The Son of Man has Authority on Earth

Posted on September 16, 2023 by PastorDave

MARK | Lesson 3 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Mark 2.1-3.35

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ In our last two lessons [Lesson 1 & Lesson 2], we have emphasized Mark’s purpose and themes for writing this Gospel account: to give us vignettes in which Jesus declares and demonstrates that He is the Son of God, and to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. This Gospel of the Kingdom is God’s covenant purpose to come in the Person of Jesus Christ to inaugurate, introduce, and begin the fulfillment of His eternal Kingdom when He will establish His sovereign rule over all His creation – redeeming, reconciling, and restoring it back to His originally-intended order.

2/ Jesus Christ begins to exercise His Kingdom dominion and rule over every element and force that opposes His sovereign Lordship … all the while preaching the Gospel that calls us all to repentance from our sins and following Him – placing our total faith, trust, and the submission of our lives in His substitutionary death He will die for us on His Cross.

3/ As you can see, we will cover a wide range of Gospel Scripture in this lesson. So these Lesson Notes will, of necessity, have to be incomplete and sketchy at the best. We will have to save our comments on each of these passages for our class time. All I can and will attempt to do here in these Lesson Notes / Talking Points is to summarize Jesus’ purpose and Gospel theme in each of these vignettes – how each encounter points to His Lordship and further fleshes out and defines His authority as the Son of Man, Son of God, and promised Messiah/Christ who was prophesied would come from the beginning of time.

4/ So let’s look for and note these common thread-themes that Mark will weave throughout these vignettes:

  • Jesus’ Kingdom authority over all;
  • His direct, personal, and unmistakable claims to be the Son of God – God the Son;
  • His claims to be the Old Testament promised Messiah, the Son of Man;
  • the growing divisions between Jesus and the world of unbelievers, especially the unbelievers among the religious leaders/teachers of that day – Pharisees & scribes;
  • the escalating enmity and opposition of the religious leaders against Jesus – they begin to form their murderous schemes and plots to kill, assassinate, eliminate Him.    

I / ch 2.1-12 / “Son, your sins are forgiven”

Jesus heals the paralytic [lame man] who was carried to Him by four friends and let down through the broken-up roof of the house where He was teaching.

1/ But before Jesus heals him, He pronounces that He forgives the man’s sins. He does this by His immediate authority as God – not as an intermediary messenger.

2/ The Jewish leaders immediately accuse and ‘indict’ Him for blasphemy [punishable by death].

3/ Then Jesus heals the paralytic, …that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…

4/ NOTE: Jesus’ primary mission activity is: ‘And He was preaching the Word to them.’ This Word is the entirety of the Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

II / ch 2.13-17 / “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners”

Jesus calls Levi [Matthew] to follow Him as one of His disciples.

1/ Levi, of course, is a tax collector, rendering him a pariah, outcast, untouchable by the Jewish society.

2/ But Jesus has come to demolish all our man-made prejudices, bigotries, and discriminations by His Gospel. We all are sinners, and Jesus has come to call all sinners to repentance, regardless of our ethnicity, cultural background, social status and standing – regardless of how we may be judged by the culture-elites around us.  

III / ch 2.18-22 / “…when the Bridegroom is taken away from them…then they will fast…”

The question of religious fasting comes up by the Jewish leaders: Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

1/ This is just another, one more, attempt by the Jewish leaders to publicly discredit Jesus, cast shade on Him, hopefully to destroy His growing influence and popularity among the populace. They must retain their control over the thinking and lives of the people.

2/ Jesus declares Himself to be the Heavenly Bridegroom who has come to redeem and ‘marry’ His people to Himself and back to God. It would be out of place and inappropriate for His disciples to fast and ‘afflict their souls’ while He is present with them.

3/ But the days will come when the Bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. This is the first oblique reference [at least in Mark] that Jesus makes about His upcoming death. See Isaiah 53.8.  

IV / ch 2.23-28 / “So the Son of Man is LORD even of the Sabbath”

Jesus is accused again [just one of many such occasions] of violating the Sabbath Day when His disciples plucked some grains of wheat from the field they were passing.

1/ They did this because they were hungry. The Law permitted this. But it violated and ‘broke’ the legalistic strictures imposed by the ruling class of Pharisees/scribes, religious leaders and teachers.

2/ Jesus cites how David and his men did the same sort of thing out of necessity when they were fleeing from murderous King Saul. See 1 Samuel 21.1-10.

3/ Jesus declares His Lordship and sovereignty over this Sabbath creation mandate also: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

V / ch 3.1-6 / “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?”

Jesus heals another man who had a withered [paralyzed] hand – again on a Sabbath Day.

1/ He did this intentionally in the presence of the Jewish leaders: And they watched Jesus, to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.

2/ Jesus did this, not only to give a public demonstration again of His Lordship over the Sabbath Day, but also to publicly teach those who were present what God’s original-creation purpose and intent for the Sabbath was…and is: And He said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?

3/ This additional act of His sovereign Lordship and God-ness ‘sealed His fate’ with the Jewish leaders. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians [political allies of Herod Antipas, the client ‘king’ of Galilee], how to destroy Him. They determined from that point on that they must kill Jesus. See a similar account in John 5.16-18 & 7.19-23.

4/ NOTE: Mark will begin from this point on to chronicle how the enemies of God and Jesus begin to intensify their opposition to Jesus and the Kingdom purposes of God from merely trying to publicly discredit, contradict, and undermine His influence … to now making plans to kill Him. This theme will continue to intensify and increase until they finally crucify Him in the end of the Gospel story.

VI / ch 3.7-12 / “for He had healed many…the unclean spirits…fell down before Him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God’”

Jesus’ fame continues to grow and spread into the contiguous surrounding regions.

1/ …and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea [S of Judea] and from beyond the Jordan [E of the Jordan River, including Perea and Decapolis] and from around Tyre and Sidon [on the Mediterranean coast NW of Galilee].

2/ Of course, this is much to the consternation, frustration, and panic of the Jewish leaders. Jesus continues to exercise His authority over physical sicknesses / diseases and demon spirits. See especially ch 1.21-39.

VII / ch 3.13-19 / “And He appointed twelve (whom He also named apostles)…”

Jesus chooses twelve core disciples from among the now-more-numerous disciples … and calls them His apostles.

1/ This is an advanced stage of Jesus’ training ministry of those whom He will appoint to be the chief spokesmen for the Gospel of the Kingdom after His death, resurrection, and ascension back into Heaven – to await His return again in the Last Day to bring in the fullness of His eternal Kingdom. NOTE here: Acts 1.26; 2.42; et. al.

2/ NOTE the two purposes of His appointment of the Twelve: …so that they might be with Him and He might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.

VIII / ch 3.20-21 / “When His family heard it, they went out to seize Him…‘He is out of His mind…’”

Jesus returns once again to Capernaum. Divisions and schisms begin to manifest themselves, first between Jesus and His household family…

1/ Mark inserts this little insight here which he will explain a little more fully in vv 31-35.

2/ The main point Mark wants to make here is how Jesus’ Kingdom mission sets Him at odds with the ‘world,’ even among His own family members. See John 7.5.

3/ Mark highlights this contrast and division to demonstrate how those who follow Jesus must expect the same reactions from unbelievers, even those who are closest to us.

4/ Jesus’ commitment to the mission the Father had sent Him to fulfill is His primary, priority, and preoccupying interest and activity, even to the degree that …so that they could not even eat. Jesus’ values, interests, orientation, and worldview was focused on His Heavenly mission. His family’s were not.

5/ This phrase, He is out of His mind, is commonly translated to be amazed. It means literally ‘to be standing outside of yourself.’ It also means ‘insane.’ His family’s diagnosis is that His preoccupation with His Heavenly mission was causing Him to lose His base-ness. He was going crazy, ‘off His rocker.’

IX / ch 3.22-30 / “…whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness…”

Jesus confronts this stringent public accusation from the Jewish leaders that He is actually acting from the authority and power of Satan himself – not from the Holy Spirit.

1/ The Jewish leaders continue to stalk Jesus everywhere He goes, seeking an occasion to discredit Him before the people and regain control over them for themselves. “He is possessed by Beelzebub,” and “by the prince of demons He casts out the demons.”

2/ Jesus’ demonstrations of authority over Satan, demons, and the powers of the kingdom of darkness are well-known from numerous exercises of exorcism in many places.

3/ To which accusation Jesus responds, showing how ludicrous it is on its own face: How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. That is a simple exercise of logic – Satan will not divide and destroy his own kingdom and control over those who he seeks to destroy.

4/ Then, Jesus illustrates that logical truth with a reiteration  of His own sovereignty and authority over Satan – He employs a parable: But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he can plunder his house.

  • The ‘strong man’ here is Satan.
  • His ‘house’ is the godless world that Satan is seeking to deceive and lead to destruction.
  • The ‘goods’ in his house are the people whom Jesus is delivering from Satan’s dominion.

Jesus has come to ‘bind the strong man’ and ‘plunder his goods’ by exercising His own sovereign Kingdom authority over Satan.

5/ Then Jesus condemns the religious leaders/teachers for their own personal unbelief and for their demonic intentions to perpetrate Satan’s deceptions over the very people they professed to be teaching.

6/ Let’s pay attention to this statement, commonly called ‘the unpardonable sin’ – it has been commonly misunderstood and mis-applied to any number of other sins and offenses which Jesus clearly teaches can and will be forgiven for those who repent of them.

Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” – for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

7/ Jesus is clearly applying this charge of the ‘unpardonable sin’ to their accusing Him of acting from the power, spirit, and influence of a demonic spirit … rather than from the influence and power of the Holy Spirit of God.

8/ The reason this sin is ‘unpardonable,’ both in this world and in the world to come is because, in so saying, they were rejecting Christ Himself and the only Gospel which can save them.

9/ Paul personally testifies that he was a former enemy of Christ, even a blasphemer. But I received mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of all acceptance, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life [1 Timothy 1.12-16]. I have quoted Paul’s testimony in some length because Paul reiterates many of the themes that Mark is weaving here in our lesson passage [see Mark 3.17 & 28-30].    

X / ch 3.31-35 / “…whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother”

Jesus re-defines who our spiritual relatives and relationships are in the Gospel of the Kingdom of God – not those who are members of our blood kin and family, but those who are members of the Kingdom of God through repentance from sins and faith in Jesus Christ.

1/ Connect this short exchange with vv 20-21 above. His mother and half-siblings had come to stage a ‘crisis intervention.’ Their intention was to ‘seize’ Him and take Him by whatever force was necessary to take Him home to ‘de-tox’ Him from His insanity – what they perceived to be an insane obsession with His mission activities.

2/ When it was announced to Jesus that they were outside and calling Him to come out to them, Jesus responded by claiming His relatives were those who were believing in Him: And He answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around Him, He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins … repent and believe in the Gospel!”

mark.l3.mark-2.1-3.35.the-son-of-man-has-authority-on-earth-Download
Posted in Bible Studies, Lesson Notes, MARK, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Gospel of the Kingdom

Posted on September 9, 2023 by PastorDave

MARK | Lesson 2 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Mark l.16-45

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ In our last lesson, we noted how Mark introduced the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what the prominent tenets and distinguishing characteristics are of Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

2/ Not only was The Gospel the Good News about Jesus Christ, but The Gospel IS Jesus Christ, and it was also the Good News that Jesus Christ Himself proclaimed / vv 14-15: …Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel!”

3/ Now, in that summary statement that Jesus proclaimed, we will hear the major themes that Mark will proceed to expand and expound upon as he relates to us what Jesus said, meant, and did to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God [see Matthew 4.23, et al]:

  • The time is fulfilled. The ‘time’ God had promised and the faithful people of God had long expected and longed for ‘has been fulfilled.’ So, what ‘time’ is this? It is the ‘time’ of the arrival and establishment of the Kingdom God had promised He would bring into the world / see Daniel 44-45, for example.
  • And the Kingdom of God is at hand. With this proclamation, Jesus announces that, with His arrival and appearance, the Kingdom of God is here! The Kingdom of God has come in Himself, the King. So, what is this Kingdom of God? Summarily, the Kingdom of God is God’s rule over all / Psalm 103.19. Jesus Christ has come to ‘invade’ the world of time, space, and history … and inaugurate, usher in, God’s sovereign, redemptive, and covenant purpose and will. Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven [Matthew 6.10; 25.34]. This Kingdom of God has both a past history; a present history being fulfilled in our present age; and a future perfect fulfillment when our Lord returns[see 1 Corinthians 15.24-28; Matthew 25.34; Revelation 11.15; numerous others]. We are now in what we call the ‘already / not yet’ age of the Kingdom of God.

4/ So what Mark will proceed to show us is how Jesus Christ inaugurates the perfection of that final Kingdom by the acts He will perform and the messages He will proclaim through those acts. If you will use this summary key to help you understand the Kingdom of God, you will see more clearly why Mark specifically highlights the various accounts he gives of Jesus’ life and ministry: The Kingdom of God is God’s purposed redemption and restoration of all things – the whole creation – back to the perfect Kingdom order in which He created it … even better – through Jesus Christ and His Gospel!

5/ That’s why, as Mark proceeds to give us the account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he will show us, especially in this first half of Mark [chs 1.16-8.26], Jesus’ ever-expanding sovereign rule and authority over all the forces and influences of sin that have ruined, marred, and broken the creation and our lives: unbelief, alienation from God, human sickness and disease, and especially the demonic world under Satan’s rule  [see 2 Corinthians 4.3-6; John 8.44; 10.10, et al].  Jesus Christ has come to proclaim and exercise His sovereign authority over them all … and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross [Colossians 1.15-20].

6/ Here’s how Mark describes and demonstrates Jesus’ sovereign rule and reign by proclaiming The Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Our response must be to repent and believe in the Gospel!

I / ch 1.16-20 / Jesus calls the first disciples

1/ Jesus demonstrates His authority, sovereignty, and Lordship over the faith, wills, and lives of those whom He calls to follow Him. When He calls Simon and Andrew – and James and John – to ‘follow’ Him, He is commanding that they repent, and believe in the Gospel of His Kingdom by surrendering their all to Him. And, it is Him that He commands that they follow … not a tradition or a movement or an agenda.

2/ Since they were fishermen by trade and vocation, His command means that their vocation from that moment on will be to commit and employ their lives to obeying and serving Him. They obeyed, thus submitting to His authority, Lordship, and Kingdom.

3/ Mark is also pointing out here that the Kingdom of God is not only His authority over our external activities; but more, God’s Kingdom rules over our innermost hearts and wills. We are ‘born’ into a spiritual relationship with God through His Gospel [see John 3.1-5] as well as conformity to His Kingdom rule in all our external activities. See 1 Corinthians 6.9-11.

4/ This same call to exclusive discipleship of following Jesus in this way sets the template and pattern for all the rest of His disciples who will believe on Him and follow Him for all time – including us.  

II / ch 1.21-28 / Jesus heals a man with an ‘unclean,’ demonic spirit

1/ This event happened in Capernaum. Capernaum had become Jesus’ adopted ‘hometown’ and where He performed many of His miraculous acts as well as much of His teaching ministry [see Matthew 4.12-17]. Capernaum was a thriving center of commerce and a crossroads of major trade routes that ran through the city. When we consult all the Gospels, we can pinpoint at least twelve events in Jesus’ life and ministry that are pinned to Capernaum. It was also the subject of a scathing condemnation by Jesus because they didn’t accept and believe on Him when they had witnessed His mighty works and teaching [Matthew 11.20-24].

2/ NOTE: Mark introduces the word ‘authority’ here – and he will use this word at least ten times throughout his Gospel account. This ‘authority’ is Jesus’ exercise of His Kingdom Lordship. And they were astonished [awe-struck] at His teaching, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. Jesus’ teaching was with His own first-hand ‘authority’ as One sent from God. He was teaching from His own credibility as the Truth. It was well-known that their ‘experts in the Law,’ or ‘scribes,’ derived their authority from endlessly droning on and citing the predecessor teachers who supported their interpretations. Jesus spoke from His own authoritative knowledge of the Truth – He was the Truth He was teaching.

