Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Jul 29, 2009: Jeremiah 21
Transcript
- Well, this evening we're in Jeremiah chapter 21. And here in Jeremiah chapter 21, we find that Jeremiah is summoned, or rather a messenger is sent to him to find out what God is saying about the nation and to find out what God would say in regards to the situation that is in front of them. And the messenger is sent by King Zedekiah. Let's look at verses 1 and 2 together. Jeremiah chapter 21 verse 1 says, The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pasher, son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseah, the priest, saying, Please inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, that the king may go away from us. So here in chapter 21, we... Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 1 He was proclaiming to the nation the judgment of God as a result of their rebellion. And he was proclaiming that Babylon was going to come and lay siege to the city, conquer the city, completely demolish it, and carry away all those who remained as captives to the land of Babylon. Now this was a prophecy, this proclamation that Jeremiah continued to make was something that happened in his lifetime. King Zedekiah said, Well, King Zedekiah was the last king of Judah before these things took place. He reigned for the last 11 years of the nation of Judah before Babylon conquered it. Now, as we go on in Jeremiah, we'll see messages. In fact, in chapter 22, there's messages to other kings. And those kings actually reigned before Zedekiah. And so we find the book of Jeremiah, it's not... The end of the nation of Judah We're at the last 11 years of the nation of Judah during the reign of King Zedekiah. And so this is it. This is the end. There's no more turning back from this point. At the end of those 11 years, the city is going to be completely conquered, leveled, burned, you name it. It's going to be... without inhabitants, completely demolished, and everyone is carried away captive to the land of Babylon that survives the things that happen in this invasion. And so here, King Zedekiah is somewhat concerned. There's a nation that has come against him. The king of that nation is King Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon, and this king of Babylon had come against the city of Jerusalem and laid siege to it. I think it was for two years, if my memory is correct, for two years he laid siege to the city of Jerusalem in order to conquer it this final time. And so for two years the king of Babylon is there camped outside of the city of Jerusalem and putting them through great and terrible distress as we talked a little bit about last week. And so King Nebuchadnezzar is there, he's camped outside of the city, he's not letting anyone in, he's not letting anyone out. And the king of Judah there on the inside of Jerusalem, King Zedekiah, he sends to Jeremiah because he wants to find out, well, what's the Lord saying about this situation? Here we are, this king is laying siege to the city. What is God saying? Now, understanding that Jeremiah had already been prophesying for some time about the nation of Babylon, understanding that He had for some time already been sharing with Zedekiah what God had been saying. It is a little bit silly now for Zedekiah to think that the message has changed. And yet he sends to Jeremiah, because this situation, there's this king in front of him, they're at war with one another, they're camped against them. King Zedekiah says, well, maybe God will... deal with us according to his wonderful works. And so he sends to him this guy, Pasher. We talked about Pasher last week as well. He was a false prophet. He was one of the priests there in Jerusalem. But he sends Pasher as a messenger and he says, inquire of the Lord for us because King Nebuchadnezzar is making war against us and perhaps... The Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works that the King may go away from us. Zedekiah is foolishly hoping that God will deliver them even though they have not responded to Him. Now it would be different if King Zedekiah is sending to Jeremiah and saying, we've repented and we've demolished all of our idols and we've turned back to the true and living God. Please inquire of the Lord for us what he wants from us next and what's going to happen with this invasion. That would be a whole different scenario. But here's Zedekiah. He wants, he's foolishly hoping that God will deliver them even though they're still refusing to hear God's message. Even though they're still refusing to be obedient to God. God's been abundantly clear. We've seen it week after week here in the book of Jeremiah about what He's required of them. He's given them opportunity after opportunity to repent and turn back to Him. They are in the midst of the situation saying, no, we're not going to do it. Remember, I don't think it was last week, but maybe the week before, they said, that's what God wants? He wants us to follow Him wholeheartedly and be totally devoted to Him? Well, that's impossible. We're going to do whatever we want. That's what they determined, that's what they decided. And in this attitude, with this condition, they said, "Well, maybe God will still deliver us, even though we refuse to listen to Him and to obey Him and to respond to His message." Now, in the past, God had delivered Jerusalem and the nation from similar circumstances. You might remember during the reign of Hezekiah, the king of Assyria came against the nation of Jerusalem. And God delivered them greatly. And one night, 186,000 