Answers Bible Curriculum: Lesson 11 - God Judges Judah

Well, we're 4 minutes, almost 5 minutes past, so let's go ahead and get started and we'll start with the word of prayer. You guys are the one who sits on the throne, and it is you who ordered the affairs of mankind. You are the one. Who, raises up nations and you're the one who takes them down.

You're the one who, directs the affairs of mankind and even to the, the affairs of our own lives and, and Fathers before you that we, we bow and we, We worship and, and give to you the honor that is due to you because of that. And as we look into your word this morning, may our hearts be open to what you are doing and what you have done so that we may learn and be strengthened in our own relationship with you. Lord, we want to seek after you. We want to know you more and may our hearts be led into that this morning in Jesus' name, Amen.

This morning, we'll be looking at the fall of Jerusalem. And Some of the, the lessons that can be learned from that. We're going to be looking at, what? What we can see from, the history of, of kings of Israel.

We've been looking over the last few weeks at those kinds of things. And I wanted to, propose this question, for us to ponder as we go through, our, our lesson today that what happens to God's plans when man fails? That's something that we will be, at the end of the, lesson today answering more succinctly, but, be thinking about that question as we're, we're going through. Our, study today.

I'm popping a little bit harder or. OK. so as the microphone's being adjusted. I want us to consider.

you. These things. We've been looking in this, section of our study at God's justice and mercy. And how God works and we, began.

This study, With the king, kings of Israel and Judah. That, the, the nation of Israel had divided into two and, and so we've been looking at both the, the, the kings and the nation from the north that was called Israel and then also the kings and the nation of the south called Judah. And so, we've been going through those. We are now in lesson 11.

We're focusing on Judah now, Israel, the northern nation are already, Been dispersed and is no longer a nation. And now we're coming down to the end of the southern nation. be looking at how it ended as a nation at that point. And the next week, we'll be getting into the 70 years of exile.

And, and what that all meant. But today, it's God judging Judah. so we'll be looking at So just as a way of review. Israel, the northern kingdom has been scattered, as I said, and Judah.

The southern kingdom. had multiple reformations and backslidings, and it, at this point hangs in the, on the precipice of destruction. As I was writing this, I, I was thinking of, if I was more technologically savvy, I would put this like as a trailer that, that like the Star Wars beginning, where it goes forward and it goes up and kinda rolls up on the screen, and you're out in space and it would look really cool. But George Lucas wouldn't give me the rights to that and so We're stuck with doing a slide here, but, but it reminded me of that.

the idea that we, we're, we're the there's been a whole lot to the story. And it's come to this, this point. And so for everybody who, who's listening to the story, the, the background information is important to get into what's going on, to get the context and the feel of what it is. And, and so it's come to that point.

Now, the people in Judah. It's particularly the kings and these, we're gonna look at the Mainly the last 4 kings, although there'll be 5 that, that will, will go over, but, These kings, the last four especially, it appears had no clue to their context. They, they acted at least as if things were just gonna go on and on and on, and that they would always be there. and so they did not listen to the, the messengers that God sent them, the prophets, and they refused to make changes and so there was, those things going on with them.

Last week, we looked at the reforms led by King Josiah and Mike talked about The, the idea that a lot of it was just pretense with there, there was much of the population who went along with Josiah's reforms because that was politically convenient and so they just went with it. But much of the population was not heart and soul into these, these reforms. And it's one of the things that we, as we look, are gonna briefly go through the, the history of the kings of, of Judah in, in a couple of minutes.

we're gonna see that.

We're gonna see a a king that does really well, and then we're gonna see the next king, his son, who, who's, who takes the people right into, into, idolatry. And how can you have such a turnaround, a back and forth? And, it, it is because the heart of the people would go with the what whoever is in power and, and most of the time, it's not a, a real heart thing. Now, we'll also talk about how that there are people though that do reform and it is real for them and we'll be discussing those as well and that really should not surprise us because isn't that typically human?

That's how we are. we look at our culture today and, and, and we see people who will, will buy into an idea of philosophy because it's popular. It's, it's the the ruling idea. but it's not something they really own.

