Warning to Zedekiah and The People of Jerusalem | Jeremiah 34 | Pastor William Hixson

Jeremiah 34.

It's been a quite a journey through

Jeremiah. We taught through Jeremiah 25

years ago. I'm sure everybody remembers,

but there's quite a lot.

>> What's that?

>> Yeah. [laughter]

So, no, hasn't been that long. But, uh,

it is quite a quite a thing to tackle a

book like Jeremiah. Longest book in the

Bible, really,

even longer than Psalms or Isaiah. Uh,

and it's it's quite a quite a challenge.

But I'm glad that for those of you that

have been with us in this journey in

light of the chapters we've been dealing

with,

we're going to be also dealing with the

things of premillennialism,

millennialism, postmillennialism,

and we already started that last

Wednesday. Very important to have some

clarity there. And there uh good

Christians on every one of those

positions. Good Christians. Don't call

somebody a a liberal or a cultist if

they take a different position you than

you do on esquetology.

But uh that doesn't mean all opinions

are equal. There's some that are better

than others. And so but anyway, we're

going to be looking at that. And in

light of that, I want to make a couple

of things known to you.

Linda ordered these little booklets.

This is from Rose Publishing.

And this is four views of the end times

chart.

And I don't even know what position they

take, but the views that they have here

are historical premillennialism, all

millennialism, dispensational

premillennialism, and postmillennialism.

So, here's charts showing the different

positions.

The church paid for these. They're $3

each. If you don't have the three bucks

and you want one, get it. Get it. If you

do have the $3, drop it in the basket uh

or get it get it in the basket the next

time you come. But anybody that wants

these that are coming to that study or

if you'd like one, we will be glad for

you to have one tonight and take it

home. And then

uh providentially and uh coincidentally

our Bible conference is from us at Bruce

Scott from uh Israel my Israel my glory

magazine friends of Israel and uh he and

his wife will be with us as well as Mike

and this is a copy of the uh conference

schedule that will be the first that's

November 6th first weekend in November

that's in Salem from Bible Church. Bruce

Scott is uh going to be teaching on very

similar things. I mean, nobody planned

it that way, but we don't similar

subjects. So, we'll see we'll see uh

where he is in reference to where I am

in these subjects and uh but hopefully

uh you can make and Mike Brunt will also

Mike Brunt as a biblical counselor as

well as a missionary. he's going to be

giving messages on on that.

So that's coming up. So both these

things, come up and look at those about

3 hours from here. So it takes a little

bit of time to get there.

The Bible I've always enjoyed.

And sometimes we see some old-timers

that were like at Athens Bible Church

decades ago and that's always fun.

opportunity for those of us that that

round them.

Okay. Um

let's go to Jeremiah 34,

a fairly extensive

uh passage of scripture.

And let's have a word of prayer. Father,

help me to speak and each of us to hear.

Bless our time together tonight. Thank

you for the privilege of examining your

word and having it examine us again

before the trumpet sounds and help us to

conform our minds and our hearts and our

lives the holy scripture in Jesus name.

Amen.

>> Amen.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the

Lord when Nebuchadnezzar,

king of Babylon, and all his army, and

all the kingdoms of the earth of his

dominion,

part of the Neoablonian Empire and the

Assyrian Empire and the Greek Empire and

uh the Persian Empire. I got the Greek

and Persian one twisted. Was once you

were under their umbrella, when they

went to war, you went to war.

In other words, they the other nations

that were under you went to war with

you. Kind of like NATO was supposed to

work and uh some of those things. So

when it says the king of Babylon and all

his army, that's the Babylonian army,

and all the kingdoms of the earth of his

dominion, that's all the other kingdoms

that they'd already conquered their

armies near and far.

and all the peoples fought against

Jerusalem and against all its cities. So

there's nothing new under the sun. There

was a coalition of armies attacking

Israel and Jerusalem.

And by the way, this particular section

of scripture has archaeological

confirmation. It's incredible what we

got

and it's very interesting. I'll mention

some of that tonight.

