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Sept. 7, 2021
I Know the Plans I Have for You (Walk Thru the Bible Week 32)
This week is the beginning of the end of Judah as Babylon turns it into a vassal state and begins deporting exiles. One young man taken into exile early on is Daniel who later reads the prophet Jeremiah’s letter in which he says Babylonian dominance would last 70 years. King Zedekiah is given the chance to repent but instead his reign becomes the last eleven years of Judah’s existence.
This episode complements the daily readings from our Walk Thru the Bible reading plan for September 6-12, covering 2 Kings 24; Daniel 1-2; Jeremiah 23-29.
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Transcript
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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12-month journey through the most exciting
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book on the planet.
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It will transform your life one page at a time.
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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible
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to life.
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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.
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Well, hey there and welcome back.
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This is week 32 of our Walk Through the Bible.
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This week we are reading from the dates of August 6-12 in the Daily Bible or what are
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the pages 999-1026.
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You have read 1000 pages so far.
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Congratulations.
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If you haven't and you've fallen a little behind, it's okay.
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Just keep listening to our weekly teachings and continue on your trek through the Bible
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by listening.
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So I know we are deep into a lot of history and I myself have fought to not kind of get
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bogged down here because we can't progress very quickly in the story because God raised
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up so many prophets to speak to His people and to warn them and to invite them to come
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back to Him.
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So it goes on and on as we read through the various prophetic books and what the prophets
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were saying and it gets a little tiring.
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We feel like the sin is terrible.
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They're just not listening.
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Why are the people listening?
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And of course this judgment is coming, judgment is coming and it does get a little tiresome
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and we do get a little bogged down.
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So don't worry if you're feeling that way.
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It's okay.
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Just keep with us on the weekly broadcast.
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We're going to get you through it.
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So this week, I'm very sad to say, but the beginning of the end begins this week.
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Yes, we have the very first deportation of exiles out of Judah taken captive by Babylon.
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But I don't want to get ahead of myself.
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So let's back up.
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Let's remember where we were last week in the story.
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So last week we had Jehoachim, who was the king of Judah, who was a puppet king to Egypt.
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But in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, the new king of Babylon, defeats Egypt at the famous Battle
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of Kharkhomish.
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And so Nebuchadnezzar then sweeps down into the land of Israel and he makes Judah a vassal
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state of Babylon.
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Now at this time, the first wave of exiles are taken from Judah into Babylon.
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And in that first wave of exiles, we have a young man by the name of Daniel.
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We're going to talk a little bit about Daniel later today.
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And King Jehoachim seems he's allowed to return and take up the throne, but now of course
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as a vassal state who has pledged allegiance and is paying tribute to Babylon.
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Now in this week's reading, we're going to read in Jeremiah 25 where the prophet Jeremiah,
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who is now back in Judah, prophesying to King Jehoachim and the people of Judah.
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And he lets them know about a 70 year time period.
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So let me read this to you out of Jeremiah 25 verses 11 and 12.
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This whole country will become a desolate wasteland and these nations will serve the
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king of Babylon 70 years.
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But when the 70 years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation,
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the land of the Babylonians for their guilt, says the Lord, and will make it desolate forever.
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Now we don't know exactly when Jeremiah spoke these words, but just to make a note here
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that the Babylonians first take the first exiles in 605, 606 BC, and their kingdom comes to
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an end exactly 70 years later by it would be 539 BC or 536 BC, the exiles begin to return.
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So Babylon does really only last for roughly in almost 70 years after Jeremiah uttered
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that word.
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Now in 539, Babylon falls to the new kingdom on the rise, which is, it is Persia.
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And immediately the king of Persia begins to allow the exiles to go back to their native
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lands and rebuild their temples.
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He had some kind of just respect for the various religions of the peoples throughout the Persian
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Empire now.
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So a part of this decree allowed the Jewish people to begin to go back to their land.
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And so it's roughly 70 years then from 605 BC, as I said, the length of the Babylonian
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rule, but then also from the first exile to the return of the exiles is roughly 70 years.
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Now in this same chapter of Jeremiah 25, we read another very interesting scripture in
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verse 15, it said, Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make
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all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
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Now this is what the Lord is telling Jeremiah, take this cup of wine, the wine of my wrath,
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and take it to all these other nations in the area and make them drink of it.
