Exiled into the Hand of GodOr, Sinners in the Hand of a Good God
Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.
Christopher Hitchens, the well-known atheist, once said, how much vanity must be concealed in order to pretend that one is the personal object of a divine plan? In other words, how arrogant must we be to think that God cares about us as individuals? Now he's not the first person to wonder how anybody could believe that they are personal objects of God's love and attention. David, for example, wrote in Psalm eight, What is the man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than your heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor. Sadly, for Mr. Hitchens, who died in 2011, he now knows exactly how personal God can be.
But for him, it's too late. We, however, know God intimately as our Father, and because of that, we are happy to declare that our help is in the name of the Lord. Amen. Not to us, O, Lord. Not to us, but to your name, give glory. For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Why should the nation say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens, He does all that He pleases, their idols are silver and gold, their work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak, eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear, noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel, feet, but do not walk.
and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them and so do all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help in their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help in their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. And Father, we do ascribe to you all the glory and honor you are due. Your word tells us that you are infinitely exalted above your creation. and at the same time very near to it. You actively hold the universe together by your word and you shepherd each of us personally by your spirit. To those who are perishing the gospel is utter foolishness because you have not opened their eyes to see it.
We are however have seen and have believed and we agree with the apostle Paul when he wrote, oh the depths of the riches and wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid. For from him, and through him, and in him, and are all things, to him be the glory forever. Amen. Every parent present here this morning, other than perhaps brand new first time ones, has had a disciplined or child. It's not a favorite part of parenting, but it's a necessary part.
And when done rightly, it is one of the most loving things we do for our kids. Now from the child's point of view, however, discipline is even less pleasant. And they typically don't understand the love motive that's behind it. How often does a child, after being disciplined, wipe away their tears and say, thank you, Mommy and Daddy, for demonstrating your love for me in such a tangible way?
If you have a kid like that, I'd like to meet him after church. More often than not, the child is resistant to the discipline and will attempt to avoid or even fight it off. Truth be told, adults don't really appreciate discipline very much either and often resist or fight against it, even when it comes from our Heavenly Father. But refusing to heed the discipline of the Lord is adding sin on top of sin. There is the sin that brings about the discipline and then there is the sin of not taking the discipline. We tell our kids that it will be much worse if they refuse to take the discipline without a fight. The same rule applies when we are under God's discipline.
Often this resistance to discipline shows up much earlier when we are being encouraged or exhorted by others to do the right thing. This resistance ranges from foolishness to outright rebellion. It is possible to outrun earthly sources of discipline, but not so with God. He will pursue us and eventually crush our rebellion. He does this not because He delights in forcing us into submission, but because He loves us and wants the absolute best for us. Proverbs 3, 11 through 12 reminds us of the truth when it says, my son do not despise the Lord's discipline or be wary of His reproof, for the Lord reprooves Him whom He loves as a Father, the Son in whom He delights.
If you've been guilty of not heeding proper exhortation to change course, or you are resisting the discipline of the Lord. Or if there's any other sin that comes to mind, now is the time in our service when we confess those to the Lord. So as our custom, you're invited, if you are able and desire, to kneel and privately confess your sin to God. And let's go ahead and take a minute and do that now. Father, we confess that we do not always respond as we should when we are being challenged or disciplined. We still carry the seeds of rebellion in our flesh. We thank you for your chastening hand that disciplines us when we need it.
Thank you that even the most rebellious among us can find forgiveness and restoration of fellowship when we repent of our stubbornness. You truly are the hound of heaven who pursues us for the sake of our salvation and our sanctification. May we learn to quickly surrender to your will so that we might find the peace and joy that can come, only come, from a place of humble obedience and faith in you. We ask this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You're invited to stand.
Our assurance of forgiveness this morning is found in Jeremiah 31, 33 through 34. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord. For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more." And if that doesn't give you a reason to sing, check your pulse.
Today's scripture reading is Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 37. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 37. "'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord, "'when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel "'and the House of Judah. "'Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers "'on the day when I took them by the hand "'to bring them out of the land of Egypt, "'my covenant that they broke. "'Though I was their husband,' declares the Lord. "'But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, and each his brother saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus says the Lord who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the seas so that its waves roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. If this fixed order departs from me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus says the Lord, if the heavens above can be measured and the foundation of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done declares the Lord.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the prophets of old that have given us things that will happen in the future. And we pray that we would understand how you are the Lord of all and Lord of history. It's your story. Help us to remember that as we look upon these things and pray for our little meager needs daily. And yet, for the way you've designed us, they're big for us. We need to be responsible and careful and faithful in what we are presented each day. We think of our government, we think of all the leaders of the world meeting in France about the economies of their nations and how to make things better. We pray for wisdom of those people that have those positions.
We pray that people that are believers in you would have great influence over them to helped their decisions and helped them understand that you rule all, that they don't. It would give them a great perspective. We thank you for those in our congregation that serve our nation. We think of Dan Wibemeyer, who's able to be with us today as he is preparing to finally become a chief in the Navy. We ask that you would strengthen him and help him be a good witness those that he is able to be over and influence.
We pray for our elders. We pray wisdom for us as we make decisions. We pray for our deacons the same way that they would have wisdom. And then down the pyramid it goes to our families, the fathers and the mothers as they raise their children. All of these have each, have their duty, help us to recognize our place and how we should behave in those places. We think of the people that need personal prayer today. We first wanna thank you for the Durden's and as we celebrate 60 years of marriage, it's like daunting as they say that they can't even believe it.
