Into the Unknown

Jeremiah 37 “Zedekiah son of Josiah succeeded Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim as king. He was elevated to the throne of the land of Judah by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Neither he nor the officials who served him nor the people of Judah paid any attention to what the Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah. King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to the prophet Jeremiah to say, “Please pray to the Lord our God on our behalf.” (Now Jeremiah had not yet been put in prison. So he was still free to come and go among the people as he pleased. At that time the Babylonian forces had temporarily given up their siege against Jerusalem. They had had it under siege, but withdrew when they heard that the army of Pharaoh had set out from Egypt.) The Lord’s message came to the prophet Jeremiah, “This is what the Lord God of Israel has said, ‘This is what you must say to the king of Judah who sent you to seek my help. “Beware, Pharaoh’s army that was on its way to help…”

Introduction

70% of inmates released from Prison re-offend within 3 years.

Part of the Human condition is a fear of the unknown.

Sometimes we do the WRONG thing, even though we know it’s wrong, because of our fear of what we don’t know. As Christians we face unknowns all the time.

Narratio

Jer 37-44 is longest uninterupted section in the Book. Most of the book bounces back and forth, giving little snipptets all throughout the final 3 kings of Judah. Before the exile, during the exile, after the exile. Like little snapshots

In chapter 37, we get one long uninterupted narrative of the events that led up to the seige of Jerusalem, the exile, and the aftermath.

3 different times the king comes to Jeremiah, asking for help.

Because they’re facing the unknown. Sure, God has laid out for them, in clear plain terms, hey, surrender to Babylon, and you’ll survive. You’ll be carried off in to exile, but you will live, you will prosper.

But how often do we, even though we’ve been told, we’re going to be OK, how often do we panic over not having all the details?

Part of the human condition is that we have this desire to control every element of the situation. We don’t like uncertainty, we don’t like unknowns.

Deep down, we would probably rather step in to a Bad situation but we know what the outcome is going to be than a good situation, but we have no idea what to expect. That’s a flaw in our hearts.

and so 3 different times, Jeremiah gets pulled aside, and they ask him for advice. And he tells them.

And 3 different times, they ignore his advice.

Jeremiah 37:5 NET 2nd ed.

At that time the Babylonian forces had temporarily given up their siege against Jerusalem. They had had it under siege, but withdrew when they heard that the army of Pharaoh had set out from Egypt.)

At some point, King zedekiah, in a last ditch effort to save the city had sent messengers to Egypt, requesting backup to fight off the Babylonians.

We have to remember, Israel and Judah were never large kingdoms.

The Bible gives the impression that they were a vast empire, because the Bible is pinch-zoom focused on Israel and Judah.

But if we zoom out in history, we realize that even at the Height, even during the reign of King David, Israel was never a Big nation. The numbers of troops the Bible describes, the size of the land they controled, they were a modest kingdom.

And by the end here, during the reign of Zedekiah, they were trivial compared to the great empires of the world.

As far as the Babylonians were concerned, as far as the Egyptians were concerned, they were just one of a hundred other little nations to be conquered.

And during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the only other kingdom big enough to give them a run for their money was Egypt.

So king zedekiah calls up the Pharaoh and says, hey we need help, you should come and give us back up.

So naturally, when Babylon figured out the Egyptians were coming to provide backup, they pulled back their troops to re-assess their battle plans. Now we’re fighting against a formidable army, we need to re-group, re-arm, and prepare for a more difficult fight.

Jeremiah 37:6–10 NET 2nd ed.

The Lord’s message came to the prophet Jeremiah, “This is what the Lord God of Israel has said, ‘This is what you must say to the king of Judah who sent you to seek my help. “Beware, Pharaoh’s army that was on its way to help you is about to go back home to Egypt. Then the Babylonian forces will return. They will attack the city and will capture it and burn it down. Moreover, I, the Lord, warn you not to deceive yourselves into thinking that the Babylonian forces will go away and leave you alone. For they will not go away. For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.” ’ ”

The point God is getting across here, is that the Egyptian army is a Band-aid solution.

He plainly tells them, look, they’re not coming. The presence of Egyptian armys has only temporarily delayedthe seige, but mark my words, they will pack up and head back home.

When we face the unknown we have this tendency to rely on Temporary Solutions

Temporary Solutions

Illustration

When I did landscaping for a long time I would get called to fix people’s sprinklers.

And I don’t mean any offense to anyone who works on their own stuff, but I could always tell when people did their own repairs.

As a professional, who had professional tools and training, and the “right” way to do things, I would show up to some of these places and immeidately be like “hmm, you did your own repairs, huh?”

