Jim Styles - Class 4: Jehoiakim - the King without a Conscience

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Good morning, everyone. We've got the sun out this morning. It's going to be a nice, warm day. Certainly the Word of God will warm your hearts, but unfortunately, as Eddie said, the kings we have to look at today, they didn't have very warm hearts. But this is what Jeremiah was dealing with. He started looking at a couple of the kings.

2. 0:23

   We'll probably spend the Sunday school class on Jehoiakim, and then we'll look in the afternoon program today at Zedekiah. And you get a real flavor for why God at this point would say to Jeremiah, there's no real alternative. The best solution is to simply take everybody out of the kingdom and regrow them in Babylon and then send them back at another time.

3. 0:44

   So that's the plan, is to have a look at King Jehoiakim this morning, and we'll hopefully have a look at some of the things he did wrong. And learn some lessons from that about what we want to do in terms of ourselves. Just so that we're straight on where we're at, when you look at Jehoiakim.

4. 1:00

   Remember, I know it's a little bit fuzzy today. I think the only way to make that come in better is to pull the whole thing back.

5. 1:10

   I don't know whether that bothers anybody back there, but it's just too close. This projector won't go that low. It won't go that close. So, we'll try that. Is that better?

6. 1:31

   Yeah. You want to come way back here? I don't know. Unless somebody else knows. Ah, there's why. Uh-huh. It wasn't that. It was the... Thanks. See? You've got to learn. It's a smart projector. See? It's got focus, and it also has distance. Huh? So, you can do both. Yeah? You like that one?

7. 1:58

   All right. We'll get something in between. How's that? All right. Well, I'll live with that. Did you like that fuzzy stuff better? When it gets that fuzzy, everybody just sort of tunes out. So, that's the plan. We'll pick it up with Jehoiakim. Thank you for that. So, remember, Jehoiakim, he's the one that the people of the land didn't want.

8. 2:22

   They bypassed him, picked Jehoahaz, but Jehoahaz got carried down to Egypt by Pharaoh Necho, and Pharaoh Necho sets Jehoiakim up as king. So, that's where we're at today. We'll look at Jeremiah's prophecies about Jehoiakim himself, and have hopefully learned some things about him. When you look at it in terms of the timeline, which is always good, not just in terms of Josiah's children, but remember, Josiah here, he has Jehoiakim.

9. 2:43

   Jehoiakim has. He's also got Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin. So, all three, well, actually, these three right here were also, were all sons of Josiah. And now we're into this 11-year period of Jehoiakim right here, and then we'll finish off this afternoon with Zedekiah, another 11-year period, which is really the end. That's basically where you're at.

10. 3:02

    If you ever look at the timeline that I created, you can see that we're in this period right in here with Jehoiakim. And you can see there's quite a clump of chapters in terms of what's going on here in Jeremiah. And if you blow that up big enough so that you can see it, we're going to look at this period right in here where Pharaoh Necho had just defeated Josiah.

11. 3:20

    So Necho had been up at Kharkimish. He fought with the Assyrians and lost. And so he comes back on down, and he picks up, in this case, he picks up Jehoiakim, and he's going to come on down. So, sorry, actually, he won that round. So Pharaoh Necho won the first round. Later on, though, he goes back up there, and he loses, and that's when the Babylonians are going to take over.

12. 3:42

    So in the first round right here, he actually wins, comes back down. He picks up Jehoiakim, takes him, and sets up Jehoiakim as king. And then only a few years later, this fourth year right here of Jehoiakim, look at all the chapters of Jeremiah that focus in on this period right there. That's because that's where the major change took place in Jeremiah's life.

13. 4:01

    Instead of the Egyptians being the power at that point, then the Babylonians had become the power. There was another war just three, four years later, and this time the Babylonians won. Pharaoh Necho was defeated, and he went back home defeated, and God, at this point, was using the Babylonians to come down from the north, as Jeremiah had predicted.

14. 4:20

    So during Jehoiakim's reign, all the prophecies Jeremiah had been predicting about this enemy coming down from the north, the boiling pot that was facing away from the north, it was going to spill over on Israel. Jeremiah's prophecies were finally vindicated in this king's reign. And you would think that if you had lived through this, and people saw Bible prophecy coming to pass, you would think you'd get all excited and figure out that, wow, this man's been telling us the truth.

15. 4:45

    But instead, they just turned on Jeremiah again, and it just didn't turn out at all like I think Jeremiah had hoped and expected. This is when Daniel is going to get taken captive to Babylon, and you'll find out Jehoiakim actually rebels from Nebuchadnezzar at this point, and he tries at least to pull off a rebellion that gets quenched, but he stays in as king, he gets his 11 years.

16. 5:04

    But then right in here at the end of his life, you're going to see that Jehoiakim, in the reading that we just did, the prediction was that he was going to be left outside to die the death of a donkey, just going to be left outside the city of Jerusalem, not what you would normally get in a king's burial.