We pray that Ralph's health would continue to get better. We do pray that his last chemo would have happened and that the tests as they test him would say that he doesn't need to have that anymore. We thank you for Mary Kay's ongoing cataract recovery and her foot issues. We pray that the doctors would be able to correct those and we thank you for the progress in those places. We think that Debbie Wold, we pray that you would just take away all the cancer and keep strengthening her as she is going to have another test. We pray that that test would show that it's still diminishing. We pray for Don Vanderbecken and his ongoing stroke recovery and that he would be strengthened.
We thank you for Josh Walton and the treatment on his neck and that the doctors would be wise on what to do with the other situations that they've discovered and that that would be cured totally. We think of Jeff Hathaway and his treatment for his small stroke last week and the other things that are going on help them to balance those medicines and have him be able to be full tilt here in the near future. We think of Aisha Bone's sister Becca's recovery from her stroke is ongoing and we do pray for her spiritual condition also. We do pray for the ongoing health issues of Morgan and Nadine and Carmen Nielsen and those people that have ongoing struggles help them to be patient and be able to find new things their doctors help them in those situations and to be a good witness for those people that they come in contact with.
We think of our outreach as a church. We think of the starting of the school year and all the excitement that's going on there. We thank you for the 30 additional students that are now coming. Help us to be able to respond correctly to those families and those students' needs. We think of Antioch Adoptions, I-2 Ministries, The Good Shepherd's Home in India, and then Project 92. It's a wild mix we have and far-reaching. And it is amazing how our little contributions to these people can have all around the globe influence. And we thank you for that and we pray for those people that are spirit of those influences. We also want to pray that the gospel is preached today and lived out in the churches here in our local area.
We think of Reclamation Church and the Viscous Road, Cornerstone Bible, Marysville Community. We think that all those people that they would be serving you and demonstrating your gospel in a real, tangible way to the people that come and attend those churches. We thank you for the blessing that you've given TEC. It is amazing to me how I think that we are getting stronger and being able to really practice our faith. us to do that in a more tangible way in the upcoming weeks. And of course we thank you most of all for your son who without his sacrifice we wouldn't even be able to pray to you and have the promise of the gospel.
So we thank you for all of these things in Jesus Christ's name, amen. Father, as you just saying about your holiness, we are mindful that while yet children we We also have not been made perfect and complete. Help us to be careful that we guard our hearts, that we would not reach a place where we would somehow think we've arrived, that we would think that we are as holy as you are, that we are done with the process, for we are not.
Thank you that in spite of our sin and our weakness, you love us perfectly, always, all the time. As we open up your word this morning, may you again challenge us as we review a period of time that took place some 2,600 years ago. And we will see how you dealt with your people back then. And keep in the back of our minds that you are still the same God today, that you were yesterday the same God you will be in the future. And the things that irritated and annoyed you and brought about your wrath then still provoke your wrath. But thank you that for those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. And so just really soften up our hearts, Father, to hear whatever you have for us this morning.
We ask in your Son Jesus' name, amen. You'll notice that the subtitle to my sermon is Sinners in the Hands of a Good God. It's a twist on Jonathan Edwards' sermon titled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Edwards delivered his memorable sermon while a guest preacher at a church in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8th, 1741. It was the middle of America's first great awakening. He had been invited to come and speak to this church because the pastor there felt that the congregation had been largely unchanged by the great awakening that was going on. And it was the second time that Edwards had actually preached the message.
The first time was to his own congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was reported that during the sermon that the people were so moved by the message that they kept interrupting Edwards and crying out, what must we do to be saved? Edward's concern in his message was with sinners who did not know Christ and the wrath that they faced if they did not repent. That's not the focus of my message this morning. This morning I want to speak to those who do know Christ and fall into one of the following three categories. Those believers who are experiencing the discipline of the Lord, those believers who are living in the midst of difficult trials, and those believers who don't fit into the first two groups.
What I tend to do today is survey the 120 years leading up to the exile of Judah into Babylon. It really does make for a fascinating study when you start drilling in on it. As we go through that period of time, there are several things that we'll see. The two biggest being God's sovereignty over all the affairs of men. And secondly, God's dealings with his chosen people when they are blatantly sinning against him. Even today, as I think about the G7 summit going on and the world powers gathering, and as we're gonna see today, man has his plans and what he's doing and what he thinks is going on and why this happens and that happens, but we're gonna see that God just laughs because in reality, we're gonna see the rise and fall of empires at the will of God.
The story recorded in Jeremiah is not a pretty picture, but as we'll see, even when God brings about the severest of punishments, his attitude and his motive for what he does is love for his people. For those who do not know Christ, all they have to look forward to is the wrath of God. But for those who are amongst his chosen ones, everything we experience at the hand of God comes out of the profound love of God for us. It may not always feel that way, but if we'll wrap our minds around that truth and learn to humbly submit to His will, we'll begin to know the peace that passes all understanding and find the grace to endure those hard times.
It's when we resist the discipline or grumble against His will for us that we find our hearts growing cold and bitter and faith begins to flag. As I prepared for this message, a line from a children's book my wife reads often to our grandkids stuck in my head. The book's titled, We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Kids, have you read that book, We're Going on a Bear Hunt? So if you know the storyline, the family decides to go looking for a bear. And along the way, they keep encountering various obstacles such as wood, rivers, and marshes.
And the line from the story that sticks in my head as I was preparing a sermon, and kids, if you know, follow along, says we can't go over it, we can't go under it, oh no we've got to go through it. If you only remember that line from my sermon today and really live it by faith without complaint, you will have mastered a huge part of the Christian life. The beauty of God's discipline of Israel was that even when they were exiled from their homeland and the temple was destroyed, they were never abandoned by God. They thought God had given up on them when in reality they were safely in his hands and hence my title exiled into the hands of God.
