The Prophet Jeremiah Part 32

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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October 9, 2022

The Prophet Jeremiah Part 33

00:00: Okay, we will pray and we will get started. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask that your
00:07: Holy Spirit to help us to rightly understand what you have revealed there so that we may believe, confess, and do according to your holy will.
00:14: We ask in Jesus' name, amen. All right, when we last left off in our study of the book of Jeremiah, and you'll note that today's class will probably go a little bit shorter just because I went long on the service today.
00:26: Okay, we took a look at the fact that King Zedekiah, he just couldn't bring himself to obey
00:35: God. God had basically said, listen, I'm gonna save you. You're gonna have your life as a prize of war.
00:41: Jerusalem will not be burned. All you gotta do is surrender to King Nebuchadnezzar.
00:48: Zedekiah, no can do, and just refused to obey the words of God, and is
00:55: God ever wrong? No, it's, again, it's this foolish thing that we do, and so Zedekiah, he was captured by Nebuchadnezzar, the
01:06: Chaldeans, and had his eyes put out after his sons were killed. It's a brutal section of scripture, and then to tie up kind of the loose ends on what's going on here with the fall of Jerusalem, we took a look at the prophet
01:21: Zephaniah. A lot of people are not familiar with works of the prophet Zephaniah, and took a look at the themes as they relate, then, to the second coming of Christ.
01:31: So again, in the types and shadows, the fall of Jerusalem is a type and shadow of Christ's return and judgment to judge the living and the dead.
01:42: Now, a little bit of a note. While I was away in Europe, there were several predictions regarding the rapture that didn't pan out, okay?
01:54: Shocks. Yeah, I know, if you're thinking, you know, gasp.
02:00: So far, I can legitimately say no one who's ever predicted the rapture has ever got it right, and it's really fascinating to me that as we consider the return of Christ, and Christ returning in glory to judge the living and the dead, that there are a lot of people who are not heeding the words of Christ.
02:19: Nobody knows the day or hour when Christ will return. And on social media,
02:25: I noted that when, I was a little bit ahead of everybody because one of the days that they said was gonna be when
02:32: Jesus was going to return, it was finished in Europe, but it still had like three or four hours left in the
02:39: U .S., and so I called it, and many people accused me of calling it early. You know, so people would say, but we still have four hours before this day is over, and I informed people
02:51: I was in Europe at the time, and we had already crossed over into the next day, so we were safely on the other side. And, but what
02:58: I found fascinating in all of that was that people were legitimately defending those who were coming up with these predictions, and accused me of fulfilling a prophecy of Peter's in 2
03:10: Peter that in the last days there would be scoffers scoffing at the return of Christ.
03:16: And I assure you, I am not scoffing at the return of Christ. I quite frankly am looking forward to it.
03:21: The sooner the better. Thursday would be a great day if you ask me. But all of that being said, pointing out that somebody got it wrong regarding their prediction regarding the rapture is not scoffing at the return of Christ.
03:35: It's properly ridiculing those who think that they're wise enough to actually crack the code and figure out the day that Jesus is returning when
03:45: Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour. Jesus says that. No one knows the day or the hour, and these rapture predictors basically said, hold my beer,
03:54: I'll be able to figure this out. And everybody who's tried has failed. I remember, oh man, am
04:00: I gonna date myself? Some of us can remember that particular pamphlet that came out by a fellow by the name of Harold Camping.
04:07: 88 reasons why the Lord is returning in 1988. That book has not aged well, okay?
04:16: And then the following year it was 89 reasons why the Lord is most definitely returning in 1989.
04:23: Does anyone remember the book The Late Great Planet Earth? Okay, how is it that Hal Lindsey still is in ministry?
04:30: I legitimately have no clue how this works out. And so we'll note that the return of Christ is something that is absolutely taught in scripture.
04:40: It is prefigured in the book of Jeremiah. It is explained in the fall of Jerusalem in the book of Zephaniah.
04:47: And it is something, it is a horrible day of Christ's return for those who are not in Christ. It'll be a day of great darkness and distress and smoke and weeping and gnashing of teeth.
04:59: And that day ends with them in judgment in the lake of fire. It's a very serious thing.
05:06: But you'll note then that when we go against the words of Christ and seem to think that we can figure out when
05:13: Jesus is gonna return and he doesn't, according to our predictions, the world ridicules the church and ends up scoffing at the return of Christ itself, not because we point out that these guys are yahoos and thinking that they can figure it out, but because that they were yahoos in trying to figure it out in the first place when we shouldn't.
