ENTRY 170: JULY 18-19 The King Burns The Bible and Judah Gets Deported Habakkuk; Jeremiah 25, 35-36; 2 Kings 24:1-7; 2 Chronicles 36:6-7
This entry, containing a FREE BIBLE TALK, delves into topics such as the REALITY OF GOOD vs EVIL, SEEKING RESULTS, CRAZY ARROGANCE TOWARDS GOD and RESPECT FOR GOD’S WORD. By the way, you MUST check out the video on the Northwest Region of the Johannesburg church advertising their series on Habakkuk! It is awesome!! If I can get the link from Justin, I will post it!
Dr F LaGard Smith opens his next section by explaining that while Jeremiah was continuing his prophesies against Judah and her oppressors, Habakkuk was asking the question of the universe… “How can a righteous and holy God use a wicked nation like Babylonia to bring punishment against God’s own people, rebellious and sinful though they may be?” In fact, “how can a righteous God permit evil to exist at all?” Habakkuk couldn’t believe what he was hearing from God…that the sovereign Lord was going to use a completely ungodly and unholy nation to discipline the so-called holy ones. He couldn’t figure out why God would use wicked folk to humiliate and destroy His children. The Creator of the Universe was able to help His prophet to make sense of things, by explaining that the wicked are always punished in the end, and that God knew what He was doing, since His ultimate will is for “the earth (to be) filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” And eventually, what we should take away is “The Lord is in his Holy Temple, let all the earth be silent before him.”
Wow. God’s answers were enough for Habakkuk, for he finished off his scroll with a beautiful prayer/song. The prophet was humbled before God, and was able to surrender his own idea of what was fair to wait on his Lord and Master. Hannah Hurnard wrote Hinds’ Feet on High Places in the mid 20th Century as a tribute to this kind of surrendering to God’s will. (One of my all time favourite books!!) The idea being that no matter if I cannot see any results, nor any “benefit” to my submission (“though the fig tree does not bud…and there are no sheep in the pen…yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.”), I will wait on my Lord and surrender. It is fitting that the prophet’s poetry ended with the visually stimulating, “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer (hind); he enables me to go on the heights.”
For us in the new millennium, so accustomed to getting what we want at the drop of a hat, so used to having the “make it happen” mind-set, so bent on having our own way, on measuring success by results, we would do well to meditate on these words, and apply them, when necessary, to our own situations. I couldn’t help but think of this when I heard Todd Asaad preaching in Dallas a few years back. He read parts of Luke 9 and 10, and spoke of how we are all on a journey, and how it will be filled with some hardships, some costs and also some victories, but that what God wants us to be excited about is that HE LOVES US! (Luke 10:20 “rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”) To God be the Glory.
And right before Habakkuk’s eyes, during Jehoiakim’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the land and began to bring articles of gold from the temple along with some captives back to Babylon. Jeremiah chapter 25 is kind of an “I told you so” passage, with God explaining to the people through Jeremiah exactly what was happening, telling them how long the captivity would last (70 years), and letting them know that eventually Babylon would be judged as well. The lament in this chapter is very sad, as the prophet paints a picture of how severe times ahead will become.
Dr Smith skips ahead to Jeremiah 35, where God used the example of the Recabites to shame the Israelites even more. He told of how strict they had been and how they had kept their own private family vows because of a promise one of their ancestors had made. God’s point was that if a whole family could keep a vow because of an ancestor, couldn’t His people have had integrity and have kept their covenant with Him? Obviously, not! At the same time, God said that He would bless the Recabite clan by ensuring that they always had a family member in the service of the Lord.
(A side point might be that God wants us to see it as an honour to get to serve the Lord full time. I say that to not imply that someone in the “full-time ministry” is more godly or seen as better by God, and this may or may not apply to the situation you are in. In the past, I feel like there was an over-glorification of people in the full-time ministry, and then in some places after things changed, there was almost a vilification of people in the full-time ministry. My only point is that people in the full-time ministry, as long as they are actually godly men/women of integrity, should not be looked down on for choosing that as their “profession”.)
The last focus of this entry is one of the most vivid stories in the book of Jeremiah – King Jehoiakim burns the scroll of the word of God in the fireplace! Not too many people have the gall and outright impudence to literally tear pages out of the Bible as someone is preaching it and burn it right there, but that is what this king did. Just think – he was Josiah’s son! And his dad had only been dead for four years! How sad!
Chapter 36 begins describing how God wants Jeremiah to get a scribe to write down everything God has been telling him. (Dr Smith inserts a bit of chapter 45 in here where Baruch the scribe moans of the weariness involved in manually recording the book of Jeremiah. It had taken him at least a month…I wonder how he felt when he had to do it all over again! But I am getting ahead of myself…)
So, after Baruch got it all written down, he also had to read it twice, first to the people, then to the officials of the king. The officials were kind enough to tell Baruch and Jeremiah to go into hiding before reading it to the king. Sounds like they knew the kind of guy they were dealing with! More on that later…
Read this out loud and picture the scene:
21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. 22 It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. 23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. 24 The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. 25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26 Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them.
Wow, that is just about the most arrogant thing I have heard! No wonder God was ready for His people to be put into captivity – this was the leader! Gracious! Not to be outdone by a pathetic human king, the King of Kings told Jeremiah to have poor Baruch write it all down again (sorry, lah!) and then declared that the king of Insolence would be punished, as would his descendants after him. Yikes! Our sin doesn’t just affect us – it also affects the generations to come. Or as we say in parenting class, “DYSFUNCTION IS THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING!” This was more than dysfunction – this was sin, pure and simple, and the consequences of unmitigated arrogance are severe. We should never take it lightly.
Now if you are looking for a provocative BIBLE TALK, I have enjoyed using this passage.
Opening question is “what is the most bizarre/outrageous/arrogant thing you have personally seen someone do (or heard of someone doing)? Then read chapter 36. Describe the historical background a bit, and paint the picture in a modern-day way…
(you could liken it to 20th or 21st century despots who figuratively speaking burned diplomatic notices, etc). Ask questions about the above, about how each of the characters in the story might have felt, and about what was possibly going on the king’s mind. Then, talk about how people do this today with parts of the Bible they don’t like. Ask everyone, “if there was a part of the Bible you could tear out and burn, what would it be?” Then discuss why it is sometimes hard to follow the scriptures, but why it is necessary. End with a positive story of how you were blessed when you followed the Bible even when it was hard and voila, you’ve got yourself a Bible talk! Have fun.
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