Letter to the Exiles
Notes
Transcript
last week we discussed the boiling point of the book of Jeremiah, the even which the whole book centers around
we saw God fulfilling His promise, but only after much pleading with His people
but God kept His Word, as He always does, and Judah was judged severely
it was a brutal and terrible judgement, but they were forewarned, so they SHOULD have known it was coming, but the sin in their hearts blinded them to it.
this is one of the most insidious consequences of sin in our life
it’s not just about a temporary and fleshly pleasure, but a callousing of the fleshy heart
it takes our heart of flesh, and slowly turns it into a heart of stone
but it happens so slowly we don’t notice it in the day to day, which is why it’s an absolute must that we never get too comfortable with ourselves
we have to ALWAYS examine ourselves
or else we’ll wind up in a place like Judah did
but today, even in the midst of a great time of grief for God’s people, we will still see great words of mercy, and a foretelling of a future hope that they will have
God never leaves His people in the dust - He never will - He’ll never leave us nor forsake us
if we ever feel like that, we’re giving up, we’re not thinking of God’s greater plan for us and our lives, we’re not making the best of our situation
the Bible tells us to count it a joy when we go through troubles, because it’s a chance for us to grow and evolve as people and ultimately use that for the greater good, for God’s glory
with these things in mind, let’s get going...
1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
“residue” - got curious, was wondering if there was any negative connotation, but there is not, it just means “what is left behind”
who do we see that is mentioned among the captives first - the elders, the priests, the prophets
God had very much warned these people, and now that have met their just desserts
you cannot live a life flying in the face of what God is telling you, and nothing happened
nothing happened to these guys for years, but look where they are now, in babylon
it’s just like how we talked about sin slowly callousing the heart, they have slowly worked themselves into this foreign place away from the land God gifted them with
God knows every idel word we speak, every action we take, and every thought we think, and the Bible talks about being judged “every man according to their works”
2 (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)
this verse is significant in that so much of the infrastructure was cleaned out during the exiling
if most of the builders and the metal workers were gone, think of what the people “back home” are left to work with
this is part of the judgement that will come upont hose who are left back in judah, we’ll see later in the letter that they will experience their own form of judgement
3 By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,
we just see here who sent the letter
4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
6 Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
I won’t rehash what the pastor talked about last week, but we should just bear in mind that this is here so that we have the full context of the letter
The Bible, like many books, has a powerful way of packing so much meaning into so few words, like these verses for instance, we have everything the pastor talked about last week
and we see that God is telling His people essentially not to give up, even though He’s brought this terrible judgement upon them, they are still His people, and He still has plans for them and doesn’t want them to give up
also, sometimes as believers, we go through chastisement, God has to reign us in a little bit
but the point of this is to bring us back into the fold, God did this to Judah as a wake up call, and we know that it ended up working and once they got back they responded well
we have to make sure that we have this same attitude, that we use these moments and periods of chastisement to our advantage and to make us better
we can’t just give up and forget about it, that would be the worst possible option
imagine if judah would have given up, they likely wouldn’t even be a people anymore!
after judah came back to the land, they entered a spiritual golden age, and every time we are chastised, we have the opportunity to have a spiritual golden age, it’s just whether or not we take the opportunity
it’s our choice
7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
God gives the people some practical advice, it would cause them nothing but problems if they wanted destruction for babylon, because someone has to destroy them at take over
on top of that, it was God’s plan for nebuchadnezzar to rule over them in their exile, and they shouldn’t want to resist God’s plan, that never goes well
the people might not understand this, and many times we don’t understand God’s plan in this life, we never will understand God’s plan fully and in detail in our life
we cannot drive ourselves crazy trying to figure out “God, what are you trying to do here?” because many times we’ll just never know
the best thing we can do is just hand it over to God, live our lives day by day, and God will take care of us, God knows our struggles, and we are worth more than many sparrows.