17. 5:21

    And the reason is, is because the Babylonians came down again at that period, had a siege on Jerusalem, and nobody could go anywhere. And then Jehoiakim has, or then his son, rather, Jehoiachin, is going to take over as the king. So that's the period that you're in right now. Right now, lots of changes taking place during Jehoiakim's reign.

18. 5:39

    So, and we'll look at what Jeremiah has to say about him. Now, there's really a few key chapters in Jeremiah that focus in on this period. One of them is Jeremiah 26. So the nice thing today is that, unlike yesterday's last class, where we had to go through like 18 chapters, today you get to focus on maybe about three.

19. 5:57

    And we'll look at those, and hopefully walk away with some idea of what's going on. So, Jeremiah 26. This is in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, in the first verse, probably around this fourth year. You're probably around this period, when the Egyptians lost up at Carchemish, they come back down, the Babylonians sweep through the land, and Nebuchadnezzar now has taken away, Jehoah has, and now he's actually coming in and invaded during this period, the fourth year of Jehoiakim.

20. 6:27

    And what he has to do, Nebuchadnezzar has to decide, is he going to leave Jehoiakim in as king, or is he going to put in somebody else? And it looks like he may have even taken him up to Babylon at this period, but he decides to leave Jehoiakim in as the king. So that's about where you are in this fourth year of Jehoiakim.

21. 6:44

    So you're right at this period when Daniel would have been taken captive. So Daniel's gone up to Babylon, and this is where we are in Jeremiah 26. So, thus says the Lord, in verse 2, Stand in the court of the Lord's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, and come to worship in the Lord's house, and all the words that I command you to speak to them, do not diminish a word.

22. 7:05

    Perhaps, everyone will listen, and turn from his evil way. And you wonder, like, why now? Why would they listen now, when they wouldn't listen before? And I think what God was hoping here, and Jeremiah, was that now that Jeremiah's prophecies had been vindicated, now that they saw the king from the north was actually going to take over, the Egyptians were no longer in power, now that Jeremiah, all those things he'd been saying now for years, really, for 20 years, were now actually coming to pass.

23. 7:34

    And so, the hope was, that some people would realize, as they saw prophetic events taking place, that maybe now you could grab their attention, and they'd listen to you, and maybe we could change some hearts. So, I think that's what they're hoping at this point. That's why God would say, perhaps, everyone will listen, and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity, which I purpose to bring on them, because of the evil of their doings.

24. 7:57

    Now, isn't it interesting to notice, that after all this time, look at how patient, and kind, and compassionate our God is. That after all of this, and all the things we looked at yesterday, and all the reasons why, what right does my beloved have in her house, God is willing to change his mind, if we change our ways.

25. 8:18

    I think that's really good about our God. It's good to know that we have a Father, who loves us like that. And all he's waiting for, is the day in which we come on board. So that no matter what has happened, in somebody's life, he simply wants us to learn from those experiences, eventually change our ways, and come back to him.

26. 8:34

    I remember, I was reading a book by Brother Barling, at one time, I think it was, and he just said that, God was more interested, in the last lap of our life, than he was in all the rest. And there's an interesting concept about that, in terms of like, if you ever run on a track, and you're running a mile, or you're running like, 20 miles on a track, and in the end, it's like, in the last lap, you find out who wins.

27. 8:53

    But that's what God is interested in, in terms of our life, is where are we at at the end, of our life? What happened at the end? What did all those experiences do to us? Which is why we have to care about, and be careful about what happens at the end. So, verse 4, he says, you shall say to them, thus says the Lord, if you will not listen to me, to walk in my law, which I've set before you, to heed the words of my servants, the prophets whom I sent to you, both rising up early, and sending them, but you have not heeded, then I will make this house like, Shiloh.

28. 9:25

    Ooh, and make the house like Shiloh. And I will make this city a curse, to all the inhabitants of the earth. Now, at this point in time, what's in Shiloh? Shiloh. Shiloh is where the tabernacle was, when they first came in the land. Joshua came up, set it in the land, they put the tabernacle up in Shiloh, right?

29. 9:45

    The tabernacle, God's house was there, his tent was there, the ark was there. So, what's in Shiloh right now? Not today, back then, when Jeremiah wrote this. What's in Shiloh? Nothing. Nothing. It all got torn away. Remember, they sent the ark out into battle, and the Philistines took it. David eventually brought it back into Jerusalem.

30. 10:07

    What happened to the tabernacle? It looks like the Philistines came down through the land at that point, and the tabernacle, they packed it all up, got it out of Shiloh, and they brought it down, and it ended up at Gibeah. Remember, later on in David's life. Shiloh, gone. And God says, even though I left my tabernacle in Shiloh for years, hundreds of years, and yet, took it out, wiped it out.

31. 10:27

    Don't think just because you have my temple in Jerusalem, that that's going to make a difference for you. I'll clean it out. I've done it before, and I'll do it again. So, that was a major thing to say. To say, you're going to make this house like Shiloh? In other words, the whole temple is going to be demolished and gone, and God's ark isn't going to be there anymore.

