Untitled Sermon (41)

God’s Promise of Restoration

I went back in history, recent history, and looked at what we have been doing on Wednesday evenings. We started in the Old Testament, just going through the major events, way back in August of (get this) 2013. We have strayed into other things from time to time but for the most part we have been seven years just strolling through the Old Testament; the creation, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph then the Exodus. We looked at the conquest of Canaan in Joshua, the Judges then the kings, the division of the kingdom after Solomon, then the rebellion of Israel and Judah. Then we looked at the fall and exile of the people of the Northern Kingdom Israel into Assyria and beyond. Finally we came to the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem because God’s people kept on worshiping false gods. Just saying it like that doesn’t really sound like 7 years worth of material but there is a whole lot to see and learn from the Old Testament. We are not going to finish with the events of the Old Testament tonight but we are going to change directions after tonight. We are going to look very quickly tonight at God’s restoration of Judah and Jerusalem or the promise of that restoration then next week we will move into the New Testament for a little while and this lesson is a good place to set the stage. Let’s pray.

All the way back in Deuteronomy God warned His people through Moses that when they refused to obey and worship Him and Him alone they would go into captivity and scattered all over the world. Remember this is long before they had conquered the Promised Land, had any city walls for their own cities and even before they had a king. Deuteronomy 28:36-37, 47-52 36 “The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.[1] 47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you. 52 “They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you[2] None of this needs explanation, God warned them even before they crossed the Jordan River into Canaan that this is what would happen if they did not obey Him and worship Him. Now fast forward in time some 800 years and this has all taken place just as God had said through Moses. God sent prophet after prophet to warn them and call them to repentance, ending with the prophet Jeremiah and still they kept on rebelling and here they are, Israel the Northern Kingdom scattered all over the world and Judah the Southern Kingdom serving another people as their captives and slaves; just like God said.

But wait a minute. We have been talking about how we studied the OT all the way back to Genesis and there God promised One who would set all things right after the fall and He told Abraham that from him would come One who would bless all the families of the world and God told David that there would never cease to be one of His descendants on the throne so how it that going to happen if all of the descendants of Abraham are scattered all over or are slaves to a foreign king? Well I’m glad you asked that question. In Jeremiah 25 God promises to bring destruction on Judah and Jerusalem using His servant Babylon. But then in verses 11-12 we read: 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.12 ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.[3] And in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 20 And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.[4]

They were going into captivity for 70 years. That may seem like a long time but remember they have been rebelling for over 800 and God has shown a great deal of patience and mercy. Now His mercy is going to be shown in the return of this people to their own home. 2 Chronicles 36:22-2322 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,23Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up![5]

Do you see what is happening here? God has used Babylon to call His people to repentance through correction. He has punished Babylon for their cruelty to Judah and the other nations by conquering them using the Persians and the Persian king Cyrus is going to send the people of God home after 70 years and provide for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. The overall picture is this: God’s people rebelled against Him but He is going to provide the way back to their land in His presence. We will get back to that later on when we look at Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Malachi but rest assured that the temple was rebuilt and the people returned; God’s word was fulfilled literally. But to be sure His word was also fulfilled in a much bigger way.

God’s crown of creation, mankind, rebelled against Him. Romans 3:23 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [6] and Galatians 3:22 says: 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. [7] So all of mankind is in captivity, not to Babylon but to sin. And that sin that we are captive to has a huge cost or more accurately wages; Romans 6:23 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.[8] Just like there was no way for the people of Judah to get out of Babylon, had God not done something, there is no way for us to get out of the wages of sin unless God does something. And something He did. Romans 5:8-9 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. [9] Now because God did something in sending Jesus to take our place under that captivity we no longer are slaves to sin. John 3:16 says that God sent His only Son that those who believe in Him will not parish in captivity to sin but will have eternal life. Romans 10:9-13 says it this way: 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”[10]

Everything we have seen from Genesis through Jeremiah has pointed to this one fact: God frees His people from captivity. Let’s pray.

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Dt 28:36–37). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Dt 28:47–52). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3] The New King James Version. (1982). (Je 25:11–12). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[4] The New King James Version. (1982). (2 Ch 36:20–21). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[5] The New King James Version. (1982). (2 Ch 36:22–23). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[6] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ro 3:23). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[7] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ga 3:22). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[8] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ro 6:22–23). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[9] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ro 5:8–9). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[10] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ro 10:9–13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.