(Elaborate)

And I told them, look, you can keep band-aiding this together.

Application

But how often is that how we are with our spiritual life? How often are we just trying to throw quick fix band-aid solutions to our problems, only to find out that it doesn’t work. Why?

Because we don’t want to put in the effort to Trust in God!

Transition

(Elaborate)

Jeremiah ends up arrested on trumped up Charges, in a pit, out of a pit, and Again, Zedekiah brings Jeremiah In for Advice

Jeremiah 38:14–16 NET 2nd ed.

Some time later Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah brought to him at the third entrance of the Lord’s temple. The king said to Jeremiah, “I would like to ask you a question. Do not hide anything from me when you answer.” Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I answer you, you will certainly kill me. If I give you advice, you will not listen to me.” So King Zedekiah made a secret promise to Jeremiah and sealed it with an oath. He promised, “As surely as the Lord lives who has given us life and breath, I promise you this: I will not kill you or hand you over to those men who want to kill you.”

The “third entrance” to the temple was , the King’s secret entrance.

Like the tunnels they have leading out of the white house .

Why did Zedekiah lead Jeremiah in through the secret third entrance to ask for advice??

Because he didn’t want to be seen talking to Jeremiah.

He knew Jeremiah was right, he knew jeremiah was speaking for the Lord he knew Jeremiah was a prophet

He knew that if he was going to get advice from anybody it needed to be Jeremiah

But he was terrified that someone might see him.

When we’re facing uncertain situations

Approval of People

Zedekiah says, look I need advice, Jeremiah says “ok, but you’re not going to like it” and Zedekiah says “no no no I promise, I won’t hand you over to be killed, no matter what you say.

Jeremiah 38:17–19 NET 2nd ed.

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘You must surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon. If you do, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down. Indeed, you and your whole family will be spared. But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians and they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape from them.’ ” Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Babylonians. The Babylonians might hand me over to them and they will torture me.”

He was worried about what his people would think if he surrendered to Babylon

Never mind the fact that it’s the course of action that would save the most lives

It would have been considered shameful, and he was concerned that his own people—who had already defected to Babylon.. in other words, they had already surrendered,

He was concerned about what they would think instead of what God would think.

Zedekiah even tells Jeremiah after the conversation, hey don’t tell anybody you were here. Just keep it a secret.

Illustration

It’s the exact same thing nicodemus did when he wanted to talk to Jesus

John 3.

Nicodemus calls jesus and says we know you’re from god, we know you have the Spirit of God, because we see you doing all of these miracles, and I’m curious, I want to know more

But also, says nicodemus implicitly, I’m a pharisee. And in case you haven’t noticed, my people don’t like you that much, so that’s why I’m asking you to meet me in the middle of the night—paraphrase is mine

Application

And we seem to be in this place in our culture where it’s just accepted that we’re supposed to be discrete about being obedient to God

We’re supposed to keep it to ourselves, don’t bother anyone with it.

And you know what, no. No I won’t.

I’m not going to be like Zedekiah, I don’t want to be like nicodemus. Because yeah they had a kind of faith. zedekiah had faith enough to talk to Jeremiah and ask his advice, but not enough to let anyone know he did it.

That’s not faith is it.

[—-]

Transition

Chapters 39 through 41, I’ll summarize for you for sake of time\

Nebuchadnezzar does come in, and attacks the city.

he hauls off Zedekiah, and has his family killed, and zedekiah’s eyes gouged out.

Extremely brutal.

King nebuchadnezzar haul’s basically every one left back to babylon. He leaves a very small number o people in charge, just to basically keep the lights on

almost like a skeleton crew. Pull the weeds, manage bandits.

So after the dust settles you end up having this super tiny remnant of people left.

There’s a skirmish, there’s a dustup for power. This guy ishmael comes and he kills the current leader, and then a bunch of other people

Jeremiah and a tiny tiny handful of those people escape from him .

And again, they come to jeremiah asking for help, asking for advice

Jeremiah 42:2–6 NET 2nd ed.

They said to him, “Please grant our request and pray to the Lord your God for all those of us who are still left alive here. For, as you yourself can see, there are only a few of us left out of the many there were before. Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.” The prophet Jeremiah answered them, “Agreed! I will indeed pray to the Lord your God as you have asked. I will tell you everything the Lord replies in response to you. I will not keep anything back from you.” They answered Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do just as the Lord your God sends you to tell us to do. We will obey what the Lord our God to whom we are sending you tells us to do. It does not matter whether we like what he tells us or not. We will obey what he tells us to do so that things will go well for us.”

