Text: Jeremiah 40:1-3
Proposition: Why does calamity come upon people?
I. God promises calamity will come
II. They sin against the Lord
III. They don’t listen to the Lord
Introduction
Jeremiah was released from the court of the guardhouse by the top ranking officers of Babylon according to Nebuchadnezzar’s orders, but somehow he was he was chained up again by the Babylonians and taken to Ramah to Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard. He was with all the others who were to be exiled to Babylon. Nebuzaradan saw him and he told him God has promised calamity against them, they sinned against the Lord, and they didn’t listen.
This is what Jeremiah had been telling the people for many years and they didn’t believe him. Now Nebuzaradan is telling the people that Jeremiah was right.
There are no doubts now about who the true prophet was and who the false prophet was.
I. God promises calamity will come. (What did God promise would come?)
A. They would be taken captive.
1. Deuteronomy 28:15, 28-36, 41, 47-58
2. Jeremiah told them exactly what God had told them about 900 years before. They could look in the book of the law and read for themselves what would happen if they went after other gods and served them
3. II Kings 21:10-16
4. Jeremiah 15:1-4
B. Calamity will come upon us
1. God has promised calamity to anyone who sins against him and doesn’t listen.
2. Galatians 6:7-8
3. If you live foolishly reap foolishness
4. I read in the paper about sexting. Even middle school age kids do this. A girl sent her boyfriend a picture of herself nude. They broke up so he sent her picture to several other people and those people sent it so other people. She is underage so her picture is child pornography. It is a felony to produce child pornography. It is a felony to distribute child pornography.
5. That is a stupid thing to do to yourself.
6. Worse than this is the eternal calamity that will come upon those who don’t listen to God
7. Revelation 21:8
II. They sin against the Lord (What sins bring calamity?)
A. Idolatry
1. Jeremiah 8:1-2, They worshipped the sun and the moon and the stars. Those who died during the siege would not be buried. The graves of others would be dug up and their bones would be spread out under the sun and the moon and the stars.
2. Jeremiah 8:14-19, they angered God by worshipping other gods.
3. Jeremiah 50:1-3, Calamity was going to come upon Babylon for their idolatry
4. Jeremiah 50:35-40, Babylon would be desolate. Babylon was one of the first cities after the flood.
5. Genesis 10:8-10, Nimrod was the founder of Babel or Babylon. The city had existed for thousands of years, but God said it is going to be desolate
6. The first invasion was by the Medes and the Persians.
7. Daniel 5:1-4, 21-23, Babylon was destroyed because they trusted in the false gods. The night that the Lord wrote on the wall Cyrus and his army rerouted the Euphrates river. The river ran through Babylon. The lowered the river enough that they could march right into the city under the city walls. The Babylonians thought they were safe inside the city. They even had gates they could lower into the river, but they were too busy partying to know they were in danger. They didn’t think anyone could ever get inside their city. The Medes and the Persians without much of a battle took Babylon.
8. A “holy city” since 2300 BC totally in ruins by 141 BC in was in total ruin and obsurity (Wikipedia)
Saddam Hussein installed a huge portrait of himself and Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance to the ruins. He also had part of the ruins rebuilt, to the dismay of archaeologists, with his name inscribed on many of the bricks, in imitation of Nebuchadnezzar. One frequent inscription reads: "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq". This recalls the ziggurat at Ur, where each individual brick was stamped with "Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, who built the temple of Nanna". These bricks became sought after as collectors' items after the downfall of Saddam, and the ruins are no longer being restored to their original state. (WikiPedia)
Babel – confusion of languages idolatry
The site of Babylon ruins after 2003 US invasion
US forces built a helicopter pad on the ancient ruins and filled their sandbags with archaeological material in the months following the 2003 invasion. Colonel Coleman was chief of staff at Babylon when it was occupied by the First Marine Expeditionary Force.
Col Coleman told the BBC that if the Iraqis wanted an apology for the destruction caused by his men he was willing to give one.
