Jeremiah 40:1-6
And It Continues
Outline:
I. \\#Jer 1:1-19\\ Jeremiah’s Calling
II. \\#2:1-37\\ God’s Case Against Judah
III. \\#3:1-25\\ Israel’s Three Time Zones
IV. \\#4:1-6:30\\ Sins and Judgments
V. \\#7:1-\\ Some Specific Messages
A. \\#Jer 7:1-34\\ A Message to the Religious
B. \\#Jer 8:1-22\\ A Message to the Continuous Backslider
C. \\#Jer 9:1-10:25\\ A Message to the Believer
D. \\#Jer 11:1-12:6\\ A Message About Jeremiah
E. \\#Jer 12:7-17\\ A Message to the Pastors
1. \\#Jer 12:7-9\\ An Astonishing Statement
2. \\#Jer 12:10-13\\ A Horrendous Failure
3. \\#Jer 12:14-17\\ A Strange Invitation
F. \\#Jer 13:1-7\\ A Message of Ruin
G. \\#Jer 15:15-21\\ Message to Self - Feet of Clay
H. \\#Jer 21:1-7\\ A Message to Zedekiah - The News
I. \\#Jer 22:1-2, Jer 24:1-3\\ A Message to the People -
Don’t Miss the Ride Out
J. \\#Jeremiah 25:1-3\\ A Message about Nebuchadnezzer -
The King Is Coming
H. \\#Jer 27:1-7\\ A Message to the Nations - Bad to Worse
I. \\#Jer 29:1-7\\ A Message of the Future - God's Not
Finished
J. \\#Jer 32:1-15\\ A Message of Hope - The End for the Jews
K. \\#Jer 35:1-8\\ A Message of Example - The Extent of
Disobedience
L. \\#Jer 38:1-6\\ Message with A Price - When There Is
Nothing You Can Do
M. \\#Jer 39:1-10\\ Message of Death - The Death of A Nation
N. \\#Jer 39:1-10\\ Message of Death - And It Continues
O. \\#Jer 46:1-2\\ Message to the Nations - Judgment
Tonight I am going to spend a good portion of time summarizing the
content of chapters 40-42. In the last chapter, we read of the fall
of Jerusalem and of Judah, but it is not over yet—not the sin and not
the judgment. God had promised that He would destroy both the place
(Judah) and the people (Jews) because of the sin being practiced, but
what if the sin did not stop when the place and people were
destroyed? What if, even after the punishment had been carried out,
sin continued? What then?
If the sin did not stop, then the punishment would not stop. As the
sin continued, so would the judgment. And so, it continues.
Remember that the city, nation, and people are destroyed. Let’s see
what happened next.
I. A summary of the conditions.
A. \\#40:1-2-3\\ A wise captain-Nebuzaradan saw the hand of
Judah’s God in what happened. (That does not necessarily
make Nebuzaradan a true believer. He probably believed
in MANY gods.)
B. \\#40:5\\ A sustained servant-Jeremiah was given
complete freedom, a food, and a reward. (Jeremiah had
been in the prisons the last months of the siege
\\#Jer 38:28\\.) Jeremiah chose to go to Gedaliah and
to serve him in whatever manner he could \\#40:6\\.
C. \\#40:5\\ An appointed governor-Gedaliah
1. Nebuchadnezzar had attacked Jerusalem before,
appointing both Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, descendents
of King David and legitimate heirs to the throne, as
kings.
2. This time, he appointed an unknown man, apparently not
of the line of David and probably not even of the
tribe of Judah, as a governor.
3. This time, Nebuchadnezzar would make no pretense over
who the real king of Israel would be. It would be
him.
D. \\#40:6\\ A ruined city-The governor ruled from Mizpah
not Jerusalem. There were several cities called Mizpah,
but the closest one to Jerusalem was about 8 miles away.
For the Jews to use that has their capital city meant
that Jerusalem was unfit for use.
E. \\#Jer 40:7-41:18\\ The treacherous aftermath-Gedaliah
gathered the remnant of the people to himself and began
to rebuild. But a traitor to the governor, Ishmael, the
son of Nethaniah, killed Gedaliah for the king of the
Ammonites and attempted to take prisoners to Ammon.