32. 10:47

    No Shekinah glory in the holy place. That was a huge statement to make for Jeremiah. So, the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words to them, and the house of the Lord. Oh boy, what's going to happen now? So, Jeremiah 26 at verse 8. Now it happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him, to speak to all the people, that the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, they seized him saying, you will surely die.

33. 11:16

    This is how they responded to this. And so, here you are at a point where God says, go talk to them. Maybe now they're going to listen to you. Imagine how Jeremiah felt. He's probably a little pumped up thinking, yeah, maybe now they're going to hear. Maybe they're going to respond now. Maybe everybody's going to listen to what I have to say, because the Babylonians really are in power.

34. 11:32

    They're going to come down, and he goes out and says it, and they grab him, and they say, you're going to die. And that's the response he gets. This is Jeremiah's life. It just went like ups and the downs like that. If you were there, it would be amazing to watch this happen, and you just feel for the man.

35. 11:49

    He's trying to do what God has said. And look at the reason. Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, this house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? What are you doing saying things like that? It's like treason in our country. You don't say those kind of things.

36. 12:03

    And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. So there they are in the house of the Lord, that he just said, this whole place is going to become like Shiloh, and Jerusalem is going to be wiped out with no inhabitants. So when the princes of Judah, in verse 10, heard these things, they came up to the king's house, to the house of the Lord, and sat down at the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house.

37. 12:24

    And the priests and the prophets, and I got to notice the players here. These are like teams that are forming. We got the priests and the prophets on one team, and we got, they spoke to the princes and all the people on the other. And they say, this man deserves to die. All right.

38. 12:40

    So we got the priests and the prophets. See that group right there? They didn't like Jeremiah at all. The priests and the prophets, because he was totally against what they were doing. So they spoke to the princes and all the people. This man deserves to die. For he's prophesied against the city, as you have heard with your ears.

39. 12:57

    So they're in the gate. They're in the new gate at the Lord's house. And so the court is in session. They're going to hold court right now and find out what they're going to do with Jeremiah. This is a point, you know, at this chapter right now, at this point, they're going to hold a court session at the gate, and they're going to decide Jeremiah's life.

40. 13:15

    Shall we kill him right now? That's what they wanted to do. So here they go. Then Jeremiah spoke. So he gets to give his defense. So all the princes and all the people saying, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against the city with all the words that you have heard.

41. 13:30

    Now, therefore, amend your ways and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord, your God, and then the Lord will relent concerning the doom he's pronounced against you. See, he comes in with this consistent message. See, Jeremiah, unlike yesterday, he's on board with God. Now he is ready to go. And now when God says, you say it, he goes and says it.

42. 13:50

    And even when they want to kill him, he comes in and he says, you've got to change your ways. You've got to amend your ways. And maybe then God will relent concerning the doom that he's pronounced against you. But as for me, look it, I'm in your hand. Here I am. Do with me as seems good and proper to you.

43. 14:06

    Go ahead and kill me. But if you don't change your ways, God's going to wipe you out and you will be like Shiloh and Jerusalem will have no inhabitants. No, for certain, if you put me to death, you will certainly bring innocent blood on yourselves and on the city and on the inhabitants.

44. 14:21

    For truly, the Lord has sent me to speak to you all these words in your hearing. So that's Jeremiah's defense at the court session. So you keep going. I mean, this is like you'd hold court today. You get to get up as a witness and you give your defense. So then the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, see how this is playing out?

45. 14:42

    This is how the teams are set. Jeremiah gives his defense. Then the princes and the people speak to the priests and the prophets and they say, this man doesn't deserve to die. He's spoken to us in the name of the Lord, our God. So the people, you know, in this case, and the princes, there were some princes of Jehoiakim who actually sided with Jeremiah in this case.

46. 15:03

    And some of the people that were there listening sided with Jeremiah and they rise up to his defense and they stand with him and they say, he doesn't deserve to die. He's just speaking to us in the name of the Lord. Then certain elders of the land rose up and spoke to the assembly of the people.

47. 15:19

    So now we got the old folks coming in, the elders that have some past history and wisdom. And watch what they do here. They sway the court in a sense. They said, Micah of Morshah prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be plowed like a field and Jerusalem will become heaps of ruins and the mountain of the temple like bare hills of the forest.

48. 15:44

    Now when Micah was told, when Micah prophesied that to Hezekiah, what had just happened is the Assyrians had come down and wiped out the northern kingdom. This is over 100 years ago. And what the Assyrians intended to do and what God was going to do at that point was use the Assyrians to come down and wipe out Jerusalem.

49. 16:04

    And Micah at that time prophesied and he says to Hezekiah, because of you, look at what's going to happen. That's how he actually said it when you read Micah's prophecy. Because of you, Jerusalem will be plowed. And Hezekiah, what did he do? How did he respond when Micah said things to that king like Jeremiah is saying today?

