Answers Bible Curriculum: Lesson 12 - Seventy Years

Well, good morning. And I welcome you to our adult Sunday school class and I wanna go ahead and get started. And people will come in as they come in. So let's begin with a word of prayer.

Holy Father, we are so thankful to you for your amazing grace, your faithfulness to us and how it's, given to us every day. your mercies are new every morning, and I just, I'm so thankful that your kindness is, is, is everlasting. And that you have drawn us, By your presence and by your spirit into a relationship with you and that we can have the opportunity to get to know you and to, to learn about you. Thank you for your word and, and what it means to us and, and how it teaches us and as we look at it this morning and And discover things, may our eyes be opened and, and hearts moved in ways that maybe are new to us and, and maybe be instructed by your spirit, so that we can be changed and every day, and undergo new changes before you.

So we need your presence, we need your power for this. So we ask for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, it's good to see you, this morning.

I hope you all had a good week and, ready for a new one that's coming up before us. We're going to be finishing this quarter of lessons today. And so, as we, finish up, it'll be finishing this section called God's Justice and Mercy. Our, memory verse, for this time is Isaiah 53:6.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And this, Isaiah writing about the, the, the The redemption of mankind and, and how man has gone his way, but God in His mercy has reached out to us and we're very thankful for that. We have, we started this, quarter with, the nation of Israel being divided into two kingdoms.

after the death of Solomon, his son Riaboam, and the, and became the king, and then it was divided into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. And so we've gone through, talking about how, how that happened and then the, the ramifications of it and the falling away of, various kings, all the kings from the north, much of the kings from the south, leading, the people astray into idolatry. We, we've talked about the prophets that God sent, to bring instruction and warning, to the nation.

And, And then we've seen the judgment of God.

And we've talked about how God judged the northern kingdom and, and then last week how God brought judgment upon the, the southern kingdom, the nation of Judah. And so we have now worked our way to the place where both of these nations, these kingdoms have been dispersed. they were invaded, destroyed and dispersed, that many of the peoples, were dispersed into other nations. That was God's judgment upon them for, for their idolatry.

And so this lesson is lesson 12. We're dealing with the 70 years of exile. And so we're looking at that. And so we're doing a little review.

as I said, Israel has been scattered. Judah, the southern kingdom has been invaded, the walled cities is destroyed, and Jerusalem, along with the temple, just left as rubble, just completely leveled, wiped out, and just piles of stones everywhere. That's what's left there. Most of the survivors have been taken to Babylon.

in 3 separate deportations with a small remnant left. in the Judean area to, tend to the fields. And they were left with a governor. his name was Gedaliah, and he's supposed to kinda oversee underneath, the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.

So that's where we left things last week. What is the reason for the judgment? Exodus. 24 to 6.

What's in Exodus 20, the great thing. 10 commandments, right? And so the second of those commandments, you shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

God doesn't share. He is God. He knows who he is, and he knows how silly it is for men to take a stone or a piece of wood, carve it up into something, and then bow down to it. but that is That is the problem, that's the reason for the judgment, that man has stubbornly, gone into that, and, and it's interesting that, that, that man has inside of him this proclivity, goes clear back to the Garden of Eden, doesn't it?

In that first failure is to, to find another way, to find another way. God being the creator and being so generous to us, and yet, because of, of, of the fall, we have this thing inside of us that wants to find another way and create all kinds of ways, some of them pretty horrible, as we've talked about in, in the worship of idolatry that involves sometimes human sacrifice and other things that, that degrade humanity. And yet those things are preferred above the God who wants to set us free and who wants to give us power in Him.

And, and, and it's, it's an amazing blindness that human beings can have and, and a stubbornness that human beings have.

I found this comic in, in the newspaper this week. I was stunned when I read it because it fits so well. people were given a vast universe to teach them humility, and they invented astrology to make it all about them. And, and isn't that how our, our human race has been?

we have, worked and worked to find other ways, and, and ignored what God has demonstrated to us and what God has shown us, and, But that is the issue. The issue is a, is a battle of wills, isn't it? It's God's will or it's my will. And we have told ourselves as human beings that to, to subject our will to God's will is bondage.

And so we fight and fight for our way, our will. Not realizing that that is the bondage, that subjecting ourselves to the will of God is the freedom. That's where the freedom is. That's where real life is.