Johanan, a friend of Gedaliah, rescued the prisoners.
1. This left the people with no ruler.
2. This left them with a fear. What would Nebuchadnezzar
do to them? Would he assume they had something to do
with Gedaliah’s death and kill them?
F. A important decision
1. \\#Jer 42:1-6\\ Jeremiah had been abducted with the
others who served Gedaliah and now he was numbered
among those rescued.
a. \\#Jer 42:1-4\\ The people asked Jeremiah to seek
God’s will on what they should do.
b. \\#Jer 42:5-6\\ And even more, they pledged to do
whatever God tells them regardless of what the
consequences.
c. You can imagine how hopeful Jeremiah must have
been at these words.
2. \\#Jer 42:7-22\\ After 10 days, Jeremiah gave them
God’s answer.
a. To their immediate question:
(1) God told the people to stay in the land of
Israel and if they did, they would be safe
and blessed.
(2) God made it very clear that they were not to
flee to the land of Egypt. If they did, the
wrath of God would fall on them through
Nebuchadnezzar.
(3) Remember that although chapters 45-46 are
written in our Bible AFTER this chapter,
the messages were preached BEFORE the events
of this chapter. In fact, Jeremiah had been
preaching that Egypt would fall to Babylon
for many years \\#Jer 45:1, 46:2\\.
(4) NOTE-The point of the Jews fleeing to Egypt
was to put themselves under the protection
of Egypt, hoping that Nebuchadnezzar could
not defeat the Egyptians in their own land.
If the Jews go to Egypt, they would be
trusting in man instead of God—again, and
they would be disobeying God—again.
b. \\#Jer 42:20-22\\ But God also told Jeremiah that
the people would not obey.
c. \\#Jer 42:20\\ They had lied "dissembled" to
Jeremiah, God, and to themselves, yet again.
II. What is wrong with these people? Why could they not do right?
They had the same problem as all unsaved people and even some
saved people.
A. They were seeing through unregenerated eyes.
1. Lost people definitely have a different way of seeing
things.
Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come
into this world, that they which see not might
see; and that they which see might be made blind.
40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him
heard these words, and said unto him, Are we
blind also?
41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye
should have no sin: but now ye say, We see;
therefore your sin remaineth.
2. We get a glimpse into how unregenerated eyes see
things in chapter 44.
Jer 44:15 Then all the men which knew that their
wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all
the women that stood by, a great multitude, even
all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt,
in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
16 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us
in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto
thee.
17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing
goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense
unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink
offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our
fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the
cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem:
for then had we plenty of victuals, and were
well, and saw no evil.
18 But since we left off to burn incense to the
queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings
unto her, we have wanted all things, and have
been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
19 And when we burned incense to the queen of
heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her,
did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour
out drink offerings unto her, without our men?
3. In their way of looking at things, they were blessed as long as
they worshipped and served the false gods and had been cursed
since they stopped.
a. Was their way of seeing things accurate?
b. To find out, let’s ask "When did they stop
worshipping the false gods and start worshipping
Jehovah?"
c. There is no indication that anyone in Israel had
stopped worshipping the false gods BEFORE the
walls fell.
(1) We have a barrage of prophets prophesying at
or around the same time as Jeremiah.
(2) Zephaniah, Joel, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, Daniel,
and maybe Obadiah.
(3) None of them even hint at the people of Judah
turning from their false worship.
d. If Judah had stopped worshipping the false gods,
it likely would have been AFTER the walls fell
and then only because they were ruined and
destroyed so that they did not have anything to
offer or any place to offer it.
e. AND EVEN IF THEY HAD STOPPED WORSHIPPING
THE FALSE GODS, IT DOES NOT MEAN THEY
STARTED WORSHPPING JEHOVAH.
(1) The last time there is any Biblical record
of Israel really worshipping God was during
the reign of Josiah.
(2) His reign began more than 50 years before
this!
f. These people were seeing things that were not
there and missing the things that were! We call
that being delusional!