Thus says the Lord God of Israel, go and

speak to Zedekiah,

king of Judah, and tell him, thus says

the Lord, behold, I'll give this city,

that's Jerusalem, where the temple is,

and the palace, Jewish palace is, into

the hand of the king of Babylon, and he

shall burn it with fire. And that's

exactly what he did. And that's exactly

what the archaeological evidence shows

at that level of the city of Jerusalem.

>> [clears throat]

>> We know it was burned with fire. And you

said, "Well, it's burned with fire by

the Romans as well." Yeah, that's right.

But there's there's levels, and you can

tell which level is what. It's a very

fascinating situation. No question about

it happening

historically.

Now, we're in about 587

BC. Uh just about 580 86 is when the

city fell. And thou shalt not escape out

of his hand. So the prophecy to Zedekiah

is you're not going to get out of this.

You you can't sneak out of town. You

can't outlast him by outfighting him and

keep him out of Jerusalem, but shall

surely be taken and delivered into his

hand. And thy eyes shall behold the eyes

of the king of Babylon, and he'll speak

with thy mouth to thee mouth to mouth,

and thou shalt go to Babylon.

That's not good news.

You are going to end up in Babylon.

It's not going to be a vacation trip.

You are going to be removed from

Jerusalem and you are going to be

confronted with the king of Babylon.

That's Nebuchadnezzar

and you're going to experience a trip to

Babylon.

Yet hear the word of the Lord, O

Zedekiah, king of Judah. Thus says the

Lord of the thou shalt not die by the

sword. He doesn't say you won't die. He

says you will not die. You're not going

to die in this battle is what he means.

You're not there. There was a battle

going on. But you're not going to die in

this battle. Now often the kings would

lead people in battle. So they a lot of

them died on the battlefield. You're not

going to die by the sword but shall die

in peace. This is all relative,

of course.

In other words, you will die a natural

death, not a gruesome

battleground death.

And with the burnings of thy fathers,

we'll explain that when we get to it,

the former kings who were before thee,

so shall they burn odors for thee. This

is not cremation. This is a a funeral

fire in honor of the one that's being

buried. In other words, you're going to

have a honorable funeral

and they'll lamently saying, "Ah, Lord."

And so, he's going to be lamented and

missed and uh uh and I pronounce the

word says the Lord. Now, not every king

got a a burial like that. uh Ahab didn't

do so well and Jezebel did worse but up

in the north but he's promised that

he's he's promised exile and death but a

peaceful death rather than an immediate

death and uh so forth. Then Jeremiah the

prophet spoke all these words to

Zedekiah, king of Judah in Jerusalem.

When the king of Babylon's army fought

against Jerusalem and against all the

cities of Judah, Judah that were left

against Lesish

and against Oscala or these fortified

cities remained of the cities of Judah.

Three cities left. Just three. All the

rest have been already conquered.

So they rolled over the other cities.

there's only three left and and uh

holding out and Jerusalem is one of

Lakish is a out military outpost and and

and

both of them are and so that's what's

going on here.

Okay, let's uh begin to think about this

a little bit and we'll read the rest of

it later.

God is in sovereign control.

This is a good application of this

section. Even in our worst troubles, end

times,

a lot of bad news.

The city's going to burn down. The

temple's going to burn down. The palace

is going to burn down. You're going to

be exiled.

Uh you won't die in battle, but you're

going to you're you're going to have a a

state funeral in Babylon.

a lot of bad news, but the good news is

that God told him what was going to

happen before it happened. So, he kind

of knew before this situation was over

what was going to happen. Now, the

situation could not have been worse

humanly speaking. Babylon and its allies

allies have conquered the whole land.

Only these three cities these mentioned

in the last verse we read remain Lockish

and Asa Azaka and Jerusalem.

It was the kind of situation where

pretty much

hopeless at this point

pretty much you're defenseless at this

point. When I read this, I think of

Berlin in World War II and you got think

think if you were a German soldier and

you're or a German family and you're in

Berlin and the Russians are coming this

way and the Americans and the British

and the French and everybody else is

coming that way and there it's not

looking good.

