Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): A king asks God's prophet, Jeremiah, what he should do and yet he doesn't do it. Some things never change. Here's Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

Bill Luebkemann: Here he was told all this stuff. Just surrender. Go along with God's plan and everything's going to be fine. And what's his reply? Don't tell anyone we talked. Because he's more afraid of man than of God. He's more afraid of what the men are going to do to him. And you see that today also, people compromising in their faith because they're more afraid of what some person will think or say about them than they are about God. We need to seek to please God and not worry about anybody else.

Guest (Male): It's been said that to reject Christ is to reject God, and to reject God is to reject life. As unreasonable as this is, people do it every day. Even nations do it. Even God's own nation. This forces his hand of judgment, as we'll hear today on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

It was a dark time in the divided nation of Israel. The northern kingdom was taken away into captivity, and the southern kingdom of Judah was about to be destroyed. Yet God was still offering hope through his faithful prophets. There's always hope in the Lord if there's repentance. Maybe God is sending you a message with encouragement to heed it. Here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Luebkemann: "The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place." Look, he didn't want to carry them away into captivity. He sent over and over and over, repeated time and time again. He sent the word. We're going to look at some of those examples.

But what did they do? "They mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar."

So look, just a little background on what happened to them. If you look over in Jeremiah 32, some really sad stories here. Sad verses, what happened when they didn't follow the Lord. Jeremiah 32: "This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem.

And Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace of Judah. Now Zedekiah, king of Judah, had imprisoned him there, saying, 'Why do you prophesy as you do? You say this is what the Lord says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will capture it. Zedekiah, king of Judah, will not escape out of the hands of the Babylonians, but will certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon and will speak with him face to face and see him with his own eyes.

He will take Zedekiah to Babylon where he will remain until I deal with him, declares the Lord. If you fight against the Babylonians, you will not succeed.'" This is what Jeremiah was saying to the king. And what the king did was he put Jeremiah in jail because he didn't like what he was saying. "I'm tired of you saying all this bad stuff about me. I'm putting you in jail." Instead of saying, "Well, hey, maybe God's talking here, maybe I have to realign my thinking to where God is." Instead, he put him in jail.

So this guy, Zedekiah, took over at the end of chapter 24. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord just like Jehoiachin, his nephew, had done. And it was because of the Lord's anger that this had all happened. And in the end, he thrust them from his presence. Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. So he was the king for 11 years and somewhere along the ninth year or so, he got tired also of serving the king of Babylon and he rebelled, even though the king of Babylon is the one who put him in office. So he decides to rebel against the hand that feeds him.

So in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. This is because Zedekiah, who was kind of like his vassal king, had decided to rebel against him. And it brought Nebuchadnezzar down in person with his entire army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it.

The city was kept under siege until the 11th year of King Zedekiah. By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. Look, this started in the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month. And it ended in the 11th year on the ninth day of the fourth month. So we went from the ninth year to the 11th year, from the tenth month to the fourth month. So that's like a year and a half.

For this period of time, the city was under siege. Now what does that mean? Well, somehow he built siege works around it, so he had his military stationed around it and they were just guarding in all directions so no one could come in or go out. Some people feel that they let people out but they just didn't let anyone in. If you wanted to leave, you could leave, but they weren't going to let anything in, especially any supplies. They may have dug a trench around it, kind of like a moat, a ditch or something, to prevent people from leaving. But they had them surrounded and they were choking them and blocking off so nothing could get in. And after a year and a half, the famine was so severe, there was nothing to eat.

Look what happens in verse four: "Then the city wall was broken through and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah, but the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho." So they break through the wall. These people are so desperate, they flee out, possibly going in all different directions, every man for himself, just hoping we can escape the Babylonians. But they chase after and are especially interested in the king, whom they capture in the plains of Jericho.

And that's another very interesting thing because where did the Jews first enter the promised land to take it over? In Jericho. And what was the first city they fought against? Jericho. And what kind of weapons did they use? None. They marched around Jericho and the walls fell down. And here, in the same vicinity, is where the last king of Judah—the kingdom of Israel was gone already—is where the last king they ever had was overtaken. In that same vicinity as where they had been when they went into the land so many hundreds of years before. I think somewhere around 800 years before.

Verse five: "All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him. They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon." So look, he's the guy they're interested in. And when they finally get him, what they do is they want to be sure the last thing he sees with his eyes is his sons being killed before they gouge out his eyes. So they kill his sons in front of him while he's watching and then they gouge out his eyes.

It's interesting because Ezekiel, over in chapter 12, verse 13, says this: "I will spread my net for him and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylonia, the land of the Chaldeans, but he will not see it. And there he will die." And sure enough, he was brought to Babylon but he never saw it because he didn't have any eyes anymore. And eventually he died in that land.