05:32: I don't know when Jesus is gonna return, neither do you. As a result of it, get about your business and serve your neighbor in your vocation, hug your wife, love your husband, feed your children, educate your children, raise them in the fear of the
05:49: Lord, and continue on as if Christ isn't gonna come back until like 1 ,000 years from now, but always live your life as if he could show up tomorrow.
05:59: You'll note that we live in that tension. And so, as Christians, the return of Christ does not bring us dread.
06:06: It is a day that we look for in hope and in patient endurance, waiting for his return so that we can finally be freed from sin and the misery that goes along with it.
06:19: And so, these are important themes to consider. So now
06:24: Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 39, 11, now that Zedekiah's family has been, let's see here, has been put down.
06:41: Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, saying, take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.
06:54: You'll note Nebuchadnezzar knew who Jeremiah was. It's important to note that. So when you read in the book of Daniel about Nebuchadnezzar and some of the interesting things and boneheaded things that he did, and who eventually repented of his sin and trusted in the one true
07:09: God, that he was familiar with who Jeremiah was and what his plight was, and he specifically ordered that he be taken care of.
07:19: Fascinating thing. Did you have a question, Ian? Oh, no. Oh, you're just getting some blood up in your hands.
07:25: Got it, okay. All right, so take him, look after him well, do him no harm, deal with him as he tells you.
07:32: So Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, Nebuchadnezzar, I hate these
07:40: Assyrian names, and Rabasarus, Nergalasar, and Rabamog.
07:47: I mean, this sounds like Klingon to me. I mean, what is going on here? And the chief officers of the king of Babylon sent and took
07:53: Jeremiah from the court of the guard, and they entrusted him to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shefan, that he should take him home, so he lived among the people.
08:04: The word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the guard. Go and say to Abed -Melech, the
08:11: Ethiopian, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day, but I will deliver you on that day, declares
08:25: Yahweh, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid, for I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war because you have put your trust in me, declares
08:37: Yahweh. And you'll note, in a similar way then, and this is where it gets a little bit weird, when you kind of work out how the types and shadows work with the fall of Jerusalem and how then it connects to the return of Christ, Nebuchadnezzar, who is the servant of God and the exactor of God's justice, is prefiguring
08:56: Jesus. That's the weird bit. And so we then, we can say, because we've trusted in Christ, we have our lives as, well, what?
09:07: As what? As a prize of war, right? Same themes kind of work out, and they work out gloriously. That TV over there turned off.
09:14: Okay, all right, next. So the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, had let him go from Ramah, when he took him bound in chains, along with all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah, who were being exiled to Babylon, the captain of the guard took
09:32: Jeremiah and said to him, Yahweh, your God, pronounced this disaster against this place. Yahweh has brought it about and has done as he said.
09:41: And to which every one of us goes, yeah, you think, right? That's exactly, when Yahweh says he's gonna do a thing, it's gonna happen.
09:47: And regarding judgment and God acting in anger and wrath, the only thing that would turn his wrath away and make it so that God would not follow through in what he has promised or threatened is repentance.
10:00: True, true repentance. Because you sinned against Yahweh and did not obey his voice, this thing has come upon you.
10:06: Now behold, I release you today from the chains on your hands. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come.
10:15: I will look after you well. But if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, do not come.
10:21: See, the whole land is before you. Go wherever you think it good and right to go. If you remain, then return to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon appointed governor of the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people.
10:36: Or go wherever you think it right to go. So the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a present and let him go.
10:45: Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah and lived with him among the people who were left in the land.
10:52: And you'll note, in this particular case, Jeremiah is not required by God to go to Babylon.
10:59: He had the option. And Jeremiah stayed. He stayed.
11:05: And you'll see as the story develops that Jeremiah will not end up staying in Judah, but he will be taken out of Judah against his will.
11:15: That's coming. But he had the option to go to Babylon and to live among the exiles, and he did not go.
11:22: So when all the captains of the forces in the open country and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed
11:28: Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the governor, in a land that had committed to him men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been taken into exile in Babylon, they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah, Ishmael, the son of Nethanahiah, Johanan, the son of Keraiah, Sariah, the son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephi, the
11:52: Netophethite, what, it sounds like a lisp, Netophethite, then
11:59: Jezaniah, the son of Maakathite, and they and their men, Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and their men, saying, do not be afraid to serve the
12:09: Chaldeans, dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. Now, a point that I make from time to time, when you read portions of the scripture and you get these tongue -twister names, why are they so important, okay?
