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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast. Powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. Let's be honest, a lot of us are still treating digital ministry like it's a backup plan from 2020. But discipleship isn't just happening on Sundays anymore. People need gospel centered connection every day of the week. And if you're stuck juggling five different platforms, one for giving, another for sermons, something else for events, it's no wonder engagement feels off. That's not ministry. That's a mess. Subsplash changes that one platform. Everything you need. Media, giving, events, messaging, your app, your website built specifically for churches. No hacks, no workarounds, just clarity and simplicity. Because every day you wait, families scroll past your sermons, new guests click away from clunky sites, and real people miss real moments with Jesus. Don't waste another summer stuck in digital survival mode. Use it to get ahead, simplify, upgrade. Get back to what matters. Head to subsplash.combible-dept and schedule a free no pressure demo. And let this be the summer your church gets focused and fully equipped. Family. Welcome to day two 19. We are continuing our trek through the book of Jeremiah. We are in chapters 22, 23, 24, and 25. We got four chapters of Jeremiah to walk through today. Like always, I'm gonna give you context clues. I'm gonna give you nerdy nuggets. I'm gonna leave with a timeless truth. And so buckle up. We got four chapters to study today. If you've already done the reading, that means you're gonna understand everything that I'm about to say. You're gonna have context for all the content that I'm going to share with you. If you haven't done the reading, stop the video. Pause the audio. Go get the reading done. Jeremiah is a fun book. I didn't realize how awesome Jeremiah was until I started studying for these episodes. So I've really, really, really loved the book of Jeremiah. No further ado. Let's jump in. All right. Context. There's gonna be a bit of context today, but I've been prepping everybody for all the context that's necessary for these chapters for days now. Okay? So here's what you need to know. You gotta know the last five kings of Judah, Josiah Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. If you know those five names and you know them in order, then you already got a lot of the context down pat for today's episode. Ok, I'm going to say them again and then I'll tell you how they kind of relate to each other. We got Josiah, and then we've got his son Jehoahaz, who gets deported or exiled or killed, kidnapped and taken to Egypt, which means his brother Jehoah has his brother. Josiah's other son Jehoiakim is going to have to reign in his brother's place. This brother reigns for 11 years and then his son Jehoiachin reigns. But Jehoiachin is going to get carted off to Babylon in exile and his uncle Josiah's next son. So three of Josiah's sons all sit on the throne and we are gonna dive into a lot of this history and these people today. So if you got that context, you're good. And I've tried to do my best to just like warm you up, to help you to wrap your mind around those names. All right? And I promise, every time you kind of say those names, you kind of understand them more and more. So I want to challenge you. As we're going through the book of Jeremiah, just remember, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoia Kim, Jehoia Chin, and then last but not least, Zedekiah. All right, let's dive in. Chapter 22 is going to begin with Yahweh the king telling his go between Jeremiah to bring a message to the king Zedekiah. Okay, remember chapter 21 was Zedekiah the king telling his go betweens the priests to get Jeremiah to inquire of Yahweh the king. Okay, so yesterday we had the human king using his go betweens, intermediaries to talk to Jeremiah to talk to Yahweh the king. Today Yahweh is using his, his intermediary. Okay? His go between his. Yo, tell your people to call my people. You know, it's that kind of energy. And so chapter 22 is a mirror of chapter 21. Let's start reading chapter 22. This is what the Lord says. Go down to the palace of the king of Judah. Who's the king of Judah? Zedekiah. Now let's skip down to verse 11. For this is what the Lord says about Shallum, son of Josiah. Who's Shallum? Well, that's Jehoahaz. Okay, I'm pretty sure. Wait, let me fact check. Is that Jehoahaz yes, yes. Good. Shalom is Jehoahaz. Okay, then let's go down to our next verse. We're gonna go to verse 18. Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim. And Then last verse 24, Even if you, Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. I will deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those who you fear, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and the Babylonians. Okay, so four of these kings are gonna get prophesied against. Okay? Not Josiah. Nothing negative to say about Josiah, but Zedekiah, Jehoiachin, Jehoiakim and Jehoahaz. Jeremiah is going to have prophetic words to say against them. Obviously, we need to know who all of them are in order to even understand what Chapter 22 is talking about. So no need to kind of get in the weeds on what chapter 22 is really saying. I just want to give you the context so that when you read it, you know who, who's actually being talked about. Also, last thing, just wanna remind you of a couple of dates. 