3/ When Jesus confronts this demonic ‘unclean’ spirit in this man … in the synagogue … He was confronting the all-out assault Satan was mounting against Him. As we read through the Gospels, we have to note how prevalent demonic activity was, not just in that locality, but all of it targeted against Jesus and His Kingdom ministry. It’s almost as if Satan had put out an all-points-bulletin for his demonic forces to go to Galilee and make war against the Kingdom of God that had come. The demon spirit recognizes Jesus for who He is – What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God [see James 2.18-19]. It isn’t enough just to know who Jesus is and have an intellectual knowledge of Him – you must repent of your sins and believe the Gospel of His Kingdom to be saved.

4/ The truth of the Kingdom is: Jesus HAD come to destroy the kingdom of Satan and the dominion he exercises over his subjects. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil [1 John 3.8]. Jesus exorcised the unclean spirit – commanded him to come out of the man. And they were all amazed [awe-struck], so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him!”

5/ This is another major and prominent exercise of Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom. Satan had introduced sin into our world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve and brought all the ruin, degradation, perversion, and curse of sin that has marred, not only the creation, but also the image-bearers of God. Jesus has come to reconcile and restore the rule of God through His Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Satan’s doom was sealed [John 12.31] until finally …and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur … and…will be tormented day and night forever and ever [Revelation 20.10].

III / ch 1.29-34 / Jesus heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law … and many others

1/ Sickness and disease are among the multitude of curses that have plagued our world since the introduction of sin in the Garden of Eden. Jesus will demonstrate and exercise His authority over all this as well by His authority and proclaiming the Gospel of God and His Kingdom. In this case, it is Peter’s mother-in-law. She was deathly sick with a ‘fever.’ After teaching in the synagogue that day, Jesus goes home with Peter [who also lived in Capernaum] and heals her of her fever. Jesus is showing that in the ultimate, final, and perfect fulfillment of the Kingdom of God, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away [Revelation 21.4]. …and sorrow and sighing shall flee away [Isaiah 35.10].

2/ When Jesus heals this sickness – and many/all the others He healed – He is giving us an object-lesson and ‘earnest/down-payment’ of that ultimate fulfillment in the Kingdom of God that is proclaimed in The Gospel of God.

3/ As Mark explains, that evening at sundown, after the Sabbath-day rest had expired, they brought to Him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons…

IV / ch 1.35-39 / Jesus prays and communes with His Father … and proceeds to preach in the neighboring towns

1/ This account in Jesus’ life and ministry is so telling, so instructive, and so power-packed on so many levels. What Jesus will demonstrate here by His own example is where the power of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God comes from … and where real spiritual activity of the Kingdom of God is transacted.

2/ And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed. “In this short verse, four verbs (“rising” / “went” / “departed” / “prayed”) describe Jesus’ persistent goal of cultivating and maintaining close fellowship with His Heavenly Father (cf. 6.46; 14.32-39), despite often pressing circumstances.” / Hans F. Bayer, ESV Expository Commentary.

  • First, we must note that if Jesus prayed, then we must pray. Keep in mind, the previous day had been a most intense, stressful, and action-packed day. Just think of all we are told Jesus did just in Mark’s account here: He had taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath day; He had warred with demons; He had healed Peter’s mother-in-law; He had healed many others and had cast out demons well into the evening and night before. All of this had taken a heavy toll on His human constitution, energies, and resources – He was physically, emotionally, spiritually drained and exhausted. But Jesus knows that His strength, power, and authority comes from His communion with His Father. Yes! He is God incarnate – but He is also submitting to His human-form servanthood. And so, He prays to commune with His Father whom He loves … and also to receive the necessary strength and power He must have to fulfill the Father’s Kingdom mission. I repeat, if Jesus prays, then how much more must we pray if we are to follow Him in the mission He has sent us to fulfill.
  • I have been so impressed by this model for ministry Jesus exemplifies since preaching through Mark years ago in my former pastorate. I called this instructive lesson: The Mechanics and the Dynamics of Ministry. We so often focus only on the ‘mechanics’: the tasks, activities, functions we perform in the course of ministry. But what we also so often neglect is the ‘dynamics,’ how those ‘mechanics’ must work, if indeed they effectively work at all in the ways we want them to work and accomplish the ends and results for which we perform them. The ‘mechanics’ will not work and won’t be effective without the ‘dynamics’ of the power of God. We are not going to perform the mechanics of our ministries, however well-trained we may be, or how experienced we are at doing them, or how well we may perform them … if we are not connected with the ‘dynamics’ of the power of God without which we can do nothing. It reminds me of when I was a teenager and just starting to drive – my car would intermittently not start. I took it to our service station mechanic, Mr. Bean [I don’t remember his first name – we called everyone ‘Mr.’]. Mr. Bean raised the hood, checked the battery, took his wire brush and scrubbed out the insides of the terminal clamps, tightened it back up, and that was it. As he was doing this, I overheard him saying to himself, “The car runs no better than its connection to the power.” I still remember that so well and often. So it is with us.
  • We must also note how Mark keeps coming back to the ‘wilderness/desert/deserted places’ motif. He will employ this word ‘eremos’ nine times in his Gospel, and six of those mentions are here in chapter 1: vv 3, 4, 12, 13, 35, 45. [see also ch 6.31, 32, 35]. Throughout Scripture, the ‘wilderness / desert / deserted places’ have been venues of purification, preparation, testing and temptation. These are the times and places [‘desert experiences’] where God often isolates us, brings us to the ends of ourselves and resources, and gets us alone with Him so He can teach us that we must depend on Him – train and equip us for His Kingdom work – and work His power and will through us.

3/ After this time of prayer and communion with His Father, Jesus announces to His disciples, Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for this is why I came out. And He went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. Which is what He also commands us to do in our own time: And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come [Matthew 24.14].

V / ch 1.40-45 / Jesus touches and cleanses a leper

1/ Jesus exercises and demonstrates His Kingdom authority not only over another physical illness and malady, but one that is pronounced ‘unclean’ and that separates, isolates, estranges them from others.

2/ This term ‘leper’ [‘lepros’] refers to a wide range of skin diseases, though it would also include the flesh-eating disease we most often think of – what we call ‘Hansen’s Disease.’ What is most significant about the Biblical leprosy is that it was considered to be an ‘uncleanness’ and required ostracism and isolation from contact with others in the community. It is extensively treated in Leviticus 13. We are most familiar with verse 35: The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

3/ This leper has heard of both Jesus’ ability and willingness to heal; so he approaches Jesus, casts himself at Jesus’ feet in humility and homage, and begs for mercy – appealing to Jesus’ willingness: If you will, you can make me clean.

4/ No one was permitted to touch the leper, and the leper was forbidden to touch another person or object. If another person came into physical contact with a leper, then that person was considered ‘unclean’ and must go through the same ‘cleaning’ regimen as the leper until it was demonstrated that he was ‘clean.’ But, Jesus IS both able and willing to cleanse him: Moved with pity [a deep, inward, even convulsive, sympathy and compassion], He stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” Not only is Jesus touched with the feeling of our infirmities [Hebrews 4.15 KJV], but He reaches out to us and touches us with His own Divine healing and cleansing Grace.

5/ There is so much we can say – and will say as we work our way through Mark – about the numerous times Jesus instructed people He healed and His disciples with words like these: See that you say nothing to anyone… or some similar injunction. We’ll talk later about what is called ‘the Messianic secret’ and why Jesus wants to reveal the full disclosure of His Messianic identity/mission in His own way and time. I’ll just say here that it has a lot to do with the Jewish people’s expectation of what their promised Messiah would do when He did come – what kind of Messianic Prophet and King would He be? Their expectations were for a political Messiah who would immediately throw off the Roman yoke of bondage, lead a ‘freedom movement’ and rebellion, and liberate them from foreign oppression [see, for example, John 6.15]. That was NOT the Kingdom of God Jesus had come to establish [see John 18.33-37]. He WILL inaugurate and establish The Kingdom of God, but it will be a redemptive, Covenant of Grace, Kingdom of God.

6/ When Jesus will commission His disciples to go to other places and do what they have seen Him do – and what He will give them authority and power to do – He will instruct them to announce: Heal the sick in it and say to them, “The Kingdom of God has come near to you” … Nevertheless know this, that the Kingdom of God has come near” [Luke 10.9, 11]. So it is when He first teaches continuously and performs these acts of The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

7/ This is who Jesus is and what He has come to do: …proclaiming the Gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand [near / here]; repent and believe in the Gospel.”

“Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the Glory, forever. Amen!”

mark.l2.mark-1.16-45.the-gospel-of-the-kingdomDownload
Posted in Bible Studies, Lesson Notes, MARK, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Common Evangelist … UNcommon Gospel

Posted on September 2, 2023 by PastorDave

MARK | Lesson 1 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Mark l.1-15

INTRODUCTION

We will begin this survey/study of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. Just some quick bullet points to acquaint us with some of the basic features of this book:

  • This Gospel was the first Gospel account to be written, and maybe even the first New Testament book to be written, with the possible exception of James.
  • Although Mark does not ascribe authorship to himself, it was immediately recognized by the earliest ‘church fathers’ who were contemporaries with the apostles that he is the author.
  • Mark was written around the early-mid 60s AD [see comments below in the next section]. This would place it only around 30 years after our Lord’s ascension back to Heaven.
  • Although Mark was not an apostle, he was a close companion of both Paul and Peter [see especially Colossians 4.10; 1 Peter 5.13]. Those same early testimonies to Mark’s authorship refer to this Gospel as ‘the memoirs of Peter.’
  • Mark was written, we believe, from Rome while he was a ministry partner with Peter there. Mark had heard Peter give his own personal accounts of Jesus’ life during their times together; and perhaps also from the urging of other leaders among the churches, put Peter’s accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry into writing for the instruction and edification of the larger communities of churches. Mark’s Gospel was…and is…an evangelistic tract to be used as a witness to Jesus Christ and the Gospel.

I / WHO IS ‘MARK’?

1/ This is why I call Mark a ‘common evangelist.’ He was a preacher of the Gospel, but he was not one of the apostles, nor was he one of the ‘eyewitness’ followers of Jesus. He did know about Jesus, and we have to wonder whether he is making a veiled reference to himself in ch 14.51-52. But, he is a ‘common’ evangelist in the same way you and I should be.

/2 Mark is commonly identified as ‘John whose other name was Mark’ [Acts 12.12]. There are ten references to Mark [or ‘John’] by name in the New Testament. Let’s survey them:

  • Acts 12.12. We first meet Mark here. He lived in Jerusalem with his mother, Mary. Mary opened her home for meetings of the church in Jerusalem. He also knew the apostle Peter from these associations. In fact, Peter was so well-known to Mark’s family and household, that when Peter was miraculously released from prison in this Acts 12 account and made his way to where the church was gathered and praying for him, and when he announced his presence to the servant girl at the door of the gateway to the house, the servant girl recognized him by his voice. [BTW, we know that by the time Luke wrote his Gospel and The Acts, he and Mark had spent quite a bit of time together in ministry partnership, especially with Paul / see Philemon 23-24; 1 Timothy 4.11.]
  • Acts 12.25 [circa AD 45]. Mark accompanied Barnabas and Saul [Paul] back to Antioch after Barnabas and Saul had come to Jerusalem to bring some relief funds for the saints there [Acts 11.25-29; 12.25].
  • Acts 13.1-5 [circa AD 46]. Mark accompanied Barnabas and Saul on their first missionary journey from the church at Antioch.
  • Acts 13.13. Mark prematurely left Barnabas and Saul to return to Jerusalem.
  • Acts 15.36-40 [circa AD 49]. Mark accompanied Barnabas on a subsequent missionary journey after Barnabas and Paul had a sharp disagreement over whether Mark should accompany them on the journey they were planning to conduct together. [This is where Paul and Barnabas parted to go their separate missionary ways.]
  • Colossians 4.10; Philemon 23-24 [circa AD 61-62]. Paul was reconciled to Mark later in his life and ministry, and the two of them traveled and ministered together. Mark also was a personal companion to Paul during his Acts 28 imprisonment in Rome [where these two letters were written]. BTW, we also learn here that Mark was a ‘cousin’ or ‘nephew’ to Barnabas: ‘sister’s son to Barnabas’ [KJV].
  • 2 Timothy 4.11 [circa AD 64]. In fact, during Paul’s last and final imprisonment, he specifically and personally asked that Mark might be sent to help him.
  • 1 Peter 5.13: She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son [circa AD 63].This is one of the key references that leads us to believe that Mark wrote his Gospel account under the tutelage and influence of Peter; perhaps while in Rome and first to the Christians in the church in Rome to give them a deeper and more personal acquaintance with Jesus Christ and His earthly ministry; and then to be circulated from there to the other churches and communities throughout the Roman empire.

II / ‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’

 What is ‘a gospel’ [with a little ‘g’]? Let’s play the word association game. If we say or hear the word ‘gospel,’ we immediately associate it with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. But the word ‘gospel’ was already in common usage when Mark wrote his Gospel. The word itself [euangelion] means ‘good news.’ The ‘eu’ is ‘good,’ and ‘angelion’ is the Greek word for ‘message/news.’ That’s what an ‘angel’ is: a messenger, [see v 2].

1/ And so, in the Graeco-Roman world, they had for centuries used this word to refer to ‘good news’ announcements or proclamations – either written or spoken.

  • In fact, their fastest means of local communication was by runners. See, for example, how Paul quotes Isaiah 52.7 in Romans 10.15: As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.’ These ‘beautiful feet’ are those of the runners who were dispatched to announce the ‘good news/gospel’ of the moment. These runners were their ‘evangelists.’ Many times, it was the announcement of a major military victory – like the ‘Marathon’ runner who ran the approximately 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to announce to the Senate that the Persian invasion of Greece had been turned back. Legend has it that he burst into the Senate who were in session to negotiate their terms of surrender to the Persians … to announce “You are free! We have won!” – and then dropped dead.
  • Even that ‘good news’ had the distinguishing characteristics of The Gospel: [1] Public announcement or proclamation; [2] of a momentous event that was history-making and life-transforming; [3] that someone else had done for them … that they could not do for themselves; [4] and it was ‘good news.’
  • More specifically to Mark’s immediate historical and cultural context, there was an archaeological discovery made in Priene [ancient Greece, now turkey] – stone tablets dating back to c. 9 BC with the inscription “…the beginning of the gospel of Caesar Augustus…” in which it was announced “…and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of good tidings [euangelion] for the world that came by reason of him…” Can you imagine the courage and holy audacity of Mark to begin his Gospel of Jesus Christ with this ascription to Caesar Augustus already in use and circulation?

2/ But Mark is here to announce the True Gospel – the only Gospel: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God! This is why I have called it ‘the UNcommon Gospel.’ It is the only True Gospel, and it demands that everyone in the world repent of their sins and believe Christ and His Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is one thing – and one thing only: The Gospel is Jesus Christ and about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has come into our world to save us from our sins by His substitutionary life, death, and resurrection which Mark will chronicle [see 1 Corinthians 15.1-8].

3/ Maybe we should say just a word about what Mark means by ‘the beginning of the Gospel…’ He may mean:

  • [1] the Gospel of Jesus Christ ‘began’ with the announcement of John the Baptist;
  • [2] or the Gospel ‘began’ with the appearance of Jesus Himself who IS the Gospel of God [v 14] and who proclaims the Gospel concerning Himself [see Romans 1.1-6];
  • [3] or Mark may be intentionally referencing Genesis 1.1 to say that Jesus Christ has come to BE and to BRING IN a new creation and ‘beginning’ of the reconciliation and restoration of the fallen world and people of God which was ruined by the entrance of sin into the first ‘beginning’ see Colossians 1.20.  

III / What is this ‘Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’ that Mark is announcing to the world? What are its distinctive characteristics and tenets? [… and the prominent themes of Mark?]