It's not something they really give themselves to, and it's not something they will die for. if, if things change in the culture, they'll go with the change rather than, than be real, being committed to their, beliefs. And so that's, that's pretty human. and, and we see that humanity displayed, here in, in this story of, ancient Judah.

So let's turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 36, and we'll begin. Looking at, at some scripture there. We begin reading in verse 11. Zedekiah, by the way, is the final king of, of, Judah and so this is going to be a synopsis of his, of, of the end, a synopsis of the end of Judah as a nation at this point.

Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear allegiance by God. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against the turning to the Lord God of Israel.

That furthermore, all the officials of the priests and the people were very unfaithful following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the Lord which he had sanctified in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers because He had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy.

Therefore, he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with a sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm.

He gave them all into his hand. All the articles 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 officers, he brought them all to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles. Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon.

And they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation, it kept Sabbath until 70 years were complete. Ezra, the scribe is the one who, who wrote 1 and 2nd Chronicles, and, and so he is at the end of 2 Chronicles giving a summation of, of, what has happened. And so that is what we have read here and And what we see is that The, the nation was approached by God and God attempted to get their attention, to draw them to repentance.

And there would be up and down periods of that throughout their history. And I want us to get a, a, a brief look at that. The, the first king of Israel was Saul and Saul reigned for 42 years. And then David became the king and David was the one who received the covenant from God that his seed would be on the throne, that his descendants would, would, would keep the throne, and they did all the way to Zedekiah.

Zedekiah was the last one but was a descendant of David. David reigned for 40 years and in, in their reign, Saul and David both, they did not go to idolatry. They, the, the worship of God was maintained, and with David, as he was king, he moved the center of the nation to Jerusalem and, began it there. Then Solomon became king.

Solomon was one who, who built the temple, established the wor worship of God there, and, Really established the glory of it all and it became such an amazing thing that it was known throughout the, the world around them and so, leaders of nations would come from far away just to see what was, what was happening to Sarah there to see the glory, that was displayed, that was given to God. And so Solomon, did a great job with that. But as we know, toward, as he got further into his reign, the last part of his reign.

he introduced idolatry into the nation by marrying women from other countries, other nations, and bringing them into, into their country, into his country.

Building temples for their gods in Jerusalem. And so he introduced idolatry into that. Rehoboam was his son and succeeded him and the idolatry worsened under Rehoboam. And it was during the beginning of the reign of Rioboam that the nation divided and, and so we have talked about that as well.

So Rioboam leads the nation further into idolatry. his son Abijah. reigned for 3 years. And, and so Abijah Continued that, that idolatry and it, it got even worse with him.

And so, but his reign being only 3 years, his son Asa came along and became the first reformer. So we see here, a, a, slow degradation and then God raises up a king, who would bring reformation. And so Asa is that one and so Asa brings about reformation and he reigns for 41 years. His son Jehoshaphat also continued those reforms and continued to, to purge the land of the idolatry and he reigned for 25 years and did what was right in the sight of the Lord in in reference to Those things.

However, as we will see with all of these kings, these are just guys. These are just men. And so they'll, some of them, even the good kings will, will do some, a lot of good things, but they'll do some things that'll make you scratch your head and say, what? and, and Jehoshaphatt is one of these.

Jehoshaphat made alliances with Ahab, the king of the north. Ahab was one of, one of these guys that as we look back in history, he's one of those people that, that makes you think nobody should name their kid Ahab, it's, it's, he was a bad man and, and, of course his wife Jezebel and Ahab and Jezebel had this reputation historically, that is just really negative. Well, Jehoshaphat, felt, I guess he was this magnanimous guy that, that, he, he, he wanted to see at some point ultimately I think the, the restoration of the United Kingdom.

so he makes These alliance, this alliance with Ahab.

As a result of this alliance, it introduced into into Judah rather, some very wicked things to follow. One of the things was that his son Jehoram married a daughter of Ahab. And so when Jehoshphat died, Jehoram became king, was king for 8 years and took the country right back into idolatry because of the influence that of his wife and of her of his father-in-law. And so they went right back into idolatry.

