End of The Theocracy | Jeremiah 40 | Pastor William Hixson

And I'd like to call your attention to

that.

Jeremiah 40.

Now, as I read the 16 verses in this

chapter,

as I read this,

if you're taking notes,

or even in your mind, or if you're

marking your Bible,

I want you to notice the different

people

that we're introduced to

in this chapter.

Because it's only if we Some of these

people we know. We know Jeremiah.

We know about Nebuchadnezzar from our

studies in Daniel and other places.

But there's some others

that we thought, "Who are these people?"

And some of them might be vaguely

familiar

from previous statements

in the book of Jeremiah.

But there's no way

we can properly study this chapter

without having clarity

as to the individuals that are involved

here.

And so it's only by spending time,

who are these people?

That we can study the chapter and apply

the chapter properly.

And there's a difference between reading

the Bible

and studying the Bible, right?

When you read the Bible, you get some of

these long Bible names, and you kind of

just skim over that.

Especially if there's a list of

Uh

so and so and so and so and so and so.

Let me give you something I understand.

When you read the Bible, we you don't

always try to search out all those names

and all those individuals.

When you study the Bible,

you're doing something different, aren't

you?

I have to find out who this person is if

I can.

Now, there's sometimes people are

mentioned in the Bible and you can't

find anything else about them, but

there's other times you can and you

should.

And so, that's what we need to do

tonight

as we move into chapter 40.

We need to have a

We need to move from reading to

studying. And by the way, I don't want

to give the misimpression,

reading the Bible is a good thing.

You need to read the Bible as well as

study the Bible. And you need to study

the Bible as well as read the Bible.

Sometimes you're tired, you don't want

you don't have a got time to engage, you

just need to read and get the big

picture

as best you can and not worry too much

about the details.

But when you study the Bible,

you are letting the plow down.

You're not just disking, you're not

you're you're not just riding over the

ground or disking the ground, you're

plowing it up. You're you're you're

spending time to find out more of what's

going on.

And this particular section,

it really kind of important there's some

of these people if we don't know who

they are,

we're not going to get the full meaning

of what John MacArthur is trying to get

to us. Some of them we've been

introduced to before, others are brand

new.

So, with that in mind as I read down

through here,

look at some of these people and say,

"Who's that? Who's that? Who's that?"

And make a list.

Okay?

Or and some of you have done the 10

question Bible study

from Wilbur Smith. Uh uh and you're you

list the people that are named in the

chapter.

Cuz if you know the people and take time

to do that, you

you try to figure out who they are and

it helps you with the back and forth.

Okay. Let's have a word of prayer.

Father, help me to speak and each of us

to hear. May this set time alone with

you be a time of blessing, time of

understanding, a time of impact in our

lives.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Okay, in chapter 39, Jerusalem has been

destroyed.

Jerusalem has been destroyed.

And it's burned.

The whole city's burned.

Everything, the temple, the palace,

the walls are torn torn down.

And so,

uh it was a it was a pivotal event

in the Old Testament.

And I'm going to get to that.

Before I do that, let's let's recognize

that that the the what's going on here

in chapter 40.

Uh Jerusalem falls and is taken, but now

after the city has fallen and the

Babylonians have it,

they're going to destroy it.

So, the word that came to Jeremiah from

the Lord after Nebuzaradan,

the captain of the guard, had let him go

from Ramah,

when he had taken him being bound in

chains among all who were carried away

captive of Jerusalem and Judah, who were

carried away captive unto Babylon.

And uh

the captain of the guard took Jeremiah

and said to him, "The Lord thy God,

Now, what notice this captain of the

guard. I want you to notice him. I want

you to notice his name.

Uh

uh his name is in verse one, mhm

Nebuzaradan.

It's very close to Nebuchadnezzar, isn't

it? Nebuzaradan.

And the captain of the guard took

Jeremiah and said to him, "The Lord thy

God hath pronounced this evil or this

calamity on this place." That Hebrew

word means calamity as it can be a evil

in the sense of sinful things or just

evil in the sense of bad things

happening.

Now, the Lord had brought it and done

according to as he said, "Because you've

sinned against the Lord and have not

obeyed his voice, therefore this thing

has come upon you."

That's a surprise coming from a

Babylonian captain.

"And now behold, I loose thee this day

from the chains which were upon your

hand. If it seem good to thee to come

with me into Babylon, come.

And I'll look after you well."

Wait a minute.

Here's the captain of the guard. He's in

charge of destroying the city.