From this survey of events surrounding the exile I will argue from the greater to the lesser to make applications then that are still true for us today. Sometimes we find ourselves in a real mess because we're under the discipline of the Lord. Other times the difficulty is not his discipline but rather his desire to promote our growth through the testing of our faith. Regardless of his reasons for the difficulties, or regardless of the reasons for the difficulties we find ourselves in, the truth remains that nothing falls outside the determined plan of God and everything is for our good and rooted firmly in his absolute love for us. Now ideally that should not be a big reveal to anyone here, but I suspect lots of us have trouble really believing it when the hard times are happening.
My desire is that this peak into an ugly part of Israel's history will remind us of these truths and help us to remember that God is for us even when things look the absolute bleakest. Along the way, we'll bump into a few passages with some eschatological implications, although my purpose today is not to dive into those questions. I'll leave it up to my Kyperian comrades to sort that out tomorrow. Tomorrow night, right? Okay. For now, just sit back and rejoice in seeing how much God is in control of everything and how much he loves us, even when we are being disciplined by him. Some of the bigger lessons we'll see in this overview are God is fully in control of everything, including major world events.
God is always motivated by love for his chosen ones. God disciplines his chosen ones when needed. Resisting God's discipline is futile and foolish and the most painful option you can take. So let's go and then start with some historical overview. It will help us to get a little bit of historical context as we begin our survey of the 120 years leading up to the Babylonian exile. Starting with King David, there were a total of 21 kings under what's called the House of David. And this does not include all the kings that ruled over the 10 tribes of northern Israel. These 21 kings combined time on the throne covered about 400 years of history.
And during this time, King Ahaziah, oh yeah, King Ahaziah, and pardon me if I slotted the pronunciation of his names, I did practice, but King Ahaziah's mother, Athaliah, she ruled as a queen for six years. So in that period of time, we had all these 21 kings, but slid in there as we have one queen. Upon the death of Ahaziah, his mother made a power grab. And she went and she actually murdered all of the royal family. She actually killed her grandchildren. So we could kind of say bad grandma. But unbeknownst to her, Athaliah, one of the dead king's sisters hid one of the kings' young sons from the slaughter. And that son's name, of course, was Joash.
And he became king when his grandmother was eventually deposed and killed. So unbeknownst to her, one of those sons had been preserved and eventually became king. Roughly then, three of the 400 years covered the reigns of King David through King Hezekiah. And you can read all about all those kings in 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, well worth a read. Of the 21 kings and one queen that ruled under the house of David, 10 are said to have done what was right in the sight of the Lord. The other 12, it says, did evil. Even those who did right still had glaring failures in following the Lord absolutely completely. You keep reading they did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet they did not take down the Asherith or whatever else.
But generally, they were viewed favorably. The last king to reign before the time period that we're looking at was Hezekiah. He was counted among those who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. At this point in history, the original nation of Israel, as you know, has been divided into two kingdoms for about 235 years. There's the Kingdom of Judah in the south and the Kingdom of the 10 northern tribes, also referred to as Israel, up in the northern section. All through Israel's history, God had been warning them through his prophets to repent of their sin. Again, all through the prophets we see over and over again, repent, repent, repent.
He had disciplined them in multiple ways, and there were brief periods where they did repent but it, of course, never lasted very long. God was about to execute his severest discipline on his people, and it was going to take over a hundred years for it to completely unfold. Keep in mind, though, that his lover's people never wavered. He was ready and willing at any moment to restore them if they would only repent. The prelude to the story of the Babylonian exile takes place during the reign of Hezekiah and it occludes God's discipline on the northern tribes of Israel. This was prior to God bringing judgment on Judah itself.
During Hezekiah's fourth year in the throne in Judah, the Assyrians attacked the northern kingdom of Israel and after three years they conquered Samaria which was considered and northern parts, capital, if you will. All the people were taken captive and exiled into Assyria. We're told in 2 Kings 1812 that this defeat was a discipline from the Lord because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgress his covenant even all that Moses had the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.
And as I'm going through this history lesson, I want you to keep remembering in your mind that this rise and fall of empires, God told this was going to happen in some cases centuries before it happened even though historians today will have their own story of why it occurred. Ten years after the campaign of the Assyrians came, ten years after the Assyrians came, they then came to Hezekiah. They turned their attention to the kingdom of Judah. Second Kings 18 and 19 tells a story of that siege and how the Assyrians were ultimately humiliated and defeated after Hezekiah humbled himself in prayer and God sent an angel of the Lord in the middle of the night and killed a hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrian soldiers. Judah didn't have to lift a finger. In the middle of night, angel comes out and boom, 185,000 soldiers dead. I won't go into the details of Assyrian siege on Judah but I want to observe a couple of things.
From a strictly historical perspective without taking God into consideration, this looked like just another case of one nation rising up and trying to conquer another. Assyria was the dominant, got a map here. There we go. Assyria was the dominant power and like many before them, they sought to expand their empires even more. So pretty much everything that looks greenish up there was the Assyrian Empire at their peak. And as you can see, they took over, I tried overlaying a modern day map, but it's too confusing. large chunks of Iraq and Syria and Turkey and extending all the way down towards Saudi Arabia, on into Egypt, of course Lebanon, Judah. That's a little pink magnifying glass is the area of Israel just so you can kind of get a reference point. And as we watch these empires rise and fall it's just interesting to me to see how there's Israel. Yeah, always Israel. Right in the middle of all this you'd think Israel would have just gone, been erased from history long, long, long time ago.
