Isaiah 41: Even in Chaos God Remains

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Chapters

• 0:48 Introduction to Jeremiah 41
• 2:11 Ishmael's Violent Rebellion Unfolds
• 5:34 Chaos Without God's Guidance
• 7:41 Better Plans Need God's Blessing
• 9:57 Closing Prayer and Scripture

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, jeremiah, chapter 41, and today's title is Even in Chaos, god Remains. Even in Chaos, god Remains and, as always, we're going to get into God's Word and into the book of Jeremiah. But one of the things that you can see is God's word is just building on itself as the ministry of Jeremiah continues to go and as we're getting closer and closer to the destruction of Judah, because they're just continuing to not obey the Lord. But even in chaos, god remains. We're going to see what chaos looks like in a kingdom, and so we're going to get all that into seconds.

Speaker 1: 1:07

If you want to get your Bibles out to Jeremiah, chapter 41, while you're doing that, make sure, if you're new around here, you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook they're doing an amazing job there and also make sure you are like, sharing and subscribing to the YouTube channel and the podcast, and make sure you're sharing the Bible Breakdown Discussion on social media. We love the idea of building this community together. It blows my mind that we have people literally from all over the world who are listening and watching as we get into God's Word together. But that's also the challenge. We don't want to just be listening and watching. We want to engage with one another. We want to be part of the community of God. So make sure you're going to those areas and becoming part of our community together. Okay, well, once again, if you have your Bible, so open up with me to Jeremiah, chapter 41. Remember, the overall goal of the gospel of the book of Jeremiah is the idea of a future and a hope, god's light in darkness, and that is what is happening through the ministry of Jeremiah, and that's that's one of the things that's kind of cool, but also we lose if we're not careful. And that is, we are reading the book of Jeremiah one chapter at a time, and so if we're not careful, we feel like that.

Speaker 1: 2:22

You know Jeremiah and we know now Baruch, his assistant, his, the guy who wrote down a lot of it for him. It's almost like we think that he sat down one day and wrote all of this out, but the reality is is this was written over the course of many, many years of the ministry that God gave Jeremiah, as he's living in Jerusalem and he's going up to the temple, probably daily, a lot of times and arguing with these false prophets and warning these kings and all these other people, and he's writing a lot of this down and he's just, over the course of his life, watching Judah get closer and closer to this, this bad place. There's also these moments where it seems as though the nation of Judah wants to return to God, but then they also do these terrible things, and so we can kind of see a little bit of our life right and some of this, and so what we're going to do is we're going to jump into this and we'll stop along the way and see what God's word has to say to us. So if you're ready, jeremiah, chapter 41, verse one, let's jump in. God's word says In mid-autumn of that year, ishmael, son of Nathaniah, the grandson of Elishema, who was a member of the royal family and had been one of the king's high officials, went to Mizpah with ten men to meet Gedaliah while they were eating together.

Speaker 1: 3:36

Now pause. First of all, notice that it's saying that Ishmael was a royal descendant of the king David, so he probably thought he had every right to do what he's about to do. And remember, gadaliah was the one who was kind of put in charge of things. Here we go, verse two, ishmael and the 10 men suddenly jumped up, drew their swords and killed Gadaliah, whom king David of Babylon had appointed governor. Ishmael also killed all the Judeans and the Babylonian soldiers who were with Gadaliah in Mizpah.