And that was Jehoram's leadership. Jehoram died and his son Ahaziah became king, but was king for only one year. And I don't know if you remember a few weeks ago we had a, a lesson where we talked about Jehu from the north. Now Jehu came in and cleaned out Ahab's family, all his descendants.

Well, Ahaziah, who is the, the grandson of Ahab, was, was part of that purging. He ended up having, been down in, in the, or up in the northern kingdom. And was, was killed along with that. So Ahaziah only reigned for 1 year and he, he, all of his children were young.

So his mother became this, this wicked queen mother. Her name is Athaliah. She reigned for 7 years and she, in her attempt to, to have power, had all of her son's, children killed. They rescued one and so a man named Jehoiada.

A priest came in and took little Joash, who's just a baby, and hid him for seven years. And so through that seven-year period, we have Athaliah, the wicked queen mother, reigning in Jerusalem. Joe Ash at, at 7 years old was brought out into the public and made the king and Athaliah was killed, executed at that time, and so he became the second reformer and under the influence of Jehoiada, who was a very godly man. they, enacted, great reforms and did and took Israel or Judah into, in a really good direction in, in their worship of God.

And so as long as Jehoiada was alive, Joash did really well, following him as an advisor. But when Jehoiada died, toward the end of Joe Ash's reign, Joe Ash began to listen to other advisors and ended up starting to go back toward or to at least dabble in idolatry. And so that became the, the problem for Judah again. However, Well, at least one of the issues that, that came up was Jehoiada when he, Jehoiada's son Zechariah, when he saw the direction that, that Joash was going, stood up and declared against it and Joash had him killed.

And Zachariah was killed. On the temple grounds. it was, it was a very tragic and, and horrible crime that, that Joe Ash committed, against, against Zach Ryan and against God and would not listen to the voice of God at that point. So, so even with, with good kings, they, they can have, they have the typical human weakness and, and that's what we see throughout all of this.

His son Amaziah, also didn't want to change that yet. Amaziah continued most of those reforms, but he also had a similar weakness and he has a major failing, about 2/3 of the way through his reign and And, and so his, his failure also brings trouble to Judah. but for the most part, he continued in the reforms to follow after God. His son Usaiah, Became king and reigned for 52 years.

One of the longest, the second longest actually, reigning king. Usaiah did a great, was a good king and did great things. Followed after God and, and enacted the reforms that were needed and got rid of the idolatry and so forth. However, if you've read the story of Isaiah, that he too had a weakness and in his weakness and his arrogance began to build up in him and, and he thought he had done such a good job with reformation that He could offer sacrifice in the temple and take the, the role of the priest and he was struck with leprosy because of that and died alone basically because of the isolation of his disease.

but Usaiah did have a good reign in, in the nation of Judah. His son Jotham continued those reforms and was king for 16 years. Ahaz, his son, however, back to idolatry. And so, we see again this up and down, pattern that, that's going on.

So Ahaz was king for 16 years. His son Hezekiah became the good king. And so Hezekiah became the 3rd reformer and bringing about, a cleansing of idolatry of the nation and out of the nation and, it was, it was a very good king, was king for 29 years. But his son was maybe the worst.

And, and, and so that you read through these stories and see these patterns and so, it boggles the mind. how can you have such big switches and, and yet it happens. This is This is our human story. This is who, who we are as human beings and, and we cannot, ever think that, that, the good things we do are permanent and that they will never have to pay attention to these things again.

so Manasseh becomes probably the worst of all of the idolatrous kings, builds, in the courtyard of the temple area, builds,. Items of worship for, for the false gods and, and takes people into idolatry in a very deep way. Manassa, Is it, well, we will be looking at some verses later, bloodied the streets of Jerusalem. It, it was a very, very bad time and, and, in fact, it was so bad that God actually had the king of Assyria come and, and capture him, take him away as described, for us, and, and humbled him in his captivity because they, they pretty much tortured him and And humbled him and he cried out to God and asked for forgiveness and, and repented of it.