Historians have various explanations for the rise and fall of Assyria. They have analyzed all the social and geopolitical factors that were involved. What they all miss is one critical and decisive factor, God. Assyria was not as sovereign as they thought. They were a tool in the hands of God for the purpose of disciplining the northern tribes of Israel. The story of the siege on Judah by the Assyrians records some pretty arrogant taunts by the Assyrian army claiming how great they were and that nobody's gods had thus far saved any nation from being conquered. At first, this taunting terrorized Hezekiah and the people, but after Hezekiah prayed, God sent Isaiah to make the following prophecy regarding Assyria.
So following the story so far, they're under siege, the king and the people are freaking Now, Hezekiah prays and Isaiah shows up and says this, have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I plan from days of old what now I bring to pass, and he's speaking to Assyria, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded and become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown. But I know you're sitting down and you're going out and coming in and you're raging against me because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears.
I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth and I will turn you back on the way by which you came. Another one of Isaiah's prophecies regarding Assyria is found in Isaiah 14, 24 through 25. And note, this was written 150 years before it was actually fulfilled. Isaiah said, the Lord of hosts is sworn. As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purpose, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in the land, and on my mountain trample him under foot, and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder. So all those years prior to that event actually happening. From Isaiah's prophecies, we learn the following.
God decreed Assyria's rise to power long before it happened. God's purpose for Assyria was to discipline other nations, including the northern tribes of Israel. Once Assyria's job was done, God forced them from the world stage. And where's Assyria today? Does not exist. There's still Assyrian people interspersed among other nations, but no longer an Assyrian nation. About 70 years after the siege of Judah, Assyria was ultimately conquered by the Babylonians and the Medes, and they no longer existed as an independent state, let alone a kingdom. The sovereignty of God was on full display in these details as well as his abiding love for his chosen people.
Although Judah was spared at this time, their time of discipline was still common. We see this foreshadowed at the end of the Assyrian siege on Judah. Some time after the Assyrians were defeated by the angel of the Lord and after Hezekiah's illness where he prayed for recovery, He welcomed a group of Babylonian envoys into his palace. And again, at this time, Babylon was nothing. They just, it was like a district way up in the North Summer. It was not an empire, it was not a nation. In 2nd Kings 20, starting in verse 12, we read, at that time, Merodok, Baladin, the son of Baladin, king of Babylon sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
And Hezekiah welcomed them and he showed them all his treasure house. The silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah, the prophet, came to King Hezekiah and said to him, what did these men say? And from where did they come to you? And Hezekiah said, they have come from afar country, from Babylon. He said, what have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah answered, they have seen all that's in my house. There's nothing in the storehouse that I did not show them. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord.
Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and which your fathers have stored up till this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing should be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will father shall be taken away and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
At this point, you have to wonder if Hezekiah is a little slow in the head or perhaps a little cowardly, because he says to Isaiah after that, he says, the word of the Lord that you have spoken is good, for he thought, why not if there will be peace and security in my days? Kind of a strange response to what he had just been told. And again, we see the foreshadowing of God's plan to raise Babylon to power. Again, we see God's sovereign in action. The Babylonian siege of Judah is still 100 plus years away from when Isaiah spoke those words. Babylon is not yet a force to be reckoned with. Nebuchadnezzar II, who will order the siege on Judah, won't even be born for another 60 years, and yet hears God already saying what's gonna happen.
I hope you are as impressed as I am with the amazing sovereignty of God. Man likes to think he's the master of his own destiny. I've been reading a book about how to be a better member of a board. I serve on a couple different boards. And the author gives an analogy about board members that I think fits all men when it comes to the sovereignty of God. He was applying it to boards, but I think it applies to us. He says, in many ways, we are like a bunch of ants freely roaming over a log that's being carried down a river by a current they have no control over. I think that's kind of a good picture. That's a pretty strong statement, and some may be thinking that's a fatalistic view of life coming from a hyper-calvinistic viewpoint.
Let me assure you that neither I nor the elders are fatalists. We do reject that men are completely free agents, though, and that God is merely a responder to human events. God is in control of the current. Regardless of whatever is going on in human history, at an individual or worldwide level, all of it fits into the grand meta-narrative, which can be stated simply as, the king has sent his son to kill the dragon and rescue the girl. If you want to know what the Bible is about, that's the subtitle. Man thinks he's building empires, big or small, as a completely free agent. In truth, he is contributing to a much bigger story than he comprehends.
Well, this brings us up then to the 120-year period we are looking at that covers the reigns of King Manasseh through Zedekiah, who was the last king of Judah and before Jerusalem was ultimately destroyed. Hopefully, you can read most of that. The next few slides give a brief bio of two of the kings in particular. I want to address digging a little bit on Manasseh and Ammon here. And then I'm going to come back and touch on the other kings, as I also take another slice at this historical look. So first off, let's take a look at Manasseh and Ammon. Let's see, I think, yeah. Not much of a different slide. Focusing on those two guys.
There isn't much good to say about Manasseh, other than he appears to have repented of his wickedness near the end of his reign. It would seem that Manasseh's sin was so great that it was, so to speak, the straw that broke the camel's back. In 2 Kings 21, God said the following, because Manasseh, king of Judah, has committed these abominations and has done these things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also sin with his idols, Therefore says the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing about Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.
And I will stretch over Jerusalem, the measuring line of Samaria and the Plum Line, House of Ahab, and remember Samaria, Ahab, that's all referenced to Northern Israel, the 10 tribes. So God says, I am going to apply the same measuring line, the same plumbob on you that I applied to them. And I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. Do you see it just, let's wipe all this crud out of this dish and be done with it. And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hands of their enemies and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.
Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other besides the sin that he made Judah to sin, and that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord." Wow. To me, this passage gives us one of the rawest glimpses into God's righteous anger when his chosen ones refused to honor him and obey his commandments. Nobody in their right mind should want to be on the receiving end of that kind of anger. But as we'll see, Judah, by and large, did not learn from the example God made of their kin to the north. so they're going to be judged by the same plumb line God used on Samaria in the house of Ahab.