But now, we, we lie to ourselves and ignore everything that God has, has shown us. the heavens declare the glory of God, right? What he has created is shouting to us every day. But in, in many ways, we run through life with our hands, on the sides of our eyes.

And, not wanting to see what God is revealing. And so God is, is, finally at a a place where judgment has to happen. It reminded me as I saw this comic of what Paul says in Romans chapter one. Where he says, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God.

Or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. And so then what does God do? He turns them over, it says, turns them over to their desires.

And probably. When you really think about it, the most terrifying judgment that can come upon us. is for God to let us go. And let us go after what we want to turn us over to our desires.

Because what does that bring? It brings ultimate destruction. That is destruction when we actually go after our sinful desires. We talked about last week how in spite of that, God's plans are not dependent upon the successful execution of men.

God doesn't need us to successfully implement his plans in order for his plans to succeed. we talked about how that, that, God, not needing us, he invites us to, to share with him in his plans. And so he's inviting us to join him, but his plans aren't threatened by man's failures. He continues to go on, continues to find a way, and he continues to accomplish his purposes.

And one, the, the big plan that concerns us is that That what we talked about, the scarlet thread of redemption going back to Genesis 3. and it flows all the way to the cross. It goes through human history with lots of failure of men. of key people, lots of failures, and yet God still accomplishes that purpose.

God doesn't fail. And so because of that, we now, 2000 years later, can look back and see the accomplishment of that, and we can rejoice in that fact. And we can also rejoice in the fact that God doesn't need us to accomplish His purposes either. He invites us to join Him.

In what he's doing, but he's still with his promises for the future going to accomplish them, with or without our abilities and our, own steadfastness and faithfulness. God is sovereign and he does accomplish his, his, plans. We talked about last week, God brings judgment, not because we spoil his plans. God doesn't, get mad at us and bring judgment because we've wrecked his plans.

no, he brings judgment because he loves the creature that he has made in his own image and is rescuing those that are his. You see, his judgment is an intervention in order to rescue his plan and in order to accomplish his purpose. So he brings the judgment. the, the big huge example of that is the flood.

Man was in a completely self-destructive mode and probably would have been extinct within another one or two generations because of, of what's described there is the violence that's filled the land and God knows it's there and, and so God intervenes. He saves a family, and he continues his plan for, for redemption of mankind, but he knows who's his and he's going to rescue them. God gives time for repentance as Peter talks about in his second letter. And so he delays judgment because he's executing his plan.

but it's always according to his plan. And what does Peter say, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God desires, to bring those that are his into repentance and into faith. And so God is always working, and we can always trust in what he's doing.

Now, living in exile, we have all of these Jewish people that have been deported into Babylon. Living in exile and there is, there are things that they would need to know. And things that, that are revealed to them. First of all, Jeremiah chapter 25, you would turn there, Jeremiah 25.

We'll be spending most of our time in Jeremiah this morning. Verse 11. says this whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the King of Babylon 70 years. Now, Jeremiah wrote this during the time of Jehoiakim, the king.

This is before all of the destruction, around the time of the first deportation. Nebuchadnezzar had just defeated the king of Egypt. He'd come back up to Jerusalem. We talked about this last week, come back up to Jerusalem and got news that his father had died, and so needed to go back to Babylon to for the official coronation of himself being the king, but took with him that first deportation.

And as we said, Daniel was in that group of people. And so Nebuchadnezzar was already taking control, but Jerusalem still had quite a bit of time left around 16 years, something like 16. Yeah, 16 years, I think. And so, Before it was completely destroyed.

But Jeremiah is writing about how long this, this deportation is or this exile is going to be. It's gonna be 70 years. And it's from that time, that first deportation that it would take place. 2 Chronicles 36:21, I think I have it up here.

Ezra, writing this, writes that it's to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah. Now remember, Ezra is after. He's after the 70 years are over, and he's writing, the chronicles giving a history of the nation, but he's writing about this, that it was, 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.

So the, if you remember in the law of, of that Moses gave, every 7th year was to be observed as the Sabbath. And so that meant that during the year, that year, there'd be no working in the fields, no gathering of the crops and so on, that the 6th year was to be such an abundance that it would last them through the 7th year and until the harvest of, of the 1st year of the next 7. And so, There would be 2 years' worth of harvest in that 6th year that will sustain them through to the, to the next harvest, and they were to leave the land fallow for that time and that was God's way of, of keeping the land healthy and so on.

but they were to observe those Sabbaths.