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And so what this is is it's a very symbolic act that God's going to judge all these nations
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around Judah.
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He's not just judging Judah, they're just kind of first on the list and then he's going
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to judge all these other nations, including Babylon himself.
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But I wanted to point this out because many times throughout the Old Testament, the cup
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of God's wrath, it results in drunkenness, not death.
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And here in Jeremiah 25, 27, it describes how they will become drunken from this.
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It's like they will lose control and they'll become senseless.
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They'll lose their senses as they drink of the cup of God's wrath.
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This week we also are reading how that the Lord tells Jeremiah to write down everything.
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On Jeremiah 36, the Lord tells him to write down everything that I've spoken to you about
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Israel and about Judah and about the nations.
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And so Jeremiah has his secretary Baruch began to take dictation and they write down every
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word that Jeremiah had had up until that point.
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And then Jeremiah sends Baruch to the temple to read it aloud.
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And the officials here Baruch reading these words of Jeremiah against Judah, against the
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king, against the idolatry in the nation, predicting that judgment is coming.
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And so these officials take Baruch back to the palace with them and they talk to him
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and they look at the scroll that he's got and they realize how that the king is not
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going to like what he's about to hear.
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So they send Baruch, they say, go hide, find a place of safety for yourself.
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But we're going to take this into the king and they do.
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They take it into the king, Jehoiakim, and he has them read the scroll to him and it
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says after they have finished three or four columns in the scroll, the king cuts it off,
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throws it into the fire, and he burns the entire scroll.
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Now I want you to think about this for a minute.
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It's not like Baruch had a computer and that he was a really fast typist and Jeremiah was
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able, they were able to get all this done in say a week's time and have all the words
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written in.
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I'm saying this was probably several months of laborious writing on Baruch's part as
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he hand writes every letter of every word and then to have the entire thing, the entire
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record of Jeremiah's prophecies burned in the fire.
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I can't imagine how poor Baruch felt.
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And so the Lord tells Jeremiah, write another scroll, start all over again.
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And so he and Baruch began to do it all over again.
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This must have taken months and months and months altogether.
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The writing of these two scrolls.
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And so we read later on in Jeremiah 45 how that Baruch is exhausted and he's complaining
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about it, the amount of work that this was.
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And so Jeremiah has a word from the Lord for Baruch and it's like because of what you've
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done, you're going to escape with your life.
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So this was the reward that Baruch had to look forward to was that he would live and
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he would not die when the judgment came.
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You know, what was God doing allowing the king to just tear it up and burn it?
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It was a word of judgment.
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It was a testing of where was the heart of the king.
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When we saw where the heart of the king was, he rejected the word of the Lord and just
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had it burned.
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And I think that kind of sealed the deal for that king.
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God had tested him and he had failed the test.
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So judgment was coming.
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Now let's talk about Daniel.
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I mentioned that Daniel was a part of that first wave of the exiles around 605 BC.
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And so we believe that Daniel was a part of the aristocracy.
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He might have been a part of some of the leadership of Josiah because the king, when they would
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take exiles, they would take the men and the educated ones and the leaders so that those
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leaders could not in any way instigate a rebellion against the conquering empire.
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And so, and it seems that Daniel was of a high standing.
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And so when he goes back to Babylon, he is actually there in the royal court.
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And we read this week, Daniel 1 and 2.
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And we read the story about how that Daniel is called upon to not just interpret a dream,
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but to tell the king what he dreamt and then telling the interpretation of it.
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Something only God could do.
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No man on earth had the ability to tell the king what his dream was.
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But Daniel goes before the Lord in worship first and in prayer and God reveals to him
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what the dream is.
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And this opens doors for Daniels where he becomes a part of the royal court.
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Daniel is there in Babylon for 80 years.
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And he's very well known and respected.
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So Daniel was actually mentioned in the book of Ezekiel as a righteous man.
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He was known throughout all the community of the exiles and probably back in Judah for
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what he was able to do.
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An interesting little note about the book of Daniel is that it is the book in the Old
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Testament that is a large part of it is written in Aramaic, not in Hebrew.
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Now parts of his book are in Hebrew.
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So the very first two chapters are in Hebrew where they were telling the story about Daniel.