The city's been taken

a month before he got there. He wasn't

involved in the fighting. He's He's job

is to destroy it now that it's captured.

And he first thing he does is rescue

Jeremiah from the pit.

And the other thing, he's well

acquainted with what Jeremiah's been

preaching.

How did that ever happen?

He knows what Jeremiah's been preaching

and he agrees with it.

This is kind of shocking.

"I'll look after you well, but if it

seem ill to you to come with me into

Babylon, forbear. Behold, all the land

is before you where it seems good and

convenient for you to go. You can come

with me to Babylon and I'll take care of

you in Babylon if you want to go.

Or you can stay here.

Or you can go anywhere you want to go.

You're free."

So, the Jews put

Nebuchadnezzar or Jews put Jeremiah in

prison, the Babylonians [clears throat]

let him out.

He's treated better by the Babylonians

than by his own people.

He has their respect.

That's a shocker.

I think Daniel had been doing some of

his work in Babylon.

And so Ezekiel.

This is all interesting.

Now, while he was not yet gone back, he

said, "Go back also to Gedaliah, the son

Here's another person. Go back also to

Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of

Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has

made governor over the cities of Judah."

Remember, Zedekiah was captured and put

his eyes out, took him to Babylon, the

last king. Last king.

And now, here's another person.

Gedaliah, who's he?

Well, that I ending is a Jehovah ending,

it's a ending of the name of God. He's a

Jewish man, Gedaliah.

We'll find out about him tonight.

He was the son of Ahikam and the son of

Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon made

governor over the cities of Judah. So,

he is a provisional governor over the

occupied territory

that has just been captured by the

Babylonian armies. He's a Jewish man.

And you can dwell with him among the

people.

In other words, you don't want to come

to Babylon with me, you can stay here

with with the governor.

And you can

or stay with him or go wherever it seems

convenient to you to go. You can go

anywhere you want, Jeremiah. No more

prison for you, you're free.

So, the captain of the guard gave him

vittles and a reward. So, he got food

and he got money and clothes and who

knows whatever he needed.

That was helpful.

That's more than he got. Remember, they

they were starving him when he was in

the cistern.

The Jews were.

And so, here this guy gives him food and

and uh

who knows what else, whatever he needed.

Then went Jeremiah to Gedaliah, the son

of Ahikam, to Mizpah.

Mizpah

was never touched during this invasion.

Archaeologists have dug up Mizpah and it

was never burned.

It was left standing.

It's an old gathering place. In the Old

Testament, a lot of people hung out at

Mizpah in Old Testament times.

But uh

uh so it was left standing.

And this and dwelt among him among the

people that were in the land left in the

land.

Now when the captain of the forces who

were in the fields, even they and their

men heard that the king of Babylon had

made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam,

governor in the land and committed unto

him men and women and children and the

poor of the land of them that were

carried away captive to Babylon, then

they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah.

Remember, Jerusalem's not fit to live

in. It's burned. It's trashed.

You can't even live in Jerusalem at this

point.

So Mizpah is the new capital.

And the instead of having a king, they

got a governor put in by

Nabû-kudurri-uṣur

or Nebuchadnezzar.

And they came to Gedaliah, that's the

governor, to Mizpah, even Ishmael.

There's another fellow. Who's this? This

is not Ishmael, the brother of Isaac,

obviously. That's chronologically

impossible. Uh this is another fellow

with the name of Ishmael.

The son of Nethaniah and Johanan and

Jonathan, the sons of Karea and Seraiah

and the son of Tanhumeth

and the sons of Ephai and then

Netoph-

athite and Jezaniah, the son of Maach-

athite, they and their men. We're not

going to look at all those guys, but

we're going to look at the main people.

And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son

of Shaphan, swore to them and to their

men, saying, "Fear not to serve" This is

the governor, Gedaliah. "Fear not to

serve the Chaldeans." That's another way

of saying Babylonians.

"Dwell in the land and serve the king of

Babylon. It'll be well with you."

Now, they took the intelligentsia, they

took the the smart people, the

rich people, the gifted people, the

talented people to Babylon. They left

the poor people to stay in

uh in Israel

to farm

and feed the Babylonian occupying force.

Somebody's got to feed them.

"And as for me, behold, I'll dwell at

Mizpah and serve the Chaldeans

uh who will come unto us. But ye gather

wine and summer fruits and oil and put

them in your vessels and dwell in your

cities that you've taken."