Well, As we know, human nature is what it is, right? And so, they, they did real well at the beginning, but if you do the math, the, that equals 490 years where those Sabbaths had not been observed. And that goes all the way back to the time of Eli, the priest. If you remember who Eli is, Eli was the priest that brought little Samuel into his into the temple and, and trained him up in the priesthood.

And that goes clear back before King Saul. years before King Saul. So all of those years, It seems those, those seven year Sabbaths were not observed. And so God chose to, to mark those Sabbaths with this particular exile of the nation.

And just as, as an aside, this is not the only thing that got neglected. we've talked about before, but when King Hezekiah became king. He, reinstituted the Passover. Did not had, that had not been celebrated fully with the nation for, for many, many years.

In fact, back to the days of Samuel. Hezekiah did it, partly, but he even wasn't able to completely do it, and it seemed that it was only a one-time thing where the Passover is supposed to be yearly. If you remember, Moses' instructions, they were to, to observe Passover yearly to remind them of from whence they had come. But it got lost.

and then, after Hezekiah, we had some bad kings and, and, and again, things got lost. Then Josiah, the, the greatest of the reformers, came in and after having heard the law read to him, One of his responses was to, to do a Passover. And one of the things that when Hezekiah did his, they had a late start, so they couldn't do it on the right month. They had to do it at the following month because not all the priests had been cleansed and weren't prepared and so they got a special grace from God.

They actually had prayers to God asking that That the, that the people would not be destroyed because of, of, not doing it on the prescribed date and God granted them that. in Josiah's time, they did it right. They invited everybody throughout the whole kingdom and even into the northern kingdom that had already been destroyed by the Assyrians, there were still some remnant of Jewish people living up there. So Josiah, invited them all and, and many of them came.

So this huge group of people in Jerusalem observing. The Passover as had been prescribed, but even with that, it He says that there was no Passover like it since the days of Samuel. So going all the way back before David. Passover had not been observed as it was supposed to be for all that time.

So, one of the things that tells us is how easy it is for us as human beings to let things go. or to, to, make a, make something out of, our prescribed worship. That it's not to be. And so, was this an issue with God?

Yeah, God took, made an issue of it, but that wasn't the the primary reason for judgment that came. The primary reason was idolatry. That was the big deal. These other things were, were meant to remind them who they truly worshiped and to whom they truly owed their gratitude for what they had.

They were to remember that God was their provider, that God was the one that had made the way for them to be a nation. Those were items that were to remind them of that. But if you remember during the the first century, the time of Christ, the Jewish people in Israel were very, adamant about their remembrances of the Sabbath and of Passover. They kept them all, right?

And, and they were very religious about it. And what happened to Jerusalem in 8070. It was leveled again. It wasn't the actions that made the difference, but it's just like us today.

if, if our hearts are not with God, the actions don't matter, do they? God wants our heart, that's what matters to God. And God, that's what God wants to see in us. So, Anyway, that's part of what is going on at this time.

Now they had instructions for exile. And the first one, we'll see in Jeremiah chapter 29. So let's turn over there. Chapter 29, verse 4.

Now, these are the words which the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus says the Lord, I have heard a sound of terror, of dread, and there is no peace. Ask now and see if a male can give birth. I'm in chapter 30.

I'm sorry. I knew this didn't sound right. Try again. Verse 4.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will have welfare.

So they were to put down roots. They were not to go into exile and think that in just a couple of years, we're gonna be going back. No, there's gonna be a generation that goes by. you need to have children.

You need to multiply, and because when you do come back, I want there to be many people coming back to repopulate Israel. And so, those were the instructions, that they were to put down roots. then, there were more, they were to ignore the false prophets. Let's look in verse 8.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you and do not listen to the dreams which they dream, for they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, declares the Lord. And there were false prophets who were telling them that in 2 or 3 years, they would be returning. That this was a temporary thing and so there were false prophets in Babylon.

That had gone with the, the deportation. There were also false prophets back in Jerusalem, and they had a coordinated message. And so, Jeremiah is saying, nope, that's not it. That's not God's plan.

God's plan is 70 years. It's gonna be 70 years. You need to plan on that. It will be 70 years.

