Day 219: Jeremiah 22-25 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible Department podcast, powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebavardapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (tape ripping) 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 gonna 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. He came 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, Jehoia Kim, Jehoia Chin, and Zedekiah. If you know those five names and you know them in order, then you already got a lot of the context down packed for today's episode, okay? I'm gonna say them again, and then I'll tell you how they kinda relate to each other. We got Josiah, and then we've got his son, Jehoahaz, who gets deported or exiled or kidnapped and taken to Egypt, which means his brother, Jehoahaz's brother, Josiah's other son, Jehoia Kim, is gonna have to reign in his brother's place. This brother reigns for 11 years, and then his son, Jehoia Chin reigns, but Jehoia Chin is gonna 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 kinda say those names, you kinda understand them more and more. So I wanna 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 between 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 intermediary, okay? His go between, yo, tell your people to call my people, you know, it's that kinda 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 shalom, son of Josiah, who's shalom? Well, that's Jehoah's, okay? I'm pretty sure. Wait, let me fact check, is that Jehoah's? Yes, yes, good. Shalom is Jehoah's, 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 Jehoah, Kim. And then last verse 24. Even if you, Jehoah, chin, son of Jehoah, Kim, 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. 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, Jehoiachim, Jehoiachim, and Jehoah has, the Jeremiah's gonna 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's actually being talked about. Also, last thing, just want to remind you of a couple of dates. 609BC is when Faro Nico of Egypt defeats Josiah at Megiddo or Megiddo and Josiah is killed. Faro Nico in 609BC takes Josiah's son, Jehoah has hostage to Egypt. Jehoiachim, who is another son of Josiah, becomes king. Then in 605BC, four years later, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeats Assyria

in Egypt at Karkamish. Babylon takes Judah as a vassal and a small number of young nobility are taken back to Babylon. That's Daniel, Shadrach, Nietzsche and Abednego. In 597BC, Jehoah Kim, Josiah's son, Jehoah Kim, Jehoah has his brother. Okay, rebels against Babylon with Egyptian help. Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem for the first time. Jehoah Kim dies during the siege. His son, Jehoah chin, or Jeccania, becomes king in surrender to Nebuchadnezzar. The first exile takes place. Jehoah chin, 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, okay? 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 Zettikiah is the person being prophesied against,

where 588BC, chapter 24 verse one tells us that it's happening after Nebuchadnezzar had taken King Jehoah chin into exile, okay? And then chapter 25 is actually a summary and a conclusion of the first role 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 gonna be 70 years. We were given many clues to when this conclusion was written and we'll get into that. Essentially, you're gonna have to think my word for it. 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 could do about that because chapters 22 and 23 have one context, chapter 24 have the different historical context and chapter 25 has a different historical context and I figured it would be best to give you all the contexts up front before we even get into the reading. All right, chapter 22, all of the descendants of Josiah are gonna get prophesied against, all of them, okay? Jehovah has, Jehovah Yachim, Jehovah Yachin,

and Zedekiah all gonna get prophesied against. This is going to set up chapter 23 perfectly 'cause what's gonna happen in chapter 23? There's gonna be a prophecy about the righteous branch. And contrast to these failed messiahs. Remember, the kings of Judah are all messiahs 'cause the messiah just means the anointed one. So all of these kings are anointed ones. They're anointed to lead. However, it's gonna become clear in the prophecies against them that they have failed. Therefore, this sets up chapter 23 perfectly 'cause guess who's not going to fail? The real messiah is not gonna fail. chapter 23, verse one, woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pastor 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 and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and accretion number, I will place shepherds over them 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 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 Israel lights 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 that of my covenant loyalty, but my reversal of the 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 gonna 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 gonna deliver you out of the nation to which you are going to be exiled to. So I'm gonna exile you, but then you're gonna experience a new Exodus, okay? So the return of the people to the land of Israel is gonna 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 Jehovah has or Jehovah Him or Jehovah Chin or Zedekiah. He's gonna 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 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 exiled from the land. That's like the big threat that's hung over their heads. If you go after the gods of the bales, 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 remain in the promised land in the city of David. And so with Yahweh, it would be natural therefore to 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 five and seven. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, like these good figs, so our 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 our enemies. And so God is saying actually before you assume that y'all who have stayed in Jerusalem

are the good figs and the exiles, 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 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 gonna 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 weight is over. My brand new book, "Crushing Chaos" is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold in 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 gonna 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. And for those still in Jerusalem, this is chapter 24, verse eight 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 talk, and a 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 gonna last for 70 years, not 25 years. When chapter 25, and in chapter 25, that is when we're gonna get the first information or the first giving of information that the exile is gonna 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 eight to 14 are gonna say, let's start in verse one. Jeremiah chapter 25 is actually the first place where we get the word 70 years, where we get that timeframe, 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 nine, 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 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, And I will make it desolate forever. All right, so I'm gonna bring Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians here to Jerusalem to destroy all of you They're gonna take you off in exile and exile is gonna last for 70 years But when the 70 years are fulfilled, I'm gonna 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 percent gets fulfilled. So just so that you guys know this So did they actually spend 70 years in 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 105 BC 605 BC from the first many deportation to Babylon Remember the one that daniel shadrach Meshach and Abinnego were on to the return from exile under zerubbable 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 zerubbable in 516 So it would go from 586 to 516 Okay, so that 70 years can get seen as From the time of the many 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 can get rebuilt two options I think they're both valid. It's either going to be from 605 to 536 BC or from 586 to 516 BC

whichever one You feel like makes more sense. You go with it. All right You know 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 priest and god or 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 want to 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 would 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 said I 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 At uh in these chapters in the book of jeremaia And so one of the contexts that have shifted is that jerema is not just prophesying to the people anymore He's prophesying to leaders, but is why we focus so much 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 timeless truth and that is the truth that I want to leave you with for today tomorrow We got day 220. Can you believe it? We've been on this journey together for 219 days tomorrow Now we got day 220, we're gonna be in Jeremiah chapters 26 to 29. It's one of the most famous verses in all the Bible. It's gonna 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. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to the Bible department.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.