And uh it was pretty obvious so much

that Adolf Hitler committed suicide

rather than faced the end of it. So it's

it was kind of like that here or like

when when we firebombed Japan and the

two atomic bombs have been dropped and

they they had no defense against the

attacks from the air and he they were

totally vulnerable pretty much over.

Well, that's where he's at right now.

That's where King Zedekiah is at. He's

in that horrible place of we're not

overrun yet.

uh we are going to lose. It's going to

be an Alamo uh situation,

but uh God says, "I'm going to survive.

At least survive the battle, and I'm not

going to be laid out in the battlefield

to rot and have the birds pick my bones.

I'm going to I'm going to be buried. I'm

going to have an honorable funeral."

Uh

so that's the picture here.

Uh

now what God was doing was to it was a

message of

judgment but it was also a message of

encouragement

because he knows God's in control

of it. And he didn't like Jeremiah

saying this but Jeremiah kept saying it.

And it was pretty obvious that Jeremiah

was right all along.

And so it's a it's a way of comfort and

encouragement and exhortation to this

king at this time in his life.

And what God was basically saying others

who seem or who are your enemies seem to

have your fate in their hands but your

fate is in my hands.

Right?

How good it is to know, isn't it, as

Christians,

when our time to pass this world, it's

not. We're not We want a good hospital.

We want good doctors. We want good care,

but we know we look beyond the hospital

and the doctors and the care to who? To

the Lord.

And how comforting that is to know when

we get the news that we're not going to

be here long and they uh call in hospice

and all the rest of it.

So, and all of us have had situations

where people who don't like us are in a

place of domination over us. So, uh

that's what he had the king here. Uh

maybe it's a boss at work or a professor

at the university or a family member.

You feel like you're overrun. And and

the lesson here is God sets limits and

boundaries to the troubles of our lives.

It's like the ocean. This far you'll go

and no farther.

The God who stops the waves and has

limits for how far the waves go in

has chastisements and corrections and

providential events. Some of them are

good, some of them are bad. He's got a

purpose for every one of them. And God

will not test us above we're able, but

with the testing make a way of escape.

Isn't that what Corinthians says?

So there's what he's saying is there's

divinely imposed limits to the anarchy

and agony and assaults that are taking

place against this king and against this

city and against this people.

Now, what makes the punch in this

is that there's no question about the

reality of these events. This isn't just

a story.

This is real history.

Loaded archaeologists know where Lockish

was and as Azekiah was. One was 35

miles, one was 15 miles away. In fact,

archaeologists have blockish letters

from this time period

from the soldiers.

It's fascinating. And they translated

them and they're in Hebrew

and they're dealing. Here's one of them.

One letter to it says, "We are watching

uh we are watching the smoke signals of

Lockish because we do not see Oscala."

In other words, Oscalad capitulated and

uh uh uh it's it's very interesting what

was going on. So God, God has given

archaeological evidence for this. It's

that that's a big subject. I'm not going

to go down that road too far.

Our God has real control in real

situations.

And the archaeological

evidence from Jerusalem itself and from

these two other cities prove that

really happened.

Now you can't control the little things

if you don't control the big things,

right?

You can't control the little things of

life if you don't control the big things

in life.

And so God's promise is a big promise

really. You're going to die in peace.

And that means in comparatively speaking

uh and he did he he died in peace. He

died he did he died in the peace in the

sense that he wasn't uh like he well

king Saul didn't die in peace. He was on

the battlefield. He was terrified and he

had his armor bearer kill him lest he

fall in the hands of the Philistines.

And so now having said this, when you

get to Jeremiah 39:7 and 528 and 11, you

Jeremiah 39:7

realize that

Zedekiah was blinded.

The king blinded him. He didn't kill

him, but he did blind him and he did

take him to Babylon.

So he didn't exactly get off without

some serious

problems.

What he was saying is you're not going

to die

in the battle of Jerusalem and lie

unburied.

You are going to die in Babylon

in captivity of Babylon, but you'll be

honored at your death. And we find that

the Babylonian kings did do that. They

would honor the captive kings. We see

that in other places in the Bible.

