Zedekiah so that the last thing he saw was his own sons murdered before his eyes they Jenna that's cold that is rough justice but it belongs to a man who could have had it all different if he had the courage to obey God at that critical moment friends there's a very mysterious promise in Ezekiel chapter 12 verse 13 let me read this to you God says I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the chaldeans yet he shall not see it though he shall die there can you imagine people think well my what a strange prophecy God's gonna take him to Babylon and he's gonna die there but he'll never see it how could that happen I'll tell you how it happened because he went there with two gouged out eyes and he never saw it but he died there the Chaldeans burned down the Kings house and the houses the people with fire they broke down the walls of Jerusalem and the neighbors arrived on the captain the guard carried away captives to Babylon the remnant of the people who remained are two things I want you to think about number one if you were a Babylonian what would you think at this time I'll tell you what you would think you would think our God the Babylonian God niebo that's what they called their God Nebuchadnezzar never saw it all comes from the God Nebo you would think that your God niebo is greater than Yahweh the god of the Israelites right didn't he just whoop Yahweh and his kingdom you would be very wrong because the only reason your army was able to do what it did was because Yahweh called it forth to judge and to punish his people that's number one number two it happened just as God said God said that disaster would come from the north it came God said that a strange foreign nation would attack it did God said that Jerusalem would be surrounded and besieged it happened God said that there would be famine in the land it happened God said that the whole land would be laid waste it happened God said that nations and kingdoms would be torn down it happened God said that death would enter the city it happened God said that enemy Kings would sit at the gates of Jerusalem it happened God said that the city would be burned it happened God said that the people would be taken into exile it happened God's word comes to pass and the Prophet was vindicated and the false prophets were put to shame it's not the end of the chapter thank the Lord God gives us two glimmers of grace here at the end of the chapter don't we need a little bit of grace right here let's take two glimmers of grace shall we verse 11 now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to neighbors rod on the captain of the guard saying take him and look after him and do him no harm but do to him just as he says to you so Ned Boozer Don the captain of the guard sent to Naboo schwäbisch on Rab asaurus negocios ro Rob MOG and all the king of babylons chief officers then they sent someone to take Jeremiah from the court of the prison and committed him to Gedaliah the son of aji com the son of shaphan that he should take him home so he dwelt among the people what's going to happen to Jeremiah well listen there was a lot of people in Judah who didn't like Jeremiah but I'll take one guy who did like him Nebuchadnezzar because Jeremiah had been preaching for a long time surrender didn't have a cogniser so what does Nebuchadnezzar do look at verse 12 take him and look after him and do him no harm take care of this guy make sure he's okay and so at the end of the story or at least at the end of this chapter it's not the end of the whole story of Jeremiah at the end of this chapter so he dwelt among the people Jeremiah was no longer imprisoned he was set free and he lived among the exiles until that whole thing was things you understand that when they sent all these people off at exile it didn't happen in a week it took months to process them to figure out where they were going who's gonna take them so during that time jeremiah dwelt among the people that's one glimmer of grace a second final glimmer of grace look at verse 15 meanwhile the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison saying go and speak to ebed Melek the ethiopian saying thus says the Lord of Hosts God of Israel behold I will bring my words upon this city for adversity and not for good and they shall be performed in that day before you but I will deliver you in that day says the Lord and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid for I will surely deliver you and you shall not fall by the sword but your life shall be as a prize to you because you have put your trust in me says the Lord God has a special word for that man abed Melek he's a foreigner he's not even a Jew by birth and he's quite possibly literally a eunuch we can't tell for sure whether he was just an officer of the court or where there was an actual eunuch we don't know but God took this man who would be an outcast to the temple in its rituals and you know what he said to him he said the city is going to be conquered but I'm gonna take care of you verse 17 I will deliver you in that day the destruction of Jerusalem is certain but you look at it there in verse 18 because you have put your trust in me I will deliver you isn't that beautiful shows me number 1 you didn't have to be a famous prophet named Jeremiah to get a glimmer of grace from God God did it for anybody who trusted in him secondly notice this ebed Melek did some amazing stuff listen um God says nothing about how heroic he was how compassionate he was how resourceful he was all of those things were outstanding but you know what God noted in ebed Melek he trusts in me because that was the source of his compassion the source of his career the source of his resourcefulness you see isn't it beautiful that on the eve of the fall of Jerusalem God makes a beautiful promise to a heathen who trusts in him it's sort of a glimmer of grace that we have really almost a prophecy of what God would do under the new covenant bringing other heathen Gentiles into his kingdom on the basis of trust in Yahweh and his Messiah it's a fair discussion for us to have is America in the Western world ripe for judgment are we in the same place as Jerusalem we could have fascinating discussion about that but if we were to say that it is the case lays a gem and the safest place for you and I to be is with a radical trust in Yahweh and his Messiah because we can be the ebed Malick's who courageously stand even in corrupt times and see God's work and will done even as things crumble around us we can do good in Jesus name in the midst of it [Music] you [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

Views: 4,346

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Id: ggRyAiG6SVk

Length: 45min 49sec (2749 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 21 2019