50. 16:25

    Well, did Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and all Judah, did they ever put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and seek the Lord's favor? And the Lord relented concerning the doom which He had pronounced against them. But we are doing a very great evil against ourselves. Now, when you look at Micah's prophecy, if you just ever scan through that, you can see in Micah chapter 3, you can see what he did.

51. 16:47

    This would be in the days of Hezekiah. God was intended at this point to wipe out the community if they didn't change. So it's a very similar situation to Jeremiah's. You know, the same kind of thing. These are conditional prophecies. I think a lot of times when we read the Bible, we just think that prophecies are just like unconditional and that they all are because there are some unconditional prophecies.

52. 17:08

    But there are other prophecies that were given that were conditional upon the behavior of the people. And it's important to realize the difference between the two. When God talks about what He's going to do for Israel, it's unconditional. The promises to Abraham, unconditional. But when a prophet would come in and say, because of how you're behaving, God intends to do this, they were conditional prophecies based on how the people responded.

53. 17:33

    Just like with Jonah. 40 days and none of it is going to be overthrown. And you can say, well, that was a lie. It never happened. Not right then, at least, in 40 days. But that's because it was a conditional prophecy. And when the people responded, God didn't do what He had intended to do at that time.

54. 17:49

    And this was the claim right now. This is like Hezekiah's time. Let's look at this. Jeremiah is doing what happened with the same thing with Micah. So what Micah came in and did is he said in verse 1 there to the heads of Jacob and the rulers of the house of Israel, he came in and told them.

55. 18:04

    It's just like the priests and the prophets of Jeremiah's time. You hate good and you love evil. You strip the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones. You take advantage of the people. This is what they were doing. They eat up the flesh of his people. They treat them like sacrifices, in other words, and boil them in the pot.

56. 18:22

    They're going to cry to the Lord, but He will not hear them. And He'll hide His face from them at that time because they've done evil deeds. Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who make my people stray, who chant peace while they chew with their teeth. Well, see, isn't that interesting? This is what the prophets were doing in Jeremiah's time.

57. 18:39

    They were out there telling everybody, oh, peace, peace. Everything's going to be peaceful. Got anything for me today? Did you like that message? Where's the food? Who brought? Where's the potluck? You bring the lunch? As long as you have lunch, right? That's good. See, that's what they did. They said, peace. While there's food there, they can chew, but they prepare war against Him who puts nothing in their mouths.

58. 19:01

    So if you didn't bring anything today, forget you. I've got some things I can say about you. You didn't bring to the potluck, right? This is what the prophets did, and this is what was happening in Jeremiah's time as well. So what happened with Micah is he gave the prophecy in Micah 3 at verse 9.

59. 19:15

    So he said, Here are you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel directed right at the leaders who abhor justice and they pervert all the equity. They build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity because they were building up all their own stuff at the expense of the people, taking bribes and everything.

60. 19:34

    So in verse 12, therefore because of you Zion will be plowed like a field and Jerusalem become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the temple of the Lord like bare hills of the forest. You know, that didn't happen at that time. That was 110 years ago and God patiently waited 110 years because Hezekiah responded.

61. 19:54

    And it's great to know that about our God. That's a lot of his prophecies like that were conditional, waiting for people to respond. So this was the argument that's being used back here in Jeremiah when the elders came along and they said, all right, look back in our archives. What happened? When Micah did this with Hezekiah, Hezekiah didn't kill him.

62. 20:13

    Hezekiah responded. He changed his ways and God did relent of the doom that he had pronounced against them. So then the princes come forward. It's their turn now in Jeremiah 26. So now you get the rest of the court case. Now those that were prosecuting, the prosecutors come in and here they go.

63. 20:31

    They're going to present their case against Jeremiah. All right. So now there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath, Jerom, who prophesied against the city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. So you see now they're going to give a different case.

64. 20:49

    So when Jehoiakim, the king, now they're giving a current case. All right. This is the king we're in right now, Jehoiakim. Now Hezekiah, Jehoiakim. Here's Jehoiakim's past history. You've got to do it right. You've got to do it the way King Jehoiakim wants to do it. This is our current history right now.

65. 21:03

    So when King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and all the princes heard the words, the king wanted to put him to death. But when Uriah heard it, he was afraid and he fled on down to Egypt. Right? Did he get away? Oh, then Jehoiakim, the king sent men to Egypt. Now Nathan, the son of Achbor and other men who went with him to Egypt.

66. 21:22

    And they brought Uriah from Egypt and they brought him to Jehoiakim, the king, who killed him with the sword. I mean, that's what goes on in King Jehoiakim. And cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. But after the court case was finished and Jeremiah had had his peace and the elders had come in and gave him their defense and the prosecution came in and gave their case against Jeremiah, the chapter ends with, nevertheless, the hand of Achikim, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah so that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

67. 21:57

    Now if you remember that family tree of Jeremiah, Shaphan's family, way over there on the other side, Shaphan's family stood for the truth. This is the Shaphan that was with Josiah and Hilkiah the priest when they found the book of the law in the temple. And his family was unbelievably cemented in truth.