12:25: Sections like this in scripture are vital because this anchors this in human history.
12:31: And you'll note one of the big attacks against the Bible is the claim that the Bible is just a book of legends or myths, but it doesn't read at all like a book of legends or myths.
12:42: And if you were to think back into the Old Testament, into the beginning portion of Genesis, you'll note that in the very early chapters of Genesis, we get names of human beings and genealogies very early in the book of Genesis.
12:58: And one of the claims that those who do not like the Bible, they claim that basically
13:05: Genesis 1 to Genesis 9 is all theopoetry, that it's not really, it's all lit myth, it's all legend.
13:12: And to which I always say, then why do we have all those genealogies in there? Because genealogies just completely wreck that concept.
13:22: So this is, I like to think of these minutiae details as anchoring this in history.
13:29: And you'll note that many times, archeologists digging in these areas will dig up stone tablets with the names of some of these people on them.
13:40: It's really, really fascinating. Now, I was recently, just last weekend, I was in the
13:45: Netherlands, I was in Amsterdam. And I didn't seek this place out, although I should have, now that I think about it.
13:52: Because if, by the way, if you guys ever get a chance to go to Amsterdam, don't spend the whole day there. Amsterdam's a beautiful city, but it's really lawless, the best way
14:03: I can do it. I got sick just from the smell of marijuana. And the section that has the beautiful old architecture, that's the part of, that's the red light district.
14:14: But in Amsterdam, there is a museum that has an
14:20: Egyptian papyri from about the time of Moses, actually a little bit before Moses.
14:27: And in that papyri, it has lists of names of slaves that were owned by the
14:33: Egyptians. And in the list, the names Shipra and Pua show up.
14:39: Those names show up in the Bible, in the book of Exodus. Shipra and Pua, they were the women who were the midwives, who were ordered to kill male children and didn't do it.
14:52: And when called on the carpet as to why they weren't killing the male children, they said, well, you know, those Hebrew women, they're really, they give birth so quickly.
15:00: Like, pop, out comes the baby even before we get there. They lied to Pharaoh's face. And God blessed them for that, by the way.
15:07: It's interesting. But all that being said, that these lists are super important because this shows that this is history.
15:15: You'll note that legend always kind of goes with a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, or once upon a time, or things like this.
15:22: Where it takes place doesn't matter. Biblical details, they do matter. And these lists scream at us that this is all human history.
15:31: So as we continue then, as for me, I will dwell in Mizpah to represent you before the Chaldeans who will come to us.
15:38: But as for you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil and store them in your vessels and dwell in your cities that you have taken.
15:45: Likewise, when all the Judeans who were in Moab and among the Ammonites and in the Edom and in other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed
15:54: Gadaliah the son of Ahichon, the son of Shaphon, as governor over them, then all the
15:59: Judeans returned from all the places from which they had been driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gadaliah, Mizpah, and they gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance.
16:10: If you were to kind of consider what's happening here, you'll note that when, even in our day, when armies are on the move, there are refugees, right?
16:19: So when Russia first invaded Ukraine, what happened to Poland, what happened in Europe?
16:25: You had this great influx of people who were fleeing for their lives in order to avoid being killed or taken captive by these armies.
16:35: Same thing at the time of Jeremiah, when Nebuchadnezzar's armies came into Judea, there were a lot of people who said, we're out of here, and they dispersed, they scattered.
16:45: Some went to Egypt, some went to Moab, some went to Edom, some went to Midian, and they stayed there until word came back to them that Nebuchadnezzar had left, and the armies were gone, and he had appointed somebody to be the governor.
16:59: Now note, we no longer have a king over Judea, we now have a governor, and so when that news comes, these refugees who fled these armies now are coming back.
17:11: But here's the thing. Do you think that they had a change of heart regarding their idolatry while they were refugees?
17:20: Not at all, and you'll note then, what is going to happen to them is going to hinge on whether or not they will now heed, listen to, and trust the words of Yahweh, especially in the mouth of the prophet
17:35: Jeremiah. Yes, Marilyn. Yeah.