Likewise, when all the Jews that were in

Moab

Now, this is interesting. These Jews

weren't scattered to Babylon, they

weren't scattered to other four corners,

they're in the countries close by.

When war started, they just moved out

and figured to move back when it was

over. Likewise, when all the Jews that

were in Moab, that's next door, and

among the Ammonites, that's next door,

and Edom, that's next door, that were in

all the countries, heard that the king

of Babylon had left the remnant of Judah

and that he'd set over them Gedaliah,

the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan,

even all the Jews returned out of all

the places where they were driven,

these are the nearby Jews, not the ones

in Babylon or farther,

and came to the land of Judah to

Gedaliah unto Mizpah and gathered wine

and summer fruits very much. So, they

came home to the family farm and it was

just in time for them to This was July,

this is midsummer. And they

started farming and they gathered a lot.

>> [snorts]

>> Moreover, Johanan, the son of Karea, and

all the captains of the forces that were

in the fields came to Gedaliah into

Mizpah.

Want you to watch this Johanan. He's

very important.

He said to him, "Do you not certainly

know that Baalis, the king of the

Ammonites,

has sent Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah,

to slay you." There's assassination plot

against the governor, the new governor.

And the king of Ammonites is behind it.

But this other fellow

is involved in it.

But Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam,

believed him not. Governor Gedaliah

didn't believe it.

He refused to believe there was

assassination plot that Ishmael was

involved in.

You know, there are people that are so

good,

they don't understand that other people

can be really nasty.

And he was one of those guys.

He believed him not. Then Johanan, the

son of Karea, spoke to Gedaliah in

Mizpah secretly saying, "Let me go, I

pray thee, and I'll slay Ishmael.

Let me go kill him.

He's going to kill you. If I don't kill

him, I'll go

and get him."

That was his offer.

"I'll slay Ishmael, the son of

Nethaniah, and no man shall know it. Why

should he slay thee, that all the Jews

who are gathered to thee should be

scattered, and the remnant in Judah

perish? Things are just starting to get

better, and you're going to let this guy

kill you? I'll go kill him first."

And I'll do it in secret. Nobody will

know.

That's Johanan.

But Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, said to

Johanan, the son of Karea, "Thou shalt

not do this thing.

For thou speakest falsely concerning

Ishmael."

You're not going to kill him.

You're You're not thinking right about

him.

And he wouldn't let him do it.

That's what's going on.

Now, there's a lot of people here.

And if we're going to understand the

chapter, we need to be introduced to

them a little bit.

But we also need to be introduced into

what moment in history this is. So, I

want you to see what a pivotal moment

this is in history.

And then we'll look at some of the

people, and then we'll get started in

the section. Everybody okay with that?

I'm not sure how far we're going to get

tonight. But it where whatever we don't

get, we'll pick it up Sunday.

Cuz we'll start we studying Jeremiah on

Sunday evening,

this Sunday.

But at 4:00.

4:00.

My wife's got four fingers up.

Okay.

Now, there's decisive moments in modern

history where battles have been fought

and were decisive when one side's

defeated and the other side victorious,

and the one side was victorious and the

other defeated. In Jeremiah 39, the fall

of Jerusalem to Babylon, that was July

586 BC.

A pivotal moment in history.

We should know that as well as

we know December 7th, 1941.

We should know certain some of these

dates or July 4th, 1776.

This is more important than both of

those.

Something very, very significant

happened

when that when the Babylonians defeated

the Jews.

I'll tell you what it was.

It marked the end

of the Old Testament theocracy.

What's a theocracy? The rule of God.

Democracy is rule of people, right?

Theocracy is the rule of God.

And God set up a theocracy on the earth

when he brought the Jewish people out of

Egypt, right?

Exodus 19 couldn't be any clearer.

You're going to be a kingdom of priests

to me. And the 10 Commandments are going

to run run This is I'm giving you the 10

Commandments as a rule of life for a

people who've been redeemed out of

Egypt.

So, that's where the That's when God set

up a theocracy on the earth.

And it was the what we know as the Old

Testament theocracy. Now, that was about

1450 BC.

So, we're talking about 900 years of

theocracy on the earth are now over.

It's ended.

There is no theocracy on the earth.

That's over.

Until Jesus comes.

And then there'll be a theocracy on the

earth again.

Very important stuff to think about it.

Now,

it marked the end of the Old Testament

theocracy, a kingdom on the earth in the

promised land, promised to Abraham,

initiated by Moses, and lasting 900

years.