Bible tip, here in the Old testament

as far as I know, every single time someone says something like this in the Bible, the very next thing they do is exactly the opposite of what they say.

Jeremiah 42:7–16 NET 2nd ed.

Ten days later the Lord’s message came to Jeremiah. So Jeremiah summoned Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him and all the people of every class. Then Jeremiah said to them, “You sent me to the Lord God of Israel to make your request known to him. Here is what he says to you: ‘If you will only stay in this land, I will build you up. I will not tear you down. I will firmly plant you. I will not uproot you. For I am filled with sorrow because of the disaster that I have brought on you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him because I will be with you to save you and to rescue you from his power. I, the Lord, affirm it! I will have compassion on you so that he in turn will have mercy on you and allow you to return to your land.’ “You must not disobey the Lord your God by saying, ‘We will not stay in this land.’ You must not say, ‘No, we will not stay. Instead we will go and live in the land of Egypt where we will not face war, or hear the enemy’s trumpet calls, or starve for lack of food.’ If you people who remain in Judah do that, then listen to the Lord’s message. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, has said, ‘If you are so determined to go to Egypt that you go and settle there, the wars you fear will catch up with you there in the land of Egypt. The starvation you are worried about will follow you there to Egypt. You will die there.

See this time, when Jeremiah was asked what to do, the seige of the city was over.

There’s no longer any danger of staying in the city.

And now, instead of wanting to stay in the city, the people left behind are packed up and getting ready to flee in to egypt. And jeremiah says don’t do it.

And they don’t listen, they insist on fleeing to Egypt for safety. and they take Jeremiah prisoner along with them.

And jeremiah gets there and he immediately notices that they start doing what? they start participating in the Egyptian worship practices, and worshipping the egyptian gods.

When in egypt, do as the egyptians do, right?

And Jeremiah is like no no no, what is wrong with you.

Jeremiah 44:15–17 NET 2nd ed.

Then all the men who were aware that their wives were sacrificing to other gods, as well as all their wives, answered Jeremiah—there was a great crowd of them representing all the people who lived in northern and southern Egypt— “We will not listen to what you claim the Lord has spoken to us! Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles.

Now where have we heard that before? about egypt?

God rescued the people out of egypt, brings them out of Idolotry, and sets them on course to being his Chosen people, what did they say?

We wish we could go back and be slaves. At least back there we had food

At least back when we were worshipping idols we had food.

You want to know why it was such a big deal that they not go back to egypt? Why it was such a big deal that Zedekiah not trust the Egyptian army?

It’s because in the grand history of Israel, the nation of Egypt represents their desire to go back

Back to their old way of life back to their old lives in slavery.

Here’s a truth about the human condition.

When we face the unknown, we have a tendency to fall back on what is

Familiar

Unfortunately, for a lot of Christians what is Familiar is our old way of life before Christ.

Our Former life as slaves in egypt.

When things get hard, we can have this tendency to want to go Back, and the message here in the text is DON’T do it.

Explanation

And it’s the exact same argument, the exact same thing that Paul writes about in the New Testament.

In the book of ephesians Paul writes to the church and says

Ephesians 2:1-10

Ephesians 2:1–10 NET 2nd ed.

And although you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest … But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!— and he raised us up together with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.

Application:

When we face trials in our life, when we face uncertainty, when we don’t know exactly what decisions to make

We can do a lot of things, but the one thing we can’t do is go Back.

Conclusion

I said at the beginning, 70% of inmates re-offend within 3 years

And I really do think it has to do with the fact that when we’re afraid, when we face the unknown, we have this horrible tendency to rely on dumb temporary solutions, and to focus on what people will think of us, and to revert back to what we’re comfortable with.

That’s what the people of Judah did.

3 Times, they wanted the truth, they went to the prophet, they wanted to know what was TRUE from the word of God

and three times, when Jeremiah tried to tell them, they got scared. They backed away.

3 Times Jeremiah told them, you know the thing that is the most scary for you to do?

Whether that’s surrender to Babylon, or to Stay in Judah instead of Fleeing to Egypt, even though the city is destroyed.

The scariest thing, that’s the thing God is saying you need to do.

And if you would just stop, and realize, that God will be with you, you’d realize that you don’t need to fear the unknown.

There’s a lot of things in my life that are unknown, that are scary, that I’m not sure how I’m going to walk through, but I know this

I know my Lord Jesus is with me through it, and that makes it ok

to step out in faith .

(Expand)

Choice—you can revert back, you can rely on worldly solutions, and pleasing people

Or you can step out in faith in your life and trust that God knows what he’s doing

Pray.