God Disciplines a Rebellious People

TGP A Nation Divided • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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God's wrath is just, yet it is not without the promise of grace and mecy to those who repent of their rebellion against Him

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Our text for today lands us at a major turning point in the history of God’s people. In our Gospel Project we have been working our way through the Old Testament, understanding each of the stories through the lens of the Gospel, and today we are at a place where the nation of Israel is going to have to start doing life in a very different way…does that sound familiar?

Tension

God chose Abraham from among all the people of the world to grow his family in such a way that it would be blessing to every family on earth

Abraham son Isaac gave birth to Jacob who was later named Israel and this small tribe of Israel was born

Then God sent a great “virus”... I mean...famine, and through the story of Joseph, it worked to send the small tribe of Israel into Egypt to be cared for

While there in Egypt this small tribe grew in number to be a great people, so great than when a new Pharaoh took the throne he enslaved them to keep them from growing stronger and threatening his authority.

But even in slavery, they grew greater in number and strength as they cried out to the God of their Ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And God heard their cry and sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt to meet Him at Mount Sinai where this great people group was given the law that would teach them how to go from a large people group to a great and Godly nation

After 40 years of wrong turns in the wilderness, they finally arrived at the promised land that was filled with luxuries like milk, honey and great vineyards and they again committed themselves to the law that would teach them how to be a great and Godly nation.

But as they got settled. As life got easier. They started to look around at other nations and they desired and demanded what every other nation had - an earthly king. The LORD warned them that earthly kings are just as flawed as each one of them, but He gave them what they asked for

demanded. It’s a good reminder…to be careful what we ask God for, He just might give it to us.

The first King showed them how flawed an earthly King could be, but through trials and war the next king, the great King David took the throne. Though a man of war, David was a good King because David led the people in the law that taught them how to be a great and Godly nation. And under David’s leadership they rose to the pinnacle of their existence as a great nation, but it was all downhill from there.

David’s son Solomon reigned over a time of wisdom and peace, but in his luxurious lifestyle he abandoned the law of God and introduced the worship of other false gods. And virtually every king after him followed suit.

became the greatest nation on earth, and under his son Solomon the nation experienced peace and wisdom beyond what any of us could imagine. So much so that this era was and is considered the glory days of the nation of Israel. For after Solomon the kings no longer followed the law that would have kept them a great and Godly nation.

The nation was spilt in two. None of the Kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel obeyed God’s law, and only a few of the descendants of David in the Southern Kingdom of Judah did.

But God continued to reach out to each generation through his messengers the prophets. Men like Habakkuk that we studied last week, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah. These men spoke the very words of God to the people, pleading with them, urging them and demonstrating to them their need to return to the law of the LORD that would make them into a great and Godly nation. But they did not listen to the prophets, they just continued on, living their lives with the label of “God’s people” when in truth they were only living for themselves.

Our text for today brings them into the wake up call that finally gets their attention. Everything that God’s prophets have told them would happen, is now going to happen.

But out text today is about how all that has changed. In order to

So Go ushured And the Kingdom of Israel became everything that the people of God hoped it would be. The

Follow His way of being His people

To give us a good picture of where we are, I thought it might be fun for us to watch the Gospel Project video that our kids would have watched if we were doing Sunday School as we typically do. This will give them some familiarity and it will give us all a chance to see just one of the creative ways that our kids are learning God’s Word each week. So let’s check this out...

As I said, today we are at a place where the nation of Israel is going to have to start doing life in an entirely different way. They chose to ignore

This morning, I want to show you the video that our kids would have watched if we had Sunday School like we typically do.

To introduce our text for today I thought we would show the overview video that our kids would have watched if we were doing things as we typically do. For one thing, it will give us all a taste of how our kids are learning God’s Word and for another it gives us a great overview of the topic so that we can discuss it more plainly. Not to mention it is just a fun medium, so let’s take a look...

We are going to experience God’s answer through the Gospel Project video that our kids would have watched if we were doing things as we typically do. This will give us all a taste of how our kids are learning God’s Word each week, plus it is just a fun way to tell a story…so let’s take a look...

Kids Video: Judah taken Captive

Tension

Thankfully, God’s people being dragged away in chains is not the end of the story. The prophet Jeremiah told the people several times that Babylon would come and destroy Jerusalem and carry off the people, but that was not all He told them.