Ammon, his story is much shorter. The Bible doesn't tell as much about him. He was the son of Manasseh. We're told that he pretty much matched his father evil for evil. The only difference is that he never repented in his life like his father did. Second Chronicles 33, 23 says, and he did not humble himself before the Lord as Manasseh, his father, had humbled himself. But this Ammon incurred guilt more and more. He just kept piling it on. He was such an evil man that his servants finally conspired against him and killed him, which then cost them their lives as an act of treason. And then the people then chose Ammon's son, Josiah, to be the next king.
So now that we've looked at those first two kings involved in our timeline, we need to then consider the nations and the roles that they played. And you can see I call that the nations, God's unknowing agents. There are several nations around the time of the Babylonian exile that figure into God's plan to execute his judgment on Israel and Judah. These nations were Egypt, Assyria, we've already looked at them, Babylon, the Medes and the Persians, they all figure into the story. But their roles come, well I should say that Persians come into the story but their role is at the end of the 70 year exile. So what did a pre-Assyrian Empire look like?
Don't try to study this map too closely, but it's already showing the regions for two centuries prior to Assyria's fall. The Assyrians, the Eremians, and the Chaldean tribesmen, all kind of, you can see the big word Assyria, generally that whole area up there to the right of the map. Yeah. All these tribal groups were fighting, wrestling for control over the area referred to as Babylonia, which is northeast of Israel. For the most part, the Assyrians dominated this conflict. And then meanwhile, what was going on was Egypt was trying to dominate the region down to the south. And there again, the pink magnifying glass showing the area of Israel.
And all of this is going on in the buildup of God's plan. The other powers of God used in this saga then were the Medes and the Persians who dwelled to the east of Babylonia. So again, off to the right, even a little further than what you're looking at. We've already seen how the Assyrians, you've seen this map already. We've already seen how Assyria was raised to power for God's divine purposes and then removed from power. So now let's take a look at what he said about Babylon and the Medes. So refresh your memory on Assyria. Now let's move on to Babylon, the Babylonian Empire. In Jeremiah 25, 8 through 14, we we read about God's plan to raise up Babylon for the sake of disciplining Judah and then remove them from power much like he used the Assyrians to discipline the northern tribes.
So again, Jeremiah 25 verse eight we read, therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, behold I will send for all the tribes of the north declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations, I will devote them of destruction and make them a horror, a hissing and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Then after 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it everything written in this book which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands. In how much clearer can God be long before it happened?
Babylon, your job is to come to power, to go spank Judah for 70 years, and then you go away because you are also a wicked nation, and I'll take you out. In 612 BC, Babylon, with the help of the Medes, the Scythians and the Sumerians, defeated Assyria in the Battle of Nineveh. It wasn't a knockout punch, but from that point on, Babylon became the dominant power in the region. Assyria ultimately ceased to exist as a sovereign power when they lost a battle known as the fall of Huron in 610 BC. And so again, just to 610 BC, I think it was 587, the Babylonian exile. So we're getting close in to when the exile occurred.
And by this time, a serious poof gone, Babylon's the power to be. Then, regarding the Medes and the Persians, because remember their role was gonna be to take out Babylon. Next to rising power in the region were the Medes. Their God assignment in history was to bring judgment on Babylon. Isaiah 13, 17 through 20. Behold, I am stirring up the meads against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. I think that's a poke in the eye at the Babylonians, because that's what their thing was, is let's go in and take all the gold and use it to develop our society. But the meads were not, they were just simply mercenaries after gold.
They just had other motivations. Their bows will slaughter the young men. They will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb. will not pity children, and Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations." So during the 7th, 7th, 7th century, the various tribes and the regions of media started coming together and forming the Median Kingdom. Early on, media had been a vassal state under Assyrian control. It's just, again, interesting to me, look at all the history. So in their early days, they're basically under a Syrian control and influence and then they rise to power and they get the alignment of the Persians to come along and they take out of Syria.
Eventually then, the Medes joined forces with Babylon and conquered, I'm sorry, I said they joined forces with Persia, they joined forces with Babylon and they conquered Syria after it was weakened due to a lot of civil wars. As the Syria got weaker and weaker and weaker, it wasn't clear who was in charge so a bunch of civil wars broke out and that's when the Medes and the Babylonians made their play. After media gained independence from Assyria it expanded its borders into parts of what we call modern-day Iran but no one knows for sure exactly where its boundaries were so this is an approximation. You can see that was a pretty big empire that they had their height. Now at this point in history Persia who is next in line and this actually I think was actually showing the what's it say up there this is showing Persian empires this This maps a little ahead of what I'm saying.
At this point in Persia, who is next in line for God's plans, is still a vassal state of the Median Kingdom. So Persia's kind of more far right there still. The Medes are, and where I'm at in my lecture, they are the dominant force. The Persians are a vassal state, but that wasn't gonna last for very long because God had plans for Persia. After a series of political upheavals, the Persians and the Medes go to war, and the Persians win. The Persians then subsumed the Medes into their culture and the Persian Empire begins. And by about 500 BC, the Persian Empire occupied a huge chunk of the Middle East, which you can see there.
The Babylonian and Assyrian empires are gone and a Persian ruler named Cyrus the Great begins to reign. And if you were part of our omnibus tenabras, we actually were starting to read literature where we were actually starting to learn about these characters. And so it was interesting to me going through this. Oh, I remember reading about these guys. Once again, God was orchestrating all of this in order to fulfill his plans. And get this, this is crazy. Isaiah 45, one through six, regarding Persia. Yeah, did God have a plan for Persia? Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed.