So, take this home. uh if you would. God

is in sovereign control even over the

worst

of our troubles.

[clears throat] That includes the manner

of our death and the place of our death

and the time of our death.

Hebrews says it's appointed unto men

once to die and after that the judgment.

And you might be the kind of person that

misses appointments. I do occasionally

uh have to call and apologize. I'm sorry

I missed that appointment, but and we're

not going to miss this one. And so

whatever happens when it's our turn to

pass out of this life, we'll know it's

our time and this is the way it's going

to be. Remember, God told Peter how he

was going to die.

And Peter found that out 30 years before

it happened from Jesus. John 21.

And Peter said, "What will this man be

do? Forget him.

If I want him to live till I come,

what's that to you? Follow me. So Jesus

predicted how Peter would die. And Peter

died just how he predicted he would die.

So God, if God controls the time of

death,

he controls everything up to that time.

He he controls how it happens. He

controls when it happens. That doesn't

mean God approves of all the ways people

die in the sense, you know, we might be

we may die because somebody's careless

in an accident or a doctor misdiagnoses

us or cancer or heart attack. But what a

comfort. Okay, Lord, this is it. This is

the way you've ordained them. Here I

come.

A better way to look at it than, oh,

keep me out of heaven for another 15

minutes, please, doctor.

And so give me 15 minutes more out of

heaven. Do whatever you can do.

And so this is it's a it's a important

lesson, a very basic basic lesson. God's

sovereign control even over the worst

troubles of our life, our nation's life

or everybody else's life. That doesn't

mean he approves of what other people do

and all of that. It just means that he

knows it ahead of time. just as Jesus

predicted his own death and when it

would happen and how it would happen and

who would do it.

Second,

um

we not only have a lesson on God's

sovereign control even over the worst of

troubles that we can have,

we have a God searching examination

of our best looking actions.

Here's what happened.

King Zedekiah

called for something.

This was a desperation move on his part.

He called for all the people to let all

the slaves

free.

And they did.

Now, these weren't black slaves. These

were Jewish slaves to Jewish people. It

was a way of paying off a debt.

and uh and apparently that there's

they've been so far away from the B the

the Bible that uh that they were

ignoring the regulations on the

limitations there. And uh and so notice

what Zedekiah does in verse eight. This

is the word that came to Jeremiah from

the Lord after King Zedekiah made a

covenant.

There's our word. He made a covenant

with all the people who were at

Jerusalem, this is within the city of

Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto

them, that every man should let his

manservant and every man his maid

servant being a Hebrew or Hebrews go

free, that none should enslave them to a

Jew his brother.

Now don't think the slavery in America

that's not that's a whole other thing.

That was one race dominated by another

race and for life.

But what was happening here is that

Zedekiah is hoping that God will be

merciful to them if they start following

the Bible.

[laughter]

You know, it's kind of it's not a

exactly a deathbed uh confession, but

it's it's you know, we want to do

something biblical. We want to conform

our lives to the scripture. So, I'm

proclaiming as a king.

We've neglected this. We Let's let these

people go.

Let them free. Now, of course, it

happened. And why? And you think, why

did it happen? They're surrounded.

There's not enough food. Now, the slaves

got to feed themselves instead of you

feeding them. And uh two, you're hoping

God will look on this and think you did

something important. And uh uh and uh so

anyway, notice what verse 10 says. Now

when all the princes and all the people

who entered into the covenant heard that

everyone should let his manservant and

his maid servant go free, that none

should enslave them anymore.

They obeyed

and let them go.

So they did it

a manum mission of all those that were

in. Now that slavery was not like

American slavery which is 10 times worse

than what they had. But you weren't

free. You owe you owed money to somebody

and then you had to work it off.

But afterward

they turned

and caused the servants and the

handmmaids whom they'd let go free to

return and brought them into subjection

for servants and for handmmaids.

So they let him go

and then they

reinsslaved them. Now this is always

going in the city surrounded by

Babylonian soldiers.

