Obituary of a Nation
Notes
Transcript
As you get older you will find yourself doing odd things like reading the obituaries just to see if someone is in there that you know. Sometimes you are surprised at who you see there. Other times you’re not. You may say “I knew it wouldn’t be long. I saw her the other day and she didn’t look good.”
If you’ve been studying the book of Jeremiah with us, you’re not surprised to read of her death in chapter 52. She has not looked good for a long time. She has been on life support for 51 chapters.
This chapter reads like an obituary for the nation of Israel. When we read this chapter, we are reminded of what the Bible says about nations and God:
He makes nations great, and he destroys them; Job 12:23
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:10
There is not a nation on this earth that God needs. God can get along fine without any of us. However, there is not a nation on this earth does not need God.
Sometimes I’ll read an obituary of someone I know and I’ll think about my own mortality. I’ll think about how my name will be there one day. As we read this obituary this morning, I want us to consider that our nation could fall just as quickly as Jerusalem did. Let’s learn some lessons from the fall of Jerusalem.
1. The nation was led by ungodly people (1-11).
A. Zedekiah was a cowardly King.
He was the last King of Judah.
His father was Josiah. A godly man.
His brother Jehoiakim reigned 11 years. Ungodly.
His nephew was Jehoiachin (reigned 3 months) Ungodly
Zedekiah was appointed as a puppet by Babylon.
Verse 2 says he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
He was an idolater (2) “all that Jehoiakim”
He was young “21 years old” 32 when the nation fell
He was rebellious (3)
Jeremiah told Zedekiah that the Lord was going to discipline the nation. Babylon was coming and he should submit to them. For some time Zedekiah submitted to Babylon. But then he decided to make an alliance with Egypt. He believed Egypt would protect him from Babylon.
Jeremiah told him this was a mistake. He said he was only making things worse for the nation.
Do you know what his greatest concern was? His greatest concern was that the Babylonians might turn him over to his own people who had defected to Babylon (38:19). He had so ruined his country that he was afraid of his own people.
Once the walls of Jerusalem were breached and the Babylonians entered Jerusalem look at what he does. Look at verse 8. He ran for his life. He abandoned the city with a group of soldiers and officials.
He is captured and taken to the King of Babylon. Look at what they do to him (10-11):
Slaughtered his sons before his eyes.
Slaughtered his officials before his eyes.
Put out his eyes.
Bound him in chains and took him as a POW to Babylon.
This cowardly king had no backbone. He would not stand for God. He would not submit to the Word of the Lord. The last thing he saw was the death of the next generation.
A nation that is led by cowardly political leaders will witness the death of the next generation.
Jeremiah knew Zedekiah’s father well and he was a godly man who:
Tore down idols
Cast out witches
Died fighting against the Egyptians
Let me tell you about another King who didn’t run from battle. His name is Jesus. When the world came against Him he didn’t turn and run. He stood up and walked right into the enemies camp. King Jesus is the example for us all.
Jeremiah was the same age as Zedekiah’s father. Instead of listening to the wisdom of this man of God he did what he thought the people wanted him to do. It is an immature thing to rule by peer pressure.
Illust.
In confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Senator Blackburn asked her a simple question. She asked
“Can you provide a definition for the word woman?”
Ketanji Brown replied “No I can’t. I’m not a biologist.”
When a nations rulers will no longer tell its citizens the truth about what is right and wrong that nation is in trouble.
Parenting has changed a lot. Many kids don’t get told no anymore. The kids rule the roost. We’re seeing that in our politicians now. Too many politicians wanna win elections so they tell the world what they want to hear. That’s what Zedekiah did. He paid the price for it.
B. Other leaders followed in Zedekiah’s footsteps.
Politicians blamed Jeremiah for killing morale. They thought he should be telling people how great their nation was.
The prophets said Jeremiah’s message was not true:
The prosperity preachers- “Peace, Peace”
The plagiarizing preachers- Some of them were just stealing messages from others (23:30).
There are many voices speaking in our nation. Make sure you are listening to the right ones.
If you’re following the crowd you’re probably in trouble.
Jesus told us narrow is the way
Jesus told us the first would be last
The Bible tells us the preaching of the cross is foolishness
But we still want to look for the celebrity.
We still want to get behind the shiniest thing out there.
We still want to be popular.
Our own denomination is crumbling from the top down because the celebrity preachers have more skeletons in their closet than a cemetery does.
Follow the Bible folks, not the crowd.
C. God cast the nation from His presence (3).
Verse 3 is a sad verse.
Why did He cast them out? The verse says why. He was angry. God had enough.
Some of the saddest words in the Bible are “God gave them up” . We see those words in Romans 1.
God gave them up to the lusts of their hearts (Rom. 1:24)
God gave them up to dishonorable passions (Rom. 1:26)
Let me tell you four words you don’t want to hear from God. You don’t want to hear:
Thy will be done!
If God gives us over to ourselves we are in trouble. God cast the nation of Judah out!
2. The nation died slowly.
A. Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city of Jerusalem (4-6).
About 14 years passed from the moment Babylon first conquered the area Judah was located in until they completely overthrew the city.
The nation slowly died over a period of ten years while Babylon ruled. Nebuchadnezzar used the strategy of a siege to take the city completely.
Over a period of 18 months he cut all supplies off going in and out of the city. He and his troops just waited. God had warned that the city would be destroyed by:
Famine
Disease
Sword
Look at verse 6. There was no food in the land. That’s a bad way to die! Jeremiah described this when he wrote Lamentations:
They cry to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers' bosom. (Lam 2:12)
The tongue of the nursing infant sticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.