1/ v 1 / The Gospel is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus Christ is God the Son, sent to us from God the Father, to announce to us the salvation God is giving us through His Son. In contrast to the other so-called and self-proclaimed ‘gods’ [like Caesar Augustus] or all their pagan patron ‘gods’ whom they worshiped, there is only one God who is Supreme and saving – and He has appeared from Heaven in the Person of Jesus Christ!

2/ vv 2-3 / The Gospel of Jesus Christ was prophesied and promised in the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ is the Personal fulfillment of them all.

  • Mark specifically quotes from Malachi 3.1 to show that Jesus is the Personal fulfillment of the ‘messenger of the covenant’ whom Yahweh would send to them in time to come. We’ll address this here in a moment, but in this Malachi 3.1 Scripture, there are two ‘messengers’ who will come. The first ‘messenger’ will announce the impending appearance of the primary ‘messenger’ … whom Yahweh says will be Himself: ‘he will prepare the way before Me.’ But the principal ‘messenger’ is ‘the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.’ That is Yahweh coming in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!
  • Then the second OT prophecy is from Isaiah 40.3. This is such a powerful witness to Christ’s fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies. This whole passage, Isaiah 40.1-10, was the promise the people of God had clung to for the past 700 years. Yahweh promised that He Himself would come with might [v 10] to save them from all their enemies, and that His coming would be announced by the forerunner who would precede Him, ‘go before Your face,’  and ‘prepare Your way … Prepare the way of the Lord’ [Mark].
  • Both of these specific OT prophecies were dramatically fulfilled in their sight and experience by the appearances of both John the Baptist and then Jesus Himself.

3/ vv 4-8 / The Gospel of Jesus Christ was announced by the appearance of John the Baptist.

  • John the Baptist appeared ‘in the wilderness [of Judea] in striking similarity to Elijah. Again, in Malachi 4.5-6, Yahweh promised: Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. [You can also compare even John the Baptist’s physical appearance and lifestyle with that of Elijah’s in 2 Kings 1.7-8.]
  • When the angel announced to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, that these promised prophecies were coming to pass, he told Zechariah: …and he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah… [Luke 1.17]. Zechariah then acknowledged this fulfilled promise in Luke 1.76—77: And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins…
  • Jesus Himself declared that John the Baptist was that promised Elijah [Mark 9.11-13].
  • But John’s announcement and preaching was not about himself, but rather to the Supremacy and priority of Jesus Christ [compare ‘mightier than I’ with Isaiah 40.10].

4/ vv 4-5 / The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for ‘the forgiveness of sins.’ This forgiveness of sins will reconcile and restore the fallen world marred and ruined in the first ‘beginning.’ Our sins have separated and estranged us from the grace of God. Jesus has come to forgive us of our sins by the substitutionary death He will die on the Cross. John was preaching that we sinners must repent of our sins and turn from them to enter into the Kingdom of grace and life that Jesus has come to bring us.

5/ vv 4-5 / The Gospel of Jesus Christ is publicly confessed by water baptism. That is what ‘proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’ means. NOT that our sins are forgiven through baptism [see 1 Peter 3.21-22], OR that baptism itself is the act of repentance through which we receive the forgiveness of sins, BUT that baptism is our public confession and declaration that we have believed on Jesus Christ, that we have repented of our sins, and that we are now making an open admission that we have done so. NOTE: baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins means ‘our confession in relation to our repentance from our sins and the forgiveness of them.’ …and [they] were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

6/ vv 9-11 / The Gospel of Jesus Christ was portrayed and manifested by Jesus’ own baptism. Jesus’ baptism was a multi-faceted act of obedience to His Father:

  • [1] It demonstrated His obedience to the Father to come as the Savior of His people [Matthew 3.13-15];
  • [2] It demonstrated His commitment to the mission His Father had sent Him to fulfill;
  • [3] It demonstrated His identification with the sins of His people whom He had come to save and whose sins He had come to forgive;
  • [4] It demonstrated in this picture-act how He would be ‘baptized’ into His death on the Cross, and then be ‘raised again’ in resurrection to give His eternal life to those who would believe in Him [Romans 6.1-11].
  • [5] It publicly demonstrated His Father’s pleasure in Him and His ‘seal of approval’ from God in Heaven & Christ’s unity with the Holy Spirit – the Trinity.
  • [6] This was also the sign by which John the Baptist would know the Messiah [John 1.29-34].

7/ vv 12-13 / The Gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s declaration of war and promise of victory over Satan and the kingdom of darkness. As Satan has been at war against God, His creation, all people – and especially against the Christ – even from the beginning of the creation, he is at war with Christ in His earthly life and ministry. If Satan can tempt the Christ to sin and thus fail, as he did with Adam in the Garden of Eden, then he can continue his campaign to overthrow and usurp the Kingdom and rule of God in His creation – take ownership, lordship, and control of the world for himself. BUT, even though Christ was solitary in the wilderness of temptation, He was not alone. Christ was accompanied by the Presence of the Holy Spirit and also by the angels who ministered to Him. For fuller descriptions of the wilderness temptations by Satan, see Matthew 4.1-11; Luke 4.1-13. Through Jesus’ victory over Satan in the wilderness of temptation, He demonstrated His Holiness, sinlessness, and sovereignty and declared Himself to be the Redeemer and Savior of all those who are tempted and under Satan’s dominion. He will conquer Satan, the Serpent, and fulfill all the promises of the protoevangelion in Genesis 3.15 [which is the first ‘beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.]’

8/ vv 14-15 / The Gospel of Jesus Christ is also ‘the Gospel of God’ to us in His Son…and of His Kingdom. We return now to the opening line: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Does this mean: ‘the Gospel which is about Jesus Christ’? or ‘the Gospel which Jesus Christ Himself preached’? The answer is both! AND it also means that Jesus Christ Himself IS the Gospel, Good News! “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand.” The Gospel of Jesus Christ is also ‘The Gospel of the Kingdom’ [one of Matthew’s favorite expressions]. The Kingdom of God is God’s sovereign, Supreme rule over all things. God’s rule is over all His creation, all the events that go on in His creation, and especially over His eternal covenant to save His people from their sins [Matthew 1.20-23].

And so, with this introduction, Mark has written his headline and summary statement which he will expand on in the rest of his Gospel!

REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL!

mark.l1.mark-1.1-15.common-evangelist.uncommon-gospelDownload
Posted in Bible Studies, Lesson Notes, MARK, Sunday School lessons, The Gospel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Lamentations of Jeremiah

Posted on August 26, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH/LAMENTATIONS | Lesson 10 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Lamentations 1-5

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ We have now come to the last lesson in our current course of summary/survey of Jeremiah. So we will devote this last lesson to Lamentations. Rather than focus on a specific passage in Lamentations, I want to give us a ‘bird’s-eye’ overview of the book.

2 / Lamentations is a much-neglected book, but it shouldn’t be. There are so many personal and theological truths that are expressed here in the high-intensity theater of human suffering … and first-hand human suffering at that. Lamentations is written from the perspective of a real-time witness who was there, saw it, suffered with it, and then gives a personal account – all the while putting their suffering in the context of God’s perspective. The writer recognizes the hand and purposes of God in it all.

3/ So, we will learn at lest these lessons: [1] the unfailing character of God and how His character is consistent with all the Providences He brings into our lives; [2] how we should respond to God even in the bitterest experiences of life; [3] and how trusting in God’s renewed mercies and faithful promises gives us hope even while we are suffering the most excruciating losses and griefs.

I / Who wrote ‘Lamentations’?

1/ The truth is: we don’t know. It is called ‘The Lamentations of Jeremiah,’ but Jeremiah doesn’t identify himself as the author. It began to be called ‘The Lamentations of Jeremiah’ when the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Latin in the translation we call ‘The Latin Vulgate’ during the 400s AD.

2/ In fact, in the Hebrew Scriptures, it wasn’t even called ‘Lamentations.’ It was simply named by the first word in chapters 1, 2, and 4. That word is ‘Ekah,’ or ‘How.’

  • “How lonely sits the city…” ch 1.1;
  • “How Yahweh in His anger…” ch 2.1;
  • “How the gold has grown dim…” ch 4.1.

This ‘How’ was a common word that was used in the Jews’ funeral dirges, or lamentations. See, for example, David’s lament over King Saul in 2 Samuel 1.19: “How the mighty have fallen!” or Israel’s taunt song against the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14.12: “How you are fallen from heaven!” This word “How” can also be understood as “Alas!” thus lending weight to these poems as ‘lamentations.’

3/ However, since these lamentations were written, we believe, shortly after Jerusalem had been destroyed in the graphic words and images written in this book, it stands to reason that Jeremiah is a likely candidate to have written it. Some have also pointed to 2 Chronicles 35.25 where it is written “Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made these a rule in Israel; behold, they are written in the Laments.”

4/ But, even though the text itself records nothing about its authorship, we do know its unnamed author was an eyewitness to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC. And we know Jeremiah was there, felt it deeply, and mourned it grievously.

5/ Just a word here about the placement of the book right after Jeremiah. Again, in the Hebrew Scriptures, it was not placed where it is in our English Bible. It was placed rather in a collection called ‘The Writings’ or ‘Festive Scrolls’ which were set in a section by themselves to be read during special occasions. They were: Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. This book of Lamentations was read annually during occasions for commemorating and mourning for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 587 BC, and then later by the Romans in AD 70 [yes! both destructions of the Temple more than 600 years apart happened on the same day of their calendar!]. Interestingly, modern-day Jews commemorate the Holocaust with the reading of Lamentations. NOTE: You cannot begin to appreciate the ‘voice’ and feeling of Lamentations unless you read it aloud with the same feeling with which it was written!!

II / The Event that inspired the writing of these Lamentations

1/ Of course, it is the writer’s and the nation of Judah’s response to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies in 587 BC and all its grievous aftermath. Those historical events are recorded in 2 Kings 24-25; 2 Chronicles 36; Jeremiah 39.1-10 & ch 52 – immediately before the placement of Lamentations in our English Bible [see I, 5/ above]. But these historical accounts of Jerusalem’s fall, the massacre of their people, and the deportation into captivity don’t come close to the personal pathos with which the Lamentations are written by this eyewitness. It’s like the difference between a reporter’s stoic account versus live interviews with people who have personally experienced the same event and suffered losses and grief because of it.

2/ As the writer of the Lamentations will remind them, they had been forewarned of these disastrous events of Yahweh’s judgments against their faithlessness to His covenant as far back as Leviticus 26.14-46; Deuteronomy 4.28-31 & 28.36-68. We need to constantly remind ourselves about these forewarnings going all the way back to the days of Moses and the Exodus – even before they first entered the Promised Land.

3/ They had also been repeatedly and specifically warned by Yahweh’s faithful prophets during the preceding 200 years that this disaster was coming on them if they did not repent of their sins and return to Yahweh [2 Kings 21.10-15 & 24.1-4; 2 Chronicles 36.15-21; and many others].

III / The Purpose and Message of Lamentations

What I want to do here is include a lengthy quote from A Survey of the Old Testament by Andrew E. Hill and John H. Walton. Although I will break up the quote into sections, it will be one quote:

1/ “In contrast with 2 Kings 24-25, which documents the historical data about the fall of Jerusalem, Lamentations captures the pathos of that tragic turn in Israel’s covenant experience with Yahweh. The poems preserve the Hebrew response to the unthinkable and inexpressible – the utter destruction of David’s Zion, the ruin of Yahweh’s Temple, and the divine abandonment of ‘the elect’ of God. (‘Zion’ is a favorite expression for Jerusalem in Psalms, Isaiah, and Lamentations. The origin of the term is uncertain, but the Hebrew ‘Siyon’ may be understood as ‘fortified tower.’)

2/ While the tragedy did confirm the prophetic message and vindicate prophetic interpretation of the relationship between covenant stipulations and curses, this was of little comfort to the stunned survivors of the Babylonian onslaught.

3/ Lamentations records ‘the day of the LORD’ for Judah enacted in all its terrible fury. The threat of covenant curse became a grim reality and an unforgettable nightmare. Moses’ admonition that covenant violations jeopardized Israel’s presence in the land of Canaan was revealed to be more than hollow theologizing. Yahweh had finally exacted punishment for Judah’s covenant transgressions. The people of God had been ‘vomited’ out of the land of Yahweh’s covenant promise (Leviticus 18.24-30).

4/ The only consolation for ‘the Daughter of Zion’ was the knowledge that one day the nations would also drink from the cup of God’s wrath (Lamentations 4.21-22; cf. 3.55-66).

5/ As funeral dirges, the poems of Lamentations were designed to offer a type of catharsis or purification to the survivors of Judah’s calamity. This expression of sorrow and venting of emotions could never fully answer the questions related to the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of God’s sovereign rule over human history. But it did allow the suffering Hebrews to deal honestly with their grief and to mitigate the trauma of Yahweh’s abandonment.

6/ The poet bared the soul of the penitent nation, bowed in shame and admitting her many transgressions and great rebellion (e. g., 1.14, 22). The purging of sin and guilt permitted the ‘widow of Zion’ to acknowledge that Yahweh was indeed just in His judgment of Jerusalem’s covenant unfaithfulness (1.18).

7/ Only this response of confession and repentance could give meaning and substance to the words of future hope prayed in chapter 3. The very wrath of God signaled His covenant love for Israel. The loving Father must punish His wayward child. The call to wait upon the LORD and His unfailing mercy instilled hope for Israel’s future restoration, because the nation’s history had demonstrated Yahweh will not cast off forever (3.21-29).”

8/ We might also state it this way: “…the historical context for the book cannot be overstated: the destruction of Zion (the city of God) and her temple (the dwelling place of God) were of cataclysmic significance for Judah (the people of God). In the desolation of both city and temple Judah’s world fell apart.” Jonathan Gibson, ESV Expository Commentary.

IV / The Poetic Structure and Organization of Lamentations  

1/ Lamentations is comprised of five poems. Although none of the original texts of our Bible were written with chapter, verse, or even word divisions, the poet-author clearly demarcates his poems into distinct compositions.

2/ Three of the poems [chs 1, 2, and 4] are funeral dirges, and they open with the keynote of mourning and wailing that was customary in their culture: ‘How?’ [see I, 2/]. The other two poems [chs 3 & 5] are written as ‘lamentations’ or ‘complaints.’ And by ‘complaints,’ we don’t mean like griping or finding fault – but rather as an appeal to Yahweh as a merciful God for His Divine intervention in their desperate crisis. They are formal appeals of ‘Help!’ to Yahweh. And there is also a difference in the ‘voice’ of these two lamentations: ch 3 is a lamentation in the individual voice of the poet and ch 5 is a lamentation in the collective voice of the afflicted community.

3/ In addition, four of the poems are written in alphabetical acrostic form. Let me explain:

  • There are 22 characters in the Hebrew alphabet.
  • Poem/ch. 1 contains 22 verses of three sets of parallel lines. Each first word of the first line in each verse begins with a successive character of the alphabet: for example, the first word of v 1 begins with aleph, the first word of v 2 begins with beth, and so on until v 22 begins with tau.
  • Poem/ch. 2 follows the same pattern.
  • Poem/ch. 4 follows the same pattern also, except the verses have only two sets of parallel lines.
  • Poem/ch. 3 is different in these ways: there are 22 stanzas of three verses – 66 verses. So there are three verses for every successive Hebrew alphabet character, and every one of those three verses begins with that character.

4/ What this shows us is that, even though every word and line of these poems were written with the deepest emotion and pathos, they are in no way random expressions, impulsive venting, or impromptu ‘streams of consciousness.’ The poet is not just writing ‘what popped into his mind’ or ‘how he was feeling.’ Every poem in Lamentations was intentionally crafted and even artistically stylized. Obviously, the reason for writing this way was to aid the hearer to remember these lamentations so they could more easily be recalled and recited … and also to give weight and gravitas to the seriousness of  every expression.   

V / Subjects, Themes, and Threads in Lamentations

1/ As we have noted before [IV, 3/], Lamentations contains 154 verses and 286 lines. And every one of them is pregnant with theologically-rich, emotionally-laden expressions. So, there is no way we can even begin to introduce, much less expound on, or even give all the references to the following subjects, themes, and threads that are woven into these poems.