Then down in verse 10, for thus says the Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good work to you to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations, from all the places where I've driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to the place where I have sent you into exile. And so God, clarifies and, and makes, makes it very obvious that this is going to be a long-term thing. They need to, to plant their roots down at least for 70 years.

And, they need to seek the good of the, of the cities in which they live. they need to be good citizens and, and, and so on, because that is good for their own welfare. So those are the instructions for the exiles, that, that, how they were to live and what they were to expect from those around them. But God gives them this hope that he is still their protector.

He's still their provider, he's still looking out for them, and that he will bring them back. He says, my plans are for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope, right? That, that God is giving them that, that encouragement that even though I'm, made you go into exile. And, and later they will see that their city, their home city destroyed.

The, everything that they knew completely leveled. Turned into rubble. God is, is reassuring them. that he's caring for them, and that he will take care of them, and that there is a future for them.

and so that they need to trust in him. And so, one of the things that we do observe, and I think is important for us to remember is that in those deportations, That they're, not everyone was idolater. There were true believers as well. We know that Daniel was and his three friends, right?

And, and we know that there had to have been others too because they gathered together to, on Sabbath to worship and, and to remember who they were and what they were about. And so there were other godly people, people who had reverence for God. And, and who kept that. They, they kept those observances of, of their faith in God.

And so, those people were, were here in exile. they, they had to bear the, the ramifications of the idolatry as well, right? But God took care of them through that. And sometimes that's how it is with God's people.

That God's people will, reap. The harvest of, of the destructive behavior of the culture in which they live because they live in that culture, even though they may not participate in it. They still will reap the harvest of it to an extent, but God for Israel here is telling them, even though you are reaping that harvest, I am protecting you and I have plans for you. So don't lose heart.

Stay faithful. And so this is a really good message for these people in exile. Now Something I am supposed to address on this is context. And I'm sure as we read one of those verses that this, there's a particular verses just kinda pops out because it's become very popular to be used in a certain way.

But we need to remember, and we've talked about this from the beginning, context, context, context. It's really really important to our understanding of God's word. For some people, Unfortunately, it's context, schmun text., we just take what we want and, and, put it on a plaque and hang it on our wall, right? And, and, and that, and that's what we do.

We, we disregard the context. I think it would be really cool to have verse 17 be a plaque on the wall where it says, thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, I'm sending upon them the sword and famine and pestilence, and I'll make them like split open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. That would be a good plaque, wouldn't it? That would, that would, inspire us all with hope and so on.

That is actually a statement about those who are still in Jerusalem. God is saying, I'm still, I have plans for them, all right, and guess what those plans are? And so, We need to read the context. What is the context of verse 11?

The context is that it's a promise to those people in exile and that God has plans for them. And when I was a kid in, in Sunday school, we had this little song that we sang that every promise in the book is mine, every passage, every verse, every line, all the blessings of the love, of his love divine, every promise in the book is mine. Well, Not really. That's not really true.

the, there's lots of promises. Some of them are to me, but some of them are to Israel. Some of them were to Abraham, some were to David. There are promises that have specific meaning and for are, have a specific context, and we should understand them within their context.

One of the things that's really important for us is to respect the context and I believe That if we don't respect the context, we're not respecting God's word. It is important, it matters. We need to respect God's word by respecting the context. And if we need words of hope, God has given to us words of hope.

All you gotta do is read Romans chapter 8. There's amazing words of hope there for us as believers. verse 15 to 16, we're called children of God that were adopted and made heirs, in, in chapter 8. Verse 26 to 27 talks about the Holy Spirit interceding for us.

And that, even when we don't know how to pray, we don't even know what words we, we, should be using, that the Holy Spirit prays for us. The Holy Spirit is, is with us and prays for us. In verse 28, all things work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose. what an amazing promise that is.

Verse 29 that we're predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. That's huge. Why would God do that? God is so amazing to give us that promise.

Verse 31, God is for us. If God is for us, who can be against us? He says, verse 32. God is the one who justifies, and God being the highest one, the highest being that there is, if God is the one who justifies us, then who can make a charge against us?

It's what Paul is writing there. There's no one can make a charge against us because God being the highest authority, justifies us, declares us not guilty. That's a great promise. verse 35, who will separate us from the love of God?

