Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture - 2 Kgs 24, Jer 22 & 13
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: Well, good to see you today. Welcome to our 33rd scripture as we continue our chronological walk through the Bible. We're going to get to the point where the first people are from Judah are taken into exile today. So we're going to be reading from 2 Kings chapter 24, then will be Jeremiah 22 and 13, and then... just a little bit in 2 Chronicles 36 that basically just repeats what 2 Kings says, and then we'll read Jeremiah 24. All right, but we'll start off in 2 Kings 24, verses 5 through 9. we've had Jehoahakim has been king, but now he has died. You read there in verse 5 and 6 of 2 Kings chapter 24. And the king of Egypt now has basically been subdued and Babylon has taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt. So Babylon is ⁓ right there to overtake Judah. so then Jehoah Chin was an 18 year old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months. His mother's name was Nahushta, and they did evil in the sight of the Lord as well. So he was there, and within three months, Babylon basically comes in and is going to replace him. We'll see that in just a minute. So that happens, this change in leadership. And then we have Jeremiah chapter 22 that talks about that, and Jeremiah chapter 13 kind of goes along with that. So you look in Jeremiah 22, the last part of that chapter, verses 18 through 30, It says, therefore, though says the Lord concerning Jehoah Kim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. So remember Josiah was a very good king. This is the son, his son, where everything has now just gone completely to hell in a handbasket. This is how horrible for this to be said of you after you had been king. It says, they shall not lament for him saying, alas, my brother or alas, my sister, they shall not lament for him. saying, "'Alas, Master, or alas, His glory, He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.'" It says in verse 22, "'That you did not obey My voice, the wind shall eat up all your rulers and your lovers shall go into captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated for all your wickedness, O inhabitant of Lebanon.'" making your nest in the cedars. How gracious will you be when pains come upon you like the pain of a woman in labor." So basically, we're at the very end of the kingdom of Judah. This king did not do a good job and will not be remembered fondly. And then God gives a message to the next king. it's Koniah, or his name was also Jehoiachin. It says, I live, says the Lord, through Kaniah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, ⁓ were the signet on my right hand, yet I would pluck you off. And I will give you to the hand of those who seek your life and into the hands of those who face you fear, the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the hand of the Chaldeans. So I will cast you out and your mother who bore you into another country where you were not born and there you shall die. but to the land to which they desire to return, there they shall not return." So that's not a ringing endorsement as the king comes into place. God already knows that the end is near and that this king is not going to be a good king ⁓ either. ⁓ says, verse 30, "'Thus says the Lord, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days, for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah." All right. So then thought ⁓ Jeremiah chapter 13, the end of it, verses 15 through 27 kind of talk about this. It talks about pride and again, the fall of the kingdom. ⁓ Verse 15, hear and give ear, do not be proud for the Lord has spoken, give glory to the Lord your God before he causes darkness and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains and while you are looking for light, he turns it into the shadow of death and makes its dense darkness. But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears because the Lord's flock has been taken captive. You can read the rest of that. ⁓ as it's just the sadness ⁓ that you get from Jeremiah, ⁓ just how horrible things have become that the nation is at that point where it is thought that it could do it on its own, thought that they could be ⁓ gods in their own eyes and that they didn't need to rely on God. And yet here's what happened, that the nation is now crumbling. ⁓ certainly shows the danger of pride. When pride blinds us to see our own shortcomings, when pride gets in the way to where we think that our way is best, ⁓ that usually goes before the fall, right? Pride goes before the fall. Well, that is what we're seeing here, the thing that Jeremiah is talking about here in chapter 13. Alright, then back to 2 Kings 24, verses 10 through 17. So you now have the transition to this new king. It says, that time, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against Jerusalem. The city was besieged. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came against the city, and his servants were besieging it. Then Jehoiachin, ⁓ king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers went out to the king of Babylon. in the eighth year of his reign and took him prisoner. ⁓ And he carried out from there all his treasures of the house of the Lord and all the treasures of the king's house. cut into pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord as the Lord had said. He also carried into captivity all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captains and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land, and he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. The king's mother, the king's wives, his officers, the mighty of the land, he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. All the valiant men, seven thousand, craftsmen, smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for war, but these, the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon." So he takes the best and the brightest and he removes them from Jerusalem and brings them to Babylon. Then he installs a puppet king. ⁓ made Matanaya, which is Jehoiakim's uncle, made him king and then changed his name to Zedekiah. Again, changing his name, making sure he knows who is in charge. Second Chronicles 36 verses five through 10, kind of just talk about this transition from one king to the next. And then you have Jeremiah 24, which is, we'll end on looking at Jeremiah chapter 24, verses 1 through 10. It's the, basically, God is another object lesson. It says, Lord showed me and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away all of the captives. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe and the other basket basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then the Lord said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? I said, Figs, the good figs are very good, and the bad very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad. Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thus says the Lord the God of Israel, like these good figs, so I will acknowledge those who are carried away, captive from Judah, whom I have sent out to this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. for I will set my eyes on them for good and I will bring them back to this land. will build them and not pull them down. I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return to me with their whole heart." And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, are so bad surely thus the Lord says, so I will give. Upset Achaia, the King of Judah, His princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth for their harm to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. I will send the sword and famine and pestilence among them till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers." I'm sure Jeremiah is really happy because where is he? He is still in Jerusalem. He was not one of the ones taken into exile. ⁓ He is experiencing, going to experience this heartache and difficulty of being left behind. ⁓ And it's interesting that God says, okay, the ones that are being taken away into exile, ⁓ they are the ones that are going to come back ⁓ and ⁓ respond to the Lord and to come back to the Lord and He will use them to rebuild. And Jeremiah knows this and now he's like, ⁓ great, I'm stuck with all the people that were just going to be stuck with this bad king and we're just going to flounder. So it's a very sad state of affairs. Things are not good. The result of centuries of falling away from God and refusing to listen, refusing to turn back to God. the result of that is now at hand. All right, so we're going to stop there for today. ⁓ Read Daniel chapters one through four. Daniel chapters one through four. And we will begin to look at him, and we will start to look at some of the people who have been taken away into ⁓ Babylon, into exile. and we will see how God ⁓ begins to work through them. All right? Well, we will see you on...