I will go before you and level the exalted places. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes and secret places that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel who call you by name. For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel, my chosen, I shall call you by your name. I name you though you do not know me. I am the Lord and there is no other. Beside me there is no God. I equip you though you do not know me that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is no other.
This prophecy is amazing. It was written in the days of Hezekiah long before Cyrus was even born. Yet in this prophecy, God is saying, Cyrus, you do not know me, but I know you, and I'm gonna bring you to power. And just fascinating. Well, this brings us up then to the days of Jeremiah the prophet ministered. I want to zoom in now on the years during which Jeremiah prophesied to the people and the rulers of Judah. His ministry lasted for about 44 years and covered the reigns of Judah's last five kings. With the exception of King Josiah's reign, every other king, priest and prophet, refused to heed Jeremiah's warning and frequently threatened and occasionally imprisoned him.
I mean, it's no wonder that he's referred to as the weeping prophet. 44 years telling him hey, it's bad guys. It's common repent and everybody's ignoring them I'll organize this review then by considering Jeremiah's ministry during the reign of each of the Kings he lived under so we're gonna kind of Focus on each Kings reign and then sort of what was going on at that point in time. So first up is King Josiah During the Josiah's days a serious power began to weaken and they ultimately were defeated by an alliance between Babylon and the Medes a Assyria's demise was prophesied in 2 Kings 19, we already saw that. Josiah became the king at the age of eight, and around the age of 16, he began to show evidence of having a real heart for God.
I mean, can you imagine, you know, somebody putting a crown on your head, you're eight years old, guess what, you're king? So about 16, he apparently had a real tender heart for the Lord. And Jeremiah began his ministry, Jeremiah then about this time was beginning his ministry, warning Judah of the judgment coming around that time. And when he began speaking, Josiah was now about the age of 21. So Jeremiah is just starting to prophesy, saying, repent, the king is 21. Josiah responds to Jeremiah's warnings, and he begins implementing real reforms when he's 22, so about a year later. So putting the timeline together, it appears that Jeremiah influenced Josiah, and Josiah responded properly.
Five years after the beginning of the reforms, during a renovation project on the House of the Lord, the book of the law was found. I mean, can you imagine that? The book of the law had been lost for how many, many years? And people had no idea what God thought or said. It was in a dustbin somewhere, but it was found. It was read to Josiah and all the people. Josiah then was greatly alarmed at how much Judah had fallen into sin. He thought, wow, we are in deep trouble. So he went and he acquired through a prophetess what the word of the Lord was concerning this matter. and as we know the news was not really good.
In 2 Kings 22, 15 through 20, it records God's response. Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, tell the man who sent you to me, thus says the Lord, behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place and it will not be quenched. But to the King of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus you shall say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, regarding the words which you have heard because your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against this inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me.
I also have heard you, declared the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place. Even with this bad news for Judah, Josiah continued to implement his reforms, and Judah then did experience a time of peace and blessing under his reign. And then around when he was about age 19, he was ultimately killed in battle when against God's will, I don't know that he really knew he was against God's will, but against God's will he engaged the Egyptian army who was moving to support Assyria in their fight for the Babylonians.
So Josiah's 39, the Assyrians are still there. We're trying to, we've got the Babylonians, or the Assyrians are fighting against the Babylonians, and we've got the Egyptians now trying to move up from the south, moving through Israel's territory, Judah's territory, and going off to join the fight. And Josiah doesn't like that, so he decides to go in and engage Egypt in battle and try to prevent that. The story of his death and more evidence of God's sovereign use of the nations is found in 2 Chronicles 35, 20 through 23. After all this, when Josiah had prepared the battle, or had prepared the temple, Niko, king of Egypt, went up to the fight at Karshamish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him.
So he got the king of Egypt is heading north to go do battle, and Josiah went out there to intercept. But the king, the Egyptian Nikos, he sent his envoys to him saying, what have you to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. See, supposing God who is with me, lest he destroy you. Nevertheless, Josiah did not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Niko from the mouth of God, but came to fight in the plains of Megiddo, and the archers shot King Josiah, and then he ultimately died.
So again, just fascinating, God stirring the hearts of the Egyptians to go on up there and join in the battle, so that as he now knows I need to start to deal with the Babylonians, it's crazy. After Josiah's death then, Judah then became basically a basil state under Egyptian control. So at this point, Josiah's dead, And now Egypt largely controls and influences what's going on in Egypt. Let's see. Next king up, he only gets a dot on the map. Jeho has only reigned for a whopping three months. And the only things he's noted for are he did not do what was right in the sight, right in God's eyes. He implemented a tax on the people of Judah so they could pay Nico of Egypt a forced tribute.
Basically, he had to collect all the gold and send it off to Egypt. And then Niko removed him from the throne and replaced him with his brother, Elia Kim, who then Niko renamed into Jehoiakim. And then after Niko, Niko then deported Jehoaz to Egypt, where he later died. So he said, for whatever reason, the king of Egypt said, nope, don't want you. You're out. You've implemented the taxes. That's what I wanted from you. You're out. You're coming to Egypt. You're going to die here. And your brother, Jehoiakim, is going to be in charge.
Egypt continued to control Judah for the first four years of Jehoiachim's reign, at which point Nebuchadnezzar II defeated Egypt, and Judah became then a vassal state of Babylon. So we're starting to see the shift now in what's going on geopolitically. Now we've got Babylon has got control of Judah as far as dictating them. Now the tributes are going that direction. In case you're wondering if it was prophesied that Babylon would conquer Egypt, yes, it was. He's equal 29, 17 through 20. In the 27th year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, Son of Man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made his army labor hard against Tyre.