And he gives a whole list of things. And, and says nothing can separate us from the love of God. Those are amazing promises and things that we should be grabbing on to. The, there are a lot of precious promises that for us as, as Christians, as people of the church, we, we can grab onto and hold on to, and they are faithfully within the context that they were intended to be.

And so that's where we should be going. And, and it is a great thing to put something like that on, on your wall to, to remind us of, of, of what it is that God has given to us. But let's not be taking things out of context. there is another one.

Be, a pet peeve of mine for a long time. And, and it fits really well within this lesson. So there is a context that's really cool. Psalm 126, you turn with me there.

Psalm 126 is the Psalm of ascent. That means ascending up, a, a sense. And this psalm is, is written. After the exiles have returned from Babylon.

And you can readily see it. It's, it's very plain. Within its writing. Psalm 126, it's only 6 verses, it says this, when the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, We were like those who dream.

Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with joyful shouting. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad.

Restore our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, bearing his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Jeremiah gave instructions to the exiles that they were to put down roots, right?

Plant your gardens, raise your crops, have children, bring new descendants into, into the world to bring back with you when the restoration takes place. And so that's what this psalm is about. It's about them coming back into the land. And being able to be blessed with it.

They went forth into the land weeping, right? It was a sorrowful thing to go into exile. But when they came back, they came with rejoicing, bringing with them the blessings that God had given them while they were in exile, bringing those blessings with them. That is the primary interpretation of Psalm 126, and it's an amazing fulfillment of the instructions, that, that Jeremiah had given to the people.

Trust in the Lord and He will bless you. And, and that is the teaching we should receive from it. Now, When I was a kid growing up in church, we had a, a hymn. And hymn writers can be famous for, for picking and choosing their, their words that they use for songs.

But there was a song called Bringing in the sheaves, and we would sing this song at a rip roaring pace, and, and, And it was really about this, but the application had to do with evangelism or what we call soul winning, but it was to be, to go out there and, and you sow the seed of God's word and, and, it, it will bring forth a harvest eventually and, and so on. Well, those concepts are in the New Testament, right? But that's not what this Psalm is about. And this Psalm has nothing to do with soul winning, it has to do with restoration.

From exile. And to, to borrow out of context, things like this, I think does disservice to us because it cheapens our view of interpretation. And I think it's important for us to, to really show our value to God's word by rightly interpreting, rightly dividing the word of truth, to, to rightly interpret God's word and respect the context and keep it within its context. So it has been said that there is one interpret one interpretation that many applications.

I would submit to you, there's one interpretation and occasionally, there's more than one application. But generally, the, the primary interpretation also gives you the application and that is how we should see it. We need to be reverent with God's word and, and not careless or inventive with the, our interpretations. it's probably enough said by me on that topic, for now anyway.

all right. Then, we go back to Jeremiah chapter 25 and what we're gonna see is that, Judah is not the only nation that are in God's crosshairs. And let's look at, starting reading in verse 29. For behold, I'm beginning to work calamity in this city, that's Jerusalem, which is called by my name.

And shall you be completely free from punishment? He's talking to the other nations now, the surrounding nations. You will not be free from punishment. For I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts.

Therefore, you shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them, the Lord will roar from on high. And utter his voice from his holy habitation, he will roar mightily against his fold. He will shout like those who tread the grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth. A clamor has come to the end of the earth because the Lord has a controversy with the nations.

He is entering into judgment with all flesh. As for the wicked, he has given them to the sword. Declares the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, evil is going forth from nation to nation, and a great storm is being stirred up from the remotest parts of the earth.

Those slain by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be lamented, gathered, or buried. They will be like dung on the face of the ground. This is a, a one of those prophecies that, that Mike has talked about before where there's a near application and a far application.

And it goes like this. There were surrounding nations of Judah that were also invaded by Nebuchadnezzar and taken over and, and, and they were destroyed. In fact, it goes all the way from Tire, which was a very rich city up in Lebanon area. All the way down to Felicia, over to Moab, and the Ammonites and, and, and the Edomites.

All of those areas surrounding and including Egypt as well in the south, all those areas were taken over by Nebuchadnezzar. The kings were, were executed or taken into captivity, and Nebuchadnezzar took control. But he didn't completely wipe them out. Tyre, he, he, he, did a lot of damage to.