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Then it goes into Aramaic and then by later in the book it switches back into Hebrew.
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And so that means that part of the book of Daniel, when we get there we'll discuss it,
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may have actually been written for the Aramaic population, not for the people back in Judah
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where they were speaking Hebrew.
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But an interesting point there about the book of Daniel.
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I want to just mention one verse in this story in Daniel 1 and 2.
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And it's chapter 2 verse 49 and here it says that Daniel was made ruler over the entire
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province of Babylon and he was placed in charge of all the wise men of Babylon.
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I want you to remember that verse when we get to the story in the New Testament about
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the wise men that come from the east looking for the king of the Jews that have been born.
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I want you to remember this verse because Daniel is over all the wise men of Babylon.
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Now the wise men they dabbled in things like astronomy and the study of the stars and probably
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some magic and some things that go along with that.
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But they also were learned people and they were looking into different philosophies and
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they probably studied religion.
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And so these were the wise men, what were known as the wise men.
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Daniel is over them.
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So Daniel would have also taught them about the wisdom in Judaism, the wisdom in the Old
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Testament of the God of the universe, the God that created the universe that had chosen
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this people and made a covenant with this people.
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He would have told these stories and he would have told them about things that pointed to
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a coming Messiah and that knowledge was then passed down from wise men after the life of
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Daniel.
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And that's how I think we probably have some kind of basic knowledge within the wise men
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of the east that would have come looking for this Messiah.
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It's one explanation at least of that story.
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We'll bring it up again when we get to the New Testament.
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Now back to this week's story.
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The evil king Jehoiakim, he is so full of himself, not only does he tear up the scroll
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of Jeremiah and reject the word of the Lord, he thinks he's strong enough to rebel against
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Babylon.
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So he begins to rebel and boy does he pay for it then.
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Babylon comes in in 597 and Jehoiakim dies and Babylon then sets up another king.
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He's only, sorry, Jehoiakim is replaced by Jehoiakim, but he's only there for three
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months when Babylon places their own guy on the throne.
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They want somebody that they know is not going to follow in the footsteps of Jehoiakim
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and lead some kind of rebellion.
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So they don't trust Jehoiakim.
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So they put another son on the throne and rename him Zedekiah.
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At this time Babylon also takes the largest number of exiles into Babylon.
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This is the second and the largest deportation of exiles.
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And there's one amongst the number of this exile and his name is Ezekiel.
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We're going to come back to Ezekiel later.
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Now King Zedekiah rules for 11 years.
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He is the final king of Judah.
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At the end of his 11 years, not only is his reign over, it's all over.
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Judah is over.
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Jerusalem has been destroyed.
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So we're really nearing the end of our story, but we've still got a ways to go before we
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get there.
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So Zedekiah's reign.
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There is a portion of scripture that kind of sums it all up.
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So I want to read that it's in 2 Chronicles 36 verses 11 through 14.
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Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 11 years.
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He did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah
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the prophet who spoke the word of the Lord.
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He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him take an oath in God's name.
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He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart and would not turn to the Lord the God of
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Israel.
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Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful
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following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the
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Lord which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
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What a sad story.
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These kings not only led their people astray but they were so prideful and so puffed up
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that they would reject any kind of warning of correction by the prophets and they would
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rebel against the Almighty Babylon.
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Who did they think they were?
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But it shows how that sin gives us such a puffed up pride and pride really is at the
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root of so much evil.
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And so here this pride, it leads them to rebel against the Lord, to rebel against the Almighty
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Babylon and think that they're going to survive and it brings down their downfall.
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And it certainly did for Zedekiah.
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But now this week we're going to read what Jeremiah was prophesying during the reign
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of Zedekiah.
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And in Jeremiah 29 the prophet now begins to focus his attention on the exiles who have
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already been taken into Babylon.
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It's a very interesting concept here because the exiles didn't know what to do.
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And they had false prophets in Babylon, Hebrew false prophets that were telling them that
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this is very temporary, that God was going to defeat Babylon and they were going to be
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back in the land.
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And so it was almost as though, don't dig roots, don't settle down, God's going to
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take you back.
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And so Jeremiah fills the need and he writes a letter and has it sent to the exiles in
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Babylon and he gives them instructions how to live.
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And so we read this in chapter 29 starting here in verse 4.