68. 22:14

    And they stood up for Jeremiah at this point and they had influence over the people and in the end the court case finished and Jeremiah was not killed. But there's going to be a change taking place in Jeremiah's life, I think, because of this event. So what happened after this chapter is you move on to Jeremiah 36 when you follow through these chronologically.

69. 22:34

    And Jeremiah 36 tells us in the first verse that we're in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, but I think you'll see that what's happened is something has changed now about Jeremiah's freedom. Before he could just go out there and speak the word of the Lord and he got all excited that maybe he was going to change the people's hearts.

70. 22:50

    But now things are a little bit different. Jeremiah is going to be barred from the temple as a result of what just happened. So you'll see that in Jeremiah 36. So it came to pass in the fourth year, all right, that's where we are right now. He says to, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words I've spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, against all the nations from the day I spoke to you from the days of Josiah even to this day.

71. 23:15

    See how this works? Every time God wanted to impact the king when he really wanted to hit the king at that point and the people when an invasion was taking place fourth year of Jehoiakim, you take all the prophecies of Jeremiah and you compile them together in such a way that maybe the people now will get it.

72. 23:31

    Maybe they'll listen. I think this is what Jeremiah tended to do every time there was an invasion, which is why the way the book is set up in the end was the way it was left for Zedekiah. And I think that suggestion in Cook's commentary is probably a good one as to why Jeremiah is so out of order.

73. 23:48

    It's in order thematically, not in order according to chronology because he's trying to get a theme across, not some kind of chronological sequence. But for us, it's nice to go back and look at the chronological sequence so we can get the events right and then we can try to piece together the themes as you go along.

74. 24:05

    So what happened in verse four, all right? Then Jeremiah, he calls Baruch, right? The son of Neriah. I like the way you read that today. Baruch. That's how the Jews say it over in Israel, isn't it? We always called him Baruch when I was growing up and then you find out he's actually Baruch, the son of Neriah.

75. 24:19

    And he wrote on a scroll and a book at the instruction of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had spoken to him. So he copies all the prophecies again. This fellow, he did this a few times. He was a good copier for Jeremiah. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch saying, I am confined.

76. 24:34

    I cannot go into the house of the Lord. See the restriction now put on him as a result of what had happened. We're not going to have that trouble again in the temple anymore. We're not going to go through that again so you're not allowed there. You can't go there anymore. So this is what's happening.

77. 24:48

    Jeremiah now is starting to be confined and you'll see more and more limits put on. He gets put in prison. He gets dumped in the pit in the end. This is what's happening as you get near the end. So he says to Baruch, you go therefore and read the scroll which I've written at my dictation, the words of the Lord and the hearing of the people in the Lord's house on the day of fasting.

78. 25:06

    Now see he picks a specific day on the day of fasting and you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah have come from their cities. It may be that they will present their supplication before the Lord and everyone will turn from his evil way for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord has pronounced against his people.

79. 25:25

    So Baruch did it. He went in and he read the prophecies and he took them in. So when you're looking at what's going on in this fourth year of Jehoiakim I don't know if you can remember that in terms of like a key year but a lot of things are happening in this fourth year which is why so many of Jeremiah's prophecies are compiled in this fourth year.

80. 25:43

    It's a focal point of what Jeremiah is trying to do to influence the people. So Nebuchadnezzar had just beat Pharaoh he had now the evidence was there that Nebuchadnezzar was going to come down from the north as Jeremiah had been saying. He carried away captives. You know that Daniel was taking away captives and so are many others.

81. 26:01

    In fact he took some of the best Jews of the land and carried them away captive and tried to train them to become members of his cabinet. So Jeremiah's prophecies were vindicated but instead of it actually opening a door for Jeremiah he gets barred from the temple at this point. So they probably thought it was a good time to write down all the prophecies at this point.

82. 26:20

    Not a whole lot of risk that they would be destroyed because there was some credibility and some of the people were starting to realize what Jeremiah said really did happen. And so Baruch writes them all down they compile them together and have an opportunity to try to influence the people. And you're looking at what about 23 years now have gone by since Jeremiah first wrote.

83. 26:39

    And Jeremiah 25 is probably another chapter that would be about this same year when it was written. So that's where we're at in that period. Now you look at why would he pick a fast day? I think what would happen is that Jeremiah thought alright if we're going to get the word out to the people let's pick a day in which they're like emotionally and they're ready.

84. 26:58

    They're in a mood where maybe they'll listen to the word. You don't go at a day when they're all at the beach somewhere you catch a day when they're thinking when they're meditating and they've come to the temple and maybe there'll be a bunch of them that came there for good reasons and hope to reach a lot of people.

85. 27:13

    And really his credibility had increased amongst the people. I think you can see that when the princes and the prophets wanted to kill him and in the end they didn't because the people at that point must not have gone along with it and Jeremiah because of the influence of Shaphan and the influence of Heichem the son of Shaphan he wasn't killed at that point.