He didn't even completely wipe them out. They weren't completely wiped out until Alexander the Great, a few centuries later. but, he did take control. There, there is though, however, this, this future thing that still hasn't happened where not just those nations in the Middle East.

But the nations of the world are facing a severe judgment by God. And God, even though he's held Israel accountable, For their idolatry, doesn't mean that Israel's the only nation that gets held accountable. And that's the point here. the, the very clear saying is, I am going against or working calamity in the city called by my name, shall you escape punishment?

If I'm going against Jerusalem, you should be quaking in fear. is the point. And so that is the coming judgment still yet, that has, that will be fulfilled, that God will bring about. All right.

How do we apply this to ourselves? One of the things I think that is important to keep in front of us that even in judgment, God's faithfulness is demonstrated. We talked about this at the beginning, God, even in his judgment, is faithful to his people and to his plan. That, that that plan of redemption has to do with God rescuing people that he has claimed for himself.

And so God is faithful to accomplish his plan. As Weak and fickle at times as we are, God is strong and determined to fulfill his plan., First John This just, just popped in my head, so I wasn't totally prepared for this. But first John 19. is a great example of this.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. He doesn't use the words that God is, is compassionate. And patient to forgive us our sins. No, his forgiveness is based upon his faithfulness.

In his justice. That's, that's an amazing thing to think about. That, that gives it such great weight. That his forgiveness is, is a weighty thing and can be counted upon.

We can trust in that. And so, yeah, there are times when we are very weak. That's why we go to God. We go to our Father, and we, we go to his strengths.

In our weakness, we go to his forgiveness and, and seek that restoration. And, and that's where we find then strength for ourselves, because he is strong. And so that even in judgment, God's faithfulness is clearly demonstrated, and he gives it to us abundantly. His faithfulness never fails.

God never fails in that. We have instructions for our exile. as believers, we're really not citizens of this world anymore, are we? We are, ambassadors, we're described, we are, outsiders, because we're not part of this world, we're in it.

But as Jesus said in John 17 in his prayer, We're not to be of it. We're in but not of. And so we are in that sense, living as exiles in this world and how are we to live? Well, we have instructions for that.

It says in 1 Thessalonians 4:11. And that we're to make it our ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to our own business and work with our hands just as we commanded you. And so, that's one of the instructions that we have, Titus 3:1-2, says to remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. Also like you to turn over to First Peter 1.

I didn't put these on the slice cause I didn't think I'd have time. So we do have time, so I wanna look at them cause they're really good. First Peter chapter one. Verse 17.

If you address his Father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth. Look over to chapter 2, verse 11 and 12. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lust which we wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in this thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

And the last one I wanted to point your attention to is in Romans. Chapter 13. Verses 1 to 7 says every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they do have, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same, for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear, it does not bear the sword for nothing.

For it, The government is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes for rulers or servants of God devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them.

Tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Those are instructions for New Testament exiles, those of us who live in our time, who are In the world, but not of the world. God has, has called us to live in it. In a way that brings honor to him and, and honor to the authority.

So those are our instructions. All right. Any questions or comments? OK.

The comment is that Oh, would I agree? Yes. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. So God doesn't change the way he deals with people.

in, in the sense that, that he, he, his expectations are for, for his people to, to reverence him. there are certain practices that he changes. We, we no longer practice certain mosaic laws because they weren't for us. but, there are other things that are completely the same, and God's expectations are that we walk by faith, that we trust in Him.

And even when we read the 10 Commandments, We can see even though those were for Israel. They really apply to us in so many ways, and even the 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet. is something that as I read it, it speaks to my heart as to my contentment with God. Do I trust him?

Do I trust what he has given to me? Or am I gonna be always looking for, for what other people have and be discontented with, with how God has provided for me. So yeah, that there is a lot of crossover. And there are principles that we can learn from those passages.

So, For instance, Psalm 126. Going back to that, That is written to those returning exiles to Jerusalem. That's, they, they wrote that as a song of praise, to, to God. What we can look at it and see is the hope that they had in trusting in God while they were in exile and coming back is something that we can hold on to as well.

God provided for them while they're in exile. God provides for us, even when we're going through those dark times in our life. And God is saying, I want you to hold on to me. Now, sometimes those dark, those dark times in our life don't end till our life ends.