Jeremiah 29:10 ESV

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

God’s plan was always that His people would return, and we hear this in the very next verse:

the in the very next verse we have the ever popular “Graduation” verse of . Hopefully the next time you write this on a graduation card you will remember the context that it is written in:

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

says

So even as God has allowed, even brought this discipline on His people, He is not leaving them without hope. God always disciplines His children as a means of grace, aiming not at final destruction but at future restoration.

is always brought with grace,

We are going to look at the account of these events in the very last chapter of the book of 2 Chronicles, but before we do, I want to ask you to bear with me as I geek out a little bit on some of the unique particulars of this book because I think it will add layers of understanding to our study today.

Like many other Old Testament books, 1st and 2nd Chronicles are only one book in the original Hebrew Bible. They were divided into two when we translated it to Greek and then Latin. I know I have mentioned this before, but the ancient Hebrew language didn’t have any vowel letters so when we translated them into languages that have vowels, the scrolls got too large to deal with.

In addition to the size difference, this book was also not found where we find it in our Bible today. Our Bibles are organized more like a Library, where similar types of literature are gathered together. If you have ever challenged yourself to read through the Bible from beginning to end in order then you might have found the book of Chronicles to be a little frustrating because it seems like just a repeat of the books of Samuel and Kings, and in many ways it is. Which makes it difficult to wade through again right after those other books. We find it about halfway through our Old Testaments, but Chronicles is the very last book in the Hebrew Bible.

Regardless of it’s size, this book was not written as a “moment by moment headline news, on the ground as it happens” kind of thing. Nor was it written for some disconnected history class to look back and wonder. This book was written for a particular people group to understand who they are.

hat is important for us to remember when reading changed , or more accurately someone from the this wOur text for this morning lands us where we have been heading for several weeks. Prophet after prophet has been declaring the Word of the Lord to the People of God and they have not listened.

They were just rolling along doing life as usual when something from the other side of their world completely changed , or more accurately someone from the this wOur text for this morning lands us where we have been heading for several weeks. Prophet after prophet has been declaring the Word of the Lord to the People of God and they have not listened.

esn’t have any vowels so when you may have mentioned this before, but several of the books in the Old Testament that we have as “1st’s” and “2nd’s” were made that way because their are no vowels in the ancient Hebrew language. So when these books were translated into Greek and then eventually Latin they decided to divide them into two books so they would fit on one scroll.

The reason that this is significant is that it was not written as a “moment by moment headline news, on the ground as it happens” kind of thing. Nor was it written for some disconnected history class to look back and wonder. This book was written for for the people of God…as they returned to the land that was once called “Isreal”.

? - But what is even more important than the number of books in the Jewish Bible is where the book of Chronicles was placed. It is the very last book of the Hebrew Bible. If you have ever taken on the challenge of reading through the whole Bible in order you may have wondered why we have the books of Samuel, followed by the books of Kings followed by these books of Chronicles which cover exactly the same stuff as the previous books. In can be a little frustrating as it brings out the “Been there, done that” attitude, but when you realize that Chronicles was actually the last book in the Hebrew Bible it flavors our understanding a little more.

It includes the written account of what happened up to and as they left, but it was written and being read... as they were coming back, 70 some years later.

actuThese Chronicles, 1st and 2nd, where written together as one book for the people of God…as they returned to the place that was once called “Isreal”.

You see the book of Chronicles was written for the people of God…as they returned to the land that was once called “Isreal”. It includes the written account of what happened up to and as they left, but it was written and being read... as they were coming back, 70 some years later.

For 70 years God’s people had been exiled all over the known world. They had been asking themselves, “Who am I now?”. After everything that I have known and trusted in my entire life has been taken away, who am I now? They were living in foreign lands, ruled by foreign leaders, serving foreign people in their foreign customs and all the while trying to figure out what happened? How did we get here?

hold on to being Jewish and asking themselves what went so terribly wrong?

The book of Chronicles was given to these returning exiles to read on their way back to the promised land so that they would know all about what sent them into exile in the first place. That as a people they had forgotten God and decided that they could live as “God’s People” when in fact they were only living for themselves. So God, in his love for them, disciplined their rebellion in order to restore them back to a right relationship with Him.

hey were living in foreign lands, ruled by foreign leaders, serving foreign people and yet they remember something about being a chosen people of God. Over time they must have picked up all kinds of new habits, attitudes and perspectives that began to eat away at their identity as God’s chosen people.

