Jeremiah 41: Even in Chaos God Remains

Transcript

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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

Introduction to Jeremiah 41

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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 .

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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 ,

Ishmael's Violent Rebellion Unfolds

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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 ,

Chaos Without God's Guidance

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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 .

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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 ?

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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 .

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And one of the great lessons in this is the whole time Jeremiah is in the background and he is saying guys

Better Plans Need God's Blessing

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, 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 .

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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 .

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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 .

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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

Closing Prayer and Scripture

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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 .