Day 222: Jeremiah 34-37 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Hey, Bible Nerds, this is 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 thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. Family, welcome to day 222. We are in the Book of Jeremiah. We've got chapters 34, 35, 36, and 37 today. Man, today's reading is great. Actually, we're going to get to know how the Book of Jeremiah even came to be, which is, I think, really cool. It's a nerdy thing to be excited about, but I'm a nerd and I think that's awesome. And you're a nerd too, which is why you are watching this episode. If you have done the reading today, then everything I'm going to say is going to make total sense. If you haven't done the reading today, stop the audio, pause the video, actually do the reading. It's only four short chapters. Nothing super complicated happening in the reading today. So get the reading done and then everything that I'm going to say is going to make total sense. Let's jump right in to context. And like always, we're going to start off with context clues and then I'm going to give you nerdy nuggets and we're going to always leave off with a timeless truth because the goal is not to fill our brains with a bunch of history. The goal is to fill our hearts with love for God. So we're always going to make it relevant to our lives. So let's jump into some context clues. All right, in true typical Jeremiah fashion,

we're going to have multiple contexts for the four chapters. So I'm actually going to spend a little bit extra time talking about context and then I probably won't give you a nerdy nugget for each chapter. We'll probably do less nerdy nuggets, more context. So let's jump into context. OK, for Jeremiah, Chapter 34, and I'll give you context for Chapter 34, Chapter 35, Chapter 36 and Chapter 37. OK, so for Jeremiah, Chapter 34, the context is the second Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. So actually, same context from yesterday's reading of the second Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. Now, some of you may be wondering, second siege, when was the first siege? OK, the second siege is the final siege. The one that ends in 586 BC and the one that ends with Jerusalem being totally demolished, the temple being destroyed and everybody getting carted off in exile. OK, but there was a first siege, an initial siege in 597 BC. This is the siege where Jehoiakim dies during that first siege and his son Jehoiachin or Jeconiah becomes king and surrenders to Nebuchadnezzar. And that's the exile where Ezekiel goes off in exile. OK, so there's the exile where Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego go off in exile. And then there's the exile where Ezekiel goes off in exile. And then there's the final exile where it's over like in that 586 BC. OK, so the context for yesterday's content and the very first chapter of today's content is the second Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, which would be 586 BC. OK, chapter 35, Jeremiah chapter 35. This is where I want to help, OK, because the timeline jumps back

to Jehoiakim's reign. OK, so we're in 586 BC and then we're going to go back into the past. So remember the last five kings of Judah are Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, who's the first siege. OK, Jehoiachin and then Zedekiah. So we go from Zedekiah all the way back to Jehoiakim as we go from chapter 34 to chapter 35. So the context is going to change. And then Jeremiah chapter 36 verse 1 to 8 tells us that this is set in the fourth year of Jehoiakim and chapter 36 verses 9 to 32 actually tell us that this is in the fifth year of the ninth month of Jehoiakim's reign. This would put the writing of the scroll in around 605 or just after Nebuchadnezzar had claimed Judah as his own. 605 is when the Babylonians defeat the Assyrians at Carchemish and Judah goes from being an Assyrian vassal to a Babylonian vassal. Very, very, very important history, very important context for us to understand the book of Jeremiah. and for us to understand a lot of the prophets, but definitely for us to understand the book of Jeremiah. All right, when we get to chapter 36, this context is gonna make a ton of sense, but it means that the public reading and then the subsequent burning of the scroll of Jeremiah could then be placed around 605 or 604 BC. Chapter 34 is 586 BC, and then by the time we get to chapter 35, we're back up into 605 BC. Okay, so we're going back in time. Okay, last chapter 37. Chapter 37, we're going back forward in history again.

Okay, so we're gonna start in 586, we're gonna move back all the way to 605 for two chapters, and then back to 586 BC for the last chapter. So Jeremiah 37 takes place during the Alul in the siege after the Babylonians discover that the Egyptian army has mobilized to help Judah, and we'll talk about that when we get to Jeremiah 37. So I just kinda wanna help orient you to the fact that we're in the present, then we go back to the past, then we go up to the present again. I don't know if you've ever watched a movie with like a flashback, but whenever me and my wife watch movies that have flashbacks, she always gets disoriented. She's like, is that the past? Is it the present? I'm like, the makeup's different. What are you talking about? The clothes are different. The person fell asleep, they're dreaming. But hey, if you're anything like my wife and you get confused with the Bible going from the present to the future to the past, I'm here to help you get oriented. So Jeremiah 34, we're in 586 BC, Jeremiah 35 and 36, we're back all the way in 605 BC, and then Jeremiah 37, we're back in 586 BC, but it's a particular moment where there's a lull in the siege.