This is where I think we find such a strong application or us today. The people of God were in the position of no longer being free do things the way that they once did. Being exiled all over the known world, they picked up new habits, attitudes and perspectives that began to eat away at their identity as God’s chosen people.

So God, in his love for them, disciplined their rebelliong in order to restore them back to a right relationship with Him.

in any way that they chose. that what they went through was because they rebelled against God and in his love for them He could not allow them to continue to do so. He brought this discipline into the life of His people to bring them back to a right relationship with Him.

For a season of time, God stripped away all of the things that they thought were “essential” so that they could see what really mattered was their relationship with Him. It makes me wonder, if God isn’t trying to do the same thing in the lives of His people today.

So if you haven’t already, open your Bibles to the very last chapter of 2 Chronicles, I will pray and then we will take a look at what it was that led God’s people into this rebellion that God needed to address.

How did we go from being the people of the great King David to being a people without a home? And who are we now? What hope do we have now that our lives have been forever altered?

And yet they remember something about being a chosen people of God. Over time they must have picked up all kinds of new habits, attitudes and perspectives that began to eat away at their identity as God’s chosen people.

Let’s pray

How can I claim to be God has allowed such trials in our life.

What does it mean to be a child of God, when the nation He founded has been dissolved?

What does it mean to be a child of God, when He has allowed such trials in our life?

Who am I…now that all the things that I once depended on have been stripped away?

And now that I am going back, how do I keep from

Who are we…now that the things that we once depended on have been stripped away?

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

The anonymous author of Chronicles, known as the Chronicler, wrote his book as a summary of the entire history of God’s people, starting with Adam and traveling through to the point of the exile in order to establish for God’s people what happened, why it happened and what they can do about it. God allowed these evil nations to come in and conquer His people, because they were no longer being His people. They were trying to live as “God’s People” the way they wanted to live as “God’s People”.

The Chaldeans that God promised Habakkuk have now come and they destroyed everything.

These Babylonians, or as Habakkuk called them the Chaldeans, have conquered God’s people and carried them away.

Corrective over Punitive -

Jeremiah 29:10 ESV

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Truth

The first thing that we will see at the end of this lengthy historical book is that:

1. Rebellion against God results when the heart is hardened ()

We can see how this is present in both the King, the priests and the people.

2 Chron 36:11-

2 Chronicles 36:11–14 ESV

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. 13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. 14 All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 36:11–13 ESV

So we see the familiar phrase there that marks most every King in this book “He did evil in the sight of the LORD his God” So this part is not new, and even ignoring God’s prophet was not new, but what was new is that this time God told the King of Judah to surrender the holy city of Jerusalem into the hands of this foreign pagan dictator. Surrender? Really? To the Babylonians? The Chaldeans?

Remember Habakkuk last week? He was complaining because God’s people were so corrupt and God wasn’t doing anything. So God reassured him that he was doing something. He was sending these guys. The pagan Babylonians or Chaldeans were more evil than Israel - and yet they were the instrument that God chose to discipline His people. Showing that their is nothing outside of his control. The Prophet Habakkuk then acknowledge God’s will in this as absolute, King Zedekiah did not.

Matthew 13:15 ESV

15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

And this was not something that was decided in this very moment, it was just something that was revealed in this moment. The people of God had established their hardness of heart a long time ago and it spread out into every area of their lives. They were living just like everyone else around them. They did not stand out as a beacon of hope and righteousness because their was no difference between how they lived and how any other nation on earth lived.

Mathew 13:15

2 Chronicles 36:14 ESV

14 All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.

Even holy Temple where they were to meet with their holy God had been defiled, nothing was as God designed it to be.

Even the Temple where they were to meet with their holy God had been defiled -

A hardened heart always leads to rebellion against God.

Mathew 13:15

2. Rebellion against God results when God’s Word is rejected ()

We have seen this repeatedly in our study of the Old Testament prophets, but remember that this book was written to the people of God as they were returning to the promised land after exile. So the author of Chronicles, in this summary at the end of his book, wants to make sure that the people understand that the exile they had lived through was a direct result of their rejection of the Word of God as He sent it through His prophets.

2 Chronicles 36:15 ESV

15 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.