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This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says to all those I carried into exile
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from Jerusalem to Babylon, catch that God carried them into exile.
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Continuing next verse, build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce,
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marry and have sons and daughters, find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage
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so that they too may have sons and daughters, increase in number here and do not decrease.
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Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
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Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper.
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Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says, do not let the prophets and
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the diviners among you deceive you.
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Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.
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They are prophesying lies to you in my name.
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I have not sent them, declares the Lord.
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So he's telling them, settle down, live, increase in numbers and pray for the peace
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and prosperity of the city there in Babylon because if that city prospers and is doing
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well, you're going to do well.
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Then the Lord tells them that the captivity is for seventy years.
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In verse 10 says, this is what the Lord says, when seventy years are completed for Babylon,
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I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.
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For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.
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Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
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Plans to give you a hope and a future.
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Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.
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You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
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I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity.
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I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares
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the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.
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Now I want to point out here that we quote this scripture all the time, where the Lord
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knows the plans that He has for you and they are for good.
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And so, yes, He does, and yes they are.
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But let's always remember the original context of this verse.
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And it's the prophet Jeremiah telling the exiles who have suffered exile.
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They have lost everything and they're in a foreign land.
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And he says, for I know the plans that I have for you and they are for good.
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And the plan is one day, of course, to bring them back home.
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But in the meantime, his plan for them is to be in exile.
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So when we quote that verse, let's always be careful and honor the Lord that He knows
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better.
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And it doesn't mean that we're never going to have a problem, that we're not going to
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go through a season of a problem.
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No, that might actually be part of God's plan and timing in our life.
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But we always have a hope that He has a future hope for us.
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We're going to bring us back out of exile.
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Our people are going to go back to Jerusalem.
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Now me, I might die in exile, but my children, my children's children, one day they're going
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back.
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That's the hope.
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That's the plan and the promise that God had for His people in exile.
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Now I want to mention this number 70.
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So there's several different ways of looking at the number 70.
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And some people, as I said, the last verse said that the nations would suffer under Babylon
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for 70 years.
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And they did from 606 BC until 539 BC when Babylon came to an end.
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So that's true.
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In terms of the 70 years of captivity, we could also count that from the first exile
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around 605 BC, the first wave of exiles, till the return of the exiles, which was around
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536 BC under the Persians.
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That's roughly 70 years, 69, 70 years.
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Others look at the destruction of the temple, which we'll read about, I believe next week
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or the week later, 586 BC, it was 70 years later that the second temple was dedicated
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after the exiles returned.
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So we're not there yet in our story.
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I just wanted you to know there's like three different ways of counting 70, but it was
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a very definite period of 70 years, one way or the other, however you count it.
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And I want to end today talking about a verse that we actually didn't read today.
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We're going to read it, I think next week or the following week out of the book of Daniel.
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But it's something that I want to point out here when we're talking chronology.
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So Jeremiah is prophesying at the very time Daniel arrives in Babylon and he begins his
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ascent into leadership in Babylon and then we know how that God reveals many amazing
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things to Daniel.
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So you could call him a prophet, the prophet Daniel.
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And so he's a contemporary of Jeremiah, but a little bit younger.
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And he lasts just a few years longer than Jeremiah because of the age difference.
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And then we have Ezekiel.
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So Ezekiel is in the second wave and we're going to be reading about the call of Ezekiel
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when he was 30 years old.
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And so he's a contemporary of Jeremiah.
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They all knew about each other.
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And so we're going to read in Daniel 9, verse 2, and it says this, in the first year of
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his reign, speaking here about Darius, the second king of Persia, after Cyrus was Darius.
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And you may pronounce it Darius, I'm not sure, but I pronounce it Darius.
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So in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the scriptures, according
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to the word of the Lord, given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem
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would last 70 years.
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So Daniel is in Babylon reading the scripture we read earlier that Jeremiah sent to the
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exiles in Babylon.
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So isn't that cool?
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We get to see here, by treating these books chronologically, we get to see how these prophets
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knew of each other.
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And we're reading what each other was saying, and here Daniel says that the Jeremiah said
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the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years.
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And so, as I said, the first temple was destroyed in 586 BC.
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The second one was dedicated in 515 BC, roughly 70 years apart.