609 BC is when Pharaoh Necho of Egypt defeats Josiah at Megiddo, or Megiddo and Josiah is killed. Pharaoh Necho in 609 BC takes Josiah's son Jehoahaz hostage to Egypt. Jehoiakim, who is another son of Josiah, becomes king. Then in 605 BC four years later, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeats Assyria in Egypt at Carchemish. Babylon takes Judah as a vassal, and a small number of young nobility are taken back to Babylon. That's Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. In 597 B.C. jehoiakim, Josiah's son Jehoiakim, Jehoiahaz, his brother, rebels against Babylon. With Egyptian help, Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem for the first time. Jehoiakim dies during the siege. His son Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, becomes king and surrenders to Nebuchadnezzar. The first exile takes place. Jehoiachin, most of the royal family in the court, many of the priests, including Ezekiel, a lot of artisans and workers are taken to Babylon. Okay, so just wanna remind you of all that stuff for today. Chapter 24 takes place just after that first exile, where there is now a sizable population of Jews living in Babylon. Okay, so that's the context of chapter 24. Today's reading is Fun. Because in true Jeremiah fashion, we have at least three different contexts in these four chapters of Scripture. Okay, so we're gonna take a lot of time giving you context clues for today. Okay, so chapters 22 and 23, obviously, Zedekiah is the person being prophesied against. We're 588 BC. Chapter 24, verse 1 tells us that it's happening after Nebuchadnezzar had taken King Jehoiachin into exile. Okay? And then chapter 25 is actually a summary and a conclusion of the first scroll of Jeremiah, which that's not gonna make sense till we get to chapter 36, where the length of exile is clearly given, which is going to be 70 years. We're given many clues to when this conclusion was written, and we'll get into that. Essentially, you have to take my word for it that that conclusion, chapter 25 is written somewhere around 605, 604 BC just after Nebuchadnezzar had defeated Assyrian Egypt and it claimed Judah for his own. So lots of different contexts. If you get confused, you just watch this again or read this again. Okay, Lots of different contexts, but nothing we can do about that because chapters 22 and 23 have one context. Chapter 24 has a different historical context, and chapter 25 has a different historical context. And I figured it would be best to give you all the context up front before we even get into the reading. All right, chapter 22. All of the descendants of Josiah are going to get prophesied against. All of them. Okay? Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah all going to get prophesied against. This is going to set up chapter 23 perfectly, because what's going to happen in chapter 23, there's going to be a prophecy about the righteous branch. In contrast to these failed messiahs, Remember, the kings of Judah are all messiahs, because the Messiah just means the anointed one. So all of these kings are anointed ones. They're anointed to lead. However, it's going to become clear in the prophecies against them that they have failed. Therefore, this sets up chapter 23 perfectly, because guess who's not going to fail? The real Messiah is not going to fail. Chapter 23, verse 1. Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord. Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my sheep, because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed Care on them. I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done, declares the Lord. I myself will gather the remnant of my flock of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them for who will tend them. And they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing, declares the Lord. Here we go. The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name of by which he will be called the Lord, our righteous Savior. So then the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer say, as surely as the Lord lives who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt. But they will say, as surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them, then they will live in their own land. So this is God is saying, not only will the Exodus be the defining moment of my covenant loyalty, but my reversal of exile will be the defining salvific moment of my covenant loyalty. Okay, so throughout the Old Testament, the Exodus is actually the thing that God's famous for. If anybody, any Jewish person wants to go, man, why are we loyal to Yahweh? Why do we love Yahweh? Oh, yeah, he delivered us from the smelting pot of Egypt. He delivered us from the furnace of slavery and bondage. Yeah, that's the defining moment of salvation in the old Covenant. Yahweh is saying now through the prophet Jeremiah, not only will the Exodus be the thing that defines my relationship towards you, but my reversal of exile is going to be the thing that defines my covenant loyalty towards my people. So this is a new Exodus. In the same way that I delivered you out of Egypt, I'm going to deliver you out of the nation to which you are going to be exiled to. So I'm going to exile you, but then you're going to experience a new Exodus. Okay, so the return of the people to the land of Israel is going