If you want to know what kind of opportunities the Lord was giving to him, some people read this today and they say, "Man, that God, he's mighty cruel, nasty old God. Can't believe he does things like that." Look, here's what happened. Here's what Jeremiah told him in chapter 38 of Jeremiah, verse 14: "Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the Lord. 'I am going to ask you something,' the king said to Jeremiah. 'Do not hide anything from me.' Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, 'If I give you an answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.'

But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: 'As surely as the Lord lives who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who are seeking your life.'" Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "This is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says." Listen carefully here, this is what God was telling Zedekiah. "If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down. You and your family will live.

But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians and they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape from their hand." King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me." "They will not hand you over," Jeremiah replied. "Obey the Lord by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you and your life will be spared.

But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has revealed to me. All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you, 'They misled you and overcame you, those trusted friends of yours. Your feet are sunk in the mud. Your friends have deserted you.' All your wives and children will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself will not escape from their hands, but will be captured by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down."

Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Do not let anyone know about this conversation or you may die." So look, here he was told all this stuff. Just surrender. Go along with God's plan and everything's going to be fine. And what's his reply? Don't tell anyone we talked. Because he's more afraid of man than of God. He's more afraid of what the men are going to do to him. And you see that today also, people compromising in their faith because they're more afraid of what some person will think or say about them than they are about God. We need to seek to please God and not worry about anybody else.

"If the officials hear that I talked with you and they come to you and say, 'Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you. Do not hide it from us or we will kill you,' then tell them, 'I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan's house to die there.'" All the officials did come to Jeremiah and question him. He told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they said no more to him and no one had heard his conversation with the king.

And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured. Jeremiah was being held a prisoner simply for telling Zedekiah what God said. Zedekiah wanted him to change it. And there were false prophets—we'll get to them in a couple minutes here—there were false prophets who were saying other things as well. Josephus, the Jewish historian, says that Nebuchadnezzar kept Zedekiah in prison until the day he died.

And then he gave him the big lavish funeral fit for a king. So here he was with his eyes gouged out, watched his kids killed in front of him, then had his eyes gouged out, then carried away and imprisoned in Babylon until the day he died. And then he got a proper funeral. I would rather live for the Lord than have a fancy funeral after I die.

Back in 2 Kings 25: "On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, commander of the imperial guard and official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem."

Now look, the Talmud says that they had a two-day party in the temple just to desecrate it. So the Babylonians came back under the command of this guy, Nebuzaradan. This was in the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. And this is when they further destroyed Jerusalem. They set fire to the temple. According to the Talmud, that was after their two-day party to desecrate it. They burned down the royal palace. They burned down the houses and all the important buildings.

And then they went around and tore down the wall brick by brick, stone by stone. This city, which the wall was so good that this siege had gone on for a year and a half, it was a good wall that protected them. Never again. They lost the wall. They lost the protection that it offered. It was desecrated. This guy, Nebuzaradan, by the way, it says he was commander of the imperial guard and that word can also be translated chief executioner or even slaughterer. And that's what he did here.

"Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had gone over to the king of Babylon. But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields." Now look, he carried away whatever was left. There wasn't much, but he carried it away. He left even less than the last guy.

"The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried the bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. The commander of the imperial guard took away the censors and sprinkling bowls, all that were made of pure gold or silver." You can look at the end of the book of Jeremiah, chapter 52, verse 17, for more details on what was carried away, but they took everything.

The previous time, they had carried away all the big stuff. Now they were taking away all the little stuff and they weren't leaving anything behind here. Everything was taken. "The bronze from the two pillars, the sea and the movable stands, which Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed. Each pillar was 27 feet high. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was four and a half feet high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar with its network was similar."

So these two pillars, 27 feet high, very large circumference, at the top decorated with this bronze artwork thing that was four and a half feet high, and they busted it all up and took all the pieces back with them. Just cleaned the house out there. There was nothing left. It looked like moving day. The building was empty, barren. What a shame this is. And what a sad ending it is to think about 860 years after the land had been conquered, it's being completely desecrated. And it was all because the nation of Israel would not follow the Lord their God.

"The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers. Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men and five royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land and 60 of his men who were found in the city. Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity away from her land."

So remember, Jeremiah had told Zedekiah, "Look, just give up and you can live and your relatives will live and nothing will get burned down and the city will continue to go on. All you have to do is give up. Surrender." Previously, the reason they got themselves in trouble was they were worshipping idols. They were following other gods. And the Lord said, "Don't worship any other god but the one God, the true God, the only God. No other god but me. I'm the Lord your God. You can have no other god before me." They wouldn't do that.

Now he's not even telling them you have to worship the Lord your God. He's just telling them, "Look, if you just give up, that's all you have to do now. We're not talking about worshipping idols or anything. All you have to do is just give up, surrender, and you'll live. Or you don't surrender and you'll die." And what's the king do? He puts him in prison or keeps him in the courtyard there. At one point, puts him in a cistern, if I'm not mistaken.