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So as I started out saying, we're deep into a lot of history, but there are some really
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cool things for us to point out and to focus on, and not get too bogged down in which king,
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in which this, in which that.
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I still get confused between Jehoiakim and Jehoiakim and all of that.
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But don't worry, let's walk through this together, enjoy your reading of God's Word,
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and I'll see you back here next week, and until then, God bless.
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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12-month journey through the most exciting
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book on the planet.
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It will transform your life one page at a time.
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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible
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to life.
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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.
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Well, hey there and welcome back.
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This is week 32 of our Walk Through the Bible.
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This week we are reading from the dates of August 6-12 in the Daily Bible or what are
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the pages 999-1026.
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You have read 1000 pages so far.
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Congratulations.
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If you haven't and you've fallen a little behind, it's okay.
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Just keep listening to our weekly teachings and continue on your trek through the Bible
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by listening.
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So I know we are deep into a lot of history and I myself have fought to not kind of get
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bogged down here because we can't progress very quickly in the story because God raised
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up so many prophets to speak to His people and to warn them and to invite them to come
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back to Him.
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So it goes on and on as we read through the various prophetic books and what the prophets
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were saying and it gets a little tiring.
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We feel like the sin is terrible.
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They're just not listening.
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Why are the people listening?
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And of course this judgment is coming, judgment is coming and it does get a little tiresome
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and we do get a little bogged down.
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So don't worry if you're feeling that way.
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It's okay.
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Just keep with us on the weekly broadcast.
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We're going to get you through it.
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So this week, I'm very sad to say, but the beginning of the end begins this week.
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Yes, we have the very first deportation of exiles out of Judah taken captive by Babylon.
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But I don't want to get ahead of myself.
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So let's back up.
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Let's remember where we were last week in the story.
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So last week we had Jehoachim, who was the king of Judah, who was a puppet king to Egypt.
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But in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, the new king of Babylon, defeats Egypt at the famous Battle
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of Kharkhomish.
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And so Nebuchadnezzar then sweeps down into the land of Israel and he makes Judah a vassal
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state of Babylon.
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Now at this time, the first wave of exiles are taken from Judah into Babylon.
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And in that first wave of exiles, we have a young man by the name of Daniel.
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We're going to talk a little bit about Daniel later today.
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And King Jehoachim seems he's allowed to return and take up the throne, but now of course
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as a vassal state who has pledged allegiance and is paying tribute to Babylon.
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Now in this week's reading, we're going to read in Jeremiah 25 where the prophet Jeremiah,
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who is now back in Judah, prophesying to King Jehoachim and the people of Judah.
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And he lets them know about a 70 year time period.
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So let me read this to you out of Jeremiah 25 verses 11 and 12.
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This whole country will become a desolate wasteland and these nations will serve the
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king of Babylon 70 years.
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But when the 70 years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation,
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the land of the Babylonians for their guilt, says the Lord, and will make it desolate forever.
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Now we don't know exactly when Jeremiah spoke these words, but just to make a note here
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that the Babylonians first take the first exiles in 605, 606 BC, and their kingdom comes to
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an end exactly 70 years later by it would be 539 BC or 536 BC, the exiles begin to return.
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So Babylon does really only last for roughly in almost 70 years after Jeremiah uttered
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that word.
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Now in 539, Babylon falls to the new kingdom on the rise, which is, it is Persia.
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And immediately the king of Persia begins to allow the exiles to go back to their native
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lands and rebuild their temples.
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He had some kind of just respect for the various religions of the peoples throughout the Persian
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Empire now.
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So a part of this decree allowed the Jewish people to begin to go back to their land.
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And so it's roughly 70 years then from 605 BC, as I said, the length of the Babylonian
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rule, but then also from the first exile to the return of the exiles is roughly 70 years.
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Now in this same chapter of Jeremiah 25, we read another very interesting scripture in
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verse 15, it said, Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make
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all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
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Now this is what the Lord is telling Jeremiah, take this cup of wine, the wine of my wrath,
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and take it to all these other nations in the area and make them drink of it.
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And so what this is is it's a very symbolic act that God's going to judge all these nations
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around Judah.
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He's not just judging Judah, they're just kind of first on the list and then he's going
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to judge all these other nations, including Babylon himself.
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But I wanted to point this out because many times throughout the Old Testament, the cup
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of God's wrath, it results in drunkenness, not death.