17:49: He respects God. Yeah. He seems to have more faith than the
17:56: Jewish people. Yeah, that's a scary bit, isn't it? So Marilyn has rightly pointed out, and I would say that's kind of a feature to this day, is that idolatrous
18:06: Judah doesn't even recognize that the disaster that has come upon them is due to their refusal to repent and to trust the words of God, whereas the governor that is left by Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar himself, they recognize that what has happened has happened by the words of God.
18:26: God fulfilling them. So you know that men who are not known for their faith who are pagans have more sense than people who are in apostasy, and I would note that continues to this day.
18:39: A salient example of that is when on YouTube the world mocked, and rightly so,
18:46: Kenneth Copeland and his shenanigans where he put an end to COVID -19 in March of 2020.
18:54: Okay, COVID -19, right? Have you seen the hilarious videos put out by unbelievers mocking, you know,
19:01: Kenneth Copeland? Unbelievers actually have more sense than those who are delusionally under God's judgment for their refusal to believe the truth within the visible church, those who are apostates.
19:16: And so, you know, it's a fascinating thing, but that's a good point that you brought up, all right?
19:23: Now let's continue. So now, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the forces in the open country came to Gedoliah at Mizpah.
19:33: And they said to him, do you know that Baalos, the king of the Ammonites, has sent
19:39: Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, to take your life? And so you'll note here, we've gone back to like the
19:47: Wild West, you know? So at this point, you can kind of think of Baalos as like a self -styled warlord, you know, who's going to see whether or not
20:00: Babylon's really gonna defend their stake here, and if he can't make a name for himself and like grab power.
20:06: So he's threatening the established governor, Gedoliah, and threatening his death. And so, but Gedoliah, the son of Ahakam, would not believe them.
20:16: So then Johanan, the son of Kareah, spoke secretly to Gedoliah at Mizpah. Please let me go and strike down Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, and no one will know it.
20:26: Why should he take your life so that all the Judeans who are gathered about you would be scattered, and the remnant of Judah then would perish.
20:34: But Gedoliah, the son of Ahakam, said to Johanan, the son of Kareah, you shall not do this thing, for you are speaking falsely of Ishmael.
20:43: No, he's not. And you're gonna see this. What is being spoken about Ishmael is absolutely true.
20:49: That's what is going down. So then in the seventh month,
20:55: Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, the son of Elashemah of the royal family, one of the chief officers of the king, came with 10 men to Gedoliah, the son of Ahakam at Mizpah.
21:05: And as they ate bread together there at Mizpah, Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, and the 10 men with him, rose up, struck down Gedoliah, the son of Ahakam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him.
21:18: Whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor in the land. Ishmael also struck down all the Judeans who were with Gedoliah at Mizpah, and the
21:26: Chaldean soldiers who happened to be there. So on the day after the murder of Gedoliah, before anyone knew of it, 80 men arrived from Shechem and Shiloh and Samaria with their beards shaved and their clothes torn and their bodies gashed, bringing grain offerings and incense to present at the temple of Yahweh.
21:46: And Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, came out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came.
21:52: As he met them, he said to them, come in to Gedoliah, the son of Ahakam. When they came into the city,
21:58: Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, and the men with him, slaughtered them and cast them into a cistern.
22:04: Sounds like something, you know, Magnificent Seven or, you know, I've seen this movie before, right?
22:10: Okay, so you can see lawlessness is now, you know, kind of settled in. But there were 10 men among them who said to Ishmael, do not put us to death, for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil, honey hidden in the fields.
22:22: So he refrained and did not put them to death with their companions. Now the cistern into which Ishmael had thrown all the bodies of men whom he had struck down, along with Gedoliah, was a large cistern that King Asa had made for defense against Baasha, the king of Israel.
22:37: Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, filled it with the slain, and then Ishmael took captive all the rest of the people who were at Mizpah, and the king's daughter, daughters and all the people who were left at Mizpah, whom
22:50: Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, had committed to Gedoliah, the son of Ahicham. Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, took them captive and set out to cross over to the
23:00: Ammonites. But when Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the leaders of the forces with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, had done, they took all their men and went to fight against Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, and they came upon him at the great pool, that is, in Gibeon.
23:18: And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the leaders of the forces with him, they rejoiced.
23:24: So all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned around and came back and went to Johanan, the son of Korea.