of the Assyrian soldiers were put to death by an angel of the Lord. And God just did this miraculous work in delivering them, and they didn't have to worry about the threats of Assyria any longer. King Zedekiah is kind of hoping and wishing he's Jeremiah, he's seeking to know if God is going to do something similar once again. But the conditions were very different than under King Hezekiah. King Hezekiah followed the Lord. He was diligent to seek the Lord. This nation at this point, Zedekiah and the rest of Jerusalem, they kind of followed God. They were kind of somewhat, a little bit devoted to God. And that they still went to the temple, they still did some of the sacrifices, they still had some of the feasts, but they weren't wholeheartedly devoted to God, and they worshipped all of these other little gods, their hearts were divided. And they continued and persisted in disobedience to God. And so they kind of went through the motions, they went through the rituals, but they didn't change their lifestyle, they didn't change the other gods that they worshiped. And so they would only come back to God when there was a need of deliverance. Unfortunately, that's sometimes the way that we live as Christians. We're kind of following God, We kind of have a devotion to Him and we kind of participate in His services and meet Him on Sundays and Wednesdays perhaps. But it doesn't really change our behavior, it doesn't really change our lifestyle, and it doesn't really change what we're devoted to apart from God. It just is kind of part of our life, it's part of our culture, it's part of the rituals that we go through. But then when it comes to a situation where there's a battle before us, or there's some intense situation, well then we run to God for deliverance. And that's how Zedekiah is. He's sending to God, perhaps God will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, he says. Maybe God's just going to bless us and going to make all this go away. But this is the product, as we will see in chapter 21 here. This is the product of the lifestyles that they've been living, the choices that they've been making, and their rebellion against God. You see, we need to respond to the Word of God. We need to respond to His messages to us. We can't just foolishly hope that disregarding what God has said and disregarding what God is calling us to, that we can just pray and then all situations will be resolved and we won't have any problems and life won't be difficult. No, we need to respond when God speaks, when God calls us. To change our behavior, to change our attitudes, to change our hearts, we need to respond to God. And not just run to Him when it comes to a time of deliverance. Although God would never tell us to stay away, He does call us to respond to His message and to be obedient to Him as we will see. And so here Zedekiah sends this messenger to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah responds in the following verses. Let's look at verses 3 and 4. It says, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls, and I will assemble them in the midst of this city. Here's God's response to Zedekiah. Essentially, God says, Zedekiah, it's even worse than you think. Not only will I not deliver you, but I'm going to hinder you from fighting. the weapons that you wield, the weapons that you have trying to fight against the king of Babylon, I'm going to turn those weapons back on yourself, God says. You're using them to try to inflict harm against Babylon, but I'm going to turn those back. And instead, they're going to inflict harm upon you. God says, I'm going to thwart your fighting efforts. I'm going to I'm going to turn back your weapons. Not only that, but those Chaldeans, which is the inhabitants of Babylon, were also known as Chaldeans. The Chaldeans who besiege you, they're outside your city walls. Well, guess what, Zedekiah? I'm going to assemble them inside the walls of Jerusalem. I'm going to gather them. I'm going to open up the gates. I'm going to tear down the walls. And I'm going to gather them. They're going to be assembled together right here in the midst of the city. So God tells Zedekiah, it's worse than you think. I'm going to keep you from fighting against them. And I'm going to keep your attempts of war from succeeding. You know, as we see this, God never says... you know, stay away. God never says, don't come to me. God never says, don't call on me. As they're in the midst of this situation, I think you would understand this. We would probably do the same thing in their shoes. We would call out to the Lord. God's not saying, you should not come to me. But what he may say is, this is my doing. I'm doing this. And I'm not going to let you escape. This is the consequences of There are many years of rebellion against me. Going back to the example of Hezekiah, when the nation of Assyria had come against Jerusalem, God had promised King Hezekiah, Assyria is not going to lay siege. God had promised they're not going to shoot an arrow towards Jerusalem. They're not going to even begin to make war against Jerusalem, God had told Hezekiah when Assyria was threatening them. But now God says, things are different now. Now God says, I'm going to gather that enemy within the city walls. They are going to be successful, he's telling Zedekiah. They're going to conquer the city. It's going to happen. And this prophecy is fulfilled just as God declares it here. So look at verse 5. It says, I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand. And with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both