What's going on here? Well,

it seemed like the right thing to do to

get God's attention

and so they did it. Let's get biblical

now

and they let him go. But what the text

doesn't say, but what history does say

is the Egyptian army started to come

and attack the Babylonians. And so the

for a little bit of time, the Babylonian

army left Jerusalem to go fight the

Egyptians.

This is not in the Bible in this in this

section, but it's in other places in

history. So they left. They left the

they were still surrounded, but you

know, they they they basically left. So

what did the people do? They let the

slaves go. And then after they let the

slave go, the Babylonians go away. And

so

they repented of their repentance.

[laughter]

They had a change of mind about what

they did.

They weren't looking death in the face,

they thought, or defeat in the face

anymore. And they thought that we we

went you back now. So they reinsslaved

the people. They just let go.

Now there was a seven-year max.

Actually, it was six years.

No Jewish person was, you read the law,

the case law in the Old Testament, no

Jewish person was supposed to be

enslaved for more than six years. In the

seventh year, you let him free

and debts paid.

They weren't paying any attention to

that.

And so they finally let them all free.

But who knows how long some of these

people been in slavery. These people

were not being biblical. They just

wanted to be biblical when they thought

God might get his attention and help

them. And when the pressure is off,

they're back to their old ways and

everybody's reinslaved.

And so in verse 12, therefore the word

of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the

Lord. Lord, God see these sees these

things. [clears throat]

This was a bogus repentance. This was a

false flag.

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I

made a covenant with your fathers in the

day I brought them forth out of the land

of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

That was a conditional covenant you need

to obey if you're going to stay in the

land. Right?

At the end of and this was part of that

covenant, the case law. At the end of

seven years, let ye go every man his

brother, a Hebrew, whoath been sold to

thee. And when he served thee six years,

thou shalt let him go free from thee.

But your fathers hearken not to me,

neither incline their ear. In other

words, it's been in your Bible for

almost 1500 years, and you're not you

haven't been listening.

No, not 1500 years. That's a false

statement. It was um 1500 about 15 1450

to 1500 BC that they came out of Egypt

and this is about a thousand years

later.

So, in other words, you're just you're

going through motions. there's your

heart isn't with it and I'm not

impressed.

And verse 15, you were and ye were now

turned and had done the right in my

sight and proclaiming liberty every man

to his neighbor. And you made a covenant

before me in the house which is called

by my name. And you turned and polluted

my name, and caused every man his

servant, and every man his handmade whom

you set at liberty at their pleasure to

return, and brought them into subjection

to be unto you for servants and

handmmaids.

God was not impressed.

And he was quite upset.

I don't know. I don't it's hard for me

to even grasp how people in the south of

America could think that God was okay

with the slavery that happened in our

country when that was lifelong.

That wasn't for six years and then you

get lifelong

and uh uh it it it certainly was and it

was just of one race and it wasn't

because of a debt. It just you bought

people and did what you did.

So this is a picture and God's got their

number and he's not impressed. It was a

panic piety. That's how one person go. A

panic piety. Oh, we got to get religious

now. Uh and uh but God examines our

bestlooking actions. This looked good

when they did it, but it was a foxhole

conversion, right? You know what I'm

talking about there? Or a jailhouse

conversion.

Now, I've had some jail ministries. I

love jail ministries. I haven't done any

for quite a while, but I used to go and

teach Bible class. I did it in the

Athens jail. I did it up in Dover, Ohio.

Quite a bit up there. And they lock you

in with the prisoners. And you say, uh,

they go away and you're in there and you

say, "Anybody want a Bible study today?"

Now, one thing those guys know that a

lot of people don't, they know they're

sinners.

You don't have to argue that. They've

been caught. Most of them know that.

They're not even trying to pretend. I

know some of them say they're not guilty

of what they did. I know that. But

basically, they they've lived a life of

crime and most cases and have done

things and they know it. You don't have

to you don't have to get past that b

that base. Well, the people in Israel

are surrounded. They're in a city prison

and uh uh they're

they're but they're they're not as

sincere. They're not genuine.