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And here in Jeremiah 25, 27, it describes how they will become drunken from this.
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It's like they will lose control and they'll become senseless.
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They'll lose their senses as they drink of the cup of God's wrath.
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This week we also are reading how that the Lord tells Jeremiah to write down everything.
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On Jeremiah 36, the Lord tells him to write down everything that I've spoken to you about
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Israel and about Judah and about the nations.
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And so Jeremiah has his secretary Baruch began to take dictation and they write down every
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word that Jeremiah had had up until that point.
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And then Jeremiah sends Baruch to the temple to read it aloud.
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And the officials here Baruch reading these words of Jeremiah against Judah, against the
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king, against the idolatry in the nation, predicting that judgment is coming.
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And so these officials take Baruch back to the palace with them and they talk to him
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and they look at the scroll that he's got and they realize how that the king is not
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going to like what he's about to hear.
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So they send Baruch, they say, go hide, find a place of safety for yourself.
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But we're going to take this into the king and they do.
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They take it into the king, Jehoiakim, and he has them read the scroll to him and it
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says after they have finished three or four columns in the scroll, the king cuts it off,
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throws it into the fire, and he burns the entire scroll.
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Now I want you to think about this for a minute.
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It's not like Baruch had a computer and that he was a really fast typist and Jeremiah was
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able, they were able to get all this done in say a week's time and have all the words
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written in.
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I'm saying this was probably several months of laborious writing on Baruch's part as
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he hand writes every letter of every word and then to have the entire thing, the entire
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record of Jeremiah's prophecies burned in the fire.
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I can't imagine how poor Baruch felt.
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And so the Lord tells Jeremiah, write another scroll, start all over again.
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And so he and Baruch began to do it all over again.
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This must have taken months and months and months altogether.
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The writing of these two scrolls.
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And so we read later on in Jeremiah 45 how that Baruch is exhausted and he's complaining
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about it, the amount of work that this was.
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And so Jeremiah has a word from the Lord for Baruch and it's like because of what you've
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done, you're going to escape with your life.
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So this was the reward that Baruch had to look forward to was that he would live and
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he would not die when the judgment came.
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You know, what was God doing allowing the king to just tear it up and burn it?
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It was a word of judgment.
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It was a testing of where was the heart of the king.
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When we saw where the heart of the king was, he rejected the word of the Lord and just
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had it burned.
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And I think that kind of sealed the deal for that king.
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God had tested him and he had failed the test.
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So judgment was coming.
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Now let's talk about Daniel.
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I mentioned that Daniel was a part of that first wave of the exiles around 605 BC.
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And so we believe that Daniel was a part of the aristocracy.
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He might have been a part of some of the leadership of Josiah because the king, when they would
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take exiles, they would take the men and the educated ones and the leaders so that those
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leaders could not in any way instigate a rebellion against the conquering empire.
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And so, and it seems that Daniel was of a high standing.
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And so when he goes back to Babylon, he is actually there in the royal court.
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And we read this week, Daniel 1 and 2.
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And we read the story about how that Daniel is called upon to not just interpret a dream,
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but to tell the king what he dreamt and then telling the interpretation of it.
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Something only God could do.
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No man on earth had the ability to tell the king what his dream was.
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But Daniel goes before the Lord in worship first and in prayer and God reveals to him
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what the dream is.
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And this opens doors for Daniels where he becomes a part of the royal court.
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Daniel is there in Babylon for 80 years.
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And he's very well known and respected.
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So Daniel was actually mentioned in the book of Ezekiel as a righteous man.
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He was known throughout all the community of the exiles and probably back in Judah for
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what he was able to do.
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An interesting little note about the book of Daniel is that it is the book in the Old
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Testament that is a large part of it is written in Aramaic, not in Hebrew.
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Now parts of his book are in Hebrew.
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So the very first two chapters are in Hebrew where they were telling the story about Daniel.
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Then it goes into Aramaic and then by later in the book it switches back into Hebrew.
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And so that means that part of the book of Daniel, when we get there we'll discuss it,
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may have actually been written for the Aramaic population, not for the people back in Judah
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where they were speaking Hebrew.
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But an interesting point there about the book of Daniel.
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I want to just mention one verse in this story in Daniel 1 and 2.