Alva J. McClain, who I I never met the

man. He was president of the seminary I

went to. He died

uh

probably about a decade before I started

seminary.

He was president there.

But, in his book Greatness of the

Kingdom,

he said there's two great internal

reasons for the fall given by

the fall of the Old Testament theocracy.

And

one was the human leadership and the

other were the

the citizens themselves.

They had kings that were sinners and

they had people that were sinners and it

no matter what God said, it wasn't going

to work out.

Now, they had good kings and they had

some good people, but overall the bad

outweighed the good until the kingdom

rotted.

And so,

uh they had human leadership that were

fallen and people who citizens that were

fallen and the kingdom in Old Testament

history, the theocracy fell from within

before the Babylonians ever attacked.

They were worshipping idols. They're

unfaithful to God. The one people that

had the true religion, the one people

that had the true God, are going

worshipping other gods.

It's you know, that Jeremiah book of

Jeremiah is full of it. So, God himself

ended it.

And I think most of you know this cuz

we've studied this before, before the

battle ever started,

something happened in the Jewish temple.

Something happened in the Holy of Holies

in the Jewish temple. Remember the

temple's made up of the Holy of Holies,

the holy place, and then the outer

court.

What happened?

God left.

That's the book of Ezekiel.

And Ezekiel actually saw the Shekinah

glory leave.

That happened right before this battle.

Well, few years before.

So, it happened in 591 BC and the battle

happened in 5 586 BC.

They were conquered. So, when God left,

there were none.

So, that the prophet Ezekiel actually

saw the Shekinah glory stand at the

entrance of the temple and then stand at

right away clear up to the Mount of

Olives and then left. Very significant

cuz when Jesus comes back, he's going to

come back to what? The Mount of Olives.

And the kingdom's going to be restarted

under Jesus Christ.

And the Shekinah glory was the glory

cloud that dwelled above in the Holy of

Holies above the

uh Ark of the Covenant and above the

mercy seat, right?

And the in the in the mercy seat was the

Ten Commandments and the rod that budded

and the and uh

some of the manna. But the big thing was

the Ten Commandments. Over the mercy

seat was the Shekinah glory. And on the

mercy seat was blood.

The priest went in and put blood on that

cuz between a holy God and a fallen

people that didn't keep the commandments

was the blood. It's the same wonderful

thing we experience in detail now.

But God was head setting it all up back

then.

So, the Shekinah glory was the visible

evidence of the Lord's personal presence

and rule in the mediatorial kingdom of

Israel. It was the Shekinah glory that

led him through the Red Sea. It was the

Shekinah glory that led him through the

wilderness. It was the Shekinah glory

ended up in the tabernacle and the

Shekinah glory in the temple. But now

the Shekinah glory is gone. As soon as

it's gone,

the country collapses under Babylonian

attack.

So, God himself is no longer reigning in

Jerusalem. Ichabod's over the door.

And what does Ichabod mean?

The glory's departed.

That's what they said

uh with the whole tabernacle thing when

they were defeated then.

So God himself is no more reigning in

Jerusalem. The holy place and the holy

of holy do not enjoy his presence.

And 5 years after God left

the city was taken.

So now why was the mediatorial kingdom

in history? Why did it deteriorate and

why did it fail? And I'm again I'm going

back to McLean and I'm quoting him this

time. He had two reasons. One, the lack

of spiritual preparation on part of the

people. No government, McLean says, can

wholly succeed unless there exists a

sufficiently large body of citizens who

are inward inward harmony with its

constitution and law. Well, they weren't

in harmony with his constitution and

law. They were idolaters. They were

cheating on God.

And the book of Jeremiah shows that. 70

times it mentions the idolatry. The

second reason he gives is the

imperfection of the rulers

uh through whom the government of God

was mediated.

All the human kings, including David,

who was a good king, including Josiah,

who was a good king, they were all

imperfect. They weren't sinless

themselves, right?

They had some really bad kings and they

had some good kings, but even the good

kings weren't perfect. What?

>> Did bad stuff.

>> Right. And so what's the cure to all

that? Well, the cure to that is the new

birth. You got to be saved. And the

other part of the cure is the second

coming of Jesus because

without his coming, you can't have a a

kingdom.

Now, with that background that the

people were messed up and the leaders

were messed up,

you can't fix the people till you fix

the leadership.

And they don't even have king anymore.

They're down to

the governor.

How many people in this chapter do you

recognize?

Well, Jeremiah and uh Nebuchadnezzar, we

get that.