23:31: But Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, escaped from Johanan with 80 men and went to the
23:36: Ammonites. Then Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the leaders of the forces with him took from Mizpah all the rest of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, after he had struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahicham, the soldiers, women, and children, and eunuchs from whom
23:53: Johanan brought back from Gibeon. And they went and stayed at Geruth -him -ham near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt because of the
24:04: Chaldeans, for they were afraid of them because Ishmael, the son of Nathanaiah, struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahicham, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
24:14: So you see what's happening here. So a little bit of back and forth. And now the people who are, the
24:20: Jews, the Judeans who are left, they're terrified for their lives. What's going to happen to us next?
24:29: Because disaster after disaster keeps seeming to follow them. They had just been captured.
24:35: They had now been released. But who's going to protect them? That's the big question because, like I said, it's now become the
24:42: Wild West and you've got these little warlords who are fighting each other and killing people.
24:51: So that being the case, safety and security being top on people's minds, then all the commanders of the forces and Johanan, the son of Chorea, and Jezaniah, the son of Hosheaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest came near.
25:06: And they said to Jeremiah the prophet, let our plea for mercy come before you and pray to Yahweh your
25:13: God for us for all of this remnant, because we are left with but a few as your eyes see us.
25:21: That Yahweh your God may show us the way that we should go and the thing that we should do.
25:27: Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I've heard you. Behold, I will pray to Yahweh your
25:33: God according to your request. And whatever Yahweh answers you, I will tell you.
25:39: I will keep nothing back from you. Then they said to Jeremiah, may Yahweh be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which
25:50: Yahweh your God sends to us, whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of Yahweh our
25:56: God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of Yahweh our
26:01: God. Well, we're off to a good start. These are words.
26:08: Will they be followed with action? And you'll note the question that's really kind of before them is how's the song go?
26:16: Should I stay or should I go, right? And Egypt is looking like a place where they could become refugees for a while.
26:24: They can sojourn. Should we go to Egypt or should we stay here? That's really the question. So at the end of 10 days, the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah.
26:33: Then he summoned Johanna and the son of Korea and all the commanders of the forces who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest.
26:41: And he said to them, thus says Yahweh the God of Israel to whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him.
26:49: If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and I will not pull you down.
26:56: I will plant you and not pluck you up for I relent of the disaster that I did to you.
27:03: Do not fear the king of Babylon of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him declares Yahweh for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.
27:13: I will grant you mercy that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land.
27:20: But if you say we will not remain in this land disobeying the voice of Yahweh your
27:26: God and saying no, we will go to the land of Egypt where we shall not see war or hear the sound of trumpet or be hungry for bread and we will dwell there, then hear the word of Yahweh, oh remnant of Judah.
27:41: Thus says Yahweh of hosts, Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel. If you set your faces to enter
27:47: Egypt and go to live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt.
27:55: And the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt and there you shall die.
28:02: All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, by pestilence and they shall have no remnant or survivor from disaster that I will bring upon them.
28:15: If you were to kind of boil it down, God has given them two choices. You either trust me for your safety and your security or you trust
28:25: Egypt. But if you trust Egypt, all the things that you're afraid of will overtake you there because you're not trusting me.
28:33: Yes. So to see disaster befall yourselves and your enemies and not like pay attention.
28:42: Right, how arrogant, how conceited, how prideful. You'll note that.
28:48: You'll be a politician. Yeah, you ask a good question because God has already made good his promise to destroy
28:57: Jerusalem. And what were the false prophets saying? The false prophets were saying
29:02: God was not gonna destroy this place. And he did. And you'll note that Jeremiah as a prophet has a perfect track record.
29:13: All right, perfect. Not a single one of his words have fallen to the ground. Everything he said would happen has happened and now they are hearing now the words of Yahweh from his prophet who has yet to give a bad prophecy.
29:30: Do you think that they're going to listen? Because the choice here is you live out in the open country of Judea with nobody to protect you except for God or you go to Egypt and think that the
29:46: Egyptians and their army and their established markets and all this kind of stuff are going to protect you and give you everything you need.
29:52: And what are they gonna do? You think they're gonna trust Yahweh? No, they haven't been trusting him the entire time.
30:00: Why are they gonna change their tune now? And here's, this is the hard heartedness of sin. This legitimately is the hard heartedness of it.
30:08: Unless God repents us, we don't repent, all right? So thus says
30:14: Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, as my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt.
30:25: You shall become execration, a horror, a curse, a taunt.