And God doesn't make us a promise that we're gonna be restored back to our land, right? and so we, we have to be careful not to claim that as some promise that, I just went into foreclosure or bankruptcy with my business and so, I'm going through this dark time, but God is going to, bring me out of it. Maybe not. We may go through a complete change of life or there'll be some other hardships that will, we will never get out of, but our faith needs to be In the God who provides for us, and that he will take us through it one way or the other, but that, that is what our hope is in.

And, but I would encourage us to, to be careful how we apply those verses. So, the words of Jeremiah to, to the exiles, that God is not planning calamity for you, but a hope, That was for them. God doesn't necessarily promise that for us. in fact, Jesus said, you will undergo persecution.

there will be hard things for you. And as we know, The, the apostles, had very difficult lives, right? and many of, of the early Christians, did, there are Christians today in different parts of the world that have very difficult lives. And for them to, to try to claim a verse like that is a, is a hope promise.

would, would be inappropriate. It's bad interpretation. but our hope is in Romans 8 and in other passages like that because what we look for is not a city on this world, but a city made by God. And that's what we're trusting in, and that's what we're moving forward to.

That's a great comment to bring up. Anyone else? Why is it Christian. you.

Right. The, what he, Brian is bringing up is, why is it that there are Christians who talk about this idea that when you become a Christian, you don't suffer anymore. And, that seems like that would be If I were putting together an evangelistic plan, that would be the plan I would put together. That's a whole lot more appealing and I think you, you get a, a lot more to it.

That's not the plan God put together. And, and I think we can understand why. because God is working on our character. And he's more concerned about our character than our comfort, and you probably heard that before.

But God is, is continually working on our character, but he's also using those trials, those hard things to be a light to the world, right? And so, when they see us go through it, through our, our suffering, and we still walk by faith, That's, that's a testimony of good to the world about how real our faith is. and so suffering is an important part of, of the Christian life that God uses, in his wisdom as he chooses to do it. But, but yeah, there's a whole lot of, of what's underneath the Christian umbrella that preaches that message, that there, there should be no more suffering.

When you become, when you follow Jesus, your life gets better. Yeah. I had, I have a friend who, when he became a Christian, he injured his back at work. And lost his job and his life just, it, it went bad for a long time, and he would say to me, why, why, why?

but God had to take him through things, and it was for his good. And we go to Romans 8:28, right? All things work together for good. So.

So any other comments or questions? OK, one more. Right. Jeremiah 20:29:11, we can look at it and say, God was faithful to them.

He was trustworthy there and so I can trust him for what he has promised me. That's how we should see it. we see example after example throughout the, the Old Testament, specific promises made, and we can look at them and it actually should build our faith. So that the promises that he has made to us, particularly about our redemption and, and, and our future, what God is making us into.

Being conformed to the image of his son is one of the most mind-boggling promises, I think that's in the Bible. To, to accept that, what helps me accept that is knowing that God has faithfully worked through the history of man. To keep his promises that he made to them. And because he kept his promises to them, I can trust in this one that he made to me.

Does that make sense? so that I think is how we should be looking at those promises. There is, There can be a, a temptation to spiritualize the promises. And that's not totally always bad, but It, it's a little cringe-worthy to me.

And, and I really try to be careful not to it, maybe because I'm just not smart enough to, to be able to handle it correctly. But I think we have to be careful about spiritualizing things and taking them beyond what they were intended to be. I think we need to be careful with God's word. It was written in a, in a really in a plain format to be, to be understood by us except for some things, like, Peter writes about things written by Paul that are hard to understand.

And so there are some things that, that, that we can read over and over again and we're still going, wow, what does that mean? Ezekiel is one of those. But, we trust the, the stuff that is plainly written to be written as it was intended to be understood. And so that is how we should be interpreted, interpreting it.

It's why context matters. Context really matters to us. And I think when we respect the context, that's a way of us showing respect for God's word. All right.

Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Lord, again for your word and, and, thank you for the opportunity to be able to get into it, that we all get a copy of it and we can read it, and that your spirit helps us to understand it. And Lord, help us to, to faithfully apply it to our lives, to walk by faith, to trust in you, to know that your promises are real, and that we can trust in them, and help us to even find those ways of rejoicing in what you are doing in our lives. So that we may come before you with confidence, knowing that you love us.

And we just trust in all that. Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God bless you and we'll have a good worship today.