But these other people are relatively

new even though some of them have been

mentioned before.

So, as we move through here, first we we

know who is the King Zedekiah was that

weak

uh weak marshmallow king that was there.

We know who Nebuchadnezzar is in the

book of Daniel. He's the head of gold

and he's the one that threw the

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the

fiery furnace and he's the one that

Daniel administered to there.

Who is this third person?

This official

under the king of Babylon in verse two.

Not Nebuchadnezzar, but Nebuzaradan,

commander of the imperial armies. Who's

this guy?

We see him in chapter 40 verse one.

We see him back in chapter 39 verse 11

to 14.

Who is this guy?

That's important.

Uh

Nebuzaradan

was very sympathetic to the prophet

Jeremiah.

He He got him out of jail. He got him

out of the pits.

And very sympathetic, he's very

knowledgeable

of what's going on.

And this man is actually

expelling Jeremiah. We know why we won.

Because you sinned against your God.

In the Old Testament times, all warfare

was between the gods and not just

between the the humans. All warfare was

explained, your gods went to If you got

defeated, meant your god got defeated.

That's how the Philistines thought with

the tabernacle, right? And so, uh

but notice what Gedaliah says. I want

you to show see what he says. It's

amazing.

And I scratched my head and I said, "How

did this man know this?" He got there 40

days after or a month, excuse me, after

the city was taken. He didn't He didn't

take the city. He just got there to

burn it down after it was captured.

So, the captain of the guard, verse two,

took Jeremiah and said to him, "The Lord

your God has pronounced this evil."

Chapter 40, verse two,

"on this place. Now, the Lord hath

brought it and done it." He's using the

word Jehovah. He's using the name for

God.

He's done according to as he said

because you've sinned against the Lord

and have not obeyed his voice. It wasn't

we were so great fighters, it was you

were so great sinners.

Therefore, this thing's come upon you.

And now, behold, I loose thee this day

from the chains which are upon you. If

it seem good to you, come to Babylon

with me. I'm going to Babylon. After I'm

done destroying this city, I'm going

back to Babylon. You can come with me.

You can even live with me.

I'll be your patron.

So, he had a high view of

of

Jeremiah and actually

he has a high view of Jeremiah. How did

he hear all this stuff? We don't know

how he got this information.

It doesn't say.

But, he got it.

Now,

you can't tell me that there wasn't

interaction between

uh

Daniel and this man or

uh others and and this man. But, even

Jeremiah had an

Jeremiah visited

Babylon twice to bury his underwear.

Remember that? And get it. And so, you

know, we don't know everything that

happened. Either way, he knew

that the Jews had broken the covenant.

And he knew God was in

involved. Fascinating individual.

Now this man was

we know about Nebuchadnezzar. He was the

king over Babylon from 605 to 562. He's

the one that captured and destroyed the

temple.

And we know all about that. We know

about Zedekiah. But this guy is

different. Nebuzaradan,

he it means Neb may Nebu may Nebu give

you offspring.

He was captain of Nebuchadnezzar's

bodyguard.

He was he didn't take part in the

destruction of Jerusalem. He got there a

month later.

But he actually may have been

second in command to Nebuchadnezzar

himself and possibly a successor of his.

This is very interesting.

Huh?

>> Does Nebu mean something?

>> Yeah, it's a god they worship.

>> Are they named after their god?

>> They're named after their god, yeah.

So this man, if you go back to 39:11,

it says chapter 39:11, "Now

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gave

charge concerning Jeremiah to

Nebuzaradan,

the captain of the guard, saying, 'Take

him and look well to him and do him no

harm, but do unto him even as he shall

say to thee.'"

So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the

guard, sent

Nabushashban

and Rabsaris and Nergal-sharezer

and Rab-mag and all the king of the

princes, even they sent and took

Jeremiah out of the court of the prison

and committed him into Gedaliah, the son

of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan,

and he that he should carry him home so

he'd dwell among the people.

Very interesting, isn't

And so, uh uh

uh

And so, it's a fascinating business

here. Nebuzaradan

is sympathetic to Jeremiah. He's very

familiar with his ministry and his

message. And he says, "You can choose.

You can come back to Babylon. It's much

better over there than this place is all

torn up.

Or you can remain here if you want and

live with Gedaliah, or you can go

wherever you want. We're not going to

try to dictate to you."

That fascinating business.

And so, Nebuzaradan is a very

interesting individual. He's under

orders, and he's going to do it.

