Day 223: Jeremiah 38-41 | 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 223, the climax of the book of Jeremiah is actually here. Not the climax, but the climactic event. Jerusalem is going to fall. Jerusalem is going to be destroyed in today's reading and Jerusalem is gonna get burned to the ground. The temple is gonna get destroyed. And the thing that Jeremiah has been prophesying about, like the thing that Jeremiah has been warning everybody about is actually going to happen in today's reading. I'm actually like, because I've been following the narrative and following the journey, I'm like oddly emotional about talking about it. I'm like, oh my gosh, this thing that we've been anticipating for so long is actually going to happen. If you've done the reading for the day, then you already know that that is what happens in today's reading. If you haven't done the reading for the day, you are missing out. I promise that these episodes are way better when you come into them having already done the reading. So if you haven't done the reading, which would be Jeremiah chapters 38, 39, 40 and 41,

then how about you pause the video, stop the audio and go do the reading and come on back. Let's jump into context. The context for all of these chapters are gonna be the final days of the fall of Jerusalem. Like the final days of the siege of Jerusalem and then the actual fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. This is a unfortunately climactic event. Like it's not a climactic event and then it's good or exciting. It's climactic in that it's devastating and that Jeremiah has just been talking about it for so long. So let's open. Yeah, so Jeremiah 38 is the final days and weeks of the siege of Jerusalem, which would be 586 BC. But then Jeremiah chapter 39 to 41. So Jeremiah chapter 38 is the final days and weeks of the siege and then Jeremiah chapter 39 to 41 deal with the fall of Jerusalem and the aftermath. So chapter 31, verse one and two says that the siege began in the 10th month of the ninth year of Zedekiah and that it ended on the ninth day of the fourth month of the 11th year of Zedekiah, which is probably July of 586 BC. Now here's, I'm getting into a nerdy nugget already. This is super nerdy. Is that one of the things that's gonna happen just in the Bible as Judah goes from being in a Syrian vassal to a Babylonian vassal is that you're gonna start to see way more precise dates.

Okay, precision around dates. If there's something that the Babylonians were kind of famous for, it was calendars and keeping time and keeping a way more accurate count of time. Okay, so I know that's super nerdy, that's really, really detailed, but I think that's what you're here for. I think, right, yeah. So when we get into, hey, this day of this month of this year, that is Babylonian influence, 100%. And you can even see that shift happening in the book of Isaiah. When in the earliest chapters of the book of Isaiah, you're just getting the year. But as the book of Isaiah progresses and the Babylonians begin to be more and more dominant and more and more influential, not only do you get the years, but you're gonna start getting months, okay? And so we're gonna get in Jeremiah chapter 39, that the siege ended on the ninth day of the fourth month of the 11th year of King Zedekiah's reign. All right, so that's the context. We are finally at the last days, the last weeks of the siege of Jerusalem, the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the final siege that is going to end in the fall of Jerusalem. And then we're going to actually get the fall of Jerusalem in today's reading.

All right, let's dive into nerdy nuggets. Let's dive into chapter 38, okay? When Jeremiah 38 opens, Jeremiah is prophesying political treason. Hey, stop fighting the Babylonians, let them in. They are God's instrument to punish us. We deserve to die. We deserve punishment. Let them in, okay? This is treason. And so, Jeremiah, Jeremiah is going to get thrown into a cistern that's full of mud and honestly, he's almost going to die. Okay. He has to get rescued by somebody. Jeremiah is warning the people, begging them to throw themselves on Nebuchadnezzar's mercy as that was the only way they could realistically survive the fall of Jerusalem. This message though is considered treason by the officials of Jerusalem and Zedekiah, the king is powerless to protect Jeremiah. So Jeremiah is infamously thrown into a mud filled cistern and abandoned there to die. It was this experience that would soon inspire the end of what is perhaps one of the most beautiful and hopeful chapters written during this dark time. Lamentations chapter three. All right. So you may not know this, but the book of Lamentations is based on the word lament. Lament means to weep, to mourn, to grieve. Okay. Lament. Jeremiah writes the book of Lamentations and what is he lamenting about? He's lamenting the fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of Jerusalem.