Came back and And finished out his reign, and did some of his actually own small reforms. His son, however, became king and continued idolatry. And was, but was king for only 2 years. Ammon was was, was killed by people in his own palace.

they had seen the, the issues with Manasseh and now Ammon was gonna go back to it and they said, no, we're not gonna let this happen. And so they, they actually assassinated Ammon. And his young son Josiah became king. And Josiah is, is, is one that we've, we've, spent some time talking about in, in different lessons, because of the great reform reformation that he brought about.

Probably the most thorough reformation of all the reforms. It talks about him actually, taking down even the high places, taking down everything and, and, and going back and, and bringing about literal, Enactment of following the law of God and was very passionate for that. He's the one who was, when he's king, they, they found the law of God and read it to him and he, he, went into terror and said we need to find out what God is about to do. And, we'll be looking at some of that law that he would have had read to him.

This morning and we'll find out that, that why he was so afraid. He had good reason to be afraid. And yet God told him. Because of your heart, of repentance, I will not bring about this judgment in your lifetime.

But I will in your son's lifetime because I am done with Judah as a nation for now. And so, Josiah, a very good king, Josiah, however, He had his weakness. Oh, thank you. I sound thirsty, I know.

And, and his weakness cost him his life. the Pharaoh Nico. Had, there, well, in, in the world at that point, in, in that part of the world, there's these ongoing tensions between, with other nations. We've talked about Syria.

We have this, this up and coming nation in Babylon, the Chaldeans that are, they're growing in power and they're threatening, the Assyrians. The Medes up above them are also have these battles going on with the Assyrians. So the Assyrians are always fighting them. The Egyptians down in the south.

Don't like the Assyrians either. And they want control of the area and they want to be the big power of the world like they were before because there were times in the past where Egypt is the, the dominant power. So, Pharaoh Nico took his army and began going up north. Well, they would go by Israel.

But he's on his way to Syria. And he's, he's gonna do battle with the Assyrian army and on his way, King Josiah. He should have consulted God, but there's no record of him ever consulting God on this issue. he just decided that, that he, he was more worried about being dominated by the Egyptians than he was by the Assyrians.

And so, he went out to do battle with, the Egyptians. The, the Pharaoh sent an emissary and says, look, my issue is not with you. I don't want to go to battle with you. go home and, and let us go and deal with the Syrians.

And, Josiah, he, he didn't want to listen to that and so they, the battle took place and Josiah was killed in battle. And so Josiah, his rule ended and, what we have then is, his son being made king. Now, Josiah had 4 sons, one of whom had already died by this point. And so, the, the nation in, in Judah picked then the, the second oldest son to, to replace him and that was Jeho Jeho Ahaz.

But he only reigned for 3 months. Pharaoh Nico came into Jerusalem and, he didn't like Jeho Ahaz as king because he didn't think he would. he thought he was gonna be too much like his father and, and, and fight against him and he's gonna be trouble. And so he, took him as a captive, took him back to Egypt, and that's where he died.

But he made Jehoiakim king in his place. And so, Jehoiakim became king and was king for 11 years. Nebuchadnezzar then later defeated Egypt. And took control of all the surrounding vassal states that Egypt had, including Judah.

And when Nebuchadnezzar went to Jerusalem, this is around 605 BC and my dates are a little bit Like plus or minus a year or two, because the sources I looked at had a little variation, but this is as close as what I thought was right. So 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar goes to Jerusalem, and gathers the first group of captives. And, and sends them to Babylon.

Daniel and his three friends are in that first group. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, if you remember those, that story, Nebuchadnezzar sends them, in fact, takes them because he ends up going to Jerusalem too because he gets news of his father's death. And so he needs to get back to, to Babylon to, to make the official coronation of him becoming the successor. To the throne And so he, he gets back to Babylon.

And then the next year, 604 BC Nebuchadnezzar came back and he establishes control with all of the surrounding nations. So you have the, the nation of Edom and, and the Ammonites and you have all these other nations around Felicia, that they're now going to be vassal states of Of the Chaldeans and so, Nebudnezzar comes back in 604 BC, gets control, and he gets a commitment from Jehoiakim that Jehoiakim's going to play along with, with this, and that means sending the tribute and, all of that thing and not, inciting a rebellion and creating problems with, with other nations.