Then this Gedaliah, who is he? He's not

Babylonian.

Gedaliah is very, very Jewish. We've met

him before in earlier chapters.

It's a fascinating in in individual.

He's the one

Nebuchadnezzar was tired of the sons of

David.

He he had one good king,

uh Josiah, and the rest of them all all

the sons all the rest of them were

terrible. He said, "I've had it with

them. Don't want any more of those." And

so,

uh he he's sick of that. So, this

Gedaliah is a Jewish man

who's going to be governor, not king.

And he's to live and rule for Babylon in

Mizpah in the promised land.

Jerusalem's totally uninhabitable.

And so,

Jeremiah actually chooses to live with

Gedaliah and follows the suggestion that

Nebuzaradan

gave him.

Now, who's this Gedaliah?

This gets very interesting to me.

Warren Wiersbe said Gedaliah was a good

man from a good family, although events

proved that he was very naive and and

about practical politics."

He was a man who was so good, he

couldn't see evil in other people.

Another said, "Gedaliah was a good ruler

and probably had Jeremiah's support."

Matthew Henry said he seems to have been

a man of great wisdom and mild temper

and under whose government the the uh

uh

the people should have been very happy.

Now, who was this guy?

I am quoting uh

an another Bible commentator here. His

name

uh is Thompson. Quoting him.

He is the third generation of a godly

and good family.

Third generation.

I'll talk I'll talked about his

grandfather and his father and then I'll

talk about him. And I'm reading from

this writer.

The Babylonians turned to the descendant

of an old noble family. This is an old

noble Jewish family who feature often in

the book of Jeremiah. Shaphan, the

grandfather of Josiah's secretary,

Josiah was the

uh patriarch, the last good king of

Israel, of the last four kings.

And

carried the newly found scroll to the

king.

That's the revival broke out and this

guy was part of it.

And one son, Ahikam, was part of the

delegation Josiah sent to the prophet

Huldah, 2 Kings 22, and Ahikam offered

protection to Jeremiah after he preached

the temple sermon.

It was Ahikam, son of Gedaliah, who was

the new governor.

It was Ahikam's son, Gedaliah, who was

the new governor of Babylon. Three

generations of good godly people.

Very much involved.

And he may have had a good deal of

administrative experience in Zedekiah's

cabinet.

And we know he existed not just because

of the Bible, because a seal

found in Lachish dating to the beginning

of the 6th century bears the name

belonging to Gedaliah over the house.

The latter expression was used of chief

ministers to the king.

Interesting, isn't it?

So, the Babylonians choose him.

Uh

interesting.

It's interesting this Nebu Kade-

Kadrezzer, he almost sounds like a

prophet. He he is he believer? He he act

definitely believe that God did

something.

And but I'm sure he was probably an

idolater as well. Uh probably

had a little bit of both.

But the fact that he could testify of

what Jeremiah said is an amazing thing

and he treated him well.

And then this Gedaliah was from a good

family.

And the families

between Gedaliah and

and Jeremiah

went together three generations back.

And then there's this other person.

Johanan.

He he is the one that goes to Gedaliah,

warns him of the assassination plot.

That Ishmael's going to kill you.

Let me kill him before he kills you.

And Gedaliah would not

would not let him do it.

Um

Here's a man who's very sharp

politically.

And uh

he meant well and actually he was right

cuz that's exactly what was going on.

There is a problem with him though.

In the next chapter, he's going to lead

everybody to Egypt.

And that's the very thing God didn't

want him to do.

So, he certainly wasn't a perfect

individual.

But he was one that came with the

warning that wasn't listened to.

And then there's this Ishmael in verse

8.

Um

son of Nethaniah.

He was of royal blood from the line of

David.

A lateral line, not a

vertical line.

He was not in line to be king directly,

but he was a lateral line. He had royal

blood.

And this Ishmael probably was irritated.

Why didn't the Babylonians make me king

instead of making this guy who's not

even of Davidic blood

governor.

At least make me governor.

So, that was a point of great irritation

if you know Ishmael's background,

Ishmael's background

you'll see what he did. And by the way,

he didn't just kill

he didn't just kill Gedaliah. He killed

a bunch of people for no reason.

Once he starts shedding blood

you

you you you you know, he killed a bunch

of people that just came to worship

and threw them in a well. We'll see that

later.

A J. Thompson said the deed was

dastardly and in extreme. By customary

law, the host was bound to protect the

guest while the guest were expected to

act in good faith.