86. 27:33

    And he really was hoping at this point that he could change the minds of some of these people. I really think Jeremiah's hopes were really up that he might be able to make an influence. Now when you're looking at Baruch the son of Neriah if you ever wonder where he came from he's actually in that family chart there he's the son of Maaseiah you find that out in Jeremiah 32.

87. 27:52

    Maaseiah was a keeper of the door to the temple so Baruch had some connections in there to the temple himself and it may be why it was sort of easy for him to get in there and read when Jeremiah was barred from the temple. It's actually possible that the Maaseiah could be the governor of the city as well.

88. 28:08

    You really don't have enough information to know that for sure but it's possible that that would be the case and they probably would have had a pretty high position based on Jeremiah 52. Those were people that Nebuchadnezzar thought were worth taking when they took captives away. Baruch's brother was Saria and Saria and Jeremiah 51 was a quartermaster of the city so he got like he was in charge of a quarter of the city and it was his responsibility they claim at night for him to ride with the king each day and decide when they went out places where they would stop if they were going outside the city.

89. 28:39

    That's what the quartermaster would do and you can see up on that chart right there that this is the people that we're looking at right in here. We're looking at Baruch and Saria right in here that came as the son of Neria. Now when you find out about Baruch himself Jeremiah asked him to read the scroll in the temple because Jeremiah was barred right now and he couldn't go there so what does he do?

90. 28:59

    He faithfully helps Jeremiah out that's what he does and so Baruch gets in there and he reads the scroll that Jeremiah had dictated. Now it's interesting if you just skip ahead for a second and look about Baruch himself there's an interesting chapter dropped in it's one of those chapters when you're doing the readings in Jeremiah and you look at Jeremiah 45 that day and you say oh wow look at that it's only five verses yeah that's a short one Jeremiah 45 so you may remember that one when you get to Jeremiah 45 what happened is that you know look at this from Baruch's position what did he just do?

91. 29:34

    He just copied down all of the prophecies Jeremiah had given all at once and as he's copying them down and he's realizing he came from this family you know when you look at his family from Neriah and you look at his brother quartermaster of the city and you look at this family he would have had some pretty good positions in Jerusalem and he's writing down all these prophecies I think what happened to him is it finally sunk in that wow my future isn't going to be in political positions here God intends to wipe out this city if the people don't respond all these things I've been hoping for all my life the position I was going to have in the city things I was going to be able to do they're not going to happen and so Jeremiah 45 is really about Baruch it's about him God takes the time through Jeremiah to actually say some things to Baruch about his future and what he's thinking about right now so I think it's probably because at this point in time it all came in at one point and he realized here's what's going to happen and he has to remind Baruch that God owns it all it's not your stuff it's not your position in the city all these things that you're hoping for they're mine they're not yours and God can do with them as he pleases and sometimes that's an important lesson for us I mean a lot of us sometimes are like Baruch we get into these positions where we make our plans we have these hopes and we think we're going to do

92. 30:52

    this and that and God just steps in and says no it's not quite going to happen like that so in Jeremiah 45 the word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch you see after he had written these words in a book at the instruction of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim see it all made sense when you put the pieces together as to what was going on this is when it focused on him and he realized he says look God says to Baruch in verse 3 you said woe is me now for the Lord has added grief to my sorrow I fainted in my sighing and I find no rest I think it really hit him that this is what's going to happen when he wrote all these prophecies so thus you shall say to him thus says the Lord behold what I have built I will break down remember Baruch these positions that you have your spot here in the gate of the temple or all the things that he was doing and your brother's positions and all that this isn't your stuff this is mine and every so often in ecclesial life we have to stand back and look at that or even in our family sometimes we have to do that they're really not our kids they're gods they're not it's not my ecclesia it's not my brothers and sisters they're gods it's all about God and what he chooses to do with our families with our parents with our spouses with our children things he chooses to bring into their lives we sometimes have to remind ourselves to step back

93. 32:16

    and think wait a minute they're not really mine they're gods he's given them they're gifts that he's given us to use but there are times where he decides to take them back and when he does that's his choice and he has reasons for that and it's sometimes we become so attached to all those things to the people and the things of this life we forget it's really all gods so he says to him in verse 5 do you seek great things for yourself you really got these dreams of what you're going to do here in the city don't seek them for behold I will bring adversity on all flesh says the Lord but I will give you your life as a prize in all places wherever you go that's all God promised him was life that was it none of the stuff none of the positions he had to let it all go at this point and this is a tough time for Barak after he'd written all these things down but he's a great reminder to ourselves so you know if you ever feel like that in life brothers and sisters or young people I think it's nice to realize that you don't have to feel like you're alone it's not like you know I'm different than everybody else this guy was like one of Jeremiah's best friends he was with him through all these experiences and when it finally hit what was going to happen in his life he just like becomes depressed he gets down and discouraged that I'm not going to get the life I thought I was going to get