(Lam. 4:4)
Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
by lack of the fruits of the field.
The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food
during the destruction of the daughter of my people. (Lam. 4:9-10)
As the dead piled up disease spread. Then a breach was made in the wall. Those who were still alive were so weak they could barely fight.
The nation was a shell of itself.
B. Our nation is growing weaker.
Illustration: The other day working in yard it dawned on me that if I told my granny I was buying dirt, pine straw, and bottled water she would have thought I’d lost my mind.
Things have changed.
Our work ethic has weakened. Few are willing to work hard anymore. The Bible says if you refuse to work you shouldn’t eat.
Our morals have weakened. We may not be boiling babies but we sure are aborting them.
Our standards have weakened. The standard of truth is no longer the Bible. Jesus said man cannot live on bread alone. Without the bible we will starve to death spiritually and grow weaker and weaker.
Spiritually speaking our nation is skin and bones! We are not prepared to fight! We are sitting ducks for Satan!
3. The nation took for granted its relationship with God (12-23).
A. Babylon destroyed the Temple (13).
There’s a lot they destroyed:
The king’s house
All the houses of Jerusalem
Every great house
But what stands out is they burned the Temple to the ground.
They broke a lot of the furniture up that was large. They took it in pieces back to Babylon.
They took all the utensils used in the Temple to Babylon. Listed are:
Pots
Shovels
Snuffers
Sprinkling bowls
Dishes
All this stuff was made of bronze and therefore valuable.
Can you imagine an invading army coming to America and you watch soldiers do this to your church?
B. Why did God allow the Temple to be destroyed?
It was doing the people no good. Their worship was fake.
It had been desecrated by false gods. “They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it.” (Jer. 32:34)
It symbolized that God was not pleased with their worship.
They believed if they had a Temple and they performed certain duties they were ok with God.
C. The nation that takes God lightly does not take God seriously.
Our nation has moved through the years:
One nation under God. We were moral and churches were full.
Churches were full but we were immoral.
Churches are almost empty, and we are immoral.
What’s next?
Churches will be empty, and we will be even more immoral.
Please understand that your view of church reflects your view of God.
What God is doing on this earth He is doing through the church. If you’re not interested in what the church is doing, you’re not interested in what God is doing.
Churches will cease to exist if people stop coming.
1) Preachers will give up. They will! They’re only human. They prepare and pray and serve and no one shows up. Many will give up. They will quit because they will think they’re doing no good.
2) The next generation will not appreciate the church like you did. A church filled with only senior citizens is close to closing the doors.
Our churches aren’t getting burned down but they are closing down.
A study showed that in 2019 4,500 churches closed in the US.
Another study showed that the average worship attendance for churches in the U.S. dropped from 137 people to 65 people over the past two decades.
I think many people take their religion for granted in the US. They want the churches to exist but they don’t want to be devoted to the church.
They want it here if they need it.
They want to be the churches priority if they need something from the church, but they won’t make church their priority.
They want it for a:
Funeral
Wedding
Holiday
Financial assistance
Prayer
Children’s programs
Donation
Baptism
Communion
If the Lord tarries, there will be fewer and fewer churches in the US. What will folks do when they look up one day and there isn’t a church on every corner?
That’s what happened in Jerusalem. They looked up one day and it was all taken from them. They took it lightly and then it was gone.
4. Hope was given to the nation (31-34).
A. King Jehoiachin was treated well.
After spending 37 years in prison Jehoiachin was released. It was customary for kings in that region and time to sometimes keep captured kings for themselves. This symbolized their power over the kings.
Jehoiachin was treated better than these other conquered kings. That’s what the phrase “a seat above” means. He was able to dress in normal clothing, given food and other items to meet his daily needs, lived with some measure of freedom in Babylon his remaining days.
Why does this matter?
It shows there is still a son of David who is alive. As long as there is a son of David alive there is hope for the nation. The Messiah can come.
In the genealogy of Jesus, in Matthew 1:11-12 guess who we see. We this King. Jehoiachin is there. God preserved a lineage so the Messiah could come.
B. Christ is the hope of the nations.
He is the hope of our nation.
He said He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Folks we can’t give up!
Jeremiah preached for over four decades. Few listened.
He was mocked.
He was persecuted.
But in the end his preaching was vindicated.
Jeremiah wasn’t special.
Jeremiah just repeated what God said.
That’s what our job is.
Repeat what God says in this Book!
Be faithful to God’s plan!
Things may look dark but there is a son of David who is alive! His name is Jesus!
Just as the book of Jeremiah has come to an end one day the history of our nation will come to an end.
Every nation will fall only the church will stand.
Jesus still has the power to:
Save
Transform
Uphold
We could be a part of a revival.
We could see God do great things.
When we live in repentance and dependence on Christ, He will accomplish great things through us.
C. If this nation has a future, it will be found in Christ.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. We honor those who gave their lives so we could live in freedom in this nation. The greatest way to honor them is to live for Christ.
We are thankful for their sacrifice.
But it is Christ who is holding this nation up. Without Him this nation will fall. Therefore, the greatest way to show honor to those who died fighting for our freedom is to live our lives for Christ.
We need God’s blessing on this country. His blessing is upon those who obey him.
Will we be here in 50 years?
100 years?
I pray we will. But if we do not turn to Christ I am not so sure we will be.
Come to Christ if you haven’t.
Return to Christ if you have strayed.
Remain in Christ if you are in Him.