The 2,000 troops who were deployed there did immense damage as they set up camp amidst the ruins of old temples.
A helicopter pad was constructed at the site. The vibration from landings led the roof of one building to collapse.
The soldiers also filled their sandbags with archaeological artifacts, just because they were lying around and easy to pick up. Source BBC [4].(Wikipedia
9. Idolatry is anything we put before God
10. Colossians 3:5
11. Whatever we desire more than God is idolatry.
12. Money can be our idol. Facebook can be our idol. Music can be our idol. Computer games can be our idol.
B. Adultery
1. Jeremiah 5:7-8
2. Jeremiah 2:23-25
3. The people of Israel were immoral. God compares them to animals. A stallion breeds with whatever mare is ready to bread. A female donkey is not satisfied until she finds a male donkey to breed with. Animals have no morals. They are promiscuous. They will breed with multiple partners.
4. When my dog is in heat she doesn’t care what dog comes around she will breed with it. I do care. I get out the BB gun and run him off. Sometimes he comes back. And he gets BB’s again.
5. Sometimes people have no morals like stallions, donkeys and dogs
6. God made us to be with one man and one woman for life. He didn’t make us to have multiple partners.
7. Calamity will come upon you if you are immoral.
C. False doctrine
1. Jeremiah 14:13-16
2. The prophets were teaching the people lies.
3. False prophets teach people lies today.
4. One of the things they say is doctrine doesn’t matter.
a. However you want to worship is alright
b. God was not pleased with Cain’s worship
c. God burned Nadab and Abihu to a crisp for offering strange fire.
d. God struck Uzzah dead for touching the Ark of the Covenant.
e. God had told these people what he wanted. The instructions were clear. They didn’t pay attention to what he said. They did what they wanted and calamity struck.
5. God has given us the doctrine of baptism for forgiveness of sins.
6. He has given us the doctrine of using the fruit of the vine, grape juice, to represent his blood, not wine.
7. He has given us the doctrine of loving our neighbor as ourselves. Even the ones that are a different culture than us. They do things differently than us.
8. He has given us the doctrine of loving one another
9. John 13:34-35, that is the way that men will know we are his disciples by our love for one another.
III. They don’t listen (What happens when they don’t listen?)
A. God doesn’t listen to them
1. Proverbs 1:20-33
2. God wasn’t going to hear their cries for help. They wouldn’t listen to his prophets and they wouldn’t repent.
3. Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14, and 14:11. God told Jeremiah not to pray for them
4. Jeremiah 21:1-7
5. No miracles were going to happen in Zedekiah’s favor.
B. They are given into the hand of their enemies
1. When Israel listened to God their enemies were defeated. When they ignored God their enemies defeated them
2. Jeremiah 5:15
3. They would be given to a nation whose language they didn’t understand.
4. We like to hear people speak our native tongue. We want to hear our own language. If we don’t serve the Lord he will be against us also and give us into the hand of our enemies.
5. I Peter 5:8-9
6. Satan wants to devour you. He wants you to speak his language and do things his way. A conqueror doesn’t generally adopt the language and the ways of those they conquer, but the conquered are forced to change their language and traditions.
7. Satan wants to change your language. He wants you to curse and swear and have perverted speech. He wants to change your tradition of being in church. He wants to conquer you. As long as you listen to the Lord he doesn’t have a chance. When you ignore the Lord he will conquer you.
Conclusion
Proverbs 1:32-33
Jeremiah was rewarded. He was set free and given a choice of what he wanted to do. By the grace of God and his obedience he was rewarded.
Jeremiah could have gone to Babylon. Nebuzaradan would have taken care of him there. Jeremiah decided to stay in Israel. He loved his land and given the choice he decided to stay. Jeremiah was given a gift and provisions.
If we sin against the Lord and don’t listen we can plan on calamity. He has told us it will come. We can plan on trouble in this life and hell for eternity. If we listen and obey we will be rewarded in this life with the riches of heaven.
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