And you got these field hands shut up in

a city and uh there's not the work that

needed to be done, but they were just in

the habit of keeping other people step

and fetch it for them. And so

God wasn't impressed.

So they repented of their repentance. It

was a big show in the flesh.

And part of that covenant, you've heard

me say this, is very much with Abraham.

They talked about cutting a covenant. My

Hebrew professor always hit that cutting

a covenant. Covenant goes back to Acts

or Genesis 15 where God made a

unilateral covenant, unconditional

covenant with Abraham. And God walked,

cut up animals, and went in between the

pieces. It was a ceremony. And you

sounds kind of gory, doesn't it? But the

person who did that, this wasn't just in

Israel and other ancient neareastern c

countries was, "May I be cut in half if

I don't keep my word." That's what it

meant.

In other words, it was a solemn uh

agreement. And when God made that

covenant with Abraham, you it many of

the ancient neareastern covenant

covenants are both people would walk

between the animal pieces. But in that

one, only God went between the pieces.

Abraham did. It was a unconditional

covenant. God was binding himself.

But anyway, what's going on here? These

folks are repenting of their repentance

and they're not haven't been serious

with God.

And well, let me go back to the cutting

of the covenant. This is not in the

Bible. This is extra biblical. This is a

ancient neareastern text of a a a nation

outside of Israel.

And this is what it says. This is not

the head of a ram, but the head of Miti

Loose and his sons, his nobles, and the

people of land. If Mitilu violates this

covenant, as the head of this ram is

struck off, so will the head of Mitilu

be struck off. That's how they did it.

And so,

uh, it was a lot more than cross my

heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my

eye. It was, it was may I be cut up.

And, uh, uh, and so, but the thing is

they made this covenant and then they

broke it.

That's so atheistic. That is so impious.

It's amazing, isn't it? really.

And so the Babylonians withdrew

temporarily after the covenant was made

and then they repented of their

repentance.

Now we just got a little bit more in the

chapter.

Let's go down and look at it. God lets

them have it

and God's quite upset.

Verse 17.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, you've

not hearkened to me in proclaiming

liberty, every one to his brother and

every man to his neighbor. Behold, I

proclaim liberty for you, says the Lord.

You you there there's proclaiming

liberty was to be celebrated at least

every 50 years. They didn't even do

that. Every year, everybody went back.

The debts were all paid. Everybody got a

free start. And they they didn't do the

seven-year thing. They didn't do the

50-year thing. Behold, I proclaim

liberty for you, says the Lord, to the

sword. You got liberty to be stabbed by

the sword. You got liberty to have

pestilence and to famine. And I'll make

you to be removed to all the kingdoms of

the earth. That's what's coming to you.

I would say God was upset, right?

And I'll give the men who have

transgressed my covenant, who've not

performed the words of the covenant

which they made before me, when they cut

the calf into and passed between these

parts, the princes of Judah and the

princes of Jerusalem and the Unix and

the priests and all the people of the

land who passed between the parts of the

calf.

You signed on the dotted line and you

now you're going to be held accountable.

I will give even give them into the hand

of their enemies into the hand of those

who seek their life and their dead

bodies shall be for food to the fowls of

the heaven and to the beasts of the

earth. Now Zedekiah is going to miss

that but all the rest of them are going

to get it.

And in the ancient near east to be

unburied was about the worst thing that

could happen to you. They really hated

that.

And so

anyway, God said what he said. And

Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his

princes, verse 21, will I give to the

hands of their enemies and into the hand

of those who seek their life into the

hand of the king of Babylon's army who

are gone up from you. Behold, I will

command, says the Lord, and cause them

to return to this city. That means the

Babylons are coming back, and they'll

fight against it and take it and burn it

with fire, and I'll make the cities of

Judah a desolation without inhabit. So

what does God expect of us when we make

a promise?

Keep it.

He doesn't want us to play games with

him.

It's very interesting. Derek Kidner is

an Old Testament uh scholar and his

writings on Jeremiah 34 and 25. He talks

about promise breakers and promiseke

keepers.

These guys were promise breakers.

They certainly were.

