Text: Jeremiah 37:16-21
Proposition: Why do men seek a word from the Lord?
I. They don’t know the future
II. They need his help in the present
III. They didn’t believe his word in the past
Introduction
Babylon had withdrawn from Jerusalem to go and fight against Egypt. So the people had relief from the siege. Zedekiah had asked Egypt for helped against Babylon, Ezekiel 17:12-18. Egypt had sent an army to help Zedekiah. During this time of relief they enslaved their fellow Hebrews again. They had made a covenant in the house of the Lord to set them free according to what God had commanded them when they came out of Egypt. They were supposed to set them free after six years or if the year of Jubilee was closer they were to go free in the year of jubilee.
Zedekiah sent Jehucal and Zephaniah to Jeremiah to ask him to pray for them. Zedekiah wanted help from the Lord, but he didn’t want to follow his commands. God had already told Jeremiah not to pray for the people, Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14, and 14:11. God had nothing good in the short-term future for the people. They were going to go into 70 years of captivity. The only way they could save themselves was if they listened to the word of the Lord from Jeremiah and surrendered to the Chaldeans.
During the time that the Babylon had left to fight against Egypt, Jeremiah wanted to get away from Jerusalem for a while. Maybe he wanted to find a place to be alone. Jeremiah 9:2 He couldn’t seem to get much accomplished in Jerusalem so he wanted to leave. When he was on his way out of Jerusalem he was arrested and accused of going over to the Chaldeans. This was not true. The Chaldeans were a long way away fighting Egypt. It would be foolish for Jeremiah to try to find them now. He was locked up in the dungeon.
It looks like in this chapter Nebuchadnezzar and his army returned. Zedekiah brings Jeremiah up from the dungeon and asks if there is any word from the Lord.
Jeremiah said there sure is.
Jer 37:17 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
Jer 37:18 Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, What have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?
Jer 37:19 Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?
Zedekiah didn’t know the future. He knew what Jeremiah had been saying, and he hoped his message had changed. It hadn’t. It was the same message.
Zedekiah needed the Lord’s help. He wanted to know if there was any help in what the Lord had to say. The only help the Lord offered was for him to surrender toNebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah hadn’t listened to Jeremiah in the past. If he would have he would know what to do.
I. They don’t know the future (Why do men ask about the future?)
A. God knows the future
1. Isaiah 44:7-8
2. Isaiah 48:3-8
3. God knows what is going to happen. He told his prophets the future. He told Jeremiah the future. He told the people Nebuchadnezzar was coming and he came. He told Hananiah that he would die that year and he died. He told them that they would be in captivity for 70 years and they were.
B. They are scared
1. Zedekiah had good reason to be scared. Nebuchadnezzar had removed his brother Jehoiakim from being king because he rebelled, and placed Jechoniah, Zedekiah’s nephew, on the throne. Jechoniah was taken to Babylon. Then Zedekiah was made king by Nebuchadnezzar. Now he had rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. He had a worse chance of winning a war against Nebuchadnezzar than Jehoiakim or Jehoiachin did. Nebuchadnezzar had taken away the mighty men of valor, the craftsmen and the smiths, and 10,000 captives.
2. Zedekiah doesn’t have a prayer, literally. God had told Jeremiah not to pray for the people. There was no way he was going to win a war against Nebuchadnezzar.
C. Many times we are scared of the future
1. The economy is bad. Jobs are harder to get now. Iran wants to keep enriching uranium. Health care is terribly expensive. There are all kinds of things to worry about. Our worries are minor compared to many people in the world. How would you like to be in Afghanistan between the UN armies and the Al queda armies. Living to see the sun shine the next day would be your worry.
2. Jesus said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow each day has enough trouble of its own.
3. Matthew 6:31-34
4. Psalm 37:23-25
5. God takes care of the righteous.
6. God took care of Jeremiah. He had bread to eat when some in the city were starving. He was locked up in prison, but at least he had something to eat. Nebuzaradan set him free when Jerusalem had been captured.
7. God took care of Elijah. The ravens fed him during a famine.
8. God can take care of us also.
II. They need his help in the present (Why do we ask for his help?)
A. We have problems that are bigger than we can take care of
1. Zedekiah had a big problem. Nebuchadnezzar was more powerful than he was and he had rebelled against him.
2. Zedekiah was hoping for a miracle.
3. Jeremiah 21:1-9, Zedekiah had asked for prayer before, but he had not repented nor had the people.
4. Zedekiah was hoping that God would fight for them like he had for King Hezekiah when Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem. Hezekiah and Isaiah prayed to the Lord and 185,000 in the Assyrian army were dead the next morning.