4. This is what the Bible calls spiritual blindness.
a. It is the inability to see sin and sin’s
repercussions as they really are.
b. Spiritual blindness is a disability of mammoth
proportions.
c. And in our natural state, we all have it, which
means we all need some aid to be able to see.
d. The question becomes, "What are you going to use
to aid your blindness?"
(1) Human intelligent - However, their minds are
also darkened so they are like blind people
wearing broken glasses.
(2) The Bible and the Holy Ghost
5. Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis, attributes our visual
problems as the main cause evolutions and
creationists look at the same geological evidences but
come to totally different conclusions.
a. We are all blinded by sin.
b. The evolutionists are looking through a pair of
glasses darkly \\#1Cor 13:12\\.
(1) That is, they are using human intellect to
help them see. That is like a blind man
getting a pair of broken glasses that have
been painted black.
(2) We on the other hand are looking through
Bible glasses with the aid of the Holy
Ghost.
c. While each person must decide which aid they will
use, we are in need of visual help!
B. They were thinking with an unregenerated mind.
Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall
direct thy paths.
1. Here we are talking about faulty thinking.
2. It is interesting that we often consider spiritual
blindness and faulty thinking as the same ailment
but they are not.
a. Such can be seen when we apply the more common and
course name to faulty thinking - stupidity.
b. We all know that blindness and stupidity are not
the same in the physical world. Neither are they
same in the spiritual world.
c. There is no doubt that a blind person may appear
to do some foolish things because his blindness
hinders him from seeing the whole picture, but a
blind man is not necessarily stupid.
d. As a blind person can learn ways to compensate for
blindness he demonstrates to us that blindness and
faulty thinking are two different problems.
3. So you and I may be spiritual blind but that does not
mean we have to think foolishly. These people were
thinking foolishly.
a. Their hope was that Egypt would repel Babylon.
b. Yet God had been saying all along that nothing
and no one would stop Babylon and nothing had!
c. To go down to Egypt was to put themselves in
another war, another siege, another battle,
another destruction, and another defeat.
4. Have you heard the saying, "Ignorance can be educated.
Crazy can be medicated, but there is no cure for
stupid"?
a. That is not altogether true.
b. What is the cure for faulty thinking?
(1) Wisdom and understanding.
(2) My definition of wisdom is the ability to
see things as God sees things.
(3) My definition of understanding is the ability
to see the cause-effect relationship; that
is to see how are actions cause reactions.
c. Where do we get these two commodities?
(1) from the Word of God
(2) from godly counselors
(3) You might try using your brain - Some things
are just common sense!
(4) We might could rework Ecclesiastes 3.
Ec 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a
time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time
to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is
planted;
(a) A time to speak and a time to be quiet;
(b) a time to spend and a time to save;
(c) a time to believe and a time to look
for evidence.
(d) a time to stay and a time to go;
(e) a time to play and a time to work.
(f) And no matter what, it is always time to
do what is right and it is never time
to do that which is wrong.
C. These two condition cause the average unregenerated
person to be totally oblivious to spiritual possibilities.
1. There are exceptions.
a. Maybe someone was raised around or has contact
with wise people or maybe they have learned some
wisdom and understanding by trial and error.
b. However, most people are doomed to live foolish
lives and to repeat foolish actions over and over
again!
2. They simply cannot change.
3. So it was with the children of Israel. They were and
to some extent are locked into a pattern of spiritual
blindness.
III. So what was going to happen to them? More sin, more judgment.
Jer 42:15 And now therefore hear the word of
the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the
LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly
set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to
sojourn there;
16 Then it shall come to pass, that the sword,
which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the
land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were
afraid, shall follow close after you there in
Egypt; and there ye shall die.
17 So shall it be with all the men that set
their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there;
they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and
by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain
or escape from the evil that I will bring upon
them.
18 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been
poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when
ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an
execration, and an astonishment, and a curse,
and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no
more.
So these people have more suffering and death ahead of them. Most
will die in Egypt. God will let a few come back to Judah to tell of
what He did to them, but it will be a very few.
So we should learn an important lesson today. As long as sin
continues, God’s judgment will continue — until there is no one left
alive to sin!
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