94. 33:33

    and God has to help him work through it and say look all I've ever promised you was your life I'll take care of that but all the other stuff let it go let it go our houses our jobs our collegial positions everything let it all go because God's going to do what he knows is best so you know you can see how that would happen and God spells it out for Barak at this point he realizes that what Jeremiah had said is really going to happen I think it just finally hit home for him but he was told I will give you your life as a prize and that's really what God did he kept them alive now in Jeremiah 36 where we're at we can go back there so we're at the fast which is probably the ninth month which was probably the same month that Nebuchadnezzar had invaded in the fourth year because he came in the ninth month and this is what the Jews did then they would take an invasion month and they would then say alright whenever Nebuchadnezzar came in we're going to establish a fast day from now on and we're going to have it on that day of that month and they did this for 70 years even beyond 70 years they kept these fast days that they established you find out about them in Zechariah's prophecies this is what the people did so they would establish a date they would remember remember when Nebuchadnezzar came in we're going to hold a fast day from now on every year to commemorate that and they remembered it and they

95. 34:49

    would do sacrifices and all that and this is what they did for all those 70 years and then in the end in Zechariah 7 God says when you did all that stuff for 70 years were you really doing that for me or were you just like drowning in your sorrows about what had happened to you and that's how he looks at them who is this really for and it really wasn't having the impact in their life that God was hoping that the feast days and sacrifices would so what Barak does is he goes along and he reads the scroll just like Jeremiah asked him in verse 10 of this chapter in Jeremiah 36 again and look who comes along in Jeremiah 36 at verse 11 so as Barak's reading the scroll you get down to verse 11 and when Micaiah the son of Gemariah the son of Shaphan oh see those names start to recognize those names that's Shaphan's family when he hears when the good family guys the ones who were standing with Jeremiah the friends of Jeremiah when they hear all the words of the Lord from the book all right he goes down to the king's house into the scribe's chamber and there all the princes were sitting in verse 12 and he gives your names Elishamah the scribe and he lists them all for it and Micaiah in verse 13 he declared to them all the words which he had heard when Barak read the book in the hearing of the people and therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah and the son of Shalamiah and they sent

96. 36:07

    him and say take in your hand the scroll which you haven't you heard in the reading of all the people and so you know and come and so Barak the son of Nehariah he took the scroll in his hand and they said to him sit down now and read it in our hearing so now Barak gets to go to the next level and he goes and he reads it to all these princes and he reads it and they're hearing and this is what's actually happening now look at how these princes respond in verse 16 it happened that when they heard all the words that they looked in fear from one another imagine hearing that and looking at your spouse or looking at your friends and saying look what God's going to do this is what he intends to do we're going to lose everything the whole community is going to be destroyed we're all going captive he's going to wipe out people and he really is going to make this place like Shiloh and these princes respond with fear and they say to one another we will surely tell the king of all these words so they asked Barak saying tell us now how did you write all these words how did you know all this Barak how did you figure was it at his dictation isn't that interesting how they would do that they didn't even say his name was it his this is how they referred to Jeremiah at that time yeah did Jeremiah tell you all this stuff there's actually some really fun instances like this in the kings you remember the

97. 37:20

    story of the one king who wanted to find out what was going on so he sends his higher ups to go inquire the prophet and you find out later on that the prophetess finally tells the king and he says here's what's really going to happen you know Josiah here's what's really going to go on and the prophetess actually says it and when she says it she says here's what God intends to do and she says he's going to destroy the people and then she says you ever notice and tell the man who sent you to me this is what God intends to do to you you know it's got to be Jeremiah it's got it's in that period of Jeremiah's life where he wasn't really ready to go with the plan and he was fighting it he was struggling with God's plan it's just it's fun to go back and look at those things now and realize what was happening and the dynamics in the community back then so anyways in this case here what happens at this point these people care they care about what God's going to do they care about Jeremiah's life so look what they say verse 19 the princess said to Baruch going hide you and Jeremiah and let nobody know where you are because we don't know how this is going to go down I mean this could be terrible if we tell everybody what you just said it may be that they try to grab you and kill you so they understood the dynamics right now so go hide you go hide and we'll take it from here so it's

98. 38:35

    fun to watch how these things play out in terms of like you know ecclesial life back then so look what they did down in verse down in verse 20 they went to the king and they went into the king into the court but they stored the scroll in the chamber of Elisha the scribe and told all the words in the hearing of the king so they took all the stuff that Baruch wrote and they stored it somewhere so that they didn't take it with them because they didn't want to just have the king just they were afraid to just like destroy it so they stored it in the chamber where they stored the Bible that's what they basically did in the chamber of Elisha the scribe the ones that would copy the scriptures and so they go down and so the king and Jehudi they told him to bring the scroll and he took it from Elisha from the scribe's chamber so now when the king finds out about this when he hears the words at the end of verse 20 the king says all right grab that scroll get it out here and so they do they have to go get it but this is exactly what they were afraid of so and it gets read in verse 21 they're in the hearing of all the princes they stood before the king now notice this time it's read in the hearing of all the princes see this is going to be a different group now we got all the princes there not just the ones that were back here in the at the end of verse