This was 860 years after the land was conquered, 468 years after King David began reigning, 388 years since the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom had been divided, and 134 years since Israel—the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom—had been conquered by the Assyrians. So when they went into the land about 400 years before David became king, once he became king, they only had really a good thing going there for like 80 years through the reign of David and then Solomon. And then after those two reigns, things split up and went downhill. Another couple hundred years after that, 250 maybe, Israel gets conquered and now another hundred and some years and it's come down to this.

"Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to be over the people he had left behind in Judah. When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the son of the Maakathite, and their men. Gedaliah took an oath to reassure them and their men. 'Do not be afraid of the Babylonian officials,' he said. 'Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon and it will go well with you.'"

Now a lot of people feel this guy, Gedaliah, was a godly and honest and upright man. He was a good man and a gentleman and he was a Jew that was left behind and he was made the governor by the king of Babylon. Now some other leading people of the time came to him who were left behind, and they didn't like the fact that he was in cahoots with the Babylonians. But this was God's plan, that they would be conquered and they would submit. And this is what Jeremiah had told Zedekiah, that you need to submit.

And this guy was a Jew who had been put in charge by Nebuchadnezzar. And all he tells them is, "Look, we don't have our autonomy anymore. We're essentially a vassal state under the Babylonians. But if you live a quiet life and mind your own business, they'll leave us alone. So let's do that." He was made the governor, Gedaliah. He didn't try to use that to his own advantage. He didn't try to tax these people. He didn't say, "Give me a couple bucks a week or I'm going to report you to the king of Babylon and you're going to get executed."

He just wanted to have peace. "Look, we've been conquered. This is God's will. Jeremiah said it was going to happen. It happened. Let's just make the best of it. Let's serve God and honor God through being submitted to the Babylonians who God put over us." So this guy was a guy who was an honest guy, a righteous guy. He was just trying to make the best of the situation the Lord had left him in. But some of the people didn't believe it.

"In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated Gedaliah and also the men of Judah and the Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. At this all the people from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians." Ishmael, he's not happy about that and he doesn't like the fact that Gedaliah is in this position. And he especially can't stand it because he's of royal blood and Gedaliah's not. So he doesn't like the fact, here's a guy not of royal blood ruling over us and he's in cahoots with the Babylonians.

And we don't have time to go there, but if you look in Jeremiah 41, you'll find out that he was actually eating dinner with this guy. They were over his house eating dinner. Ishmael came in with his ten men and they were having dinner with Gedaliah there. So Gedaliah had invited them in and while they're having dinner, they get up and assassinate him right there near the dinner table. There's also, I think, a scripture somewhere that says that Gedaliah was warned that this might happen, but he ignored the warning and was trying to be nice to these people.

He was told that Ishmael was going to do this and he could have killed Ishmael first, but he didn't. So I think that that supports the idea that he was a godly and a gentle guy. And what happened then? All the people ran away to Egypt, which still wasn't the right place. And if you look in Jeremiah, you see Jeremiah telling them, "God doesn't want you in Egypt. You're supposed to be in the land, submitted to the Babylonians."

"In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin from prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king's table. Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived."

Jehoiachin was the king before Zedekiah, remember. Zedekiah was Jehoiachin's uncle. And Jehoiachin got carried away into captivity. His uncle Zedekiah took over. Zedekiah's the king for 11 years, rebels against Babylon. They have the two-year siege. The whole time that's going on, Jehoiachin is still in prison. They put out Zedekiah's lights after they kill his sons and they carry him away to prison. This whole time, Jehoiachin, the previous king, is still in prison in Babylon.

And the next king came along after Nebuchadnezzar. His name, Evil-Merodach—it does not really mean, by the way, that he's evil. Man of the god Marduk or man of Marduk. And this guy became the king and he was nice to Jehoiachin. Now look, he was Nebuchadnezzar's son and it's also believed that while Nebuchadnezzar was crazy for seven years, out in the woods acting like an animal, that his son was helping to run the kingdom.

And when Nebuchadnezzar got his senses back and came back into authority, he and his son had a disagreement and he put his son in jail. And it is thought by some people that that's how his son knew Jehoiachin. They met in jail. So when Nebuchadnezzar died, his son got out of jail and became the king, he let Jehoiachin out, treated him kindly, spoke nice to him, made some kind of a pact perhaps or a deal with him and let him live out his days in peace there in Babylon. And that's where 2 Kings ends. They are in captivity and they're going to be in captivity for a number of years until the time of Ezra, who comes back and rebuilds the temple. Nehemiah comes back and rebuilds the wall.

Guest (Male): These are important lessons from history that God was faithful to record for our benefit. But to benefit from these lessons, we must remember them and apply them. May the Lord help us to do so by his Spirit. You've been listening to Hope from the Word. We're currently in a study of 2 Kings. You can hear this message and more Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org.

Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. Or if you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope from the Word wherever you find your podcasts. We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton, either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 AM, and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00.

To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton, or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org. And if you'd take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org, or call 856-983-1662. Well, that concludes 2 Kings. Join us next time when Pastor Bill will dive into the book of 1 Chronicles.