So Jehoyin makes that commitment in 604 BC. In 602 BC, Jehoiakim has decided he's had enough of this Babylonian thing and, and so he rebels and, and because of that rebellion, and Jeremiah warned him not to do it.

So Jeremiah is, is a player in all this. He's, he's giving advice to the kings, but for the most part, they won't listen to him and this is one of, another occasion where he wasn't listened to. Jeremiah warned him that if you do this, you're gonna create all kinds of trouble for himself, not just from Babylon, but from the other nations, which is exactly what happened, because Nebuchadnezzar, having the control he did of the other surrounding nations, they all came out against, them.

And so in 602 BC he begins to get all this military pressure.

And by 5898 BC he died. It's, at that time, Nebuchadnezzar has decided, what, I've had enough of this silliness. And so he's, he's already been marching and he's already arrived at Jerusalem and he's going to take control. And so, Jehoiakim died.

Jehoia Chin, his son, was made king by the people, and, but he was king only for 3 months. And Nebuchadnezzar didn't want him being king. He didn't want any more of this, this trouble. and so he, removed him as king and, and this, and, and sent him back to Babylon with another group of captives.

So this was the second deportation of, of Israelis back to Babylon. And, among that group is Ezekiel. So Ezekiel the prophet ends up going back to To Babylon. And so, and when you read the book of Ezekiel, his writings are from Babylon.

He, what he wrote is from there. but this, this, rebellion was subdued under the reign of Jehoiachin. And Nebuchadnezzar then installed. Zedekiah.

The 3rd son of Josiah. To be king He reigned 11 years. From 597 to 586 BC. And Zedekiah was one of these people that couldn't make up his mind.

So when you read Jeremiah and you read 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings about his reign, you find a lot of vacillation. there's a, there are points where he, he wants nothing to do with what Jeremiah says. There are other points where he, he calls for Jeremiah and asks for his advice, and he wants to know what, what God wants him to do. But then he can't decide and then he's got people in his court who he's afraid of.

That I don't want them to think that I'm taking advice from Jeremiah and so there, there's all this weird vacillation that's going on within his head. And he so he keeps delaying, delaying, delaying. Yeah, that's a great point. Joe is saying that, that Jeremiah was competing with false prophets.

Excuse me. And, and that is, not only in, In Judea, are there false prophets, but there are false prophets back in Babylon too. And one of the things the false prophets in Babylon are saying was, and we'll get into this, a lot more next week, but they're saying, look, Nebuchadnezzar is gonna die in a couple of years and, and you, you're just gonna be let go and you're gonna be going back. So, so be getting ready for that, going back and, and, and, so we're looking at that.

Now really famous verse, that Jeremiah wrote, that's taken out of context that of where Jeremiah tells the people, no, you need to plant vineyards, grow gardens, you're gonna be there a while. This is 70, this is a 70-year thing. This isn't gonna be over. God has plans for you, plans for good, but it's gonna be there.

You're not coming back here, in your generation, and so, So there's these false prophets, they're giving these false messages. And one of the, the things to think about is, is, at least as I read this, I'm reading, Jeremiah is telling Zedekiah he needs to, at first he, he needs to, to obey the, the rules they're set down by Nebuchadnezzar. Then, when Nebuchadnezzar brings his armies, because he refuses to do that, Jeremiah is telling him, you need to surrender. because if you don't surrender, there's gonna be great destruction.

And, That idea of surrender is not very patriotic, right? And, and as human beings, wherever we are, we tend to be very protective and loyal to our, our nation. What Jeremiah was trying to get Zedekiah to see, and Zedekiah is completely blind to it, there is a higher loyalty and responsibility that every human being has, and that's to God. God is the creator, God is the owner.

God is the one who raises up the powers and God is the one who takes them down. And Zedekiah is completely blind to that, and because he's a very foolish man and so he, he doesn't get it. And so, yeah, the false prophets are, are giving false messages. And so that's an excellent point.