men and beasts. They shall die of a great pestilence. And afterwards, says the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah, king of Judah, his servants and the people. And such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Here's what God continues as He speaks to Zedekiah. God says, I Myself will fight against you. How would you like to be in their shoes at that moment? God says, I Myself will fight against you. Again, Zedekiah, it's even worse than you think. Not only am I not going to deliver you from this situation, from this battle that rages before you, but I'm going to fight against you, Zedekiah. I'm going to be working on their side, Zedekiah. I'm going to be helping them to succeed. I'm fighting against you. We look at that scripture in Romans which says, Hey, if God is for me, who can be against me? And it's great comfort. But if God is against me, Who can be for me? God says, I am fighting against you. Now as we sit here this evening, we should not be afraid and think that God is against us in the same way. God is for you. But He also disciplines us And chastens us and corrects us when we need it. It's for our good. In the same way, He's dealing with the nation of Judah and they are in such a rebellious state that this is the discipline that's necessary for their good. In order for the nation to be redeemed and restored, in order for the people to be able to get right with God, this is what is necessary. This is not a state or not a demonstration of how angry God can get. This is a demonstration of how much He loves His people and how far they've wandered from Him. They have rebelled against Him, disregarded His clear instructions and warnings over and over and over again. and now are reaping the consequences for those actions. We cannot rebel against God and disregard His Word and think that nothing is going to happen. It's foolish to think, "Oh yeah, well I'll just be delivered." No, when we rebel against God and when we disregard His Word, there are consequences. The Scripture is quite clear that we reap what we sow. And so we need to be careful to sow that which is of God. not to disregard that which is of God. And so God says, I'm going to fight against Judah. And to such an extent, He says, I'm going to deliver Zedekiah and his servants and all the people and everybody that's left. He says, look, there's going to be some pestilence, there's going to be a famine, there's going to be fighting and sword fighting. And anybody who's left, I'm going to be delivering them to the king of Babylon. They're going to be given over to the nation. to go into captivity. Verse 8. He says, Now you shall say to this people, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who remains in the city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. But he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. So here they are in the midst of this situation. Babylon is camped against them. It's certain doom, God says. I'm going to be fighting against you. And yet even in the midst of this proclamation of judgment... God is still giving the people an opportunity to repent and to respond to Him. So God gives him instruction. He says, look, I am laying before you, I'm setting before you the way of life and the way of death. We can see in this portion that at this point the nation of Judah has crossed a line. There's been many prophecies that we've seen before where God says, Hey, if you guys will turn back to me, I'll restore your nation. Your kings will continue to reign before me. You won't need to be threatened by the enemies that are around you. I'll take care of them. God has sent them messengers and prophets and said, Hey, if you guys turn back to me, you're going to be prosperous. You're going to be blessed. If you will turn back to me and respond to me, these things will not threaten you. But they continued to disregard the Word of God and the message of God. And so now at this point, they're a little bit further along And this destruction that they are bringing on themselves. And so no longer is God saying, hey, if you turn back to me, you know, I'll get rid of Babylon. No, what God is saying is, look, this is going to happen. Jerusalem is going to be conquered by Babylon. But I'm still giving you an opportunity. I'm still giving you a choice. I still set before you life and death. You have an opportunity still to respond. We see God in His mercy continuing to give them opportunities to repent. But at this point, no longer is He offering to save them from Babylon, but now He's offering to save their lives. And so they have a choice, life or death. In order to choose life, what they must do is they must defect to Babylon or surrender to Babylon. He's speaking to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. So the city is under siege and if you were there as an inhabitant, you could say, hey, I want to follow the Lord. I believe God at His word. I want to live. And so you could have the opportunity. You could make the choice to surrender, to lay down your arms, to go outside of the city with the white flag and say, I surrender. Take me into captivity. And yeah, you'd be taken into captivity and it would be rough. but you had the opportunity to live. Or you can have the opportunity to choose death. And it's amazing how often people choose death over life. You could say, I don't want to surrender. I don't want to listen to what God is saying here. I'm still going to fight. They're not going to take me alive. And you could suffer the consequences by sword, by famine, by pestilence. You