30:32: You shall see this place no more. Yahweh has said to you, oh remnant of Judah, do not go to Egypt.
30:39: Know for certainty that I have warned you this day that you have gone astray at the cost of your own lives.
30:45: For you sent me to Yahweh, your God, saying pray for us to Yahweh, our God, and whatever Yahweh, our
30:51: God, says, declare to us and we will do it. And I have this day declared it to you, but you've not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, your
31:00: God, in anything that he sent me to tell you. Now therefore, know for certain that you shall die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.
31:14: The story gets even more interesting. So when Jeremiah finished speaking, yeah? I just had a question.
31:20: Yeah. They keep talking about the
31:25: Lord, your God. When Jeremiah talks.
31:31: When the people say to him, they say the Lord, your God. And then when he speaks back, he says the
31:40: Lord, your God. Yeah. They never say our. Right. What's the deal? Is there no such word?
31:48: So Marilyn has rightly pointed out that when these
31:54: Judean refugees speak about God, they say to Jeremiah, the
32:01: Lord, your God. And then when Jeremiah speaks back to them, he always says the
32:06: Lord, your God, okay? And so you'll note that the lack of the personal pronouns, the possessive pronouns, make it very clear where their heart is, okay?
32:20: They're seeking Yahweh for help, but Yahweh isn't their God. And that's gonna become very evident in what's coming shortly after.
32:31: Very evident. But you're right. Those little things, that's a very important point.
32:37: It shows you where their heart is at. Their heart is nowhere near Yahweh.
32:43: They don't trust him at all. All right, now Daniel from Germany has his hand up. Hang on a second here. I'm gonna ask to unmute you, sir, and let's see if we can get you to ask your question.
32:54: Thank you. The Amorites, no, the
32:59: Amorites, or Ammonites, they are like the arch -rivals of the Jews in the Bible.
33:04: I mean, they're the first that are attacking them when they went out of Egypt. Is there a deeper meaning in the passage before when they are actually the ones that are attacking
33:14: Israel? So we have to use the theological significance that's given by Jeremiah when it comes to them.
33:23: You'll note that in the past, they are the arch -enemies of God. And yet, God has made it clear throughout this prophecy that number one, they are going to be the means by which
33:36: God exacts his wrath against apostate Judea. And at the same time, God will not hold them guiltless, but God, in fact, will judge them later.
33:46: And so, in that particular case, this is one of the reasons why we Lutherans keep making this big point.
33:54: God works through means, all right? And so you'll note,
34:00: God executed his judgment by means of a pagan nation.
34:07: And yet, they were the very agents whom God chose to exact his vengeance and to exact his wrath.
34:15: And so over and again, when people do not understand that God works through means, they'll say things like, well,
34:23: I just got a bad report from my doctor, and the doctor says that I need to get treatment, but I'm gonna pray to the
34:29: Lord that the Lord will heal me, right? And so the person gets sicker and sicker and sicker and sicker and sicker, and they are at the verge of death.
34:40: And you ask the person, why haven't you allowed yourself to be treated by your doctor?
34:45: Because I'm waiting for the Lord to heal me. The Lord would have healed you through the doctor if you'd actually been treated, you know?
34:54: And so you'll note that every time God heals us via our doctor or via medication, that is the answer to our prayer.
35:03: And you'll note then that when somebody is down and out financially, and they pray that the
35:10: Lord would provide for them, and they happen to be Christians, you don't pat them on the head and say,
35:17: I'm gonna unite my faith with your faith, brother, that the Lord is going to bless you and help you pay your bills, right?
35:24: And what you should do is pull out your checkbook and write a check, okay? Because God is intending and wills to answer their prayer through you, okay?
35:35: That's kind of the idea. So Daniel, you bring up a good point, but the theological significance, we have to keep within the bounds of how
35:43: Jeremiah gives it. So one, they are clearly an agent of God's wrath, but we've seen and we'll continue to see that God is not gonna hold them guiltless, that at a future time,
35:54: God will actually punish them as well for their wickedness, so. All right, good question, sir.
36:01: Let me do this, I'm gonna lower your hand. All right, very good. Now, when Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people, all the words of Yahweh, their
36:10: God, okay, but they're not listening to their God, with which Yahweh, their God, had sent to them,
36:16: Azariah, the son of Hosheaiah, and Johannan, the son of Korea, and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, you are telling a lie.
36:27: Yahweh, our God, did not send you to say, do not go to Egypt to live there. You think you, oh, man.