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And it's chapter 2 verse 49 and here it says that Daniel was made ruler over the entire
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province of Babylon and he was placed in charge of all the wise men of Babylon.
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I want you to remember that verse when we get to the story in the New Testament about
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the wise men that come from the east looking for the king of the Jews that have been born.
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I want you to remember this verse because Daniel is over all the wise men of Babylon.
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Now the wise men they dabbled in things like astronomy and the study of the stars and probably
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some magic and some things that go along with that.
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But they also were learned people and they were looking into different philosophies and
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they probably studied religion.
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And so these were the wise men, what were known as the wise men.
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Daniel is over them.
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So Daniel would have also taught them about the wisdom in Judaism, the wisdom in the Old
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Testament of the God of the universe, the God that created the universe that had chosen
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this people and made a covenant with this people.
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He would have told these stories and he would have told them about things that pointed to
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a coming Messiah and that knowledge was then passed down from wise men after the life of
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Daniel.
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And that's how I think we probably have some kind of basic knowledge within the wise men
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of the east that would have come looking for this Messiah.
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It's one explanation at least of that story.
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We'll bring it up again when we get to the New Testament.
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Now back to this week's story.
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The evil king Jehoiakim, he is so full of himself, not only does he tear up the scroll
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of Jeremiah and reject the word of the Lord, he thinks he's strong enough to rebel against
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Babylon.
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So he begins to rebel and boy does he pay for it then.
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Babylon comes in in 597 and Jehoiakim dies and Babylon then sets up another king.
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He's only, sorry, Jehoiakim is replaced by Jehoiakim, but he's only there for three
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months when Babylon places their own guy on the throne.
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They want somebody that they know is not going to follow in the footsteps of Jehoiakim
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and lead some kind of rebellion.
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So they don't trust Jehoiakim.
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So they put another son on the throne and rename him Zedekiah.
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At this time Babylon also takes the largest number of exiles into Babylon.
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This is the second and the largest deportation of exiles.
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And there's one amongst the number of this exile and his name is Ezekiel.
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We're going to come back to Ezekiel later.
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Now King Zedekiah rules for 11 years.
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He is the final king of Judah.
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At the end of his 11 years, not only is his reign over, it's all over.
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Judah is over.
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Jerusalem has been destroyed.
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So we're really nearing the end of our story, but we've still got a ways to go before we
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get there.
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So Zedekiah's reign.
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There is a portion of scripture that kind of sums it all up.
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So I want to read that it's in 2 Chronicles 36 verses 11 through 14.
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Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 11 years.
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He did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah
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the prophet who spoke the word of the Lord.
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He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him take an oath in God's name.
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He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart and would not turn to the Lord the God of
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Israel.
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Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful
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following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the
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Lord which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
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What a sad story.
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These kings not only led their people astray but they were so prideful and so puffed up
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that they would reject any kind of warning of correction by the prophets and they would
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rebel against the Almighty Babylon.
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Who did they think they were?
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But it shows how that sin gives us such a puffed up pride and pride really is at the
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root of so much evil.
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And so here this pride, it leads them to rebel against the Lord, to rebel against the Almighty
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Babylon and think that they're going to survive and it brings down their downfall.
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And it certainly did for Zedekiah.
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But now this week we're going to read what Jeremiah was prophesying during the reign
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of Zedekiah.
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And in Jeremiah 29 the prophet now begins to focus his attention on the exiles who have
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already been taken into Babylon.
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It's a very interesting concept here because the exiles didn't know what to do.
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And they had false prophets in Babylon, Hebrew false prophets that were telling them that
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this is very temporary, that God was going to defeat Babylon and they were going to be
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back in the land.
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And so it was almost as though, don't dig roots, don't settle down, God's going to
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take you back.
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And so Jeremiah fills the need and he writes a letter and has it sent to the exiles in
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Babylon and he gives them instructions how to live.
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And so we read this in chapter 29 starting here in verse 4.
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This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says to all those I carried into exile
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from Jerusalem to Babylon, catch that God carried them into exile.
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Continuing next verse, build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce,
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marry and have sons and daughters, find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage
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so that they too may have sons and daughters, increase in number here and do not decrease.
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Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
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Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper.
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Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says, do not let the prophets and
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the diviners among you deceive you.