And

Philip Reichen writes on this and he

calls it the emancipation revocation. In

other words, they reiged on their their

promise instead of emancipation

proclamation. You know, that happened in

1863 for the African slaves, the

emancipation revocation.

And so after centuries of not paying

attention to God's word, revealed word

and God's law, God's people finally

listened and repented and proclaimed

freedom to their countrymen. And then

they turned around and

showed that it wasn't real

and reiged on it.

And Reichen said, "God is a covenant

keeper and he hates covenant breaking.

God keeps his word. He hates it when

people don't keep theirs.

What's Titus say? God who cannot lie

promised before the world began. Talking

about eternal life. God can't lie.

He can't do it. There's a lot of things

God can't do. And one of them is lie. He

cannot lie.

[clears throat]

And um he's a god of truth. And and so

when he makes a promise, that promise is

good.

And so, thank God for this section of

scripture and all that it means to us.

Warren Wearsby is one of my favorite

writers. Anything he writes is pretty

good. And he's got a section on this on

this section of Jeremiah.

And he starts out with this quote. I

won't tell you who the guy was because I

don't particularly like this person.

He's a politician, not a Bible teacher.

He's a senator. He's already dead. He

died a long time ago, but he took

positions I wouldn't want to even quote

him on. But this particular statement's

good. A nation that cannot preserve

itself ought to die, and it will die.

Die in the grasp of the evils

[clears throat]

it is too feeble to overthrow.

Great quote from a very imperfect man. A

nation that cannot preserve itself ought

to die and it will die. Die in the grasp

of the evils it is too feeble to over

overthrow.

And so that's what happened to Israel.

And uh and then we said in spite of the

longsuffering of God and the faithful

ministry of God's prophets, the kingdom

of Judah was about to die. It was a

nation with a glorious heritage. laws

given from heaven by Moses, land

conquered by Joshua, kingdom established

by David and made magnificent by

Solomon, a people in whose midst Jehovah

dwelt in a splendid temple. And yet that

glorious heritage couldn't prevent

Judah's shameful ruin at the hands of

idolatrous Babylonians. The end had

come. What had caused Judah's slow decay

and final collapse? The historian would

point to their unwise politics,

particularly depending on Egypt for

help. And we cannot deny that Judah's

leaders made some stupid decisions. But

behind their unwise politics was a more

insidious reason.

The leaders

really didn't believe

the word of God.

The leaders really didn't believe

the word of God.

That's a shocker. Here's the people in

the one nation that has the Bible, has

real prophets, has real truth.

The one nation

that was supposed to be the light for

all the other nations.

and their leaders did not believe

the word of God.

And during the dramatic rise and fall of

empires in that stormy era, Judah looked

around for allies instead of looking up

for divine assistance.

Instead of repenting and turning to God,

they hardened their hearts against the

word and trusted in their own wisdom.

Yep, that's exactly what happened.

Now, I'll end with this

as we get the flow of this. And I want I

want to pull some things in that might

help you feel the flow.

And it's important to see this chapter

in light of what has gone before and in

light of what goes after.

>> [clears throat]

>> We've already looked at several chapters

that gone before dealing with the new

covenant that God's going to keep and

nothing's going to keep him from keeping

his word.

But in chapter 34, we see a colossal

failure to keep the old covenant by the

Jewish leadership.

And they just didn't get it done. They

couldn't do it. And the word covenant in

Hebrew is bare.

And in chapter 31 it appears four times.

In chapter 32 one time. In chapter 33

four times. In chapter 30 33 four times.

In chapter 34 six times.

So this is really dealing with covenants

here

very much so.

And here's where it gets very

interesting. Will you just look in

chapter 35 that we'll look at next time?

I'm teasing now, but the Amish of the

Old Testament,

the Recoites,

they made a they made a covenant with

the leader of their family

that they wouldn't drink wine.

And God told Jeremiah, "Bring the

Recabites in and serve them wine." And

they wouldn't drink it.

This has nothing to do with whether you

drink wine today or don't drink wine.

Not what I'm I'm not talking about that.

The only reason they didn't drink wine

is that their ancestor told them not to.