Egypt is actually gonna try to come help Judah because Zedekiah does not trust in Yahweh. He still trusts in Egypt, and that whole plan is gonna drastically fail. But while there's a lull in the siege, there are some events that are gonna take place, and we'll get into it in a minute. All right, let's transition into some nerdy nuggets. Hopefully that's enough context for you to really understand and orient yourself as you're reading Jeremiah chapter 34, 35, 36, and 37. All right, Jeremiah chapter 34. While the Babylonians are besieging the city of Jerusalem, Zedekiah attempted to get on Yahweh's good side. Okay, this is actually gonna become the foundation for our timeless truth at the end of the episode, so pay attention. Zedekiah is wanting to get on Yahweh's good side, so he releases all the slaves in the city of Jerusalem. Now, according to Deuteronomy chapter 15, verses 12 to 15, Israelites could have fellow Israelite slaves, usually because of economic hardship, but it was only for a limited time. They could only be enslaved for six years, and on the seventh year, they had to be released and given some compensation. It appears, however, that this rule, that this Sabbath for slaves, or this Jubilee year for slaves was never actually implemented,

that it was never followed or practiced. Zedekiah then, I mean, talk about a belated happy birthday, okay? After hundreds of years, since they actually got the book of Deuteronomy or got this law, Zedekiah goes, hey, let's follow that guideline and let the slaves go. Let's release them in an attempt to get Yahweh to help us. But when the Babylonians left to fight Egypt, this is gonna happen in chapter 37, Zedekiah went back on his word and the slaves' newfound freedom was taken from them, okay? So we'll get into that when we tackle our timeless truth. Let's get into Jeremiah 36, because this is the part of the reading today that excites me the most. I don't know if it's just me, but I love a good backstory, all right? And I love when a book is gonna tell me its own backstory. Okay, so chapter 36, verse one, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Take a scroll and write on it all the words I've spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now. Okay, so it's important to know when is that now? That now is 605 BC. So from the time of Josiah.

from the time of Josiah until now. Now is not the previous chapter actually. So now would be 605 BC. So the reason I spent all that time helping you understand that chapter 34 is 586 BC, but by the time we get to chapter 36 we're back in 605 BC is because the original stroll of Isaiah would not have included chapter 34. The original stroll of Isaiah, what gets originally written in chapter 36 has got to tell us exactly what gets written is done being written in the time of Jehoiakim. Remember the last five kings of Judah are Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. So nothing from the reigns of Zedekiah and Jehoiachin have been written yet. So the original scroll of Jeremiah is probably Jeremiah chapter 1 to Jeremiah chapter 20 and Jeremiah 25, which means Jeremiah chapter 45 to 51 is a whole separate scroll. Jeremiah chapter 30 to 33 is an entirely different scroll. So what we have in the book of Jeremiah is a compilation. It's as if someone took every Michael Jackson album and created a playlist out of those albums. It's not as if the reason that the book of Jeremiah goes from 605 BC back to 586 BC back to 601 BC and then 582. It's like the reason that that's happening is because the person compiling the book of Jeremiah is taking a scroll that is from chapter 1 to chapter 20, a scroll that has chapter 25, a scroll that's just chapter 30 to 33, multiple different scrolls, and they're combining all these works together. Okay, let's see what happens. So verse 4, so Jeremiah called Baruch. I think the right pronunciation is actually Baruch. It may be Baruch though. Baruch. I like Baruch, son of Neriah. And while Jeremiah dictated all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll. Then Jeremiah told Baruch, I'm restricted. I'm not allowed to go to the Lord's temple. So you go, because remember, Jeremiah is being persecuted. He can't go to the temple. He's already given a temple sermon that did not go well. Okay. People are very, very upset with Jeremiah. He's scared he's going to get arrested. So Baruch goes down to the temple on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll, the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated, read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns. Perhaps they will bring their petition before the Lord and will each turn back from their wicked ways for the anger and wrath pronounced against his people by the Lord is great. Baruch did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do. And at the Lord's temple, he read the words of the Lord from the scroll. This is probably Jeremiah chapter one and chapter 20 and chapter 25. And the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, a time of fasting before the Lord was