2/ But I do want to at least itemize some of them and encourage you to look them over, get them into your mind, and then read aloud these poems to see how they are brought out from the poet’s heart and experience and put into words…

3/ Some of the broader themes are:

  • The seriousness of sin
  • Suffering as a consequence of sin
  • The Providence of God
  • Divine abandonment
  • The justice of God
  • The faithfulness of God
  • The comfort of hope in God’s promises
  • The place, purpose, and function of prayers of all kinds, and especially laments  

4/ Here are some statements that will help itemize some of the ‘threads’ to look for in Lamentations. I pray they may serve as ‘markers’ for you to use to guide you through your reading and understanding of Lamentations [NOTE: these are copied from the ESV Study Bible and available to you also in it]:

  • “It offers compelling prayers that confess sin, express renewed hope, and declare total dependence on God’s grace.
  • It is the only book in the Bible written by a person who endured one manifestation of the divine judgment the Bible consistently calls “the day of the LORD” (cf. Joel 2.1-2; Amos 5.18; Zephaniah 1.14-16).
  • The book’s authorship, setting, contents, and theology underline its value for understanding the nature of pain, sin, and redemption.
  • Lamentations agrees with the theology of Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 27-30, Joshua-Kings, and Jeremiah in that it affirms that Jerusalem fell: [1] because of the people’s sins (Lamentations 1.18); [2] because they rejected God’s Word sent through the prophets (2.8, 14, 17); [3] because their leaders led them astray (4.13). God warned (2.17), but the people did not heed the warning.
  • It affirms God’s faithful, never-ceasing mercy (3.19-24; cf. Deuteronomy 30.1-10). Therefore, readers can know that God is not finished with His people even when they sin greatly.
  • The book agrees with Psalms in that it affirms that prayers of confession and petition are the means for restoring a broken relationship with God. These poems also coincide with the Psalms in their honest expressions of pain and their dismay at what God has allowed to happen. By attributing what has occurred to God’s will, the poems also share the Psalms’ emphasis on God’s sovereignty as King of creation (Psalm 103.19).
  • Lamentations agrees with the emphasis on “the day of the LORD” found in the prophetic books. This “day” is the day God comes to judge sin. It can occur in historical contexts like 587 BC, or it can occur at the end of time and be the final “day of the LORD.” Regardless, such “days” do occur, and people need to take seriously the warnings about such days in Lamentations and the rest of the Bible.”

VI / Lamentations, Christ, and the Gospel

1/ Note the plaintive, yet hopeful, note Lamentations ends with:

“For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim, for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it. But you, O Yahweh, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations. Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days? Restore us to yourself, O Yahweh, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old – unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us! / ch 5.17-22

2/ With these words, they are still mourning over the dead bodies, smoldering ashes, desolate ruins, tarnished former glory, and dashed dreams. YET, they are waiting, longing, and hoping. “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope … therefore I will hope in Him … there may yet be hope” [ch 3.21, 24, 29]. And ALL their hopes will be finally fulfilled when Christ comes! The New Covenant has been made, and it will be accomplished in Christ and by Christ when He comes in the fullness of time!

The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases!

His mercies never come to an end!

They are new every morning! Great is Your faithfulness! / ch 3.22-23

jeremiah.l10.lamentations-1-5.the-lamentations-of-jeremiah-1Download
Posted in Bible Studies, JEREMIAH, LAMENTATIONS, Lesson Notes, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great!

Posted on August 19, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 9 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah, chapters 50-51

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ We have now come to the end of Jeremiah’s prophetic messages and writings here with chapters 50-51 [see ch 51.64]. And a most fitting end it is – both in terms of Jeremiah’s writings and the subject matter of the prophecies.

2/ The very last chapter, ch 52, will be another recounting of the final fall and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonian armies. That event has been the primary focal point of everything Jeremiah has prophesied – and also a fitting backdrop and context to the next writings: The Lamentations of Jeremiah.

3/ These two chapters 50-51 will deliver Yahweh’s holy and just pronouncements against the Babylonian empire – the ones who had committed such violent and bloody atrocities against Judah and Jerusalem. Ch 51 will serve as an expanded commentary on the prophetic announcement Yahweh delivers in ch 50. Together, they contain 110 verses in our Bible. Of course, we won’t be able to treat both chapters in any detail, but what we will do is focus on ch 50.1-10 especially. In those few verses, all the themes will be introduced that will be expanded upon and explained in the remainder of chs 50-51.

4/ Habakkuk. We don’t have the time to bring in Habakkuk into our lesson or discussion, but Habakkuk was an early contemporary of Jeremiah.

  • Habakkuk struggled with the moral dilemma and enigma that will be answered more fully here in our present lesson chapters.
  • Habakkuk was prophesying during the days when the Babylonian empire was just beginning to ascend to power and turning their ominous threats toward Judah.
  • Babylon had asserted their independence from the previous superpower of that part of the world, Assyria. They would conquer their former conquerors, Assyria, in 612 BC with the overthrow of Nineveh. Then they began their campaigns to conquer surrounding nations, and were turning their attention toward Judah.
  • Habakkuk saw the threats of violence that would eventually destroy Judah, Yahweh’s covenant people. Habakkuk was confused, as he cries out to Yahweh for answers [see Habakkuk 1.1-6].
  • His consuming confusion was reconciling the Holiness and justice of Yahweh with His allowing such a wicked and violent nation as Babylon to serve as His agent of punishment against Judah. YES! Judah had sinned against Yahweh. They had insistently and persistently rebelled against Yahweh for centuries. YES! They had stubbornly refused to listen to Yahweh’s repeated passionate calls for them to return to Him. YES! They had rebelled more and more instead of repenting and returning to Yahweh.
  • BUT, Babylon was such a worse offender! How could Yahweh allow such a wicked people as the Babylonians to serve as His agents of punishment against His covenant people? He presents His questions to Yahweh in Habakkuk 1.12-13: Are you not from everlasting, O Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Yahweh, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
  • The only answer Yahweh will give Habakkuk is: Trust Me!

5/ Vengeance / repay[ment]. So what Yahweh will do here in Jeremiah 50-51 is give a somewhat detailed and expanded response to Habakkuk’s moral dilemma: YES! Babylon is a wicked empire. YES! They have violated me and my covenant people. YES! They have arrogantly mocked me and boasted over me and destroyed my Temple [see especially 50.28 & 51.11]. BUT, their day is coming, too! I will do to them as they have done to you and to me! I will make it true for Babylon “What goes around, comes around”! If you go through chs 50-51, you will note that Yahweh announces His vengeance against Babylon no fewer than eight times. He will use the word repay five times.

6/ In other words: Babylon will not escape my Holy justice and vengeful judgments. What I have used them for against my covenant people, I will use other nations to exact the very same punishments against them. And these two chapters 50-51 will announce beforehand and describe in prophetic detail precisely how and by whom Yahweh will destroy Babylon and bring them to their deserved end.

7/ So what we will do here in ch 51.1-10 is point out the prominent themes that Yahweh will bring out in more detail in the succeeding messages…

I / vv 1-3 / Yahweh pronounces His Holy judgments against Babylon

1/ v 1 / Yahweh announces up front that this message He is giving to Jeremiah is concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans… This is the same Babylon that has already taken three waves of captives and deportees to Babylon – the latest one being during the reign of Zedekiah described again in ch 52. Yahweh has a sure and certain word concerning their own downfall and destruction which He will describe in detail in the next two chapters. See, for example, ch 51.12, 29.

2/ v 2 / Yahweh’s pronouncement and announcement goes out into all the then-known world. He wants to make it publicly known before it comes to pass so that everyone will know it came from Him … and He has done it. His declaration/proclamation is: Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed. Her images are put to shame, her idols are smashed. These two god-names are alternate and local names for Marduk, the supreme patron god of Babylon [see also Isaiah 46.1]. Yahweh will pronounce His own sovereignty, supremacy, and superiority not only over all the super-power nations of the world, but also over their preferred gods in which they trusted.

3/ v 3 / This is very interesting – and shows again the wisdom and sovereignty of Yahweh’s supremacy: He has been telling Judah from the very beginning that their invaders are coming against them from the north [see ch 1.13-16]. That was the direction from which the Babylonians came against Judah. Now, He pronounces that Babylon’s future invaders and conquerors will also come against them from out of the north – that is, north of them. Then, to make it more specific and precise, Yahweh even identifies who they will be – it will be the kings of the Medes [see ch 51.11 & 28]. This is awesome! The Medes, at that time, were not even a rising threat. They were a vassal state of Babylon – subject and subservient to Babylon. But He will raise them up in His time, and they come out of the north against Babylon to destroy and overthrow them. Hold this thought in mind because it will factor into the next pronouncement of this message of Babylon’s doom…

II / vv 4-6 / “…they shall ask the way to Zion…”

1/ v 4a / “In those days and in that time, declares Yahweh…” So what days and time is this? It is the days and time when Babylon has been destroyed and another super-power has taken over dominant rule in that part of the world. Who is that kingdom that has destroyed Babylon and taken the super-power reins? It is the kings of the Medes we just were prophetically introduced to. That overthrow of the Babylonians by the Medes is described by the account Daniel gives in Daniel 5, especially vv 30-31. Yahweh not only knows where all history is going, but He is the One who directing it, revealing it, and unfolding it in our real-time!

2/ vv 4-5 / So what is Yahweh going to do in those days and in that time? He is going to bring His people back home to Judah. He has already prophesied through Jeremiah that He will do this seventy years in the future! See chs 25.11-14 & 29.10-14. So, in those days and in that time, declares Yahweh, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek Yahweh their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, let us join ourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.’ Yahweh will give them a spirit of repentance and brokenness over their sins that took them into captivity to begin with. AND, even that spirit of repentance, brokenness, and weeping over their sins will be the fruit of the New Covenant that He will make with them. This New Covenant is His preparation of His people for the coming of Jesus Christ and His Gospel – and will be accomplished and fulfilled in Christ and by Christ!

3/ Before we go to the next verses, we need to stop and marvel at Yahweh’s omniscience and omnipotence again! Do you remember who this future king of the Medes and Persians is who issued the proclamation for them to return to their beloved Homeland? It was Cyrus. This Cyrus is introduced to us by Isaiah [ch 45.1-4] even 100 years before Jeremiah! And he is the Persian king Yahweh calls ‘my anointed’ to fulfill His sovereign purposes to proclaim liberty to the captives in Babylon and commission all who wished to return to Judah and Jerusalem! And that’s exactly what he did! See 2 Chronicles 36.17-23 & Ezra 1.1-4.

4/ vv 6-7 / The covenant people of Yahweh had been driven like lost sheep into foreign mountains and folds far away from their Homeland.

  • And those who had preyed upon them denied any guilt of their own for doing so. In fact, those who were knowledgeable of Judah’s centuries-long rebellion against Yahweh, their covenant God, justified themselves by saying, “We are not guilty, for they have sinned against Yahweh, their habitation of righteousness, Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.” You’ll find a good example of this self-justification of their volitional atrocities in our last lesson. In ch 40.2-3, when the captain of the Babylonian armies was extending leniency to Jeremiah during their invasion of Jerusalem, he proffered this reason for their being there: The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, ‘Yahweh your God pronounced this disaster against this place. Yahweh has brought it about, and has done as He said. Because you sinned against Yahweh and did not obey His voice, this thing has come upon you.’ He was right. Yahweh had employed the Babylonians to come against Judah because of their sins.
  • But that did not excuse the Babylonians! They did what they wanted to do. And they did what they did out of their disdain for Yahweh, His people, and His Temple. They are culpable and guilty of their own sins. And Yahweh will bring upon them His Holy vengeance and the just recompense that their sins deserve. But, in so doing, He will bring eventual destruction upon Babylon by the Medes in order to fulfill His purposes of saving His people from their captivity and bring them back to their Homeland … according to all His promises in every respect!     

III / vv 8-10 / “Flee from the midst of Babylon…” “Go out of the midst of her, my people!”

1/ v 8 / ‘Flee from the midst of Babylon!’ [see also ch 51.6 & 45; Isaiah 48.20] Not only will Yahweh command Cyrus to release His people from the captivity into which Babylon had taken them [“Let my people go!”], but He also wants His people to come back home to Him and to Judah because they want to. Their decision to return to Jerusalem was not one of compulsion – they were not required to return home. In fact, the vast majority of those who had been taken captive to Babylon, or who had been born in Babylon, chose to stay there. It had become their new home. They were comfortable there. But Yahweh wanted them to return to Him – to become once again His distinctive people in the Land He had given them. We saw in ch 29 how Yahweh had told them to settle in while they were in Babylon for the seventy years He had determined they would be there.But now, the seventy years have been fulfilled. It is now His purpose and plan for them to come back to Jerusalem. And He wants them to come back to Him and Judah with the spirit of repentance and reconciliation He is demanding and providing for.

2/ vv 9-10 / But there is another reason Yahweh commands His people to return home: because His next purpose and plan is to destroy Babylon for their sins they have committed against Him, His people, and His Temple … and He doesn’t want His people to be destroyed with Babylon!That’s the spirit and voice with which God commands His people to ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back to others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed’ [Revelation 18.4-6]. This is just one of numerous Revelation references where God goes back to His judgments against the ancient geopolitical Babylon delivered in Jeremiah … and applies them in principle to all those in succeeding generation and on to the last-day generation. God warns them and us not to have any part in any of the anti-God philosophies and activities that are practiced by the ‘Babylon’ worldview, mindset, and cult of every generation.

3/ So what does Yahweh purpose to do against Babylon? What is it that He wants His people to flee from, escape from, separate themselves [ourselves] from? Concerning [see v 1] that historical geopolitical Babylon, Yahweh pronounces: For behold, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a gathering of great nations, from the north country. And they shall array themselves against her. From there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed. Chaldea shall be plundered; all who plunder her shall be sated, declares Yahweh.

4/ In order to make a public pronouncement of His purposes, Yahweh instructed Jeremiah to write down all these prophetic messages and send them to Babylon by the hand of a royal ambassador who was going there on a personal mission from Judah King Zedekiah.

Jeremiah 51.59-64: The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster. 60 Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words, 62 and say, ‘O LORD, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate forever.’ 63 When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, 64 and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.’”

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

IV / A brief survey of ‘Babylon’ in historical and prophetic Scripture  

1/ As I have already stated during this lesson, this Babylon was a geopolitical super-power that was dominating and terrorizing the then-known world with their barbarism, cruelty, and atrocities. Yahweh pronounces His condemnations and judgments against them. They were also, at that time, the most vicious enemies Israel and Judah were facing.

2/ However, this Babylon traces its roots, both in location and philosophy, back to the ancient Tower of Babel [Genesis 11.1-9]. Their names are the same. In fact, ‘in the land of Shinar’ [Genesis 11.2] is the same name retained even to Daniel’s time [Daniel 1.2] Babel, of course, was an exercise of rebellion against the Most High God and an effort to supplant and dethrone Him as the Supreme God and usurp for themselves the right to rule themselves and the world according to their own wills. They failed.

3/ There were many enemies who opposed, fought against, and attempted to war against Yahweh by directing their enmity against His covenant people: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon … and then later on, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the kingdoms of the world who have come after Rome [see Daniel, chapters 2 & 7 especially]. The two most recent nations in Jeremiah’s day, Assyria and Babylon, are brought under Yahweh’s vengeful judgments in Jeremiah 50.17-18. God will raise them up in their own times to accomplish His purposes … and then in His times, He will bring them down and destroy them.

/4 But since Babylon is the most historical and inglorious example of them all, Babylon sort of stands out as the icon of all these God-opposing kingdoms. Rome will inherit this mantle to a large degree in the New Testament times [see 1 Peter 5.13].

5/ That’s why Yahweh’s judgments against Babylon will stand the test of world history times to serve as a kind of template for His final judgments against all the world’s anti-God governmental systems and powers. You will find these final judgments against ‘Babylon’ in Revelation, chs 14, 16, 17, and 18.