So they didn't.

And so God, we will see this next week.

God says, "Jeremiah, invite them over

for dinner." and serve them wines and

none of them would drink it. Now, how

are you supposed to teach that section?

Oh, this is an anti-drinking section.

No, it's not. It's not an anti-drinking

thing. Jesus drank wine. The apostles

drank wine. It's not an anti-drinking

thing. The point is, and God points out,

you'll see it next week. The Recabites

obeyed their ancestor

even after he was dead because he said,

"I don't want you doing this." He told

them several things, but that was just

one of them. And so they did it. And God

says, "They did. They gave their

ancestor those obedience.

And you don't give me obedience. They're

keeping what he demanded of them. And

you're not keeping what I've demanded of

you." It's a very powerful section

and a very interesting section and we'll

look at that next time. But he goes back

to keeping covenant.

God keeps his covenants. He wants his

people to keep their end of it. Not and

as well as he's keeping his. And that's

why, by the way, the new covenant is

unconditional. God's going to do it no

matter what the Jews do cuz he can't

count on them responding to it in

appropriate way.

But we should recognize that now when we

get to chapter 36

and all these are these are very much

connected

and this is a flashback to Jeho Jehoakim

who actually burned the book of Jeremiah

in the fireplace. cut it up and burned

it instead of submitting to it. And why

is it in here? Because that wicked king

who burned up the first copy of

Jeremiah, we will see,

is a sample of the nation and their

impiiety and their disinterest in what

God's really got to say.

He was mocking it. Others didn't do

that. Now, some people stood up to him,

but most of them didn't. just let him

get get by with it. And we'll see that

when we get to it. You see, chapters 34

with the Recoites and Jakoim are

connected into this new covenant thing.

It's connected into people who they

won't that other people are better at

keeping what an ancestor told them to do

than these people are at keeping what

God told them to do. And in and not only

that, the king will burn up God's word

rather than listen to God's word. So

things are getting really bad.

Guess where America's today? People are

not only ignorant of American history.

The ignorance is phenomenal.

They're ignorant of the Bible. They

don't know and they don't want to know.

and they feel they're superior by not

knowing rather than feeling a lack. It's

not a good sign at all.

So anyway, that's where we're going to

be going. But these stories should not

be disconnected.

The Recoit thing or the thing with King

Jehoa came destroying the scripture from

the context

of God keeps his word and then people

despising God's word and the king that

burned the very scroll that he should

have read and heard with faith and

obedience.

Okay.

Same thing today, isn't it?

Is history changed any?

Go to Romans 1, 2, and 3.

The Gentiles didn't didn't submit to the

light of creation. The Jews didn't

submit to God's word. And people are not

all submitting to the gospel. Well,

guess so.

And uh so that's where we are. But thank

God that we got a God that's patient and

enduring and he knows how to correct and

he knows how to discipline to get

people's attention.

Father, we thank you for what we've

learned tonight and challenge us with

your truth. We ask your blessing on

these scriptures to our lives and help

us, Father, to submit to your word. We

won't none of us in this life will do it

perfectly. of may we do it sincerely and

really want to make God's will our will

[clears throat]

whether it's his providential will or

his revealed will in the Bible may we

always read the Bible with your will is

my will and may we look at our own lives

your will is my will

and rejoice that we've got wonderful

deliverance through Jesus Christ it's

it's Jesus Christ that initiated the new

covenant by dying on the cross and right

for our sins and Israel's sins and

raising again. God started something new

because the other covenant wasn't

working.

And father, it doesn't work for us any

better. We can't earn our way to heaven.

We can't. Our good works are more than

our bad. No, it will never be. But there

is forgiveness with you that you might

be feared. And we thank you and praise

you for that. and bless us as we

continue to ponder this great book

and the wonderful revelations in it and

maybe understand the new covenant better

than we ever have before

in Jesus name. Amen.

Stand with usord [singing]

[music]

loving you [singing] more, trusting you

more.

[music]

May the power of your [singing] love and

the light of your word shine [music]

to a sin darkened [singing]

world. As we go from this place,