to get seen or painted with a language that is Exodus language. So chapter 23 is all about this righteous branch, the Messiah who will be different. He won't be anything like Josiah or Jehoahaz or Jehoiakim or Jehoiachin or Zedekiah. He's going to be God's Messiah, and he's not going to fail. Okay, chapter 24. This kind of sets up chapter 24. Good figs and bad figs. The vision of the good figs and good figs and bad figs that Jeremiah saw makes more sense if you consider the context. This was just after a large population, a large portion of the population had been taken in exile. Okay? If you consider that the great prophetic threat that had hung over Judah since the days of Micah or since Moses, even if you think of the curse of Deuteronomy was exile from the land, that's like the big threat that's hung over their heads. If you go after the gods of the Baals, if you continue to function in idolatry and injustice, God will exile you from the land. This was the worst and final punishment from Yahweh. Now many of them had been exiled, but others remained in the promised land in the city of David. And so with Yahweh, it would be natural, therefore, for them to think, we must be the good ones. We are still with Yahweh. Those who have been exiled must be the bad ones. Yet Yahweh says of the exiles, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. This is chapter 24, verses 5 and 7. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, like these good figs. So I will regard as good the exiles from Judah whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good and will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. Remember two things. The people who have been left in Jerusalem are assuming they're the good figs and the exiles are the bad figs. But we already know, like Ezekiel is one of those exiles, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego are in that group of exiles that are in Babylon right now. And so God is saying, actually, before you assume that y' all who have stayed in Jerusalem are the good figs and the exiles are the bad figs, you got it twisted. Because Jerusalem will get destroyed. Actually, it is the salvation of God, it is the salvation of Yahweh that these people have been taken into exile. Second of all, remember, I don't know, chapters ago in Jeremiah, our Timeless truth for the day was in the heart is deceitful above all things. Well, what is the promise that God is now giving? Saying I will give them a heart to know that I'm the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return to me with their whole heart. God knows not only is saying that the heart is the problem, but now he's saying I have a solution for this heart problem. I'm going to give this people, these exiles, these people who you assume are bad figs. I am going to give them a heart to know that I am the Lord. Family. The wait is over. My brand new book Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of Scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Hey, are you looking for a really cool gift or just solid tools to support your faith and daily Life? Check out Mr. Pen. They've got no bleed Bible pens and highlighters that actually work on thin Bible pages. Journaling Bibles, Bible tabs and faith based journals. Even school supplies for parents, teachers and students. Mr. Penn was started by Christian teachers in Louisiana on a mission to serve the schools in their local community. And now They've got over 100,000 five star reviews on Amazon. I'm a huge fan of their Bible highlighters and pens. Super smooth and gentle enough to write notes in the margin of your Bible. Whether you're digging into scripture or stocking up for Back to school, Mr. Pen has you covered Shop the best Bible journaling supplies on the market and fantastic gifts for the ladies in your life@ Mr. Pen.com that's mrpn.com and guess what? Our audience here at the Bible Department gets a special discount. Use code DEPARTMENT10 at checkout to get 10% off your entire order. And for those still in Jerusalem, this is chapter 24 verse 8 to 10. But thus says the Lord, like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah, the king of Judah, who's where still in Jerusalem, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them a horror to all the kings of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse. Curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword, famine and pestilence upon them until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers. They had got it the wrong way round. Which might mean the exile was not just a punishment, but possibly it was something a lot more a salvation of sorts. And we'll get into that a little later. Okay, the very last thing I want to get into our very last nerdy nugget is that chapter 25 is where we're actually going to see that the exile is going to last for 70 years, not 25 years. We're in chapter 25, and in chapter 25, that is when we're going to get the first information or the first giving of information that the exile is going to be for 70 years. Okay, so let's kind of look at that and then we'll get into our timeless truth and then we'll wrap it up for the day. Okay, Jeremiah 25. Okay, we got a 70 year exile. This is what Jeremiah chapter 25, verses 8 to 14 are going to say. Let's start in verse one. Jeremiah chapter 25 is actually the first place where we get the. The word 70 years, where we get that time frame where we get informed that the exile is not gonna be permanent, but that it will last for 70 years. Okay, Jeremiah chapter 25. We're actually gonna start reading in verse eight. Therefore the Lord Almighty says this because you have not listened to my words. Verse 9. I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, declares the Lord, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy with them and make them an object of horror and scorn and an everlasting ruin. Verse 10. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of. Of millstones in the light of a lamp. Verse 11. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon. 70 years, verse 12. But when the 70 years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon in his nation in the land of the Babylonians for their guilt, declares the Lord. And I will make it desolate forever. All right, so I'm going to bring Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians here to Jerusalem to destroy all of you. They're going to take you off in the exile. And exile is going to last for 70 years. But when the 70 years are fulfilled, I'm going to punish the king of Babylon, which is exactly what happens. Literally, like history tells us that that's exactly what happened. So this is a prophecy that 100% gets fulfilled. So just so that you guys know this, so did they actually spend 70 years in exile? Yes. And there are two options for when it started and when it ended. And scholars debate this, I want to give both options to you. A lot of people will say that exile actually started in 605 BC. 605 BC from the first many deportation to Babylon. Remember the one that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were on to the return from exile under Zerubbabel. So that would be 605 BC to 536 BC okay, so 605 to 636. Then there's option number two. Option number two would start in 586 BC from the destruction of the temple and it would end with the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel and 516. So it will go from 5:86 to 5:16. Okay, so that 70 years can get seen as from the time of the mini deportation to the time that the exiles can return. Or it could be seen from the time that the temple was destroyed to the time that the temple could get rebuilt. Two options, I think they're both valid. It's either going to be from 605 to 536 B.C. or from 586 to 516 B.C. whichever one you feel like makes more sense, you go with it. All right, here's our Thomas Truth. These chapters highlight the responsibilities of those who lead. If you look at the main audience of these prophecies, it is going to be kings, officials, prophets, priests and God. Yahweh is clear that they have failed. This actually should remind us of James chapter three, verse one, which tells us Christians, not many of you should be teachers because you will be judged at a different standard. You'll be held to double the responsibility that those who are are just, I don't wanna say normal Christians. But you get it, like congregants, people who are not in vocational ministry, that there's a different standard place on leaders versus a standard place on everybody else. I always love to tell people, sometimes people don't, like, you know, some of the rules that we have in church, like, oh, hey, if you're a leader, I don't want you to drink alcohol. And they love to point out the fact that, oh, well, alcohol is not a sin. And I'll tell them, yeah, yeah, I know it's not a sin. I still don't want you to do it. Not because it's a sin, but because you're a leader. And leaders are held to different standards, and that's a timeless truth. God holds leaders to a totally different standard in these chapters in the book of Jeremiah. And so one of the contexts that have shifted is that Jeremiah is not just prophesying to the people anymore, he's prophesying to leaders, which is why we focus so much on, on Josiah and his descendants. These prophecies are really geared towards leaders. And at the end of the day, I want to be a leader that can stand before God and God say, well done, my good and faithful servant. And I want you to be someone who leads in such a way that you can be held to a higher standard as well. That's not just true then. That's true today. I think that's true forever. I think we can't desire the rights of leadership without the responsibilities of leadership. I don't think we should want the blessings that come with being a leader without the burdens that come along with being a leader. Leadership as prophet. You know, Spider man or Peter Parker says, with great power comes great responsibility. And that is a biblical truth. That's a Thomas truth. And that is the truth that I want to leave you with for today. Tomorrow we got day two 20. Can you believe it? We've been on this journey together for 219 days. Tomorrow we got day 220. We're going to be in Jeremiah chapters 26 to 29. And of course, we get to actually read Jeremiah 29:11, which is one of the most famous verses in all the Bible. It's going to be awesome. I can't wait to see you right here as we continue our trek through the book of Jeremiah. If you're on a streak, I'm so proud of you. Love you so much. See you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram. Hebibledepartment if you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses at thebibledepartment. Com. We'll see you back here tomorrow.