“HALLELUJAH! [Revelation 19]

jeremiah.l9.jer-chs-50-51.fallen-fallen-is-babylon-the-greatDownload
Posted in Bible Studies, JEREMIAH, Lesson Notes, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Intrigue, Conspiracies, & Assassinations

Posted on August 12, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 8 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah, chapters 37-44

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ I told you in our last lesson that this section we’re going to survey now is called by Bible teachers ‘Jeremiah’s Via Dolorosa’ because it describes at least some of the sorrows and travails Jeremiah suffered as a faithful prophet of Yahweh. [See also chs 25-26.] In ch 36, we saw how Jeremiah’s life was threatened again by King Jehoiakim after he burned the scroll that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s inspired dictation from Yahweh because he didn’t like the judgments Yahweh had pronounced against him and Judah.

2/ Hang on and put on your fast-listening ears because what we want to do in this lesson is do a quick survey of seven of the next chapters. All we will be able to do is give you the ‘CliffsNotes’ summary of each chapter. But in those quick summaries, we will see more of the sufferings that this faithful prophet experienced as he was true to Yahweh’s word and the prophetic mission he had been sent to fulfill.

3/ NOTE: we are going to fast-forward about twenty years from our last lesson from ch 36 which occurred during the reign of King Jehoiakim [609-597 BC]. However, these next chapters will transpire during the reign of King Zedekiah. He was the last king of Judah and was reigning when the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem, destroyed the city, burned the Temple, and deported masses of the people to captivity in Babylon [this was the third deportation over the past twenty years]. He reigned for eleven years [597-586 BC]. You’ll find his story in 2 Kings 24.18-25.21. This King Zedekiah is a common character in these stories we will survey – along with a number of other characters who followed him during the post-captivity years that followed.

4/ I’m calling this lesson ‘Intrigue, Conspiracies, & Assassination’ because that is the common theme that runs throughout all these chapters and stories. [We could also add ‘coups,’ ‘atrocities,’ et. al.] I am using ‘intrigue’ in the sense of ‘make secret plans to do something illicit or detrimental to someone.’ What we will witness is a nation that persisted in their rebellion against Yahweh, their covenant God, abandoned all spiritual precepts and principles, and descended into chaos, anarchy, and violence under the judgments of God’s Holiness, righteousness, and justice.

5/ So, here we go as we follow Jeremiah’s faithful commitment to Yahweh’s Word and the sufferings that this ‘man of sorrows’ endured as he dealt with a faithless people who opposed Yahweh and His prophet.

I / chapter 37 / Jeremiah warns Zedekiah of Yahweh’s judgments and is thrown into prison

1/ vv 1-10 / Zedekiah came to power under the appointment of Nebuchadnezzar [‘puppet-king’] after he [Nebuchadnezzar] had already taken other Jerusalemites into captivity in Babylon [see 2 Kings 24.8-17]. They still refused to respect Yahweh’s words of warning through his prophet, Jeremiah. He did, though, ask and pretend to want Jeremiah to pray for them. This came about during a brief spell when the Babylonians were distracted and diverted away from their on-going siege against Jerusalem [v 5]. Zedekiah had secretly conspired against the sieging Babylonians by sending an offer to the Egyptians to come to his aid and help Judah fight against the Babylonians. When they came up from Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar had to interrupt his siege of Jerusalem to go and fight against the Egyptians. But Yahweh warned Zedekiah through Jeremiah that they would be back shortly. They did return and finish the job of destroying Jerusalem as Yahweh had warned.

2/ vv 11-21 / During this brief lull in the siege, Jeremiah attempted to go to his nearby home village to take care of some personal family business. Zedekiah’s guards accosted him and accused him of trying to defect to the Babylonians – in other words, treason. They arrested him, beat him, and threw him into prison for many days. Zedekiah still had the nerve to bring Jeremiah in for a private counsel to ask him Is there any word from Yahweh? Jeremiah assured him there was – the same words he had been delivering to him. But Jeremiah did plead with Zedekiah to please not send him back to the prison. Zedekiah relented and Jeremiah was then confined in a lower security courtyard and given a scant ration of bread.

II / ch 38 / Jeremiah is thrown into a mucky cistern – and then rescued by an Egyptian eunuch

1/ vv 1-6 / This would have happened some short time after Jeremiah’s imprisonment as he continued to deliver Yahweh’s messages of judgment. However, we must note here, that all along, Jeremiah had been telling Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem that there was a way to enjoy peace and escape death and destruction – surrender to the Babylonians. If they did, the Babylonians would have allowed them to remain in Jerusalem, but under Babylonian sovereignty and rule. They refused to accept Yahweh’s words. So some of Zedekiah’s henchmen again accused Jeremiah of sowing sedition and demoralizing the soldiers and citizens of Jerusalem. They called for Zedekiah to execute Jeremiah – put him to death. Zedekiah again caved in to their demands. So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern [or reservoir] of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

2/ vv 7-13 / There was a court-servant, an Ethiopian eunuch, by the name of Ebed-melech who had mercy toward Jeremiah. He went to King Zedekiah and interceded for Jeremiah. Again, Zedekiah relented and changed his mind by allowing Ebed-melech to take thirty men with him and rescue him from the cistern.

3/ vv 14-28 / Zedekiah was still panic-stricken and wanted to hear some words of promise from Yahweh through His prophet. He secretly called again for Jeremiah to come and give him advice. Jeremiah did, giving him the same advice he had been giving all along: surrender to the Babylonians, and they will allow you to live…but continue to rebel and resist Yahweh’s judgments against them, and they will die. Zedekiah was trying to play all the sides here. He was afraid that if his officials and advisors found out that Jeremiah was still sticking with Yahweh’s consistent prophecies, they will still put him to death. So he advised Jeremiah to just tell anyone who asked him what he and Zedekiah had talked about, “…then you shall say to them, ‘I made a humble plea to the king that he would not send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’” Jeremiah did just that when he was asked, and his life was spared again.

III / ch 39 / The sad account again of the fall of Jerusalem | Jeremiah’s mercy from the Babylonians

1/ vv 1-10 / This historic, pivotal account of the fall of Jerusalem is repeated here again. You will find the same account in Jeremiah 52; 2 Kings 25; and 2 Chronicles 36.17-21. It is well-documented so everyone will know that Yahweh is faithful to His warnings of judgments as well as His promises of salvation and deliverance to everyone who believes in Him, trusts His Word, and obeys Him.

2/ vv 11-14 / The conquering Babylonians know all about Jeremiah. They actually respect and treat him better than the covenant peoples who should have listened to all his words from Yahweh and obeyed their God. 11 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, 12 “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.” 13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, Nebushazban the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon 14 sent and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard. They entrusted him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, that he should take him home. So he lived among the people.

  • NOTE: we now meet this Gedeliah. We’ll see him again in ch 40.5. He is the new governor that Nebuchadnezzar is appointing to oversee the affairs of Judah and Jerusalem under his command.

3/ vv 15-18 / Yahweh also had a message of commendation, salvation, and deliverance for the Ethiopian eunuch, Ebed-melech, who had been merciful to Jeremiah and interceded for his rescue from the mucky cistern [see ch 38.7-13].

IV / ch 40 / Jeremiah is granted liberty to remain alive in Judah | Johanan warns Zedekiah about the conspiracy to assassinate him

1/ vv 1-6 / Jeremiah was taken to Ramah, which was the staging city for the deportees Babylon had taken from Jerusalem and Judah – before they were marched off to Babylon. As they were processing them for deportation, Nebuzaradan, who was the captain of the guard, took Jeremiah aside and offered him a free choice: he could come to Babylon and be taken care of there, or he could remain in Judah under the custody of Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had installed as governor of Judah. Either way, Jeremiah would be protected and provided for by Nebuchadnezzar’s command. Jeremiah opted to remain in Judah. See ch 39.11-14.

2/ vv 7-12 / Governor Gedaliah had set up his governor’s headquarters in Mizpah. When the surviving people who had not been deported, but had been left in Judah [along with others who had fled to surrounding kingdoms] heard that Gedaliah had been appointed as Judah’s governor, they began migrating back there. Gedaliah promised them that if they would live in peace under the sovereignty of Babylonian dominion, they could cultivate the land and prosper. Judah would be a ‘safe place’ if they chose to live in peace. Many did.

3/ vv 13-16 / Among those who migrated back to live in Judah under Gedaliah’s governorship were a couple of power-hungry rogues:  a certain Ishmael and Johanan [see v 8]. Johanan went to Gedaliah and told him that Ishmael had been hired by the king of Ammon and was conspiring to assassinate him, stage a coup, and take over the leadership of being governor of the remaining inhabitants of Judah. Gedaliah didn’t believe him. Johanan asked Gedaliah if he would commission him to assassinate Ishmael to prevent Ishmael from assassinating him. Gedaliah refused: But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, “You shall not do this thing, for you are speaking falsely of Ishmael.” That would prove to be the undoing of Gedaliah.

V / ch 41 / Gedaliah is, indeed, assassinated by Ishmael | Johanan, in turn, seeks to assassinate Ishmael, but he escapes

1/ vv 1-3 / Surely by now you’re getting the picture of why I’m calling this lesson ‘Intrigue, Conspiracies, & Assassinations.’ This Ishmael was conspiring against Governor Gedaliah to assassinate him – and he did. And he assassinated Gedaliah as Gedaliah was hospitably hosting him and they were dining together. Not only did Ishmael assassinate Governor Gedaliah, but he also murdered a number of the occupying Babylonian soldiers who were stationed there.

2/ vv 4-10 / The next day, groups of eighty refugees from surrounding cities came to Mizpah, not knowing what Ishmael had done. They were seeking refuge in the newly-established Judah ‘safe-place’ settlement there. Ishmael went out to them pretending to be receiving them, but then when they came into the city, Ishmael turned on them and massacred them and threw their corpses into a large cistern/reservoir from the days of King Asa. Ten of these refugees escaped being slaughtered when they offered Ishmael some food stores they had hidden away. Ishmael then proceeded to kidnap and take hostage the refugees who had settled in Mizpah and set out to go back to Ammon [see ch 40.13-14].

3/ vv 11-18 / Johanan had power-hungry/-seeking plans of his own. So when he heard about Ishmael’s atrocities, he and his band of rival rogues set out to intercept Ishmael. They encountered them at the great pool that is in Gibeon. When the kidnapped hostages from Mizpah saw him approaching, they bolted from Ishmael and ran to join Johanan. Johanan was afraid to go back to Mizpah where all the previous killing had taken place for fear of reprisal from the Babylonians [see vv 1-9]. So they fled to a village near Bethlehem, planning from there to go to Egypt for their safety and survival. Keep in mind: this intention to flee to Egypt was in overt disobedience to Yahweh who had promised them that if they would remain in Judah and submit to the Babylonians, He would preserve them there. These promises are in Yahweh’s messages to them in the next chapter…

VI / ch 42 / Yahweh warns Johanan through Jeremiah NOT to go to Egypt … but he will disobey

1/ vv 1-6 / Johanan again pretends to want to hear from Yahweh through Jeremiah whether they should go to Egypt or stay in Judah. Jeremiah promises them he will ask Yahweh what His will is for them and get back with them in ten days. Johanan and his men solemnly commit to obey Yahweh’s word. They won’t. NOTE: from here on…the repeated reference to ‘obey’ and ‘did not obey.’

2/ vv 7-22 / Jeremiah does bring them word from Yahweh. Yahweh promises to be with them, protect them from the Babylonians, to plant them and make them prosperous if they will obey Him. He will grant them mercy, save them, and deliver them if they will do what He says and remain in the land. IF they disobey Him and flee to Egypt, He will send the Babylonians [whom they are fearing in Judah] down to Egypt, and they will die there. Yahweh has revealed to Jeremiah the deceit and duplicity of their pretenses. He pronounces His solemn judgments: 19 The LORD has said to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day 20 that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. For you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and whatever the LORD our God says, declare to us and we will do it.’ 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in anything that He sent me to tell you. 22 Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”    

VII / chs 43-44 / Johanan and his crew do flee to Egypt with the hostages they have taken in Judah | They kidnap Jeremiah also and take him with them | Yahweh will follow them there…

1/ vv 1-7 / As soon as Jeremiah delivers Yahweh’s message to Johanan and all the insolent men [as they had asked him to do in the pretense of sincerity], they then proceed to accuse Jeremiah of lying to them. And they also implicate Baruch in their charges – that somehow and for some reason Baruch had exerted his influence on Yahweh’s prophet and led him to make this pronouncement. 4 So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the LORD, to remain in the land of Judah. 5 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to live in the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven [see ch 41.10]— 6 the men, the women, the children, the princesses, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. 

2/ vv 8-13 / They were not only devising their own means to escape from the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, but they were also arrogantly and insolently defying the word of Yahweh and His express command through Jeremiah to stay in Judah. They thought that by fleeing to Egypt in disobedience to Yahweh and taking Jeremiah with them, they could exercise their own control over Yahweh’s prophet, Yahweh’s message, and their own destinies. But Yahweh continues to speak through His prophet…even there in Egypt! He commands Jeremiah to perform a ‘sign-act,’ an object lesson in their audience – this object lesson will illustrate what He is going to do: 8 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes:  9 “Take in your hands large stones and hide them in the mortar in the pavement that is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah, 10 and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden, and he will spread his royal canopy over them. 11 He shall come and strike the land of Egypt, giving over to the pestilence those who are doomed to the pestilence, to captivity those who are doomed to captivity, and to the sword those who are doomed to the sword. 12 I shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captive. And he shall clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin, and he shall go away from there in peace. 13 He shall break the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt, and the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn with fire.’”

3/ ch 44 / Yahweh delivers an expanded message through Jeremiah to the refugees in Egypt – He will follow them and send His judgments on them there in Egypt … because of their continuing rebellions and disobedience.

“… and ALL … shall know whose word will stand, mine or theirs!” ~ Yahweh / ch 44.28

jeremiah.l8.jer-chs-37-43.intrigue-conspiracies-assassinationsDownload
Posted in Bible Studies, I've been thinking, JEREMIAH, Lesson Notes, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yahweh’s Word is not Bound! [2 Timothy 2.8-9] / When Jehoiakim burned the scroll

Posted on August 5, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 7 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah 36.1-32 [when Jehoiakim burns the scroll]

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ Chapter 36 begins another one of those shorter ‘booklets’ I’ve been telling you about – shorter collections of messages and events that are keyed to a common theme, and then compiled to make up the larger ‘book’ of Jeremiah. Chapters 36-45 are sometimes called ‘Jeremiah’s Via Dolorosa [Way of Sorrows]’ because they chronicle some of the prophet’s more traumatic experiences of opposition, persecution, and sufferings he endured while being faithful to deliver Yahweh’s messages. Jeremiah also was a ‘man of sorrows’ much like his Messiah whose life Jeremiah illustrates.

2/ This chapter, in particular, will tell the story of how King Jehoiakim didn’t like what Yahweh was saying through Jeremiah, and so he thought he would ‘destroy’ the word of Yahweh by burning it in the fire pot, thinking he would avert the disastrous judgments that Yahweh was pronouncing against Him and Judah. But, as he found out, you can’t destroy the Word of God by any means you may fight against it. …but the word of the LORD remains forever. [1 Peter 1.25].

3/ Yahweh not only preserved His Word, but He also did what He had said He would do.

“Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith’s door,

And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;

Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,

Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.

‘How many anvils have you had,’ said I,

‘To wear and batter all these hammers so?’

‘Just one,’ said he, and then with twinkling eye,

‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’

And so, I thought, the Anvil of God’s Word,

For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;

Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The Anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.”

—attributed to John Clifford

4/ This is why I have titled this lesson ‘Yahweh’s Word is not Bound!’ taking this phrase from 2 Timothy 2.8-9. The apostle Paul found himself in a situation much like Jeremiah’s – he was imprisoned and forbidden from the public proclamation of the Gospel as he had formerly done. But Paul knew God’s Word cannot be restrained from accomplishing His desired and designed mission! This is our confidence also!