36:42: All right. Right, so we got two words for you, Jeremiah.
36:48: You are lying. Yes. You are lying.
36:55: Right, Google it. Those of you who know the joke, know the joke.
37:02: Okay, anyway, so Yahweh, our God, did not send you to not go to Egypt and live there, but Baruch, the son of Neriah, has sent you against us to deliver us into the hand of the
37:15: Chaldeans so that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.
37:21: Oh, look at this. We got a paranoid conspiracy theory now, okay? So Johannan, the son of Korea, and all the commanders of the forces, and all the people did not obey the voice of Yahweh to remain in the land of Judah.
37:34: But Johannan, the son of Korea, and all the commanders of the forces took all the revenant of Judah, who had returned to live in the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven, the men, the women, the children, the princesses, and every person whom
37:48: Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah, the son of Ahicham, the son of Shaphan, also
37:53: Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch, the son of Neriah, and they came into the lands of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of Yahweh, and they arrived at Tophenes.
38:03: So note here, Jeremiah is brought to Egypt against his will. We're not staying, you are lying,
38:11: Jeremiah, and guess what, you're going with us. Terrible.
38:19: Is that the equivalent of Facebook jail? Yeah. Right, yeah, right.
38:24: So clearly these Jews were working for Metta, and so they put
38:30: Jeremiah in Facebook jail and brought him to Egypt with them, right? The pirate's jail. Yeah, there you go. So then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah and Tophenes, take in your hand large stones, hide them in the mortar, in the pavement that is at the entrance to Pharaoh's palace in Tophenes, in the sight of the men of Judah, and say to them, thus says
38:52: Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden, and he will spread his royal canopy over them.
39:07: So he takes these stones, basically puts them there and says, all right, these stones right here,
39:13: Nebuchadnezzar's gonna set up his throne right over these rocks, okay? And Jeremiah, who has a perfect track record, all true prophets do, okay?
39:23: This is exactly what's gonna go down. He shall come, he will strike the land of Egypt, giving over to the pestilence, those who are doomed to the pestilence, to captivity, those who are doomed to captivity, and to the sword, those who are doomed to the sword.
39:40: I shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captive, and he shall clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin, and he shall go away from there in peace.
39:56: He shall break the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt, and the temples of the gods of Egypt, he shall burn with fire.
40:06: Now, here's an interesting question. You'll see this as this lays out. Is there a particular reason why
40:12: God now is acting in a way where he's going to specifically judge the gods of Egypt?
40:19: And the answer is yes, because here's the funny bit here. If you know your
40:25: Gnosticism, you know your Gnosticism will teach you that Gnosticism actually comes from Egypt, okay?
40:33: The mystery religions of Egypt were at play in the apostasy of Judah.
40:40: The reason why, in part, these refugees decided that they wanted to go to Egypt, and you're gonna see this very shortly, is their wives were all worshiping the false gods of Egypt.
40:53: And so now God is saying, I'm gonna call for Nebuchadnezzar. He's my servant, he's gonna come down here, and he's going to rid
41:00: Egypt of these images of their false gods. And that is a judgment against apostate
41:08: Judah, and even apostate Jewish refugees here, because their real hope and trust is not in the
41:15: God of the Bible, the one true God. They're actually trusting in the false gods of Egypt.
41:27: What would have happened had they stayed in Judah? Yeah, they would have lived, and it would have read, and they lived happily ever after, okay?
41:35: Had they stayed in Judah, it would have ended, and they lived happily ever after.
41:40: God made good his promise, he established them, no one bothered them, and they thrived there.
41:47: That's how it would have gone down, and they would have actually been able to kind of lay the foundation for rebuilding
41:55: Judah when the exiles came back from Babylon. It would have been glorious, if you think about it, but no, they did not listen.
42:06: They've been complaining the minute they left Egypt in the first place. That's right, that's right. You're not wrong there, you're right.
42:14: The Jews have been complaining ever since they left Egypt the first time with Moses, right?
42:20: And so, you know, nothing has changed. But I am watching my time here, and I need to end here today.
42:27: So, because I've gotta head over to Emmanuel. So next week, we will pick up with Jeremiah 44, where you're gonna see that the real issue here as to why they went to Egypt is because these
42:43: Jews were actually worshiping the false gods of Egypt. But that will be next week. All right, so peace to you, brothers and sisters.