99. 39:48

    12 this is going to be a slightly different group as you read along here but imagine how you know the people might have got excited at this point and thought well maybe it was going to make a change but look at what happens so verse 22 the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month as we read the fire is burning on the hearth before him and it happens that when Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll they'd open up the scroll they'd read three or four columns that the king took his pen knife as the new king James says and he cut with this the pen knife the scribe's knife and cast it into the fire that was on the earth and he burned the bible didn't want he wanted to hear but he didn't intend to respond at all this was king Jehoiakim the king without a conscience he'd listen sure what's the word of the lord today tell me what's going to happen and you can cure it all he just wanted to hear what he got to say he's probably more interested from a political standpoint of what did you just tell all the people so I know what's going on so I know how to respond how to deal with this problem more so than he was ever interested in listening to it as the word of God and so the king cut it all up with his pen knife and the scroll was consumed and the fire that was on the hearth all those words that Jerob that Baruch had copied down all that copying that

100. 40:59

     he did and the king just cuts it all up and burns it all of his work was burned yet they were not afraid look at that verse 24 see you have to underline those kind of things and contrast them to see the difference between this group of princes and the other group of princes there are two different groups one of them was with the king his close group and the other ones were the princes that Jehudi first went to because he knew they would be sympathetic so these people they weren't afraid they didn't run their garments like the other ones would have you know the king or any of his servants who heard all these words but nevertheless El Nathan and Delilah and Gemariah they implored the king not to burn the scroll but he would not listen to them so one group of princes is begging him not to do it and the other group is just like we don't care no conscience at all word of God didn't affect them one bit so the king commanded Jeremiel the king's son and Sarai the son of Azariah and he asked him he said look it go down there and seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet but as the other princes had suggested they hid and the Lord kept them hidden and so Jeremiah was saved from this event so what a great warning to all of us brethren and sisters is that when we read the Bible and we discuss it and we talk about it with each other and we do our readings at home don't ever become like Jehoiakim don't just read it so that

101. 42:19

     you sort of like know what's coming this is what we can do sometimes in Bible prophecy you can actually get so excited about Bible prophecy if we're not careful that we read all the news about Bible prophecy we read all these things about Bible prophecy and yet at the same time we don't really get ready for that day we're just interested in knowing all the events that are happening about what's going on in the world because we want to be up on it and we can talk about it with our brethren and sisters but those things were supposed to change our lives affect our consciences and bring us to God and this is what he's doing to wake us all up and give us reminders that the day is coming in which his kingdom will come and once it begins once it comes there will be no time to change this was the warning of Jeremiah and it's very similar to our day and age today it's something we've really got to be careful about because just studying Bible prophecy and getting excited about Bible prophecy doesn't mean you get to the goal of being conformed to the image of his son it's one of the mechanisms to get there but just doing it itself doesn't mean you'll be there it doesn't mean necessarily you could study Bible prophecy read all the current events that happened during the last week read milestones to the kingdom come to meeting and be unkind to your brethren and sisters or something happens in your family and you're not very nice to your spouse and you react in a

102. 43:36

     terrible way to your kids and see this is the problem that we have today we get caught up in all the mechanisms and we sometimes lose the focus of what was it supposed to do it was supposed to change people's hearts and their lives to soften our hearts to help us prepare to be ready because the day is coming the son of man will come at an hour we don't expect and we don't want to be like these people of this day that would listen to it they'd hear about it but they had no intention of changing their lives they were just going to go on with their lives the way they are I think that's a great warning for us ourselves and you know it's really interesting when you look at what was happening at this time there's a passage in there about that the power of the word that would you know you're probably familiar ones for you but what was really neat when you look at what's happening in terms of the overall game plan right now is here you are with the people of God that have the ark they have the temple they had all the stuff all the mechanisms were there and here's the king listening to the Bible being read and he's cutting off the columns of the Bible and he's throwing it into the fire and up in Babylon at the same time is a Gentile king didn't know anything about Israel before who's being given visions of the kingdom of men and Daniel is working with that man and he's listening and learning about the God of the

103. 45:01

     Jews it's just fascinating to watch the irony of this situation and it's playing out right now in this fourth and fifth year of Jehoiakim and what a warning to ourselves that God is going to fill his kingdom he's going to find people that will fill up his kingdom and if the mechanisms that we have today don't do it for us he's going to find other people in other areas of the world other groups the Gentiles the barbarians of this world and he will bring them into his family so our job is to make sure we look at those mechanisms that we have and thank God for them today be glad we have Bibles we have meetings to go to in Sunday schools and we we have all these things we can do our Bible marketing and all the classes we have online and tapes we can listen to but those are just mechanisms to get us to the goal don't lose focus on the goal and the goal is that we learn to live like Jesus Christ and that's going to be the focus of our memorial service that's why we come week by week so we don't lose that focus that we committed to join with him in his death to sin and that that will impact how we treat our families our brothers and sisters and our ecclesias and our friends in the world that we live in today appreciate appreciate appreciate