5/ There is also another very valuable lesson we want to learn from this prophetic narrative: here is a historical illustration of how God inspires, records, and preserves His Word in the Holy Scriptures. See 2 Timothy 3.3.16 & 2 Peter 1.20-21.

6/ What we will witness here is: [1] how God inspired holy men of God to speak His words; [2] how He commanded them to record His words in writing; and [3] how He has preserved His words from the times they were first delivered all the way to us … and to the end of the world.

7/ So what we will do is follow this narrative as it develops. There are at least four ‘readings’ of Yahweh’s messages that are recorded here. We will note them in order and then show how Yahweh’s words were still preserved even though Jehoiakim sought and thought he would destroy them.   

I / vv 1-4 / The first reading: Jeremiah to Baruch      

1/ The dating of this narrative is ‘In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.’ This is such a significant date, not only in the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah, but also in the history of Judah. Jeremiah dates others of his messages in this same year: 25.1; 36.1; 45.1; 46.1-2. The year was 605 BC. What happened in this year was that Nebuchadnezzar had made his first invasion against Jerusalem and had taken some of the Jerusalemites captive to Babylon [see 2 Kings 24.1-2 & Daniel 1.1].

2/ Inspiration begins in the mind of Yahweh – He has words He wants to deliver to us … for us to hear from Him, and know, and respond to.

3/ Yahweh instructed Jeremiah to hear His words – words that He had been speaking through Jeremiah from the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry ‘from the days of Josiah until today’ [see ch 1.1-3]. Yahweh had been passionately and patiently pleading with Judah to repent and turn from their disobedience and rebellion against Him. If they would do so, He would forgive their iniquities and not execute all the disaster He had been threatening to bring upon them – the destruction of their city and Temple.

4/ Jeremiah faithfully called for Baruch who was his personal ‘recording secretary,’ or ‘amanuensis’ to listen to him as he recited Yahweh’s words. And Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh that He had spoken to him. This was the first reading of these messages.

II / vv 4-10 / The second reading: Baruch reads these words to the people  

1/ v 5 / Jeremiah had been ‘banned’ from publicly preaching around the Temple. This may have been from the messages that are recorded in chs 25-26. They were preached during the same times and delivered in the court of Yahweh’s house [chs 25.1-2 & 26.1-2]. When the leaders and authorities heard the messages at that time, [they] laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die!” [ch 26.8]. Jeremiah was spared from being killed, but they may have banned him from any more public speaking.

2/ vv 6-8 / So he told Baruch to go in his place and ‘you shall read the words of Yahweh from the scroll that you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities.’ Jeremiah still held out hope that the people would listen, hear, and obey Yahweh’s calls to repent and turn from their sins.

3/ vv 9-10 / Baruch faithfully obeyed Jeremiah. ‘In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month….’ You’ll notice that this is one year later from v 1. So, during this year, Jeremiah had been reciting to Baruch many of the messages he had previously delivered – the same messages we have written in our Bibles – and Baruch had been writing them down.

4/ In the meantime, it appears that the people themselves had declared this fast day before Yahweh. This was a ‘grass-roots’ movement … probably because they had witnessed the amassing Babylonian armies that were besieging Jerusalem at that very time, and they were terrified at the prospects of the impending disaster Yahweh had been warning them about.

5/ This reading of Yahweh’s words was in the house of Yahweh, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the secretary….

  • BTW, this prominent family of ‘Shaphan the secretary (royal scribe) goes all the way back to the previous king, Josiah / see 2 Kings 22.3, 8-10. Shaphan was the ‘secretary/scribe’ who had read to Josiah the words of the previously-abandoned ‘book of the law’ they had discovered in the Temple during Josiah’s sweeping reforms only a few years before…   

6/ So, this was the second reading of Yahweh’s words.  

III / vv 11-19 / The third reading: Baruch reads these words to the royal and priestly officials

1/ v 11 / There was a certain priestly/Temple official who attended this public reading of Yahweh’s words by the name of Micaiah. Interestingly, he was the only one who was personally present, even though Jeremiah’s prophetic messages held weighty importance and consequences for them all. But they hadn’t cared enough to attend the public reading.

2/ vv 12-13 / When Micaiah ‘heard all the words of Yahweh from the scroll, he went down to the king’s house, into the secretary’s chamber, and all the officials were sitting there….’ We don’t know, but they may have gotten wind of the public reading and had gathered in council to deliberate what it meant and what they should do about it. Micaiah gave them a full report of what he had just heard.

3/ vv 14-15 / So now there’s another prominent character who is introduced: Jehudi. They promptly dispatched Jehudi to go back to the Temple compound to fetch Baruch and bring him to them: ‘Take in your hand the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come.’ They wanted to hear these words for themselves. “And they said to him [Baruch], ‘Sit down and read it.’ So Baruch read it to them.”

4/ v 16 / These officials were terrified. They had enough confidence in the inspiration of these words – that they had, indeed, come from Yahweh – and in Jeremiah’s authority to speak from Yahweh, that they took the messages as a dire warning that must be heeded. ‘We must report all these words to the king!’

5/ vv 17-18 / They just wanted to be sure, though, that these were bona-fide words, so they asked Baruch once again: “‘Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?’ Baruch answered, ‘He dictated all these words to me, while I wrote them with ink on the scroll.’” I just want to reiterate and reinforce at this juncture that this is indeed how all the words of our Bible, God’s Holy Word, the Scriptures, have come to us: from Yahweh Himself, through His inspiration of His prophets, and then written down for us in perpetuity! You can trust your Bible – it is The Word of God!

6/ v 19 / How Jehoiakim will respond is still an unknown, so they care enough about Jeremiah and Baruch that they want to be sure they are protected: ‘Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.’ This is now the third reading of these words.

IV / vv 20-26 / The fourth reading: Jehudi reads Jeremiah’s words to King Jehoiakim

1/ v 20 / These concerned officials put the scroll containing Yahweh’s messages through Jeremiah in a safe place in Elishama’s office area – they want this scroll preserved. They go first to give King Jehoiakim an oral report. They want to see how he is disposed to what they have heard. They are terrified for themselves; perhaps King Jehoiakim will share their concern and take the lead to act for their preservation.

2/ v 21 / King Jehoiakim wants to hear it for himself. So, once again, he dispatches Jehudi to go where they had secured the scroll and bring it to him. ‘And Jehudi read it to the king and all the officials who stood beside the king.’

3/ vv 22-23 / It was winter-time, our December. ‘…and the king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him’ … some kind of heating stove or brazier, maybe even open-flame. Whatever it was, it was convenient for Jehoiakim to display his overt displeasure with what he was hearing Jehudi read from the scroll. ‘As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them in the fire that was in the fire pot.’ The scroll would have been written in the Hebrew form: from left to right. As the scroll was unrolled, the words would be written in columns. In succession, as Jehudi read what Yahweh had inspired Jeremiah to write, Jehoiakim would show his contempt and disdain for the words by taking the same kind of scribal razor Baruch had used to trim the scroll to begin with, and just cut the scroll and burn it … ‘until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot.’

4/ vv 24 / Jehoiakim deceived and deluded himself into believing he could destroy the Word of Yahweh and avoid the impending disaster Yahweh was pronouncing against him by burning the scroll that contained the words. [Like cancelling an event by burning a flyer that advertises it.] Nor was he even phased by them: ‘Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments.’ This is in stark contrast to the fear his officials felt among themselves when they heard the same words [see v 16].

  • AND, Jehoiakim’s arrogant response was the opposite of his father, Josiah’s, when he had heard similar words from his secretary, Shaphan [see 2 Kings 22.8-11]. [The ‘tearing of garments’ was a sign of repentance, grief, remorse, horror, or despair at one’s realization of sin against Yahweh or the danger of impending trauma.] But the proud rebel, Jehoiakim, feels none of this.

5/ v 25 / Even when Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemeriah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. These officials were among those who had attended Baruch’s previous reading [see v 12]. They ‘got it’ and understood the clear and present danger they were facing. That’s why they had brought it to Jehoiakim’s attention and had arranged this present reading of the scroll.

6/ v 26 / Not only was Jehoiakim unmoved by Yahweh’s words of judgment and calls to repentance, but he also ordered his immediate attendants to go and seize Jeremiah and Baruch, have them arrested, and bring them into custody so he could execute his wrath against them. ‘…but Yahweh hid them.’ Whether it was through the instruction of the officials who were sympathetic toward them [see v 19], or through some miraculous intervention, Yahweh providentially protected them. Of course, we know why, because even though Jehoiakim had burned that scroll, Yahweh still remains. And His Word will yet be preserved!      

V / vv 27-32 / “Take another scroll and write on it…”

1/ vv 27-28 / YES! The Word of Yahweh remains! His Word cannot be destroyed, nor can it ever be cancelled! Why? Because Yahweh Himself remains, and He still has His words in His mind, and He can re-deliver it as easily as He delivered it the first time! His purposes will be accomplished, and His words will be fulfilled! So, Yahweh tells Jeremiah simply to take another scroll and dictate to Baruch the same words that Jehoiakim had burned – ‘AND many similar words were added to them’ [see v 32].

2/ These words that Jeremiah dictated and Baruch wrote down are the words we are holding in our hands and reading right now! This is WHERE and HOW and FROM WHOM the words we are reading came to us!

3/ vv 29-31 / Yahweh has a word of personal judgment for King Jehoiakim: ‘You rejected and burned the words I delivered to you, calling you to repent from your rebellion against Me and avert the disaster I have pronounced upon you, Judah, and Jerusalem … because you didn’t like what I have to say. But it all is going to happen just as I have prophesied!’

  • Jehoiakim and his immediate family/clan will be deposed from the royal lineage of Judah, and the Davidic promises Yahweh has made will be kept – but they will pass to another line within Josiah’s family. Jehoiakim will die an ignominious death, and his corpse will be unceremoniously abused. Interestingly, the verb Yahweh used for ‘cast out’ [v 30] is the same verb used for ‘throw’ [v 23]. They would do with Jehoiakim’s corpse just as he had done with Yahweh’s words.
  • NOTE: we do know that even though an individual king and his immediate descendants may be disqualified from carrying on the Davidic royal lineage, “David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel…” Jeremiah 33.14-17 & 2 Samuel 1-17. This covenant promise can be and will fulfilled – only in Jesus Christ and His Gospel!
  • All the disasters Yahweh has threatened against Judah will be executed … and all because ‘but they would not hear!’

4/ The value of reading aloud The Word of God. I want to conclude here with an excerpt from ESV Expository Commentary [Jerry Hwang]:

“The narrative of Jeremiah’s first scroll illustrates how reading in Biblical times always involved the act of reading aloud (Jer. 36.2, 8, 10, 13-15, 21, 23). In turn, the oral performance of God’s word through Jeremiah formed the basis of Baruch’s written text, which journeyed to places where the prophet himself was unable to go. The first scroll of Jeremiah not only traveled into the temple and palace in Jerusalem, where Jeremiah was forbidden to enter; its public reading in these places also caused fear, which eventually resulted in its destruction by King Jehoiakim. Ironically, that scroll was replaced by another scroll and eventually an entire canonical book that prophesies the demise of Jehoiakim and the kings of Judah who follow him. / These observations show the unique power of reading Scripture when orality and textuality work together according to God’s design. An oral event of receiving and proclaiming God’s word is captured in a written text, while a written text provides a stable basis for oral performance on new occasions when God’s authorized messenger is restricted or has passed from the scene. Such a synergy applies not only to the inspiration of Scripture in biblical times but also to its reading today, when oral performance brings out the dynamism of Scripture in a way that generates greater passion for reading the written text, and vice versa.”

“But the word of the LORD remains forever…And this is the Good News that was preached to you!” [1 Peter 1.25-26]

jeremiah.l7.jer-36.1-32.yahwehs-word-is-not-bound-2-tim-2.8-9Download
Posted in Bible Studies, JEREMIAH, Lesson Notes, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yahweh’s Delight in Obedience

Posted on July 29, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 6 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah 35.1-19 [along with chaper 34]

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ As we discovered in our last lesson, the over-all ‘book of Jeremiah’ is a compilation of several other ‘booklets’ within the ‘book.’ Our last lesson was taken from the ‘Book of Consolation,’ chapters 30-33, because in that ‘booklet,’ Yahweh repeated and confirmed His promises to reconcile, restore, and renew His people to Himself through the New Covenant. “And they shall be My people, and I will be their God” [ch 32.38].

2/ This, of course, will be accomplished through Christ and His Gospel. Jesus Christ fulfilled all the necessary conditions and secured all the promises of the New Covenant when He poured out His Blood of the New Covenant and proclaimed in victory from His Cross: “It is finished!” [See our comments on this Gospel projection in Jeremiah’s ‘Book of Consolation’ in our last Lesson Notes / Talking Points.]

3/ But now, in this two-chapter ‘booklet,’ chapters 34-35, Yahweh returns once again to their then-present situation. Yahweh will once again make the case that His judgments coming on them in the Babylonian invasion, destruction, and captivity are His holy consequences because of their insistent and persistent disobedience and rebellion again Him.

4/ He will make His irrefutable case by citing two real-life stories that were transpiring contemporaneously in their very day. These two stories were going on as Jeremiah was delivering and recording them, and the people of Judah were witnessing of both of these stories.

5/ We could also call chapters 34-35: The stories of two families. The family in chapter 34 is Yahweh’s family, the people of God, Judah. The family in chapter 35 is the family of the Rechabites. We may not be so familiar with the Rechabites because so little is said of them in the historical Scriptures. In fact, we are told as much or more about the Rechabites here in Jeremiah 35 than in all the other little snippets we can glean from their previous history. But Yahweh brings them to the fore and makes a positive example of them and gives them a glowing recommendation.

6/ The stories of these two families will stand in stark contrast to each other. The family of Judah will witness against themselves as a testimony to their disobedience – not occasional ‘slip up’ disobedience, but their historical, persistent, and insistent disobedience … even to the point of chronic rebellion against Yahweh [see ch 35.12-17]. The family of the Rechabites, on the other hand, will bear a sterling and consistent historical witness to their obedience to their patriarchal father, Jonadab the son of Rechab.

7/ So, let’s re-tell these two stories and juxtapose them as Yahweh gave them to Jeremiah. As we read and learn, I hope that each of us will search our own hearts to see whose family we belong to. And, at the end of the lesson, we’ll summarize and draw together the stark contrasts Yahweh highlights to make His case against Judah.

8/ Also, as we make our way through these two contrasting stories, we can see Yahweh’s delight in simple, faithful, whole-hearted obedience as He expressed it in these words Samuel delivered to the faithless rebel King Saul [1 Samuel 15.22-23]:

And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.”  

I / ch 34 / The story of faithless, disobedient Judah – the story of Zedekiah      

1/ v 1 /As we begin telling the story of Zedekiah’s rebellion against Yahweh, we need to remember that even though chapter 34 comes BEFORE chapter 35, the events described here happened AFTER the story in chapter 35. [Zedekiah lived and reigned AFTER Jehoiakim.]

2/ Zedekiah was the very last king to reign in Judah before the final Babylonian invasion, destruction, and deportation. In fact, he was the reigning king when the final destruction of Jerusalem took place. You can find Zedekiah’s full story in 2 Kings 24.18 – 25.7. These events would be dated around 589 BC.

3/ Zedekiah reigned for 11 years, and it was during the 9th year of his reign that Nebuchadnezzar began his 2-year siege against Jerusalem before their armies finally breached the city walls and entered Jerusalem to burn it down, massacre masses of the people, and deport multitudes more to captivity in Babylon. So it was during this 2-year siege that the events of Jeremiah 34 took place and Jeremiah delivered Yahweh’s message to Zedekiah.

4/ vv 2-7 / The message that Yahweh delivers to Zedekiah is that in spite of all his efforts to stave off and defend Jerusalem against the eventual conquest of the Babylonians, he will, in fact, be captured by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon, and the city will be destroyed and burned. See also vv 17-22. However, Zedekiah himself will not murdered or executed during the siege, even though he will suffer the excruciating experience of seeing his sons slaughtered before his eyes and then have his own eyes gouged out [see 2 Kings 25.6-7 & Jeremiah 39.1-7].