Gedaliah actually invited him to dinner.

The guy came to dinner with 10 men and

he killed everybody there.

And in that culture, if you go to eat

with somebody

you that's breaking that you that's a

horrible way to It's any you you it's

not a fair fight. in other words, you're

taking advantage of their hospitality

and their friendship and you violate the

laws of oriental hospitality.

It was shocking to people then

as it would be to us. It's a gross

offense.

And uh

and that first murder led to other

murders

as we will see when we get through that.

There's a power vacuum

and uh people will grab power when there

is.

Okay, that's kind of what's going on

with the people.

Now, let's try to apply some of this and

think about some of this.

All of us have experienced frustration

of other people messing up,

right? How many times in your life has

somebody else done something that got

you in trouble,

that made your life difficult?

And if it weren't for them,

your life would be a lot different than

it was.

Well, that was true of Jeremiah. That

was true of Gedaliah.

And so, they and they they experienced a

lot of things were totally outside of

their control.

It's very easy to be bitter, isn't it?

When we realize that poor decisions on

the part of other people are affecting

our lives in A NEGATIVE WAY.

>> [clears throat]

>> WHY DID GOD ALLOW THIS PERSON to do this

to me?

And we all seem to have to live with

other people that make bad choices. Of

course, we make bad choices, too, but we

don't see our own bad choices. They see

those. But, we all all we really feel it

when they do, right?

I mean, it's the old mote in your

brother's eye. We don't see the beam in

our own and so forth.

As the old saying is, it's hard to soar

with the eagles when you have to live

with turkeys. And so,

so that's that's that's how Jeremiah

must have felt. That's how uh

Gedaliah must have felt and so forth and

so on.

And it didn't stop with all of this.

We're going to see some of this is going

to bleed into the next

chapter.

And so but it's very easy to think

others are holding back my potential,

others are messing up my life, my

ministry,

uh what's going on.

God has a complete plan. He's over it

all. The bad times, the good times.

All things work together to good for

those that what?

Love God or called according to his

purpose. Not some things, not the good

things.

All things. That means good things,

uh bad things,

in between good and bad things.

All things

work together for good to those that

love God that are

called according to his purpose.

So, they really can't mess up our life

cuz God's sovereign.

They can mess up our life to the point

we have to suffer.

They can mess up our life when the point

that our plans are messed up.

Maybe our health is messed up. Maybe our

finances are messed up.

But they can't mess up

God's purpose.

God's got a purpose. He's working in all

the chaos.

God brings good out of the chaos.

And that's a good thing to know, isn't

it?

I mean, how can you really live without

rejoicing in that?

And doesn't it say in the Bible, "No

temptation has taken you but such as

common to man?"

Jeremiah was a weeping prophet. Well,

he's not the only believer who has shed

tears.

>> [clears throat]

>> He's not the only.

How many mothers cry themselves to sleep

over their kids that are prodigal?

How many pastors have to deal with with

people that fall, that just breaks their

heart.

And and so forth. And we all we all mess

up with each other.

And the prophet Jeremiah at the end of

his life experienced a series of major

mess-ups of various people.

He had it hard enough before the city

was burned.

They put him in prison and

misrepresenting him. And then this other

stuff happens.

Now,

the kingdom and Old Testament theocracy

is over. The Babylonians are in control.

Gentile powers will now rule Jerusalem

till the end of history, till Jesus

comes. That's not an insignificant

event. That's a major event.

It was emotional pain if we read the

book of Lamentations.

And then the ineptitude of the

Babylonian occupying forces. They didn't

do

We read these chapters, they actually

chained him up

by mistake. Nebuchadnezzar wanted

Nebuchadnezzar wanted

Jeremiah to be treated good and sent off

to Babylon. Somebody messed up the memo

and chained him up with the ones that

were supposed to go to Babylon and

suffer.

And he had to be rescued.

And he was by this particular man.

What a wonderful thing.

So, they released him from prison and

then people mess up and he gets chained

up with to go with everybody else. And

this and this guy Nebuzaradan shows up

at the right time and

gets him out of trouble.

Isn't it wonderful no matter how other

people mess up, God will still get us

where he wants us?

I want to tell you, you are immortal

till your work is done.

And so am I.

I don't know when I'm going to get to go

to heaven. I'm looking forward to it.

But I know God will keep me here as long

as he wants and he'll keep my health as

long as he wants and he'll keep my

ministry as long as he wants and when

it's over it's over.

And it's it's okay because God's

driving.