5. II Chronicles 32:20-22
6. No miracles were going to happen for Zedekiah. He was going to be given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.
7. The only thing he could do was repent and surrender to Nebuchadnezzar.
8. God can help us in our problems if we are willing to repent and keep his commands. If we aren’t willing he won’t because he would have to go against his own command to do so.
B. God is our refuge.
1. Psalms 46:1-11
2. He is our help in time of trouble.
3. God is a refuge to those who love him and keep his commands. He is against those who don’t.
a. I Peter 3:7, If you don’t treat your wife as a weaker vessel he will be against you.
b. If you don’t train and discipline your children, and let them watch TV and play video games then you ask God to help you with your children he won’t. Sometimes parents bring their children to church and they think that if they bring them to church they will turn out all right. Going to church is not enough.
c. Proverbs 22:6, God said, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he won’t depart from it.
d. Ephesians 6:4
e. If you ask God to help you find a good husband or wife, but you are looking in the wrong places and aren’t serving God yourself he won’t help you.
f. God is a refuge to those who keep his commands, but he is against those who don’t.
C. We don’t know what to do
1. Jeremiah 42:1-7
2. These men needed to know what to do. They were afraid. A man named Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the man who Nebuchadnezzar had left in charge after he removed Zedekiah, and he killed the men with Gedaliah. He also took the rest of the people captive who were at Mizpah. Johanan and those with him had defeated Ishmael and took the captives back, but they were afraid Nebuchadnezzar would come back because the one he had left in charge was dead. They wanted to go to Egypt to get away from Nebuchadnezzar. They asked Jeremiah to find out if that is what they should do.
3. Ten days later Jeremiah had an answer for them. He said, “Stay here and don’t go to Egypt. If you stay here God will be with you and will be merciful to you, but if you go Egypt war and famine will come upon you.”
4. Jeremiah 43:1-8
5. When God gives you an answer you don’t like, listen anyway. Don’t say I don’t want to hear it. I will do what I want.
III. They are hoping for a different answer (Why do people want the word of the Lord when they haven’t listened in the past?)
A. Children know that if they don’t get the answer they want if they keep asking they might get an answer they want. Sometimes if they ask one parent and they don’t get an answer they want they will ask the other parent. Seth learned this already. The only mistake he made was he asked while we were both present.
Even adults sometimes do this. One man would do this. He would ask me they same thing several times. I gave him the same answer several times. I don’t know if he thought I was lying to him or if he wanted a different answer.
B. Zedekiah would ask the same thing many times. He kept getting the same answer.
1. Jeremiah 21:1-2
2. Jeremiah 37:17
3. Jeremiah 38:14
4. God hadn’t changed his mind. The answer was the same every time. Zedekiah hadn’t changed and God hadn’t changed.
5. He had watched Jeremiah’s prophecies be fulfilled. He saw his brother Jehoiakim be removed from the throne by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah had prophesied that he would be thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem and that he would have the burial of a donkey. Zedekiah saw Jechoniah, his nephew, removed from the throne as Jeremiah said he would be. He saw Hananiah die the year that Jeremiah said he would.
6. Zedekiah knew that Jeremiah was speaking from the Lord, he just didn’t have the courage to obey.
C. God won’t change his mind
1. Numbers 23:17-20
2. Balak wanted God to change his mind. Balak wanted Balaam to curse the people of Israel for him so that he would be able to defeat them in battle. Balaam couldn’t curse the ones that God had blessed. So he blessed them three times instead of cursing them like Balak wanted.
3. God won’t change his mind.
4. Balak couldn’t change the Lord’s mind no matter how many sacrifices he offered to him.
D. If we keep the Lord’s commands he will bless us and when we pray he will hear our prayer, but if we are like Zedekiah and the people of Judah and we refuse to repent the word of the Lord will be against us no matter how many times we ask.
Conclusion
Live your life so that when you hear the word of the Lord it is pleasant and sweet to you.
Jer 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy
and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
I like the word of the Lord. It lets me know some of the future. We have a place prepared for us. Jesus is coming again. John 14:1-3.
His word helps me know how to live in the present. I can make good decisions based on his word.
His word has helped me make good decisions in the past. His word has helped me to see the mistakes I made in the past so that I don’t make them again.
We have a word from the Lord. Listen to his word and obey it.
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