Thank you for bringing that up. And so There's this rebellion. Nebuchadnezzar comes and for 1 year and 7 months, Jerusalem is under siege. And Being under siege, food is cut off and by the end of the siege, conditions are just horrible.

And so a month before it's, it's, it's completely done, Zedekiah and some of his, his higher-ups plan and execute an escape. And they escape out of the south of the city, the southern gates, and they get a little ways and they get caught. Zedekiah And his sons are brought before King Nebuchadnezzar at, at his, where he is encamped, several miles up north in Israel. And, Zedekiah gets to see his sons executed and his own eyes are put out and he's taken back to Babylon.

So that is his end as being king and that's the end really of the kings of David, the, from, from the line of Solomon. That's the end of it. And Zedekiah is the last one. And he's sent back with the final group of captives.

So there's a 3rd deportation, but Jerusalem is destroyed. Completely destroyed. the temple is leveled. it's, it's burnt to the ground.

All the gold is, is melted between the stones and, and so the, the soldiers wanting to get the gold completely tear it apart. The walls that were to be this great protection of the city are completely torn down. And so there is nothing but rubble everywhere. God just wanted it leveled.

And so that, that's what Nebuchadnezzar did. So, That is, is, is how, how it all ended. Now, what I want us to look at. Then is, 3 aspects.

I want us to see warning that God gave, I'm not gonna have time to get through. To read all these passages. So we'll just have to read some of it. God gave a warning.

God gave judgment and then there's Jeremiah's ministry and then finally the, the, the lament of it all. Deuteronomy chapter 10. Let's turn there. All the way back when Moses is giving his final messages.

To Israel God gives a warning. So what does God expect? Well, if you look in Deuteronomy 10 verse 12, He says, now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God? To walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the Lord's commandments and his statutes, which I am commanding you today for your good.

And then look, look down to verse 20 you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him and cling to him and you shall swear by his name. He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. So that was what they were supposed to do. What they were supposed to not or be afraid of.

Turn over to chapter 28. And we'll read in verse 15. He says, but it shall come about if you do not obey the Lord your God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes with which I charge you today that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And so then he goes off and lists a, a whole bunch of curses which they did endure.

If you read the book of Judges, you see a lot of these things that, that come to pass. But look over in verse 49. And this applies, this would have been what Josiah would have had read to him and he would have been terrified. The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down a nation whose language you shall not understand.

A nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old nor show favor to the young. Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock. Till they have caused you to perish. It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you.

Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you. This is Moses writing this before they had even crossed the River Jordan. To, to go into the land. Moses is giving this warning.

God is warning them, That this is your fate if you do not follow me. This is exactly what happened. This is what happened when Nebuchadnezzar came in and we can, we can, we can read those accounts. We can read them in Jeremiah, we can read them in 2 Chronicles, and in 2 Kings.

This is what happened. And so, Those are, that is the fate that, that was promised to them. Then we go to God's judgment. And we won't take the time to look at all of them, but I do want to look at 2 Kings.

chapter 24. So if you turn with me to that one. Verse 3 And 4, he says, Surely at the command of the Lord, it came upon Judah to remove them from his sight, because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not forgive. That is a, a, a scary statement.

But, but God had decided there is no going back now. This Jerusalem has to be purged. And so God would not change his mind about it no matter what happened. The, the streets were filled with blood.

That, that refers to probably 3 things that, that these, these items are mentioned by the various prophets including Jeremiah, but they killed the prophets. The kings throughout the history of Judah, the, the prophets have come and as we read one or I told you one of Zechariah who spoke up against Amaziah. They would, they would just have the prophet killed. It's believed that during Manasseh's reign by both Jewish and Christian tradition, that it was Isaiah who was stuffed into a hollow log and then sawn in two.

And that is the reference that comes from Hebrews 11, that, that, that, that, that is talking about. That Manassah, His sin just, just poured so much blood of the innocent into the streets. so it was prophets who were killed. That also is described as, child, children being sacrificed.

And so it's believed that that's also what is being referenced to here in the oppression of the weak, that, that was a big thing as well. In fact, you, you read prophets, decrying how that the weak are taken advantage of and, and even killed for, for what little they have. And so, These are, are, things that God is paying attention to. God hasn't forgotten about it.