proclaimed for all the people in Jerusalem. And those who came from the town of Judah and Baruch is going to read everything. Okay. This is not going to go well. Okay. It's going to say this down verse 14, all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nathaniah, the son of Shalamiah, the son of Kushai to say to Baruch, bring the scroll from which you have read to the people and come. So Baruch, son of Nariah went to them with a scroll in his hand. They said to him, sit down, please, and read it to us. So Baruch read it to them. So he read it in public and he has to read in private to the leaders because they want to know what he's saying. They looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, we must report all these words to the king. Then they asked Baruch, tell us how did you come to write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it? Yes, Baruch replied. He dictated all these words to me and I wrote them in ink on the scroll. Then the official said to Baruch, you and Jeremiah go and hide. Don't let anybody know where you are. After they put the scroll in the room, I'm actually going to skip down to verse 22. It was a ninth month and the king was sitting in his winter apartment with a fire burning in the fire pot in front of him. When Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with the scribe's knife and threw them into the fire pot until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. So now all of Baruch's work is burned, destroyed. Now verse 27, after the king burned the scroll containing And in the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim, King of Judah burned up. Also tell Jehoiakim, King of Judah, this is what the Lord says, you burn that scroll and said, why did you write on it that the King of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from it both man and beast. Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim, King of Judah.

He will have no one to sit on the throne of David. His body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night. I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their wickedness. I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah, every disaster I pronounced against them because they have not listened. So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch, son of Neriah. And as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote again on it, all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim, King of Judah had burned in the fire. And many more words were added to them. And guess what the many more words are? The many more words are chapter 31 to 33, chapters 41 to 50 to 51. I mean, a lot got added. So original Jeremiah is chapter one of chapter 20 and chapter 25. That is what got burned, okay, by Jehoiakim. And because Jehoiakim, why does Jehoiakim burn it? That's also a great question. I'm so glad you asked. He burned it because what Jeremiah is saying is treason. Treason. I know for the past couple of days, I've been saying, oh, it's unpatriotic. It's not patriotic.

That's not strong enough language. It's treason. Jeremiah, a Jewish man, is prophesying and spreading this information amongst the people that the King of Babylon is going to come to Jerusalem and punish every single inhabitant of Jerusalem for their idolatry and their injustice and their wickedness. And the King is like, this is treason. You are going against the word of the political agenda of Israel, of Judah. Absolutely not. You are banned. Your scribe is banned. Burn the scroll. And burning books is not a new thing, okay? Jehoiakim is like, burn the books. But this isn't our timeless truth, but it's a good nugget to say more wars are fought with a pen than with a sword. It means that you can kill whoever you wanna kill, but ideas will never die. People will die. Humans will die. You can kill people all you want, but guess what? Words, words don't die. And so actually, if you've got an ax to grind, and if you've got ideas that you want to spread, then you better get out your laptop or get out a pen and you better write.

And I remember going to my friend, Andrew Damasio's office when me and my wife were struggling with infertility, and he had all of his dad's books and he had them in leather bound cases. And he was so proud of his dad's writing. And I made a commitment that day that I was gonna be a writer, that I was gonna be somebody who wrote, that my sermons will only reach the people that are in the room or the people watching on YouTube, but books are able to reach people that you've never met or that you don't even know. And so I started writing letters to my son when he was an infant. I remember writing letters to my son when he was a newborn. I started writing up book, book manuscripts for books, writing papers for school. Just, I just got something in me that said, I'm gonna be a writer. And Jeremiah dictates all these words to a scribe named Baruch. And he's the unsung hero, to be totally honest, because not only does he write all this stuff down, but then it gets burned by Jehoiakim and Baruch is willing to write it all again. And man, my unsung hero award for the day, doesn't just go to Jeremiah, but it goes to Baruch because great ministry is done in teens. And without Baruch, we don't have the book of Jeremiah. Without someone who's willing to just sit there