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Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.
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They are prophesying lies to you in my name.
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I have not sent them, declares the Lord.
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So he's telling them, settle down, live, increase in numbers and pray for the peace
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and prosperity of the city there in Babylon because if that city prospers and is doing
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well, you're going to do well.
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Then the Lord tells them that the captivity is for seventy years.
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In verse 10 says, this is what the Lord says, when seventy years are completed for Babylon,
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I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.
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For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.
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Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
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Plans to give you a hope and a future.
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Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.
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You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
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I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity.
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I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares
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the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.
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Now I want to point out here that we quote this scripture all the time, where the Lord
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knows the plans that He has for you and they are for good.
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And so, yes, He does, and yes they are.
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But let's always remember the original context of this verse.
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And it's the prophet Jeremiah telling the exiles who have suffered exile.
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They have lost everything and they're in a foreign land.
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And he says, for I know the plans that I have for you and they are for good.
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And the plan is one day, of course, to bring them back home.
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But in the meantime, his plan for them is to be in exile.
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So when we quote that verse, let's always be careful and honor the Lord that He knows
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better.
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And it doesn't mean that we're never going to have a problem, that we're not going to
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go through a season of a problem.
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No, that might actually be part of God's plan and timing in our life.
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But we always have a hope that He has a future hope for us.
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We're going to bring us back out of exile.
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Our people are going to go back to Jerusalem.
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Now me, I might die in exile, but my children, my children's children, one day they're going
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back.
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That's the hope.
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That's the plan and the promise that God had for His people in exile.
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Now I want to mention this number 70.
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So there's several different ways of looking at the number 70.
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And some people, as I said, the last verse said that the nations would suffer under Babylon
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for 70 years.
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And they did from 606 BC until 539 BC when Babylon came to an end.
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So that's true.
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In terms of the 70 years of captivity, we could also count that from the first exile
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around 605 BC, the first wave of exiles, till the return of the exiles, which was around
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536 BC under the Persians.
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That's roughly 70 years, 69, 70 years.
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Others look at the destruction of the temple, which we'll read about, I believe next week
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or the week later, 586 BC, it was 70 years later that the second temple was dedicated
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after the exiles returned.
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So we're not there yet in our story.
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I just wanted you to know there's like three different ways of counting 70, but it was
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a very definite period of 70 years, one way or the other, however you count it.
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And I want to end today talking about a verse that we actually didn't read today.
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We're going to read it, I think next week or the following week out of the book of Daniel.
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But it's something that I want to point out here when we're talking chronology.
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So Jeremiah is prophesying at the very time Daniel arrives in Babylon and he begins his
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ascent into leadership in Babylon and then we know how that God reveals many amazing
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things to Daniel.
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So you could call him a prophet, the prophet Daniel.
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And so he's a contemporary of Jeremiah, but a little bit younger.
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And he lasts just a few years longer than Jeremiah because of the age difference.
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And then we have Ezekiel.
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So Ezekiel is in the second wave and we're going to be reading about the call of Ezekiel
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when he was 30 years old.
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And so he's a contemporary of Jeremiah.
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They all knew about each other.
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And so we're going to read in Daniel 9, verse 2, and it says this, in the first year of
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his reign, speaking here about Darius, the second king of Persia, after Cyrus was Darius.
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And you may pronounce it Darius, I'm not sure, but I pronounce it Darius.
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So in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the scriptures, according
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to the word of the Lord, given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem
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would last 70 years.
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So Daniel is in Babylon reading the scripture we read earlier that Jeremiah sent to the
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exiles in Babylon.
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So isn't that cool?
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We get to see here, by treating these books chronologically, we get to see how these prophets
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knew of each other.
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And we're reading what each other was saying, and here Daniel says that the Jeremiah said
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the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years.
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And so, as I said, the first temple was destroyed in 586 BC.
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The second one was dedicated in 515 BC, roughly 70 years apart.
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So as I started out saying, we're deep into a lot of history, but there are some really
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cool things for us to point out and to focus on, and not get too bogged down in which king,
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in which this, in which that.
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I still get confused between Jehoiakim and Jehoiakim and all of that.
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But don't worry, let's walk through this together, enjoy your reading of God's Word,
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and I'll see you back here next week, and until then, God bless.
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