8 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
9 For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
we must remember the talk about the false prophets and the liars who were in judah before the exile
they had to go somewhere, and where else but babylon?
the people of judah knew the word of God, they knew the words of Jeremiah, many had heard him in person lay out God’s Word and God’s plan for the near future
God reminds them in this chaotic time that His Word is the only Word that matters, nobody elses
and we are blessed today to have to full Word of God with us everywhere
it’s on our phones, its in our houses, it’s available for free online with many study resources online for free, like concordances
what are we doing with this Word? are we studying it for ourselves? while there are trustworthy people out there, we don’t want to only take people’s word for it
we are blessed enough to have the word like we do, and we should ALL know exactly what we believe and most imoprtantly WHY
we should all be able to defend our faith easily
think about the early Christians whos Biblical texts were considered illegal and confiscated, who faced the death penalty just for being Christian
think about some of the medieval Christians, who suffered greatly at the hands of the catholics
there is no excuse for us not to know the Word of God as much as we possibly can, and we could all know it better
and if we know it as good as we can, it equips us for when we hear something false
we can hear something and just instantly say “yep, that’s false” and discard it
10 For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
the pastor talked about this expected end as well, so I won’t rehash that point too much
but for God’s people, there WILL be an expected end to all that we’re going through, and God’s good Word will be performed toward them
what a blessing that is! that in their pain, God remembered all the good He has in mind for them and wanted to remind them of it
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
this is similar to when we see, “if you turn to me, I’ll turn to you” - God is telling them that He is available to them, should they just turn their hearts toward Him
and we see here that it’s not as much their actions as it is their heart
God does not want hollow action, like the pharisees would do, God wants Godly motivated actions, which comes from within
James tells us our thoughts are like seeds which grow into actions, so we must have pure thoughts and a pure heart so that they naturally blossom into good actions
14 And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
God is saying that when they turn to Him, He will restore them, and we know that would end up happening
they were restored greatly
we know many Biblical figures who went through some hard times and were restored
even when God flooded the earth in Noah’s flood, the earth ended up being restored
so judgement always has an expected outcome, and it’s always for the better, according to God’s glorious plan
15 Because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon;
16 Know that thus saith the Lord of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;
in v15 it’s talking about the people in babylond saying, we’ve heard good news from the Lord about them returning, eventually building back up, and eventual peace
but in v16 God starts to tell them what will happen to those who did not go into exile
17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
18 And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:
so we see that they will receive their own form of judgement as well
there is no running, again, every man according to His works, and we know that every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess one day
so God does not let any stragglers get by
people will be astonished at their judgement, but they have brought it upon themselves at the end of the day, it’s not just God being mean to people
and we see why in verse 19
19 Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the Lord.
they heard the words, but they did not hear, they did not have the ears to hear
because their hearts were calloused, they were turned to stone by sin
they had made themselves nearly unable to respond to the Word of God, and He had sent them plenty of messengers
we know the parable that Jesus taught about the man businessman who owned the vineyard and sent people to check on it, eventually He sent His son and the people in charge killed Him
it’s as if Jeremiah was one of the people sent that was disregarded
20 Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon:
we see that part of this letter was a letter of good news, and part of it was telling those in babylond of the impending judgement for those back home
and there is one last part of the letter...
21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;
so God is specifically calling out one particular false prophet by name, that is not a good place to be
He is falsely prophesying to the His people who He is rehabilitating back into shape through the exile
and God pronounces judgement upon this individual, who is flying in the face of God’s plan, and again, that is just not a good place to be
let’s continue on and see His fate...
22 And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
23 Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord.
we see that this person will be roasted in a fire and will become a scare story for years to come
and we know through historical records that this was a method of execution that the babylonians used sometimes
it’s amazing how God’s Word is proven correct time and time again in so many different ways
and we see this as a parallel to hell, dont we, so God gives His people a stark reminder of what could happen to them if they continue to live life flying in the face of God
CONCLUSION
In this letter, although we see judgement on God’s people, we know that it’s not just for no reason
it’s part of God’s greater plan, to tear them down in order that He might build them up again better
and He encourages them, so that they don’t give up through this process, God has a plan for them, and for them to give up would be throwingg away something great
God then tells them that there is an expected end, and that He will show them peace and good things after they make it through this time
and we know that God’s Word would come to pass, and that they would enter a spiritual golden age
they’d come back and re-establish a temple, they’d come back and be closer to God than they had been for a long time
But God also gives them a stark warning, and even gives them a live example to be slain in front of their eyes, of what the implications are of continuing to rebel against Him
so ultimately, this letter is about readjusting the people, and God showing them the mindset that they need to have
that God will provide them great things and a wonderful path forward, even though they had fallen so far into sin, He gives them a way out
and that’s exactly what He’s done for us, and we could take so many lessons away from this story, but God has done this for us
God promises us an expected end and peace and great things , should we just go with Him, He will provide us with everything we need
if we ever go through chastisement, we should use it as a time to readjust, and to never give up, and use it as an opportunity to become closer to God than ever and experience our own spiritual golden age