The other people aren't driving, I'm not

driving. And there's no temptation taken

you but such as common to man. Jeremiah

was the weeping prophet. He cried a lot

not because he was a baby but because he

suffered.

Those people can make a grown man cry.

And he did.

If you trace the series of mess-ups,

there was an awful lot of them, right?

One mess-up after another. And then the

you dealt with Jewish leadership that

was inept. And now the Babylonian

leadership that even means well is

messing up.

>> [laughter]

>> And so

oh, that's hard, you know.

Somebody didn't know their job. Somebody

got Jeremiah mixed in with the other

people.

And just so happened he got rescued.

Um

things work out in the long run.

We look at our lives and what's

happening now and what's happening this

week or next week or next month and we

think

this is pretty hard.

I didn't sign up for this. I didn't ask

for this.

And why do I have to suffer because of

this other person's

ineptitude or

depravity or anything.

We got to take the long view of life,

right?

We have to know Psalm 31 says my times

are in his hand.

Psalm 31:12-17.

Psalms 31:12–17

My times are in his hand.

Now, Jeremiah made a decision to stay

with Gedaliah, the new governor,

an old friend of his family,

and things look pretty good till

Gedaliah got assassinated.

It had to be frustrating. No matter what

happens,

it gets harder and harder and harder.

And uh

uh and then these other individuals show

up and they get killed and things are

getting very difficult.

And so, may God help us to just take

whatever comes in our life,

that happens Bible church or in your

home.

Let's not be naive. Let's recognize

there's evil out there that wants to be

against us.

Uh but let's recognize that we are in

the hands of God and

God's going to take care of things.

Uh

Jeremiah The other thing I want to

mention before I stop,

Jeremiah could have had a good life and

good retirement in Babylon.

He's living with the captain of the

guard. He's living with a guy high up.

He's living with the guy that could have

been one of the successors of

Nebuchadnezzar.

He could have had it pretty easy.

He chose to stay

with the people

hurt him

and hindered him

his whole life.

He chose to stay

with a people whose capital city

had just been nuked,

basically.

He chose to stay with the poor of the

land because the Jews that had were

artistically inclined, the Jews that

were educationally sharp, the people who

were movers and shakers were all taken

to Babylon. They left the poor people

back

in the into to grow food for their

occupying force.

He chose to stay with that crowd.

Why?

Well,

Daniel was in Babylon and Ezekiel was in

Babylon, but

the people back there needed a prophet.

He stayed He stayed.

A tremendous decision on his part.

For the sake of testimony and ministry,

he stays in Jerusalem. He made that

choice, and it looked like a great and

good decision at the time, and it was.

But then Johanan drags him to Egypt, and

that's the last place he wanted to go.

He told the people not to go,

and Johanan was at the head of it.

And Johanan seems like a good guy in our

chapter, but in the next chapter, he

turns out to be not a good guy.

Have you ever been fooled with somebody

you thought was better than they were?

All of us have, right?

And uh

Johanan

will be

man who leads

people out of the promised land to

Egypt, the very place

God told him not to go, and he dragged

Jeremiah there with him.

Interesting.

>> [clears throat]

>> There's some fascinating things here.

The ineptitude of the Babylonians uh

after the destruction of Jerusalem, the

innocence of Gedaliah, the iniquity of

Ishmael,

the intervention of Johanan,

uh

and [clears throat] uh

the insincerity of people and the

incorrup- inc- incorruptibleness

of the people.

He don't make mistakes, terrible things.

And Jeremiah will end up in Egypt, but

we'll pick it up there next time.

>> [clears throat]

>> You and I can make the best decisions we

can and Satan still knows how to

mess it

mix it up.

Jeremiah counseled against going to

Egypt and Jeremiah counseled against

putting your confidence in Egypt.

And yet somehow he ends up where he

didn't want to be.

God bless him for staying in the first

place.

We should have a concern, where are

there people in need where I can be a

benefit.

Or my life out.

And uh

Jeremiah

is very high in my opinion by the choice

he made

to stay when he had a real option

to go.

Have an easy life.

He chose a hard life

for ministry's sake.

Father, we thank you for what we looked

at today. Challenge us and change us by

your most precious word.

We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

>> Lord, [singing]

as we go from this place, [music]

loving [singing]

you more,

trusting you more.

>> [music]

>> May the power of your love [singing] and

the light of your word

>> [music]

>> shine

through sin-darkened [singing]

world. And as we go from this place.

>> [singing]