would face certain death there in the city of Jerusalem. The false prophets, like Pasher that we saw last week, said that God would not allow his city to be destroyed. Because they had the temple, because they had the priests, because they had the law. They were confident, this isn't going to happen to us, but God keeps sending them the messages. This is going to happen. So they're given this opportunity. He lays before them life and death. Now, with all of these false prophets... saying, no, it's not going to happen, we're going to be delivered, how are the people to know which one is speaking the truth? How are the people to know which one is really speaking from the Lord? The false prophets were saying, thus saith the Lord. Jeremiah was saying, thus saith the Lord. How are the people to know the difference so that they can make the choice? Well, it's very simple. You take the prophecies that are brought forth and you find out, you look at which one Lines up with the rest of scripture. Which one lines up with what God has already said? Now, we're not going to turn there right now, but I would encourage you on your own to spend some time in Deuteronomy chapters 28, 29, and 30. Specifically in Deuteronomy chapter 30. God says these almost identical words there in Deuteronomy chapter 30. In that passage, Deuteronomy 28, 29, and 30, God is laying before the people the blessings of following the law and the curses or the consequences of disregarding the law. So God says, look, if you obey me, if you walk with me, if you do these things that I've asked you to do, you're going to be blessed. And he lists and he goes through all of the blessings that they'll experience if they will walk with God and be obedient to him. And then he also goes through the whole list of, now, if you disobey me, and you disregard me, and you don't follow me, and you don't walk with me, well, here are the curses or the consequences of not walking with me. And he goes and he lists all of the different consequences. And then at the end, there in Deuteronomy chapter 30, he says, he concludes that whole portion by saying, I set before you life and death. And so as Jeremiah presents this message, "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death," it would be a reminder to the people who heard those words. It would be a reminder of the book of Deuteronomy. It would be a reminder of how God had laid before them all of the blessings of following Him and all of the curses or consequences of disregarding Him. It would be a reminder, "This is what God said." And it's interesting. What God laid out as the curses or consequences of disobeying Him and disregarding Him line up very easily with what was happening to them now with the nation of Babylon camping against them. You can look detail by detail and see how it was fulfilled by the nation of Babylon coming to conquer them because they disregarded. And so the people could tell easily Who was the true prophet and who was the false prophet? Simply by looking back into what God had already revealed in His Word. And I point that out because, you know, today there is, well, there's a lot of false teaching. There's a lot of just junk that is taught claiming to be in the name of the Lord. And it's so important not to be deceived, not to be carried about by various doctrines, but to know the Word of God. And to verify that the things that were being taught, the things that are being shared, that they are in agreement with what the Bible actually says. The false prophets were saying, no, it's not going to happen. But God had said, look, if you turn and worship other gods, these are the things that are going to come upon you. It lines up exactly with what Jeremiah was saying. God does not contradict himself in that way. So it's another reason and another opportunity for me to encourage you to Really pray through and consider the class that will be happening on Monday nights. Learn what the word has to say so that you can understand and discern when someone is trying to teach you something that is not in agreement with the word of God. Let's go on, verses 11 and 12. He says, And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear the word of the Lord. O house of David, thus says the Lord. Dear God now changes direction a little bit. He shifts subjects slightly and he gives a message not simply to the people but to the king of Judah, to King Zedekiah. And he says, "King Zedekiah, this is the word of the Lord. This is what you need to hear. Execute judgment in the morning." Basically, God is telling him, "Start doing what is right. Execute judgment. Do what is right. Start right now making things right. Stop living perversely. Stop judging perversely. And start doing what is right." He's explaining to Zedekiah there at the end of verse 12. He says, because of the evil of your doings. He says, look, there's all of this oppression going on. There's all of this injustice that's happening. You're not even caring. You're not even paying attention. You're just letting people run around and disregard what God has said. He says, look, you need to put a stop to it. You need to execute judgment. You need to make things right. He says, look, all of this is happening because of the evil of your doings. He's telling Zedekiah, look, this is the response or the consequences of your evil actions. This is because you've disregarded my word that you're in this situation. This is because you did not pay attention to me and you persisted in doing what is wrong. Now you may have said, well I had good intentions or I had a good