and listen to Jeremiah talk and write everything down, we don't have the book of Jeremiah. And guess who seemed like they were the big bad king in 605 BC, Jehoiakim. I'm able to burn this. I'm able to put you in prison. I'm able to cut off the words with a knife, but guess who's got the last laugh? Jeremiah's got the last laugh because we're not sitting here reading the book of Jehoiakim, we're sitting here reading the book of Jeremiah because wars are not fought with swords, they're fought with a pen. So if you have ideas that are worth spreading, then you better get serious about writing. your ideas down. There are so many times where I felt like I got an idea from the Lord, but I didn't write it down fast enough. And that's me not being a good steward over the thoughts, the revelation, the ideas that God's given. What I love is that Jeremiah wasn't thinking to write any of this stuff down. But because he had a great teammate named Baruch, it did get written down and it did get preserved. And we do get to read it. And because we get to read it, we get to understand the character and the nature of God. And I know that feels like a timeless truth, but it's not a timeless truth, but it's a nugget. It's a timeless nugget. I know I do nerdy nuggets and timeless truths, but that's a timeless little nugget, okay? If there's a gift that God's given you to write, or God's given you a message, then you need to get the discipline that's necessary so you can write that stuff down. Because wars are not fought with the sword, wars are fought with a pen. We can burn. There's this really cool movie. I actually don't remember the name of it. Michael B. Jordan is in the movie. And it's a movie where they burn books. There are actually no more books. And there's this colony of people that they have books. And when the main character finally reaches this colony, they're like, do you want to see the books? And they're like, yeah,

no one has ever seen books. And then they point him to a little child. And it's like, I thought you were going to show me a book. And this kid has dedicated his life to memorizing every word from every major piece of literature in history. And man, as soon as I saw and then heard this kid talking, I just went, oh God, Lord. I just thought about my wife who smuggled Bibles into China. And although you're not able to have physical Bibles, they'll get a page of the scriptures. They'll memorize the page and they'll turn the page back in at church and somebody else will be able to get that page. The movie is called Fahrenheit 451. And it's actually a solid movie. Books have been banned. Literally there are no books, but there's this kid who's the embodiment of all the books. And I remember thinking to myself, man, I want to be that person. Man, if Bibles were to disappear today, if Logos was to shut down today, how much of God's word have I committed to memory? How much of his word is in my heart? If you were here from yesterday, we talked about bleeding Bible. Man, I want to be the kind of person that bleeds Bible. I want the word of God to be in my heart. I want it to be in my heart like a fire. I'm weary of holding it in. Indeed, I cannot. All right, let's get to our timeless truth and let's end the episode. Let's land the plane. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere books 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. The release of the slaves is quite a challenging story. So we're going all the way back to chapter 34 when Zedekiah releases the slaves. So he releases the slaves and he needed help from Yahweh and so offered him something in return. He would obey Yahweh's laws that he had ignored for so long. But this was not repentance. It was not turning back to the Torah. This was Zedekiah being good so that he could get what he wanted from Yahweh. And this is the difference between repentance and bribing God. God cannot be bribed. Zedekiah is attempting to bribe God. Hey God, I need something from you. So let me find a law that I haven't been obeying and let

me obey it. And by obeying it, I'm going to now get favor with you. And if you think that works, that does not work, that is called spiritual manipulation. That is called haggling with God. That's called bribing God. And God cannot be bribed. However, God does want you to actually repent. And repentance means regardless of the consequences, I repent. This is why sometimes I get a little annoyed when people... Like, oh man, I got pregnant and you know, I got pregnant out of wedlock and we make a big deal of people getting pregnant out of wedlock. I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There's a whole bunch of people having sex and not getting pregnant and that's sin too. But because there's no consequence attached to it, then there's no repentance. And real repentance is not to do away with a consequence. The consequence, this is why it matters whether or not somebody got caught in sin and so they're confessing or whether or not somebody is confessing because they feel guilty about what they did. One person is trying to mitigate the consequences and one person is genuinely repentant before God. So we have to be careful that the consequences don't make us repent, but the fact that, man, I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit that that makes me repent. And the sin is not getting pregnant. The sin is having sex out of God's covenant of marriage. And so often the church or religious institutions

focus so heavily on the consequences of our sin that we don't actually get to the root cause, which is your heart is not aligned with God's heart. And repentance is not trying to avoid consequences. Repentance is not bribing God. Repentance is turning your heart and saying, God, I wanna love the things that you love. I wanna hate the things that you hate. And I'm not just trying to change my behavior or modify my behavior. I'm trying to change my heart so that I would actually desire what you desire. And I will avoid sin because you changed me from the inside out. Zedekiah is not the only person who tries to bribe God. We try to bribe God all the time. And I want you to ask yourself a hard question. Am I truly repentant or am I trying to bribe God and manipulate God and change the outcome of my scenario instead of just focusing on changing me? That is our timeless truth for the day. And I will see you tomorrow. Tomorrow we got Jeremiah chapters 38, 39, 40, and 41. Man, if you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. Even if you're not, I'm proud of you. I love you. And I'll see you right here tomorrow as we keep on studying this amazing book called Jeremiah. Love you guys.

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 thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.