5/ vv 8-10 / Here is where Zedekiah’s faithlessness, treachery, and rebellion is clearly demonstrated. When the Babylonians were mounting their siege against Jerusalem, Zedekiah thought he would manipulate and extort Yahweh to deliver them by pretending to be obedient to Yahweh’s law and command. He entered into a covenant with all the people of Jerusalem to obey the stipulation of Yahweh’s covenant that He had delivered in Deuteronomy 15.12-18 / also here, vv 12-14  – that when their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters had been sold into indentured service to them to pay off their debts, they must be set free in the seventh year, regardless of how many previous years of service they had given during their six year pay-back term. Zedekiah and the Jerusalemites set free their indentured servants and vowed not to enslave them again. They obeyed and set them free.

6/ vv 11 / However, just soon after, they reneged on that covenant to ‘obey’ Yahweh when they saw it financially disadvantaged them. But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves.

  • We should note also here, that they had this change of mind at a time when the Babylonians had temporarily suspended their siege against Jerusalem because they had to go off and fight against the Egyptians whom Zedekiah had hired to come and ally with them to defend Jerusalem. See vv 21-22 w/ ch 37.5-11 & 44.30.
  • Their temporary manumission clearly an attempt to ‘manipulate’ and ‘extort’ Yahweh with this short-lived pretense of ‘obedience’…as if to say, “Look, Yahweh, we are ‘obeying’ your commandment, so you are obligated to save and deliver us.” However, when it became obvious that Yahweh was not going to be ‘bought off’ by their charade, they decided their ‘obedience’ was worth it, after all.
  • And on top of all that, they had committed the additional mockery of their pretended ‘obedience by making their ‘covenant’ to ‘obey’ Yahweh by cutting a calf in half and walking between the two pieces of the covenant-making sacrifice [see vv 18-19]. This was not only their customary way of making solemn promises and covenants, but this is what Yahweh did when He made His initial covenant with Abraham [see Genesis 15.12-18]. This was so much more than just a merely arrogant, hypocritical gesture – it was a blatant and obscene mockery of Yahweh. When you would make a covenant in this manner, you were saying, ‘If this promise is solemn and binding enough to require the killing of a sacrificial animal, then it is solemn and binding enough for us to keep it!’ This is what we call a ‘fox-hole’ conversion, or like the promises we make to God when we are in dire straits, and we’re willing to say or do anything if only God will ‘bail us out’ of the trouble we’re in … only to renege on and break our promise when the danger is not so ‘clear and present’ [see Ecclesiastes 5.1-7].  

7/ vv 12-16 / Yahweh calls them on their rebellious turn-around of feigned ‘obedience’ and then re-disobeying and rebelling against Him again … citing once again the Deuteronomy 15 commandment they had been disobeying for centuries.

8/ vv 17-22 / Yahweh reiterates His judgments against them because of their persistent, insistent disobedience: He will deliver Jerusalem into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. They will be destroyed and taken into captivity. This, in spite of the brief reprieve they had hoped in when Nebuchadnezzar had temporarily withdrawn from the siege to fight the Egyptians. He’ll be back to finish the job.

II / ch 35.1-11 /  The story of the faithful, obedient Rechabites

1/ Now we come to the centerpiece and comparative standard of these two contrasting stories – the story of the Rechabites.

2/ v 1 / To get the timeline in our minds, we need now to toggle back to a few years earlier during the reign of a previous king, Jehoiakim. He reigned for 11 years:  circa 609-597. During the 4th year of his reign, 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar made his first move against Jerusalem, attacked the city, made them a vassal state, and took some of them captive to Babylonian. This was the first of three deportations. You’ll find this story in 2 Kings 23.36 – 24.4. So what happened in ch 35 here transpired during Jehoiakim’s 4th year of his reign [see ch 25.1; 36.1; 45.1].

3/ Also, since we don’t know that much about the Rechabites, in order to appreciate their story and their sterling example of obedience which Yahweh highlights, we need just a little background on them:

  • Rechabites: they were not Israelites. They were a nomadic tribe who had attached themselves to Israel for centuries and lived among them as ‘resident aliens.’ They were a distinct family clan of people who had retained their ancestral heritage and traditions.
  • Rechab / v 8: He was one of their more ancient forefathers. Rechab goes back to the larger tribe of people known as Kenites: These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab [1 Chronicles 2.55]. The Kenites, in turn, were descendants of the family of Moses’ father-in-law. And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people from Judah … and they went and settled with the people [Judges 1.16]; and Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses… [Judges 4.11]. The only point I’m making here is that the Rechabites had lived among the Israelites as a separate and distinct tribe even from the days of  post-Exodus Moses.
  • Jonadab / vv 6 et. al.: He was one of their more recent, immediate forefathers and head of their family/clan, and the one whose instructions they were so faithfully obeying.  

4/ vv 1-4 / Yahweh instructed Jeremiah to go and fetch this family of Rechabites and bring them into one of the rooms of the Temple. This is what we call a ‘sign-act narrative,’ because the lesson will be delivered and taught in the activity that is performed.

5/ vv 5-10 / The ‘sign-act’ that Jeremiah conducted was to bring in the family of the Rechabites, sit them down in the Temple chamber, set pitchers of wine and cups before them, and command them to drink the wine. They refused. And the reason they refused is because their tribal/clan forefather, Jonadab, had commanded them generations before that they must not drink wine even though it was customary for everyone else to do so. They must abstain, be ‘teetotalers’ for the rest of their days, throughout all their successive generations. Not only that, but they must not build houses or plant and harvest gardens or vineyards. They must commit themselves to this ascetic, nomadic lifestyle and maintain their distinctive, separate family culture and traditions in perpetuity. We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, 9 and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, 10 but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us. They would not disavow and disobey their forefather, Jonadab, and they would not break the covenant promises they had made to obey him! That is the example and lesson Yahweh wanted to deliver to His unfaithful family of Israelites!

6/ v 11 / Just a side-note here: If they had committed themselves to live a nomadic lifestyle, what were they doing in Jerusalem to begin with? They explain their presence in Jerusalem by citing the recent incursions of the Babylonians into the country sides surrounding Jerusalem. An invading army wouldn’t march directly to their target city and attack it. They would invade the country side as they progressed, conquering the outlying cities as they came, and then arrive at their primary target city – in this case, Jerusalem. Jerusalem had become the last refuge and hold-out, but it was soon to be attacked also.   

III / ch 35.12-19 / The principle and message of these two contrasting stories

1/ vv 12-16 /  So now we come to the lesson Yahweh wants Jeremiah to deliver to the people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem … we will summarize the message by drawing the contrasts Yahweh does…

  • The faithful Rechabites obeyed an arbitrary command their father had given them; but Judah had defied and rebelled against the most meaningful and essential command their ‘Father,’ Yahweh had given to them. The family laws the Rechabites had covenanted to obey were not stipulated in Yahweh’s law. Yahweh had not commanded not to drink wine or not to build houses or not to plant and harvest gardens and vineyards – this was an arbitrary command Jonadab had issued to the Rechabites. But they had honored their father and kept his command. On the other hand, Yahweh had commanded Israel to love Him with all their hearts and they had stubbornly, rebelliously, insistently disobeyed and refused to do that one ‘greatest commandment’ thing.
  • The Rechabites received a one-time command that they had dutifully, faithfully, and consistently followed, kept, and obeyed; but the Israelites had received from Yahweh often-repeated commands, even for centuries, that they had chronically, persistently, and insistently rebelled against. Numerous times over centuries, Yahweh had sent His prophets to Israel and Judah, patiently and passionately calling them to repentance, to change their ways, to return to Him and avert the coming judgments He had warned and declared against them [see v 15 – this same pleading warning is made over and over in their history]. Generation after generation refused to obey. ‘But you did not incline your ear or listen to Me.’
  • The Rechabites dutifully honored and obeyed a mere human patriarch; but the Israelites refused to obey their Supreme Father, ‘Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel’ [see vv 13 & 17 especially]. All throughout this ‘sign-act’ message, Yahweh delivers His lesson by contrasting ‘from the lesser to the greater.’ If the lesser had been done [as per the example of the Rechabites], then the greater should have been done also by His covenant people, Israel. Yahweh was their distinctive, exclusive God. He was the Giver of all their covenant promises and blessings they had enjoyed. He was their LORD. He had bound them and they had sworn to obey Him – but they had not.

2/ vv 17-19 / Yahweh re-confirms the consequences for each of their acts of disobedience/obedience:

  • The promised judgments will come upon Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem for their persistent, insistent disobedience and rebellion against Him…
  • The Rechabites will continue to enjoy His covenant blessings toward them by His acceptance of them and engagement in His service because of their exemplary obedience to their fathers.

3/ We will just return here to the 1 Samuel 15.22-23 word from Yahweh I wrote in the Introduction:

And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.”

So it was with Saul, and so it was with Zedekiah. They wait for Messiah to come who will fulfill the promised blessings of the New Covenant!  

4/ Let’s each of us search our own hearts and lives in the light of this lesson:

Are you a faithless, pretending hypocrite – or a faithful, obedient child and servant of Christ?

jeremiah.l6.jer-35.1-19.yahwehs-delight-in-obedienceDownload
Posted in Bible Studies, JEREMIAH, Lesson Notes, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yahweh’s New Covenant: Reconciliation, Restoration, Renewal

Posted on July 22, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 5 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah 31.31-37

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ The focus of our lesson will be on ch 31.31-37 which is the definitive and clearest proclamation of the New Covenant in the Old Testament. However, we should ‘soar above it’ and put it in its contexts. There are many contexts which we must understand in order to fully appreciate this text.

2/ To begin with, more immediately, chapters 30-33 form a ‘booklet within the book’ of Jeremiah. Jeremiah itself is a ‘book,’ but there are other distinct ‘booklets’ within the larger book. Bible teachers call these chapters ‘The Book of Consolation’ because they contain a distinct series of messages from Yahweh that deal with His promises to reconcile, restore, and renew His covenant with His people. That’s why I’ve chosen to title this lesson as I have. If you go back to the opening chapter of this ‘Book of Consolation,’ ch 30.1-3, you will see this theme clearly announced:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. 3 For behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”

3/ This passage is also the most succinct announcement of the two most prominent themes developed in the Book of Jeremiah:

  • Judgment and Salvation
  • Destruction and Deliverance
  • Captivity and Liberation
  • Exile and Return from Exile

These twin themes were given to Jeremiah from Yahweh in ch 1.9-10:

Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

The message of the New Covenant is one of the clearest expressions of the ‘to build and to plant’ mission Yahweh gave to Jeremiah. In fact, in ch 31.27-28, Yahweh repeats this very commission to Jeremiah to remind him of the fullness and completion of His purposes:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD.

5/ To take even a higher up ‘bird’s eye view,’ this ‘booklet,’ chapter, and section is a pivotal announcement which will find its ultimate and climactic fulfillment in Revelation 21.5: And He who was seated on the Throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also He said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ From the beginning of the creation and our fall into sin, when we had broken everything God had created perfectly, God covenanted with Himself to ‘reconcile, restore, and renew’ everything back to a more perfect state than it was even in the original creation / see Romans 8.18-23. He will complete all this redemptive covenant purpose and plan when He unveils it in the New Heaven and New Earth: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. / Revelation 21.1.

6/ AND, looking at it from our perspective, we have to understand that this New Covenant that Yahweh is announcing will find its perfect fulfillment in Jesus Christ and His Gospel. The Hebrews writer quotes this very passage in the longest Old Testament quotation found in the New Testament [Hebrews 8.6-13]:

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

8 For He finds fault with them when He says:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,
    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
    and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
    on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
    and so I showed no concern for them, declares the LORD.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
    after those days, declares the LORD:
I will put my laws into their minds,
    and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
    and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
for they shall all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
    and I will remember their sins no more.”

13 In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The very fact that the Hebrews writer chooses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to quote the entire passage shows in itself just how pivotal and seminal this Old Testament witness is of Christ who was to come. Jesus Himself clearly understood His exclusive and indispensable role in bringing in this New Covenant and making it effective. And He did so through His substitutionary redemptive death on the Cross. As He said when He instituted the Lord’s Supper at the last Passover meal [Matthew 26.27-29]:

And He took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the[new] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

NOTE also how Jesus referred to His blood of the New Covenant as that redemptive sacrifice that would ‘make all things new’ in ‘that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’

7/ And so, with those contexts in mind, let’s make some notes from this announcement of the New Covenant that Yahweh will make for the salvation of His people.

I /Reconciliation, Restoration, Renewal     

1/ Not only are all these graces found in the New Covenant announcement, they are also interspersed and woven all throughout the Book of Jeremiah, and especially in this ‘Book of Consolation,’ chapters 30-33.

2/ Keep in mind, Jeremiah’s prophecies were delivered before the final destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the final deportation into exile to Babylon. Even at the same time Yahweh was pronouncing judgments and destruction upon Judah for their idolatrous and adulterous rebellions and faithlessness to His Covenant, He was also announcing way ahead of time that He would reconcile, restore, and renew them.

3/ And much of this message is contained in the ‘seventy years’ pronouncements Yahweh had made / see ch 25.1-14 & 29.10-14. He threatened … and then delivered on His threats … that He was going to use Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to punish them for all their disobediences and betrayals of His Covenant He had graciously bestowed on them / there are so many of these ‘cause and effect’ references throughout Jeremiah, but note especially ch 30.12-15.

4/ BUT, He also repeatedly promised that He would reconcile them back to Himself through their confession of their sins and repentance from them; that He would restore them back to His favor and to their land; and that He would renew His Covenant of love, peace, and grace with them.

  • Reconciliation: Yahweh repeatedly couched and phrased His relationship with Israel in terms of love and marriage – which it was / see, for example, Hosea. Or, He would speak of His Covenant with Israel in other familial terms like ‘father and son.’ “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Israel is my firstborn son’” [Exodus 4.22]. And so, here in this ‘Book of Consolation,’ Yahweh employs both familial expressions: ‘…for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn’ [ch 31.9] and, speaking of His New Covenant, ‘Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares Yahweh.’ [ch 31.31]. So when this reconciliation is made through the New Covenant, it will be a reconciliation back to the loving, familial relationships He had established with them from the beginning. Again, these relationships and their reconciliation are more fully drawn out in the Book of Hosea. This reconciliation will be fulfilled in the ultimate relationship: “At that time, declares Yahweh, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people” [ch 31.1, 33 & 30.22].
  • Restoration: Yahweh promises to restore Israel back to their land when He breaks the yoke of their captivity in Babylon, sets them free again [like He did in the Exodus – even better / see ch 16.14-15 & 23.7-8], and returns them to their homeland / see again ch 30.1-3. He will also restore the physical blessings of the covenant such as peace, prosperity, and fruitfulness / see ch 30.8-10, 18-22; 31.5-14, 24.
  • Renewal: This renewal will be accomplished and effected through the New Covenant. As we have said before, this New Covenant which can be kept only by Jesus Christ is the means and power by which God will, in the end, ‘make all things new [renewed].’

II / The New Covenant   

1/ Yahweh Himself will make it. Yahweh’s covenants are made with Himself. They are made with us in that we are recipients of the grace and benefits of His Covenant. But Yahweh doesn’t consult with us, negotiate with us, bargain with us when He makes His Covenants of Grace. See Ephesians 1.1-14.

2/ Yahweh will make His covenant ‘with the house of Israel and the house of Judah’ in the sense that they will be the recipients and benefactors of His Grace. Israel and Judah could not have and would not have kept the New Covenant Yahweh will make with them any more or better than they had kept the one He made with them when He brought out of the land of Egypt, …which they broke. As we shall see, THAT is the preeminent grace of the New Covenant – the very ability, desire, and will to keep it and treasure it. Although the immediate recipients of this New Covenant promise were the returnees from the Babylonian exile [‘the house of Israel and house of Judah’], we know now from our perspective on the coming of Jesus Christ and His Gospel, ‘the house of Israel and the house of Judah’ are the re-constituted ‘Israel’ ‘in Christ.’ See Romans 2.28-29; 9.6-8; 2 Corinthians 5.17; Galatians 6.16; Ephesians 2.11-22; et. al.