God is not required to warn his people when they disobey Him. His majesty and might, purity, power and perfection demands our obedience the very first time and every time…but in His compassion He did (and does) send warnings. Over and over again, He sends warnings, but the people ignored them. He sent his prophets right up in their face so that they had to do something with their message. They couldn’t say, “I didn’t know” because God had made it so plain to them. They had to make the choice to either accept the message or outright reject it. And they rejected it. Over and over again. More than that, they attacked the messengers sent to deliver God’s compassionate warnings.

2 Chronicles 36:16 ESV

16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

We know that this is always a dangerous position to hold with any authority in our lives. Right? Whether you are talking about obeying your parents, obey your boss, the police or a judge. The first time you are caught rebelling against their authority, you might receive a warning, but don’t count on that the second time. And you know it isn’t happening the third…the fourth.. and on and on. In fact, if all you ever get is warnings, then you don’t really see that person as having any real authority at all.

Now try, if you can, and take those same principles and apply them to our infinite creator God who has complete authority over everything and everyone. Now do you see his incredible compassion? To wait for generations of prophets before He sent his judgement. God’s people had crossed a line and their was no going back now. “there was no remedy”

This is always a dangerous position to hold with any authority in our lives. Right? Whether you are talking about obeying your parents, your boss, the police, or a judge. It is one thing to be sent away with a warning but it is another thing when you come back in for the same

God’s people had crossed a line and their was no going back now. “there was no remedy”

Now try, if you can, and take those same principles and apply them to our infinite creator God who has complete authority over everything and everyone. Now do you see his incredible compassion? To wait for generations of prophets before He sent his judgement. There is no room for us to be rejecting God’s Word, especially in light of the grace and mercy that He has already shown us in it.

know that the next time things will not go It is one thing to get caught doing something wrong, you might be given a warning be sent away with a warning but it is another thing when you come back in for the same

This bring us to our third and final theme for the week in that...

2 Chronicles 36:15–16 ESV

15 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

God’s heart is never hardened like ours. He walks in compassion for His people, but there comes a point when that compassion leads him to act in ways that can seem harsh. The truth is that even God’s judgement is an act of compassion in that He knows that continuing in a life that is cut off from Him is not In fact, the heart of the people was so hard that they threw Jeremiah in jail, accusing him of being a traitor who was loyal to King Nebuchadnezzer when in fact he was the only one who was loyal to the LORD.

Rebellion against God results in God’s wrath being stirred ()

Let’s include verse 16 here

2 Chronicles 36:16–21 ESV

16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy. 17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19 And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. 20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

2 Chron

And just like that, the holy city of Jerusalem was destroyed. The great of David, gone. The Temple of the LORD - burned to the ground. The place that every Jewish man and women pointed to for their identity, value and significance has been reduced to rubble and they are not even standing in that rubble. Those that survived have been led away from this place in chains. This is where the questions come in. Who are we now?

Don’t miss who it was that brought this into being. Just like he told Habakkuk, God prepared the Babylonians for this task of disciplining His people and bringing them out into exile. God did this. It was His act of corrective discipline on His children. Otherwise, they would have just continued on in the way that they had been going. With King after King “doing evil in the sight of the LORD” and Prophet after Prophet coming in and warning them of God’s judgement.

If we were living through it, we might have a hard time seeing it, but the truth is that this was an act of divine grace that God sent this judgment into the lives of His people, in hopes of restoration. Because they were continuing in their sin in ways that where destroying them. So God brought in the Babylonian empire to put an end to everything that they were doing, and do life completely different. Now they could see what the Prophets where trying to say. Something is not right now. Something is not going as it should. Something needs to change.

, God’s wrath is stirred and his judgement is realized through the empire of the Babylonians.

And the author of Chronicles wanted to make sure that those who were reading this account, those who were returning to the promised land of their forefathers understood that even though they had been disciplined for the past 70 years, God’s plan was always for restoration. The covenant promises that God made to Abraham, Moses and David are still working themselves out in His intended time and way. God is still in control. He has not left the throne. He has just used the past 70 years of exile to teach His children that what is most important is not the great city of David or the Holy Temple of the LORD, but how they relate to Him in those places and everywhere else.

But that will not be the end, just as surely as God judged the Israelites for their unfaithfulness he judged Babylon for their wickedness and 70 years later Cyrus was on the throne again...

Verses in Jeremiah that speak of Cyrus....