Every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. At this point, you're going, what is he talking about? Babylon took out Tyre, but they didn't get recompensed for that work. Therefore thus says the Lord God, behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it. And he shall be the wages, and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored because they worked for me to declare as the Lord God."
That is crazy. So Babylon's job was, apparently God in history had told Babylon, or used Babylon to discipline Tyre, I mean a whole other story. And he says, well they didn't make enough money doing that, so I will go ahead and pay them, I'll give them their paycheck, you can go down and take over Egypt, you can plunder Egypt and have their money. Once again, God told him control. I mean just the fact he says that Babylon worked for God. That is probably not what Nebuchadnezzar was thinking. As a side note, Ezekiel 26 records a prophecy where God planned to use Babylon to discipline Tyre for their sin. So much world history directed by the hand of God.
Jehoiakim began his reign at the age of 25 and he reigned for 11 years. In the seventh year of his reign, he got a little too big for his britches and he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Bear in mind again, he's been warned, he's been warned over and over again, this judgment from God is coming, repent, accept the discipline of the Lord was the message and he would not. And so he raises up and rebels. And this was in direct disobedience to Jeremiah's instructions from God. And as a result, God stirred up bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, so a bunch of surrounding nations, to fight against him until the time of his death.
So all the rest of his days, he had a constant war going on. And then he finally dies, and his son Jehoiachin takes over as king. So Jehoiachin. Jehoiachin became king of Judah at the age of 18 and reigned for only eight months until Nebuchadnezzar brought a siege against Judah and demanded Jehoiachin to surrender. Jehoiachin did surrender, and the first wave of the Babylonian exile happened at this time when Nebuchadnezzar deported 10,000 people from the lands of Judah into Babylon. This first group of deportees included Jehoiachin, the royal family, the ruling class, the wealthy, and other notables we know such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they're all in this first wave of the exile or off to Babylon they go.
Nebuchadnezzar left only the poorest behind to care for the land. And then at this time he also took many of the vessels and treasures from the house of the Lord that Hezekiah had showed off to the Babylonian envoys many, many years prior. And Nebuchadnezzar then appointed Jehoiachin's uncle Mataniah to be king of Judah and changed his name to Zedekiah, the final king. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign. It lasted for 11 years. And sometime into this reign, Zedekiah, he saw the writing on the wall and he didn't like it. So he tried to form an alliance with Egypt and rebelled against Babylon. And even there, if you go through and read all these prophecies, God keeps saying, do not turn to Egypt.
They are not going to be your savior. take your discipline. And yet here he is disobeying those warnings and forming an alliance with Egypt. Zedekiah's foolishness is recorded for us in 2 Chronicles 36, 11 through 16. Zedekiah was 21 years old when it began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. 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. 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.
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 in that he had made holy in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent, persisted to them by his messengers Because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place 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 What a tragic statement there was no longer a remedy I mean Judah's rebellion was complete and God said I there's no other options guy. There's no longer a solution Zedekiah's rebellion prompted Nebuchadnezzar to lay siege to Judah and then after 30 months of resistance Judah ultimately fell and Zedekiah and his followers tried to run and get out of Dodge but they were ultimately captured and then we know that Zedekiah part of his punishment for his rebellion as he had to watch his children be killed before his eyes and then his eyes were ultimately put out and then he was hauled off to Babylon to live out his days. After the Judah's fall he and most
of the rest of the Jews then were deported to Babylon and only a very few were left at that point to care for the land. So as I'm trying to bring this sermon in for a landing, what are the takeaways? There are several. First, there is nothing happening under the sun that does not serve God's purposes, first and foremost. This includes the actions of the nations of the earth. We may think we understand the forces at play, but there is something much bigger at work. Nations rise and nations fall at his good pleasure. Don't freak out at world events as if they're disconnected from God's divine purposes. Our survey today has shown that God is not reactive to human events.
He's the one driving those events. God, Joseph, understood this when his brothers sold him into slavery and he said to them, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Paul tells us in Romans that all things work together for good. He didn't mean that God is good at scrambling and reacting to men's choices. All things work together for good because he is executing his predetermined plan. We get to watch the story unfold. We don't write the script. And even as I was pondering these nations, it brought my thoughts to even America and what's going on today in America. And again, we have our story and God has used us to do a lot of amazing things and has allowed him many amazing things.
And yet, could it be that the purpose for America's rise to power was for reasons that we don't even begin to really. we don't understand the real reason. Could it be that our purpose was to advance the spread of the gospel worldwide and to make it possible for Israel to come back together as a nation? If America hadn't been in play in history, it's hard to imagine that Israel would have been able to reconstitute itself. They needed a nation like us to run cover. I don't know, speculation makes you wonder. Today our nation is obviously in, dire straits, we've turned from God. Could we be like those other empires in our waning years?
Could America, as we know it, be gone? Those are all speculations, I don't know. God didn't open it up and show it to me. But you do have to wonder, my point for us today is that we think we know so much. We think we understand all that's at work. And the reality is, is we don't have clue one other than that God is in charge and our job is to stand back in amazement and awe and wonder. Do our part. Do what he's called us to do. But ultimately, God's the one in charge. Second takeaway, God's motive for what he does is always for his glory and his chosen one's good. Jeremiah is filled end to end with lots of pronouncements of judgment.
It would be easy to conclude that God is defining attribute is wrath, but that would be wrong. God's defining attribute is love, love for his glory and love for his people. Love for his glory, which is not vain at all, shows up in part when he judges the wicked and punishes them. Love for his people shows up in part when he is provoked by their stubborn sinfulness and moves to discipline them. Even as we read through Jeremiah, we find these statements interspersed in the prophecies. Jeremiah 4.27, for thus says the Lord, the whole land shall be a desolation, yet I will not make a full land. Jeremiah 16, 14 through 15, Therefore, before the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said as the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.
