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The Bible Breakdown
Jeremiah 40: Hope to Rebuild
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, jeremiah chapter 40, and today's title is Hope to Rebuild Hope to Rebuild. I don't know if you have ever talked to someone, or maybe you've experienced yourself someone who has lost maybe their home or something like that, or maybe a relative or just something, where they've really hit rock bottom and they've had to figure out a way to pick up the pieces and move forward. And if you ever talk to them, you're probably going to hear from them what I feel like God's word is going to teach us today, and so I look forward to getting in this together. And if you're someone who's experiencing that right now, god's word has some hope for you, and so, if you have your Bibles, want to open up with me to Jeremiah chapter 40. While you're doing that, as always, I want to tell anyone new here make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast, make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, doing a wonderful work there, and the more we dig, the more we find.
Speaker 1:Well, once again, jeremiah chapter 40 is on the aftermath of all of the worst nightmares for the nation of Israel finally coming true. And so for years Jeremiah has had this central message that if we don't turn around and if we don't turn to, god judgment's succumbing. And even then there's always this hope in a future. That's kind of peppered in with all of this. But he's saying we've got to make the right decision here, guys. And they don't. Over and over again they don't. They even throw a poor guy into jail. They throw him into a big old hole called a cistern where he almost dies, pull him out of there, put him back in jail All this stuff. And then, after two and a half years of siege, nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian army, they break down the walls of Jerusalem. They slaughter a whole bunch of people. I mean it's terrible, it's just terrible stuff that happened. And then after that, apparently there were some defectors that had gotten out of Jerusalem because somehow word got to Nebuchadnezzar that there's a guy named Jeremiah who is inside the city walls and he's telling them to surrender. Now I don't know, maybe Nebuchadnezzar thought that Jeremiah was doing him a solid, but that's not what he was doing. He was trying to help his countrymen and say listen, god has told us he's going to destroy this city. So we need to do it for our own good. Well, they must've thought he was on a different side, because after the city walls fell, nebuchadnezzar says to his captain of the guard Nebuchadnezzar, hey, go find Jeremiah, that guy who had been trying to help us all this time, and don't make sure he doesn't die. Well, now we get to see the aftermath of what's going on and see how the rebuilding process starts. You ready?
Speaker 1:Jeremiah, chapter 40, verse 1, says this the Lord gave a message to Jeremiah after Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, had released him at Ramah. He had found Jeremiah bound in chains among the other captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being sent to exile in Babylon. Now pause, remember we told you several chapters ago that what they were doing was is they had a staging ground in this place called Ramah and they would put all of the people they were going to exile to this place in Ramah. If they're there, they would disperse them all over the Babylonian empire. And that's how the Babylonian empire kind of kept their kingdom so secure is. They would take these people and they would just scatter them everywhere so that nobody could ever get together to create kind of a mutiny. That's how they kept their empire intact. And so Jeremiah was about to be dispersed and Nebuchadnezzar found him and stopped it from happening.
Speaker 1:Verse 2, Captain of the Guard called for Jeremiah and said the Lord, your God, has brought this disaster on this land, just as he said he would. For these people have sinned against the Lord and disobeyed him. That is why it happened. But I am going to take your chains off and let you go. If you want to come with me to Babylon, you're welcome, but I see that you are well cared for. I will see that you are well cared for, but if you don't want to come, you may stay here. This whole land is before you. Go wherever you like. If you decide to stay, then return to Gedaliah, son of Hakeem, the grandson of Shaphan. He has been appointed governor of Judah by the king of Babylon. Stay there with the people. He rules, but it's up to you. You go wherever you like. Then Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, gave Jeremiah some food and money and let him go.
Speaker 1:So Jeremiah returned to Gadaliah, son of Akeem, at Mizpah, and he lived in Judah with the few who were still left in the land. Now we're going to learn about Gadaliah and what he does Verse 7. These included women and children who hadn't been exiled to Babylon. So they went to see Gedaliah at Mizpah. These included Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, johanan, son of Jonathan, sons of Kariah, saraiah, son of Tethumath, and the sons of Ephah, the Nephathite, jezaniah, son of Hecathiat, and all their men. Gedaliah vowed to them that the Babylonians meant them no harm. Don't be afraid to serve them. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well for you, he promised. As for me, I will stay at Mizpah to represent you before the Babylonians who come to meet with us Settle in the towns you have taken and live off.