God doesn't overlook it, and there does come a, a day of reckoning. And this day was finally enacted in the, in the destruction of Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 24:18, just look over there, It says that Zedekiah was 21 years old and became king. He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.

he did evil in verse 19 in sight of the Lord according to all that Jehoiakim had done, for through the anger of the Lord, this came about in Jerusalem and Judah until he cast them out of their presence. And so, God was completing that work. In Matthew chapter 23, verse 29 to 36, we had Jesus, giving his woes against the scribes and the Pharisees, and one of them is that, that they are to the descendants of those who killed the prophets. And Jesus is saying, And if they were alive today, you would do the same.

In fact, you will do the same because I'm going to be sending my prophets to you and you will try to kill them, which is what happened. We read the book of Acts and, and right? that their, their reaction to, to his disciples, his apostles was to try to kill them, at least to, to terrorize them. And so Jesus, who is the, the judge.

He is the judge of all things. he, he's the one who knows about every mistreated prophet. He is keeping track and he does, and there will be a reckoning that for that. Next, we have Jeremiah's ministry, Wish we had more time to get more into that.

Whoops. Well, well, I guess we don't have to, but, but, with Jeremiah, verse 18 and 19, God told Jeremiah to go to the potter's field. If you ever read that passage, 18 and 19 is pretty powerful in, in describing, in imagery of just what God wanted to do. And so, Jeremiah goes, he sees the potter, making pottery and, and how the, the, the, the The jar that the potter is working on had a, a deformity in it and so the potter had to, to beat it, start over and, and form it into something else.

And That imagery was to tell Israel or Judah that That God will, will reform and he, he will make it something else, that God is not stymied by man's failure, and, going back to the theme of our lesson that God still does his plan and he is the potter and he can make of the clay what he wants to make and he will do that. Then in verse in chapter 19, God tells him to go to the, where the potter throws away the old, the broken pots. And to, to make an illustration that this pot that had been made, made called the nation of Israel will be crushed.

And that God has the right to do that as well.

And so that, that in a brief summary, is, is what is in 18 and 19. In Jeremiah 27, there's also God's or Jeremiah giving this message from God. In fact, let's look at that one. Jeremiah 27.

Verse 12 and 13. Say I spoke words like all these to Zedekiah, king of Judah, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people and live. Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword and famine and pestilence as the Lord has spoken to that nation which will not serve the king of Babylon. So here, he's giving him this, this warnings.

Look, you need to surrender. And, and this, and they would not listen to the Lord. So, Jeremiah had this ministry and what a frustrating ministry it would have been for Jeremiah to do, but he's very faithful to it. Then we've, we have the lament.

I'd like you to look over in Psalm 74. And we have here a, a psalm written from Babylon. From the Sons of ASaph, He says, Oh God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

Remember your congregation which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance. In this Mount Zion where you have dwelt, turn your footsteps toward the perpetual ruins. The enemy has damaged everything within the sanctuary. Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your meeting place.

They have set up their own standards for signs. It seems as if one had lifted up his ax in a forest of trees, and now all its carved work they smashed with hatchet and hammers. They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have defiled the dwelling place of your name.

this description, this lament over the destruction of the temple, written by these worship leaders, they're now in exile. This is the lament and there's another, really powerful one in Lamentations chapter 4. This is written by Jeremiah verses 3 to 11. We won't have time to get, get to that one, but, again, this Overwhelming, sorrow, the grief that the godly felt over the destruction of the, of the city and particularly the place of worship.

All right. Looking at all of this, we see that there's an end to what God had started, or at least it looks like it. Looks like an end. And so what happens To God's plans when man fails.

Well, one of the things that we should see is that God's plans are not dependent upon the successful execution of men. Nor are they threatened by the failure of men. God's plans happen with or without our help. God doesn't need us to make his plans succeed.

God invites us to join him. In, in executing his plans. But God does his plan, because he is powerful enough to do it. One of the things we've talked about in this whole series is the scarlet thread of redemption that goes from the Garden of Eden through human history all the way to, to the cross.