Gospel Application

So how do we apply a text like this? Well, we too are finding ourselves having to do life very differently right now. Of course, it is nothing as devestated as having been taken captive by a nation, but a great deal of our life does seem captive right now to this virus.

Of course, I am not at all suggesting that God is planning on US dealing with this world wide pandemic for the next 70 years or even 70 days. I also am not one to blame a world wide pandemic on one particular sin. This seems dangerous to me since this seems to be something that affects everyone, and I have never been comfortable blaming catastrophes on other people just because they sin differently than I do.

No, I think that when things like this happen, our best way to understand it is as Christians is to remember that this world is not as God created it to be. That while our own sin does have devastating effects on our lives individually, when sin was introduced into our world by our first parents, Adam and Eve it fundamentally changed the good world that God had made. So that now we have virus’, disease, storms, earthquakes, famines and even death that God never intended His good world to have. But the good news is that God is not willing for the world that He created to be so good, to remain broken like this.

In our text today, God righteously punished his people for their sin, but He remained faithful to them and kept the promise He had made to bring a savior from David’s line who be our King forever. Ultimately, God punished all sin through his son, Jesus.

He has made a way for His good world to return to the way that He designed it to be.

We know that God can use evil acts to bring about his good purposes because we see this contrast most vividly in Jesus. The only wholly innocent man to ever walk the earth was betrayed, beaten, wrongly accused in a puppet court and sentenced to die just to keep an angry mob at bay. Again God used an evil pagan empire, this time the Roman Empire, to accomplish his good will of punishing Jesus for our sin. All of this was to accomplish God’s purposes of making the world that He created new again. A World with all of the good things that He created for us, but without sin. The Bible describes this world in very last book of the Bible,

Revelation 21:1–5 ESV

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Revelation 21:1–5 ESV

Revelation 21:1-5

It is only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we have access to this world that He has made new. If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ as your LORD and Savior, today would be a great day. Won’t you reach out to us today. You can call us here at the Church or message us on facebook. Don’t let anything get in your way. We don’t have 70 year time stamp on this one, but we do know that the time is drawing closer and closer when Jesus will return and usher in this new World for those who have submitted to Him as their King. Oh how we long for this glorious day!

We have the world-wide problem of sin. It is more destructive than any virus, disease, storm, famine or other catastrophe. While all of these things are devastating in our world, the devastation of of our world sin problem reaches much further.

In our text today, God righteously punished his people for their sin, but He remained faithful to them and kept the promise He had made to David to preserve a remnant and provide a king. Ultimately, God punished sin through his son, Jesus, and made Him our King forever.

He has made a way for His good world to return to the way that He designed it to be. If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ as your LORD and Savior, today would be a great day. The time is drawing closer and closer when Jesus will return and usher in this new World, but only those who trusted in him will be able to enjoy this world with Him. Oh how we long for this glorious day!

Ultimately, God punished sin through his son, Jesus, and made Him our King forever.

Landing

If you have placed your hope and trust in Jesus, then one of the things that I hope for you in this season of doing life differently is that you will take the time that you have right now and evaluate how well you have been living under the Kingship of Jesus. Are there things that you have been living as if they are more “essential” than they should be for a child of our King. Many of us are using various forms of digital communication during this time to stay connected and working, and I am sure that Netflix and all the other movie subscriptions are being well utilized. But don’t just wish this time away guys. Don’t miss the opportunity that you have to look at how you have been living and see if there is anything that your King would have you do differently.

truly evaluate what “doing life differently” can and should look like even after the virus prohibitions have been lifted.

willing to tell you that I know that this pandemic is a result of any one particular sin, especially because this pandemic doesn’t seem to be aimedo think

that some time to evaluate those things that you have made to be priorities in your life that are maybe taking the wrong space.

It might be that God is using this event in your life to get your attention on something that you have never been willing to take the time to focus on before. I am not blaming all of this on any of you, i am just saying that in your life, God may be looking to redeem this trial with some space to hear from Him on how your are doing in serving Him as King. Something for us all to consider.

teaching you is what has been the most “essential” things in your life. As we seek to do life differently right now, is there anything that you are being forced to do without that

God is still working! He has preserved the line of David and will establish his forever King! He has in Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray.

We have not been taken captive by a nation, but our lives do seem captive right now to a virus....

Matthew 13:15 ESV

Landing

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