That's what the entire book of Lamentations is about. And Lamentations chapter three is based on this experience in Jeremiah chapter 38. For us reading Jeremiah chapter 38, Lamentations chapter three is our nerdy nugget. But when we get to Lamentations, Jeremiah chapter 38 will become our context clue. Okay. Because these two texts are interconnected. Let's read Lamentations chapter three verses 55 to 57. I'll read it from my laptop. I called on your name, O Yahweh, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea. Do not close your ear to my cry for help. You came near when I called to you. You said, do not fear. That's Lamentations chapter three, verse 55 to 57. Yahweh rescued Jeremiah through the hands of Ebed-Melech, a guy, a man by the name of Ebed-Melech. Yahweh would also rescue the people of Israel and Judah too, if they called out in faith. That's the entire point of chapter 38, that Jeremiah is preaching and prophesying. The people do not like what he has to say. They see it as treason and they throw him into a mud filled cistern and they leave him to die. But he prays from the cistern. What does he say? Lamentations chapter three says, I called on your name, O Yahweh, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea. Do not close your ear to my cry for help. You came near when I called to you. You said, do not fear. And so the same way that God is going to work through the hands of Ebed-Melech to save Jeremiah,

Jeremiah then uses this as a framework to give comfort, consolation, hope to the people that although our society or our people group or our ethnic group is in the pit, I mean, Jerusalem is destroyed. The temple is burned down to the ground. This is plummeted, like plumbled, like Babylon has come in and leveled the city. Although we are in a pit, God will rescue us if we actually return to him and call on his name. All right. Jeremiah chapter 39 is really, really unfortunate because Zedekiah attempts to flee the falling city with his sons and the remnant of his army. This is just a cowardly move. Okay. Your city is getting torched to the ground. The siege is finally breaking and the Babylonians are marching into your city and you're not going to go down with the people. You're going to try to flee. But Zedekiah is captured and brought to Nebuchadnezzar. And the last thing that Zedekiah sees with his eyes before Nebuchadnezzar takes his eyes out, I don't know if you knew that, Zedekiah gets his eyes gouged out. That's got to be just the top five most painful things of life. It's like, I'm alive and you're just going to take my eyeballs out? While I'm here? Just kill me, bro. Just, I'm good. Okay. So Zedekiah gets his eyes gouged out. What's the last thing that they let him see before they gouged out his eyes are all his nobles are killed in front of him. His sons and his nobles are all killed in front of him as the last thing that he's able to see.

Zedekiah himself is not. killed, but taken in chains to Babylon. In contrast, I need you to see this, in contrast, this is why I'm saying what Jeremiah is prophesying is treason, okay? Because in contrast, Nebuchadnezzar puts the word out, like I want to meet this Jeremiah guy, this Jeremiah guy who's been prophesying that I'm a good guy, look, I want to meet this guy, okay? So Zedekiah goes off in chains to Babylon. In contrast, Nebuchadnezzar sends out word to not kill Jeremiah, but to look after him and give him whatever he needs. It seems that even the great Nebuchadnezzar had heard of Jeremiah and his message, that there was a prophet in Jerusalem telling the people to submit to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar probably heard from those who listened to Jeremiah and fled the city and surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, which means Jeremiah is saved by those who listened to his words and brought his message to King Nebuchadnezzar, and that right there is incredible vindication. There's no better vindication than the king that has helped persecute me just got let off into exile with his eyes gouged out, and here I am standing before King Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar is grateful. Thanks for telling people to surrender, man. Thanks for doing me a solid. Now we transition into chapter 40. I'll give you some nerdy nuggets for chapter 40. Jeremiah is given a choice. If he wants to go to Babylon, he'll be cared for in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is like, I got you. You can go to Babylon. You'll be good. But instead, Jeremiah chooses to stay in Jerusalem. Even though he has the option of a pretty dope retirement plan in Babylon, he decides to stay in the city that Zedekiah was just trying to flee from. I want you to see leadership. I don't know if you remember this, but during George Bush Jr.'s presidency, he got really criticized. He got criticized heavily for not visiting New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit because the reason that our society at large was critical was because great leaders don't run from disaster. They run towards disaster. That's what good leaders do. Good leaders don't neglect the people and bounce. Good leaders are like, I'll go down with the ship. When I was in