heart or I really love God. You may say all those kinds of things. But God says, look, this is the evil of your doings. The result of the evil of your doings. It's the way that you live, Zedekiah, that shows what you really believe. You can make all kinds of claims and you can send people to seek the Lord through Jeremiah. But it's what you're doing that needs to be changed. You need to start doing what is right. God says to Zedekiah, verse 13, He says, Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley and rock of the plain, says the Lord, who say, Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter our dwellings? But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doing, says the Lord. I will kindle a fire in its forest, and it shall devour all things around it. God says, Again, I am against you. He quotes them. He says, "Look, you guys are saying, 'Who is going to come down against us? Who is going to fight against us?'" Interesting that they would say that as Babylon is encamping against them. They say, "Who is going to enter into our dwellings?" You see, they are not believing God at His word. They don't believe that Babylon is going to be victorious. Even though God has been speaking to them through Jeremiah and through various other prophets, they chose instead to listen to the false prophets. They chose instead to believe whatever they wanted to believe and say, yeah, it's not going to happen. Who's going to enter into our dwellings? Who's going to come against us? They're not going to be successful. They refused to believe God and His Word. And as a result, their doings, their actions, their behavior was wicked. And so He says, I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings. I'm going to start this fire. It's going to devour all things around it. There's going to be complete and total devastation. We cannot disregard the Word of God and escape the consequences. We cannot. Just live however we choose and believe whatever we want to believe. God has spoken. And He will deal with us according to the way that we have lived. Because the way that we live... it demonstrates, it proves what we really believe. And so if we've lived in a relationship with God, if we've lived walking with God, not perfectly, none of us is going to be perfect, we're all going to sin, we're all going to fall short, but there's a huge difference between sinning and falling short as you're seeking to walk with God and living in a lifestyle that's in rebellion and in disregard to what God has said. we quote very often, Galatians 6, 7, and 8. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. He who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. We must not be deceived. The people here in Jerusalem were deceived. They were thinking, God can be mocked. We can live however we want to live. We don't have to believe God. Hopefully He's going to deliver us from Babylon. So let's seek Jeremiah and see what the Lord says. We don't want to change anything. I don't want to change my life, but I just don't want to go to hell. I don't want to change my behavior, but I just don't want to accept and suffer the consequences of that behavior. God says, look, it doesn't work that way. Don't be deceived. You can't mock God. You can't practice those things and walk in those things and escape the consequences. No, we reap what we sow. So we need to sow to the Spirit. And we need to invest ourselves in the things of God. And we need to respond to the Word of God. That then the things that we reap and what is poured out in our life is not destruction, but eternal life. The things of God. The worship team is going to come and close us in a few songs. As they do, I want to challenge us. I want to ask us, do we find ourselves in a similar situation of King Zedekiah or the city of Jerusalem at this point? Do we find ourselves in a place where we kind of follow God, but mostly we don't? When things are tough and things are difficult, we run to Him for deliverance. We kind of keep up a little bit of things spiritually so that we kind of feel like we're doing okay today. But really we're not devoted to Him and responding to His word, seeking to follow Him. Are we sold out for Him? Are we given over to Him completely? Are we on fire for Him? Are we filled with the Spirit? Are we seeking to walk with Him? Are we endeavoring to know Him? There needs to be that devotion, that commitment to God that is demonstrated by the life that we live. Because it's not about how well we do on this property and how good we are around the church or how good we are around our Christian friends, but it's about the whole life that we live. Is our hearts devoted to God? We have an opportunity to see whoever we are, whatever situation we're in. Maybe never having made a commitment to follow God at all, or maybe you've made a commitment and you've been around the things of God for many, many years, like the nation of Judah had. we have an opportunity to turn and to respond to what God is saying. He says, look, I set before you life and death. Let's take this time as we worship the Lord to choose life, to turn over. Hey, whatever it takes, whatever it means that you need to surrender and to turn from, whatever God is speaking to your heart, respond to Him. Respond to His Word. Get right with God. Choose life that you may live, that you may experience the abundance that God desires. to pour out on those who are devoted to you. Let's worship the Lord together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. 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