And so, is that scarlet thread broken? No, because God still is fully able to accomplish it. And as we'll see, next week in, in studying the 70 weeks of, of, or 70 years of exile, we'll see God able to bring it about, that even in the heart of, of pagan kings, God moves and accomplishes his purpose. And so, it, God is, is not at the mercy of, of, man's weakness.

God does not subject his sovereignty to the fickle nature of mankind. God is sovereign. And man doesn't, doesn't stop it, doesn't stop his plan. God is fully able to do it.

Another thing to look at is that God's glory is not dependent upon man-made temples. there is a lot of grief in, in, that we see in the, the laments over the destruction of the temple and the beautiful city. The city that was meant to bring glory to God, the temple is especially meant to bring glory to God, and now it's gone. But God doesn't derive his temple from man-made structures.

Right? The heavens declared the glory of God. God, God is able to display his, his glory without our help. He does it every day.

and so God is, is fully able, to do that. He's not dependent upon anything that we can build for him, and, and we need to have that perspective. It's very good for us to remember that. We also need to see that God brings judgment, not because we spoil his plans.

So God is not up there and, and he sees, the mess that we make of things and so he just takes his hand and said, fine, and then wipes everything off the board and, and no, that's not why he brings judgment, because we're, we're wrecking his plans, but because he loves this creature he made in his own image and is rescuing those that are his. And so his, his, one of the things he's accomplishing in the destruction of Jerusalem, besides the purging of the city which needed to be done, he was, he was sick of the, of the violence and the blood and everything that had taken place in the city and it needed to be purged.

but he also wanted to spare the good. there were, there were a lot of good, of God-fearing people that were in Jerusalem.

They weren't all idolaters. And so you read the account of Daniel, for instance, he's one that pops into my mind. Daniel is one of those that was of the, he was one of the educated people. He was, he was someone that was highly respected.

That's why he was taken to Babylon. That's why Nebuchadnezzar wanted him and was put into training to be an advisor, a counselor to the king. And Daniel and his three friends are godly people, God-fearing, and they, and they refuse, if you read the first chapter of Daniel, they refuse to go along with, Nebuchadnezzar's protocols for diet. That was, that seems like, well, that's a small thing.

Yeah, and, and they still were gonna be sticklers about it. They were gonna obey God. Rather than going along with, with someone else's program. That's how godly they were.

So there were, there were godly people in Jerusalem and God was going to preserve them because God wasn't finished with Judah. He had more plans for them. so, he, he would still accomplish. And rescue those that are his.

Then God was also giving time for repentance. We, we see that, the ups and downs and why does God put up with all that. God gives time for repentance. so his delaying of judgment is always according to his plan.

Peter writes about this in his second letter. when he's describing the coming destruction of the whole world, of all of creation, and, so what about the mockers who say, well, it's been all this time and nothing changes, it's still here, the sun comes up, sun goes down, everything keeps going on the same, and Peter's response is, God is not slow regarding this judgment, as some people call slowness, but is longsuffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God gives time for repentance. God is so patient and so we can learn from that.

And our time is up. So thank you for your attention and appreciate that. And may this be a, a blessing to us, encouragement to us that God God is in control and we don't have to be afraid of the affairs of our world, the way things are going, whatever happens, God knows, and God is in control of it all. God raises up nations and God takes them down, as we will continue to see in, in our series that we have.

Let's close in prayer. You, oh Lord, are great. And so glad that we can count on your faithfulness. And your sovereignty, your power to accomplish your purposes.

Your purposes are always right. Your plans are always the best. And so, Father, help us to be able to To be submissive to that and to cast our cares upon you. And the worries that we have, the things that, that we are, sometimes bothered by, Lord, help us to, to bring this to you and, and to trust in what you're doing.

I thank you also for your patience. And that you give to us, The, the patience that we, that's needed for us to repent and to come to you. And for the faith that you put into our hearts when we trust in you. And Lord, may we have the courage then to act on that and to go out every day and, and live by faith and to walk in your presence.

In Jesus' name we ask this. Amen. God bless you all.