Speaker 1: 4:07

The next day, before anyone had heard about Gadaliah's murder, 80 men arrived from Shechem, shiloh and Samaria to worship at the temple of the Lord. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes and cut themselves, and had brought along grain offerings and frankincense. Ishmael left Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went, and when he reached them he said oh, come and see what has happened to Gadaliah. But as soon as they were inside the town, ishmael and his men killed all but ten of them and threw their bodies into a cistern. If you remember from before, a cistern is what they put Jeremiah in. It's basically a big old hole. Verse 8,. The other ten had talked Ishmael into letting them go by, promising to bring him their stores of wheat barley, olive oil and honey that they had hidden away. The cistern where Ishmael dumped the bodies of the men he had murdered was a large one dug by King Asa when he fortified Mishpah to protect himself against King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, filled it with corpses.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Then Ishmael made captives of the king's daughters and other people who had been left under Gedaliah's care at Mishpah in Nebuchadnezzar, the capital of the guard. Taking them with him, he started back toward the land of Ammon. But when Johanan, son of Kareah, and the military leaders heard about Ishmael's crimes, they took all their men and set out to stop him. They caught up with him at the large pool near Gibeon. The people Ishmael had captured shouted for joy when they saw Johanan and the other military leaders, and all the captives of Mizpah escaped and began to help Johanan. Meanwhile, ishmael and eight of his men escaped from Johanan into the land of Amon. Then Johanan, son of Korea, and the other military leaders took all the people they had rescued in Gibeon the soldiers, women, children and court officials whom Ishmael had captured after he killed Gadaliah. They took them all to the village of Geruth-Karim near Bethlehem, where they prepared to leave for Egypt. They were afraid of what the Babylonians would do when they heard that Ishmael had killed Gadaliah, the governor appointed by the Babylonian king.

Speaker 1: 6:31

So what has happened here is Ishmael has gotten just enough, he's fed up with it and he has decided to destroy the people that Babylon had put over the nation of Judah, and to a point, that's probably what anybody would do, right? The idea is is we don't like these foreign invaders, so we're going to fix it. Well, he fixes it in the worst way possible. He starts killing folks left and right, but even then, at the end of the chapter, their biggest fear was not have we honored God, the chapter, their biggest fear was not have we honored God, but what is the earthly kings going to do to us?

Speaker 1: 7:13

And one of the things that is in the mix of all of this is the nation of Judah is just in chaos. They have no idea where to turn. They have no idea what to do. They're using the best they know how but the best they know how, apart from God to try to fix things. And, as you notice, the more they try to quote fix things, the worse it's getting.

Speaker 1: 7:34

And one of the great lessons in this is the whole time Jeremiah is in the background and he is saying guys, we've got to turn back to God. We have to turn back to God. Only God can fix this. Only God can do this. And there's going to be discipline, there's going to be difficulty. The only way to get back is through God, and the unfortunate reality is is people are continuing to try to fix things, but they're trying to do it without God. And I don't know about you, but I have seen that in my life and I've seen that in the lives of friends of mine.

Speaker 1: 8:05

When we want better, we want things to work out better, but instead of turning to God, we turn to our best ideas, and, honestly, our best ideas are good ideas, but unless they are mixed with the goodness of God and his timing and his blessing, good ideas can still lead to nowhere. I mean, for instance, think about it. Did the nation of Judah need foreign rulers to rule them? No, did the nation of Judah. Wouldn't it have been the best thing ever if a descendant of David were to be on the throne? Yes, those things are great.

Speaker 1: 8:42

So Ishmael was on the right track, but he did it the wrong way, because he didn't do it in order to honor God. He did it because he just wanted to. He thought it was the right thing to do, and so a good thing without God's blessing can still lead in the wrong direction, and so that, maybe, is the challenge for us today is, you might be getting frustrated because you're trying to do all the right things but they still end up leading in the wrong direction. Is it possible it's because you're doing the right things, but you're still trying to do it apart from God's goodness? Is it? You're trying to do the right things but you're trying to do it without God? Maybe the very best next step for you is to not change up your whole plan, but it is to get God involved and let him add his blessing to what you're doing. I want you to think on that today. Is it possible that you're not doing anything wrong other than the fact that you haven't got God involved? You're trying to do it by yourself and unintentionally. That will always lead you in the wrong direction. However, if you get God involved in the process, it's amazing how he can multiply your efforts and create something good in your life.

Speaker 1: 9:51

Let's pray together right now, god, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you're with us and that you're for us, lord, that you shine your grace on us in so many ways and you help us to see those missing pieces, those areas, god, where we need you in all things. We need your blessing in all things. You give us the ability to see the things we could never see on our own, and you add your goodness to all things. Help us, lord, to get you involved in every area of our life. In Jesus' name we pray Amen, amen, well, say it with me. Jeremiah 29, 13 says this If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. My hope is that you find God more every day in your life. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Jeremiah, chapter 42.