Speaker 1:The Ammon, edom and the other nearby countries heard that the king of Babylon had left a few people in Judah and that Gadaliah was their governor. They began to return to Judah from the places at which they had fled. They began to return to Judah from the places at which they had fled. They stopped at Mizpah to meet with Gadaliah and then went to the Judean countryside to gather the great harvest of grapes and other crops.
Speaker 1:But soon after this, johanan, son of Kariah, and the other military leaders came to Gadaliah at Mizpah. They said Did you know that Balas, king of Ammon, has sent Ishmael, son of Natiah, to assassinate? Private conference with Gadaliah and volunteered to kill Ishmael secretly. Why should we let him come and murder you? Johanan asked what will happen to the Judeans who have returned? Why should a few of us who are left be scattered and lost? But Gedaliah says to Johanan I forbid you to do such a thing, for you are lying about Ishmael. And unfortunately, nope, he wasn't lying about Ishmael at all. Joker gonna die. And that is what it looked like at the beginning.
Speaker 1:Because what tends to happen after disaster is chaos, because all you have is pieces. And when all you have left is pieces, there's a vacuum for power, and all these different things try to take control. And that's what we see with the situation with Gadaliah. He's trying to take control, but because there's a vacuum of power, people are starting to jockey for position and poor Gadaliah spoiler alert that joke is going to die. And it turns out that they were telling the truth. Well, what in the world has that got to do with us? Well, there's hope to rebuild, but this is what you've got to do.
Speaker 1:This is what tends to happen when something bad happens, something shatters. It could be anything in our life. It could be a home burns down, a precious loved one passes away, a business closes any number of things that happens. Where you find your life in tatters and in pieces, there becomes a vacuum for power, the pain and the hurt that's there. There's so many different things that want to come in and want to take over. It could be strongholds, it could be addictions to medicate the pain that we're feeling. It could be so many different things and there's just these pieces. That's everywhere.
Speaker 1:But what we have to do when we remember is we have to remember to focus our attention on the Lord and then take one small step at a time, because what you see here is you see two different people and how they are reacting to what's going on. You've got this one guy get a liar who's trying to consolidate power. He's trying to take over, he's trying to just power through and he ends up suffering the consequences. On the other side, you've got Jeremiah, who is slowly going to start over and he's going to pick up the pieces. One going to start over and he's going to pick up the pieces one step at a time. His first step was simply to go home. His next step is going to be go find his home and he's going to slowly pick up the pieces.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I've experienced? When I've talked to people who've been through very, very difficult times and I've asked them you know, how did you make it? Because I've seen so many people experience what Gedaliah experienced, where he tries to okay, I'm gonna take the bull by the horns, I'm gonna fix all this, and within two months we're gonna be better, and every once in a while it works, but most of the time they self-destruct. And then, when I see people who they've experienced the same kind of loss, same kind of difficulty but I see them later on down the road and they're doing better I asked them how did you make it through something so devastating? You know what I've heard just about all the time is, they said we decided that we were going to move forward, trusting God and going one day at a time, one step at a time, like Jeremiah.
Speaker 1:And so, as you're listening to this, my hope for you is that you will never have a tragedy in your life. I wish that for you. I wish that no one close to you ever passes away. I wish to you that you never experience any kind of loss in any kind of way at all, no disappointments. But I know that life's not like that.
Speaker 1:I know that those kinds of things do happen, and so the question becomes what are we going to do when that happens? What many of us are going to try to do is we're going to try to just get mad, just get angry, just get all the things, and what's going to end up happening for a lot of us is that vacuum of power is going to happen, and because of the hurt, because of the pain, many times that's how addictions are formed, that's how massive mistakes happen and all that kind of stuff Cause we try to fix it so fast, when really, a lot of times, what I've heard from so many people is to do what Jeremiah did, one small step at a time. Just say I have no idea what the future looks like, but I know who holds the future, and so I'm going to take one step at a time and I'm going to build one step at a time, but I'm not going to do it by myself. I'm going to gather my people around me and start to make a difference. That's my hope for you today, one step at a time, you're able to find that hope to rebuild anything that life has broken. Let's pray together right now.
Speaker 1:God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you are with us and for us. Lord, you see us and you want to be there with us every step of the way. Lord, I have no idea what maybe different people are going through right now, but what I do know is you are faithful. I pray you'll be faithful in our lives today and help us to take that one step at a time closer to you. In Jesus' name. We pray Amen, amen. Well, god's word says in Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 13,. If you will look for me, wholeheartedly, say it with me, you will find me. My hope for you is that every day we find God fresh and new in our lives. I love you. See you tomorrow for Jeremiah, chapter 41.