Rwanda, I was studying the Rwandan genocide. There were two types of pastors all throughout Rwanda as Hutus marched into churches to kill Tutsis. There were two kinds of pastors. Here's the first kind. There were pastors who literally got their congregations together and allowed the Hutus to come in and kill them so that they could earn their own freedom. There were Tutsi pastors who got Tutsis into churches, and that's how they bought their own freedom from the Hutus. The two people groups in Rwanda that were fighting against each other are Hutus and Tutsis. If you don't know this, you should maybe watch the movie Hotel Rwanda with Don Cheadle. Phenomenal movie. It'll help give context to the Rwanda genocide. Then there was a different group of pastors. Pastors who died with their people. Pastors who would dare not feed their people as food to the slaughter, like as lambs to the slaughter. Pastors who would dare not save their own life but watch their people die. Pastors who would rather die with their sheep like good shepherds than feed their sheep to the slaughter so that they could go and be free. Jeremiah is like, I'm staying in Jerusalem. Whereas Zedekiah is trying to flee the city to save his own behind. How does it end for Zedekiah? He gets his eyes gouged out because cowards will meet a coward's destiny. Jeremiah is 10 toes down. He's like, I'm going to say what God told me to say. I'm going to say it if it's popular. I'm going to say if it's not popular. His life is hard and difficult. No wife, no kids. He's persecuted. He's whipped. He's in prison, in the stocks, persecuted, made fun of, ridiculed, insulted. But we get down to the end. Nebuchadnezzar is like, you can retire in Babylon, bro. And what does Jeremiah say? Nah, I'm good. I'm going to stay in Jerusalem. I'm going to be a shepherd to the people that are right here. Even now, Jeremiah does not abandon the city and what was left of its people. Jeremiah remained the loyal servant of both Yahweh and the people. He never stopped being a prophet. 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. Then, Jeremiah chapter 41. Okay, the story then goes that in the next three months. So, there's two things that are going to happen in three months. So, let's stick with Jeremiah 40 and then we'll transition to Jeremiah 41. Sorry, Jeremiah chapter 40. The story goes that in the next three months, Jeremiah put to writing the suffering, the pain, and the agony of what he saw in the city of Jerusalem and what the people had gone through. He gave voice to all of the pain and suffering that the people had experienced. And the book that is produced based on him giving voice to people's pain is the book that we know as Lamentations. And so, we have this incredible book because Jeremiah decided to not take the retirement plan in Babylon, but to stay with the people in Jerusalem. All right, Jeremiah chapter 41. Within three months. So, obviously, when Nebuchadnezzar levels the city, destroys Jerusalem, knocks down the temple, burns it to the ground. Okay, he has to set up like a governor, somebody who's actually going to rule in his place. So, within three months of the Babylonians leaving, the remnant of the people in Jerusalem rise up against the governor. His name is Gedaliah. He is the man that Nebuchadnezzar has set over them, and they killed him, thus starting a chain reaction that would lead to a new Jewish colony that would have a huge effect on the world. A colony that would give Jews their greatest philosopher, whose name is Philo. By the way, you could Google Philo if you want to. He's from Alexandria, Egypt.

That would result in the Greek translation of the Bible, and that would give a place for the holy family, Mary and Joseph, to hide from King Herod. So, this is going to start a chain reaction, and God's going to use it for his glory because lots of good things are actually going to come out of this Jewish colony being set up in Egypt. But the only reason that they are in Egypt is because they murder the governor of Jerusalem, and Nebuchadnezzar is after them, and they have to flee. So, they become refugees in Egypt because they are running from the law. And we'll get into that complicated story in tomorrow's chapters. But, timeless truth. I just got four words in my notes for our timeless truth for the day, and it's praise from the pit. I can remember there was an Easter service that we had at Social Dallas. It's a church that I've been a part of for the last couple of years, and Pastor Robert put an orchestra, and the orchestra was in the pit. And he always said, I remember him saying, like, yo, the hardest thing to do is to give praise from the middle of the pit, to give praise from the bottom of the pit. That it's easy to give God praise and glory when you're on the mountaintop, but what's hard is giving praise from the pit. And he said, but the best orchestras are always in a pit. The best music comes from the pit. The best praise comes from the pit. And Jeremiah understands how to not give up on praising the Lord when you're in the worst scenario of your life. I can imagine, like, being in a cistern, like, cisterns are huge, and it being full of mud, and just choking, like, I mean, suffocating, and feeling like you're going to die. But with your last breath, and your last words, you decide to give God praise, and to give him glory. And God sends a random man by the name of Ebed-Melech to save Jeremiah from the pit. And this becomes the theme of Lamentations chapter 3. That although Jerusalem has been burned down to the ground, the temple has been destroyed, although the people fill it up. like their lives are in a pit that they still should call out to the name of the Lord, that praise is not just reserved for my best days, but praise is also reserved for my worst days. And I don't know if you've ever been in a pit, a pit of depression, a pit of anxiety, a pit of confusion, a pit of suffering, a pit of a medical diagnosis that feels hopeless, a pit of bankruptcy, a pit of debt, whatever that pit has been for you, can I give you a challenge? That maybe, maybe, just maybe God is actually looking at you in the pit and the thing that he wants from you is not a complaint, but for you to praise. And maybe, just maybe he has an ebed melech, a person who he is going to lead to your pit to actually rescue you from the scenario that you're in. And when the rescuing happens, you're going to regret the fact that you had

complaints and you didn't have praise. And so I want to challenge you that in the middle of the pit, can you actually reserve your best praise for the God who still deserves it even when life is bad? He is good. That's our timeless truth for the day. That's not just true for Jeremiah. That's not just true for Jeremiah chapter 38 and lamentations chapter three. That's true forever that even in the pit, God deserves praise. All right. I'll see you tomorrow. Tomorrow we got day 224. We're in Jeremiah chapters 42, 43, 44, and 45 tomorrow. It's going to be good. I already know what we're talking about, so I already know it's going to be dope. So I'll see you right here tomorrow. If you're on a streak, keep it up. I'm so, so, so proud of you. I love you guys so much. I'll 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 it 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.