For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave them and their fathers. Jeremiah 25, or 23, five through eight. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord is our righteousness. Therefore behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where I had driven them, then they shall dwell in their own land.
And this and many, many more examples we could pull out of scriptures where again God's driving motivation behind what he does is the love for his chosen people. We see his care for his people's name, we see his care for his people more explicitly in Jeremiah 24. Jeremiah was told to collect a basket of good figs and a basket of bad figs. And each basket was representing two different groups of people. It's one of his illustrations that he was trying to give during his prophecies. The good basket represented the Jews who did not resist going into exile and accepted God's discipline. Of them, God says, and again, we're talking now, a group of people who are about to go into Babylonian exile for 70 years, watch their home, watch their temple, watch their friends and family perish.
I mean, a lot of bad stuff's going on. And yet this is how God addresses them, the ones who aren't kicking and screaming, but the ones who are going. It says, verse five through seven, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, like these good figs. So I will regard as good the exiles from Judah whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
And when we read about the illustration of wiping Judah out of the dish and nothing to left, we get the idea that God's nothing but wrath and vengeance and he's done with them. And yet here clearly we see the heart of God, that no, I'm gonna severely spank you, but it's for your good and I will bring you back. And then there's the basket of rotten figs represent those who fought going into exile and resisted his discipline of people like Zedekiah. God addressed them in verse eight through 10. But thus says the Lord, like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, So I will treat Zedekiah, the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in the land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.
I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword and famine and pestilence upon them until they utterly be destroyed from the land that I gave them and their fathers. And this brings me then to our third takeaway, our third and final. Do not fight the discipline of the Lord. Submit to it and recognize it for what it is, his love for you. I was fascinated when I read Jeremiah 21.8. It's actually kind of a passage when I was just doing my normal reading. I hit this, it's kind of what got me started my whole train of thought for the sermon today.
But in Jeremiah 21.8 it says, and to this people you shall say, thus says the Lord, behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence. But he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans, who are besieging you, shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. I mean, how clear it can be. Accepting the discipline of the Lord without resistance is the way of life. Fighting it's the way of death. The death may not be as drastic as the Babylonian exile, but it will be a type of death nonetheless. What's abundantly clear is that once God had determined that discipline was necessary, the safest place for the Jews was in Babylon.
Once God had determined the discipline was gonna happen, their safest course of action was to go, to surrender and accept that discipline. Because in the eyes of God, they were not exiles in Babylon, they were exiles in God's hand. Once again, we see clearly that there is no way we can ever find ourselves outside God's loving care for us. So, how is it with your soul today? Are you freaking out over world events? Are you under the discipline of the Lord? Are you avoiding accountability in your life? Are you facing trials that are crushing you? Do you want to just run away and escape? If that's how you feel, may I suggest a simple course of of action by faith and with his grace recognize you can't go over it you can't go under it oh yes you've got to go through it let's pray well father this lengthy review of history I hope and I pray has really impressed our hearts again but just how much you are in charge fully in control of all that is going on around us.
How much of it is because you're bringing discipline upon the nations, probably a large chunk. How are you using even us today, our nation, to bring about your plans? Only you know for sure in heaven. We ask that we would be found faithful to still be a people who walk after you, who honor you, who glorify you, be that remnant in our own nation. And Father, for those who find themselves in difficult times, may they understand that if this is the kind of love, if your love persists even through this kind of discipline, then how much greater your love for even those who are just going through hard times, and that they would not kick against it, but humbly submit themselves to it, trust you.
For those who are in discipline, or those who are resisting when friends or others come alongside and warn them, that they would take heed, that they would not disregard the discipline of the Lord, knowing that it is for their good, that it is because he loves them, but that you would give him soft and tender hearts to respond properly. So thank you for the instruction from your word and may you apply it to each one as you sovereignly will. We just ask in Jesus' name, amen. In chapter 25 of Jeremiah, during the fourth year of Jehoiakim, God tells Jeremiah to again prophesy to Judah regarding their impending judgment at the hand of Babylon.
This is the same year that Nebuchadnezzar II came to power, and it's still about 20 years before the siege on Judah begins. In verse 25, we find reference to a cup of wine, unlike the one that we're about to participate in. It says, thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them. In the following verses, Jeremiah is told to go and make Judah and all the surrounding nations drink from the cup of wrath because they were all going to suffer God's judgment upon them.
The wrath of God is not to be taken lightly. The Assyrian, Babylonian, Median, and Persian empires have all ended up in the dustbin of history, and very little remains of them, even for us to study today. We would be well advised to remember that the God we worship today is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. You can go ahead and stand. Thankfully, the cup of wine we live today in communion is not like the cup those nations were forced to drink from. We drink from a cup of remembrance. We remember that there is no longer any condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We remember that He bore the wrath of God on our behalf.
We remember that through Him we've been transformed from the children of wrath into the children of God. We remember that by His Spirit we are brought into fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and with each other. That's a lot of good things to remember. Those nations in Jeremiah's days did not want to drink from the cup of wine He brought to them because of what it symbolized. We eagerly drink from the cup of wine today before us because of what it symbolizes. Earlier, I reminded us that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. That means the God who maintained his steadfast love for Israel, no matter what, is the same God who loves us for us, whose love for us endures forever.
reminder of this truth and the subsequent charge for today comes from Psalm 107 1 and 1 and 2. O give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever so God's love is not going away and then the charge let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he has redeemed from trouble beloved we are the redeemed of the Lord so give thanks to him and tell others about his goodness Thanks.