3/ Israel broke the first [old] covenant Yahweh had established with them at Sinai and re-confirmed at Moab; and they would have broken this one, too … had it been up to them. Thus, we see Yahweh’s commitment and promise to ‘make a New Covenant’ only with the One who could and would keep it – Jesus Christ. Though Jesus Christ is not specifically named, we know this covenant is made with Him. This is evident by all the references to ‘David’ as their coming King. This can be none other than ‘the Son of David,’ Jesus Christ. For example:

  • ch 23.5-6: Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’
  • ch 30.9: But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
  • ch 33.15-18: In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’ 17 For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, 18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.

4/ The ultimate grace and blessing of the New Covenant is the putting away of our sins: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Christ accomplished this by His full, complete, satisfactory, and once-for-all sacrifice of Himself. “It is finished!” When we are justified through His righteousness and born again, made alive, regenerated and renewed by His resurrection – then and only then can we relate to God as intimately and personally as the New Covenant provides.

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall by my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, ‘Know the LORD.’ For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.  

5/ This is not to say that no Old Testament believer enjoyed these same graces and benefits. They did. There never has been two ways to be saved: by your works of obedience under the Old Covenant and by grace through faith in Jesus Christ under the New Covenant. There has never been but one salvation, and one way to be saved, and one sacrifice worthy and sufficient enough to put our sins away so that God would remember them no more. Even Old Testament believers were regenerated, born again, and given new spiritual hearts when they trusted Yahweh and believed in the sacrifices He had provided for their sins. But their very faith also was ‘the gift of God’ / Ephesians 2.8-9. But their faith which was granted and credited to them was, in the mind of Yahweh, faith in the Christ He would send in the fullness of time to establish this New Covenant by which all are saved who are saved … whether under the Old Covenant or the New which Christ ratified by His death and resurrection / see Romans 3.24-26 & Hebrews 9.15. Under the Old Covenant, believers’ iniquities were forgiven prospectively; when Christ came and died, their iniquities were forgiven retroactively.

6/ The blessings of the New Covenant are just as sure as the created orders. When Yahweh guarantees the New Covenant will be as secure, fixed, and sure as the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night … if the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, He is promising us that His love and grace will never be canceled. Even these promises anchor the New Covenant in God’s purposes to make even these things new.

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made;

Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

~Frederick Lehman

jeremiah.l5.jer-31.31-37.yahwehs-new-covenant-reconciliation-restoration-renewalDownload
Posted in Bible Studies, JEREMIAH, Lesson Notes, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yahweh’s Plans for His People: Bad News & Good News

Posted on July 15, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 4 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah 29.1-23

Program note: Just in case you are following these lesson notes by the lesson number, there have been three weeks of interruption in my postings due to life events I’ve been dealing with. I wasn’t able to compose and post Lesson Notes for those three weeks’ lessons. This is actually the 7th lesson in our current survey/study of Jeremiah, but I am keeping the Lesson Notes consecutive to avoid any further confusion…

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

Our primary focus for this lesson will be on chapter 29.1-23, but chapter 29 is the culmination of a three-chapter section that begins in chapter 27. So it will be helpful to us – and even essential – in our understanding of the contents of this lesson to at least get a bird’s-eye view of the events and circumstances leading up to chapter 29. So I will try to establish a general timeline and orders of events to help us see where everybody is and why these messages are so meaningful…not only to the immediate recipients, but also in the broader redemptive purposes of God – and especially as they relate to the coming of Christ in the fullness of time and the Gospel. Chapters 30-31 deal extensively with Yahweh’s plans for the immediate restoration of Judah and prophecies of the New Covenant.

I / ch 29.1-3 / Jeremiah writes a letter from Yahweh to Jewish exiles in Babylon    

1/ Jeremiah is still in Jerusalem. But a sizable contingent of the Jewish people has been carried captive to Babylon. It will help us to remember that these deportations and ‘Babylonian captivity’ didn’t happen in one ‘fell swoop.’ There were three significant deportations to Babylon over a twenty-year span:

[1] The first deportation occurred under the reign of King Jehoiakim in 605 BC (2 Kings 23.36-24.4 / see also Daniel 1.1-2);

[2] The second deportation was in 598 BC during the three-month reign of King Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24.8-17);

[3] The third and final deportation occurred in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, 585 BC, when the Babylonians destroyed and desolated Jerusalem and the Temple (2 Kings 24.18 – 25.21).

2/ So when Jeremiah writes this Jeremiah 29 letter, he was writing to those Jews who had been taken captive to Babylon during the second deportation reference above. And the third and final deportation and destruction of Jerusalem had not yet occurred.

3/ Jeremiah dates and times this letter ‘in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah…in the fifth month of the fourth year…’ / see Jeremiah 27.1 & 28.1. This would be in 594 BC, four years after the second deportation and about seven years before the third and final deportation and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.  

II / ch 29.4-7 / “Settle in…make yourselves at home…you’re going to be there a while…”   

1/ Yahweh’s instructions to the Jewish exiles in Babylon can be summed up in this simple message:

“Settle in…make yourselves at home…you’re going to be there a while! This is going to be your ‘new normal’ for years to come!” Yahweh keeps His own clock, calendar, and schedule. He knows what He is doing and what He’s going to do – and when He will do it. He knows where He is going and where He is taking us. We need to remember this at all times. We seldom or never know precisely why things are happening to us. We don’t know the reasons, whys, or wherefores of the events and timings of those events in our lives. What we do need to know is: what does God instruct me to do today…at this time…in this event…in these circumstances? We must learn to trust God’s purposes, will, timing, and wisdom. We must trust and rest in His undying love for us, His faithful mercies toward us, and His unfailing purposes to always do us good for His Glory! see, remember, and trust Romans 8.28!

2/ So here’s the life-plan Yahweh prescribed for them during this exile in this foreign land:

  • ‘Build houses and live in them’ ‘Make yourselves at home.’ This is not going to be just a temporary visit or stay-over. Babylon is not a ‘rest stop’ before you begin your soon return trip back home to Jerusalem. This is going to be your home for the next several years – seventy years in fact [more on that later…]
  • ‘Plant gardens and eat their produce’ This, too, directs their attention and plans for many seasons to come. They must make provisions for their long-term stay.
  • ‘Take wives and have sons and daughters’ Make and continue your plans to marry and have families.
  • ‘Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters’ Do you see where Yahweh is going with these instructions? He’s foreseeing them being in Babylon for generations! We’re looking at three generations at least…themselves, their children, their grandchildren.
  • ‘Multiply there, and do not decrease’ This is the same creation mandate God gave the human race from the beginning / see Genesis 1.28. NOTE: we are also beginning to see Yahweh’s plans He has for their being in Babylon. He has taken them there to prepare them for returning them to their homeland. He is planning a New Exodus. Their population has been decimated by these invasions and massacres of their enemies because of their insistent and persistent rebellions against Him. But He has plans to redeem them from this bondage and captivity also just like He did from Egypt / see chs 16.14-15 & 23.7-8. BUT, in the meantime, Yahweh will bless them by making them grow and increase in numbers – re-populating His covenant people and nation – even in the very midst of their enemy captors / see Exodus 1.7. And so, Yahweh’s plans for sending them to Babylon are at least three-fold: punitive, preservative, restorative.
  • ‘But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare’ This word that is translated ‘welfare’ three times in this verse is the common Hebrew word ‘shalom’ or ‘peace.’ ‘Shalom’ is the ultimate blessing of Yahweh [see Numbers 6.22-27 & Romans 5.1-11, et. al.]. But God’s ‘shalom/peace’ is not merely the absence of war, conflict, or trouble. Because they were experiencing all of these even while Yahweh was blessing them with ‘shalom’ in Babylon. Rather, God’s ‘shalom/peace’ is ‘well-being, wholeness, completeness, welfare’ which is found being in a right relationship with God through His mercy, grace, and covenant. Yahweh’s plan for sending them to Babylon for seventy years was to cleanse them from their idolatries and rebellions, bring them to confession of their sins and repentance from them, and restore them to a loving and obedient relationship with Himself. They were also to seek the ‘shalom’ of the cities in which they lived by bearing faithful witness to Yahweh [just like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did during their times in the courts of Babylon] by praying to Yahweh on its behalf. Just like we find in our own times … when the cities and societies in which we are living are doing well and living in peace, we share in that benefit. When civil and social unrest, chaos, and troubles come, we suffer the communal consequences along with everyone else.     

III / ch 29.8-9 / Conflicts and contradictory promises of the lying false prophets

1/ Following up on this instruction and Divine prescription for ‘shalom/peace,’ Yahweh then immediately issues another dire warning to the exiles in Babylon not to listen to, take heed, and certainly not to trust in and follow the counter/contradictory promises they were hearing from the lying false prophets who were among them. These lying false prophets had been opposing and contradicting Yahweh’s messages through Jeremiah from the beginning / see chs 2.8, 26-27; 5.30-31; 14.13-16; 23.9-40; 26.11; 27.9-18; et. al. When Jeremiah would deliver Yahweh’s messages of the coming destruction by the Babylonians, the lying false prophets would contradict him and say, ‘Yahweh would never do that or let that happen to us!’ When Jeremiah would warn them from Yahweh of the times of war, famine, and disease [see ch 29.17], the false prophets would contradict Jeremiah by promising ‘Peace [shalom], peace,’ when there is no peace / chs 6.14 & 8.11. Contrast these last soothing promises from these lying false prophets with what Yahweh has just told the exiles in Babylon: that they would find their ‘shalom/peace’ only by faithfully seeking, serving, and praying to Him there in the land of their captivity.

2/ When Jeremiah would call the people to repentance and to forsake their faithlessness and sins against Yahweh, the lying prophets would re-assure the rebellious people that they really didn’t have to change any of their ways – Yahweh was obligated by His covenant faithfulness to protect and preserve them.

3/ In fact, the conflict got so personal and heated that in ch 27.1-2, Yahweh instructed Jeremiah to make a neck-yoke and place it around his neck to symbolize the coming bondage and captivity. One of the lying false prophets, Hananiah, violently ripped the neck-yoke from Jeremiah’s neck and broke it in the presence of the people to symbolize Yahweh’s intentions to reverse the on-going captivity and bring back all the captives who had already been taken to Babylon: Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah [Jehoiachin] the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the LORD, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon / ch 28.1-10. It’s like Yahweh was telling the exiles ‘Settle in and make yourselves at home…you’re going to be there for seventy years’ and the lying false prophets were giving the contradictory message ‘Don’t bother to unpack your bags … you’ll be coming back within two years.’  The upshot of this blasphemy against Yahweh and violence to Yahweh’s true prophet, Yahweh struck him dead within two months  / ch 28.17.

4/ Yahweh will pick up these warnings and condemnations again more fully in vv 15-32, and name names in doing so … but for now He’s trying to get the exiles’ attention so they won’t be distracted, diverted, and deceived by the constant cacophony they were hearing from these lying false prophets.  

IV / ch 29.10-14 / ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares Yahweh’

1/ How many times have we all heard, seen, or read the words of v 11 quoted as a kind of unconditional, ‘blanket blessing’ that God gives to everyone. “As of the end of 2018, Bible Gateway identified this verse as the year’s most frequently read on its website. Moreover, as Christianity Today observed, ‘Not only was Jeremiah 29.11 the most popular verse of the year [2018] on Bible Gateway, it also claimed the YouVersion top spot in the developed West (Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom) and the Global South (Dhana, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates), spanning demographics in a way that other verses didn’t.’” / From Jerry Hwang, ESV Expository Commentary.

2/ Everybody wants to claim it, everybody wants it to be true for them – regardless of how they’re living or what the contextual conditions or interpretations of the words are. Everybody wants to think and obligate God to plan only ‘good’ things for them and promise them that He desires and plans only to give them the life and things they want and enjoy.

3/ It was then – and it is now – the ‘go-to’ verse for all the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ teachings and philosophies. The lying false prophets, both back in Jerusalem and here in Babylon, were deceiving the people of Judah into believing that Yahweh’s purposes and plans for them would not allow ‘bad’ things to happen to them … regardless of their faith in Him, relationship with Him, or lifestyle and conduct in His Presence. “The siren song of prosperity theology beckons thus within the believer’s heart: ‘God is all-powerful, so He can do anything He wants. God is all-loving, so He wants to give me what I want. Since what I want is security, health, and wealth, God is able and willing to give these things to me as long as I have faith’” [Jerry Hwang, ibid].

4/ However, what we must do to be true to the Scriptures and what Yahweh is promising is look at the specific plans He has for Judah:

  • For thus says Yahweh, When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. This is a promise Jeremiah first reveals in ch 25.8-12. Yahweh had warned them of the coming destruction by Babylon and had also promised He would restore back to Jerusalem at a later time, but in these contexts, He specifies the seventy-year duration of the captivity. When Daniel was in Babylon during the entire seventy-year duration, he was so confident of Yahweh’s faithfulness, that when he knew the seventy years were coming to fulfillment, he began fasting and praying to know how Yahweh would keep His promise / see Daniel 9.1-2.
  • For I know the plans I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans for welfare [shalom], and not for evil [harm], to give you a future and a hope. This shalom,future, and a hope were faithfully fulfilled by Yahweh when He restored them to Jerusalem by the decree of Cyrus.
  • Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares Yahweh, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and call the places where I have driven you, declares Yahweh, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. The indispensable condition Yahweh places upon them is that they must repent of the sins and rebellions that necessitated His sending them to Babylon in the first place, and return to Him with the exclusive, unqualified love He required from them in the beginning, and pray to Him with worship and service. They had ‘returned’ to Him in previous crises, and He delivered them time and again, but those prayers and reformations had been only ‘in pretense’ / see ch 3.10. Our repentance must be sincere, genuine, and with our whole hearts. This is God’s standing call to all of us in every generation, in every circumstance / Isaiah 55.6-9. And it finds its ultimate fulfillment in our faith in Jesus Christ and our redemption in Him.

V / ch 29.15-23 / Curses on the lying false prophets

1/ vv 15-19 / Jeremiah’s letter from Yahweh continues as Yahweh now directs His judgments personally and more specifically toward the lying false prophets. These false prophets were exiles themselves and were working to establish their standing and exert their deceptive influence among the other exiles. Because you have said, “Yahweh has raised up prophets for us in Babylon.” These false prophets in Babylon were actually sending messages back to Jerusalem and those who hadn’t yet been deported to Babylon, telling them that the prophesied judgments from Yahweh through Jeremiah would not be happening. Yahweh simply says: Oh, yes, it will!

2/ vv 20-23 / There were two lying false prophets in particular: Ahab and Zedekiah [different than the kings by the same names]. They were blaspheming Yahweh by claiming to be sent by Him and speaking in His Name. Yahweh pronounces curses and judgments on them by warning the exiles not to believe them. He had not sent them, and they were not speaking His words. Yahweh foretells their fellow exiles that He will demonstrate His sovereignty, the Holiness of His Name, and the veracity of His Word by having Nebuchadnezzar execute them by burning them alive [‘roasted in the fire,’ v 22] for daring to prophesy lies in His Name / see Deuteronomy 18.20-22. If the people will not put them to death, Yahweh will have Nebuchadnezzar do it. Whereas this Ahab and Zedekiah aspired to make names and reputations for themselves as Yahweh’s true prophets and His spokesmen to the people, Yahweh denounces them and says instead their names will go down in history as illustrious curses: “Because of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: ‘The LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,’ 23 because they have done an outrageous thing in Israel, they have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and they have spoken in my Name lying words that I did not command them. I am the One who knows, and I am witness, declares the LORD.”   

“Believe in Yahweh your God, and you will be established; believe His prophets, and you will succeed!” 2 Chronicles 20.20

jeremiah.l4.jer-29.1-23.yahwehs-plans-for-his-people-bad-news.good-newsDownload
Posted in Bible Studies, JEREMIAH, Lesson Notes, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment