It was the best of times: Two towns (Zechariah chapter 2)

 OUT OF THE CHAOS: A study in the book of Zechariah 

Chapter 2: It was the best of times: Two towns 

 

Given 28 April 2023

By Bob Mendelsohn

Sydney, Australia

This talk is on YouTube on:

https://youtu.be/DaDqaXKIjhs

 

We are continuing in this prophetic book written by a young Jewish man living in Jerusalem about 500 BCE as he writes to his people, those living there in Judah and also to those living in Babylon. To each of those groups, he has some clear words and I trust that those words he spoke 2500 years ago will speak to you and to me as we will consider what God meant as he used that young man. And we will try to learn what God has to say to us as 21^st Century people. 

As per usual, my usual method will take us through a chapter each Friday morning, and then we will have plenty of time for discussion and questions in the final half-hour. If you are watching this teaching on YouTube after our class, please feel free to write me (bob@jewsforjesus.org.au) and I will try to answer queries if I’m able. 

If you don’t already receive the email invitations to join this class live, please enter your email address just now, type it into the chat box or write our office (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) and ask to be invited. Thanks. 

Also if you don’t mind, please read the chapter before you come to the class live, and if you are watching YouTube, pause your playback, read chapter 2 and then rejoin us. Thanks.

Let’s jump in. Today’s lesson begins with a young man and a measuring line. He’s a surveyor. And this is Vision #3 in this quick listing of night visions that Zechariah sees. Oh, by the way, for those using a Masoretic text or any number of Hebrew versions of the Bible, the 2^nd chapter actually begins with the first two visions from last week, the horns and the tradies. But as of today, we are all reading from the same text. 

Vision 3 is about a surveyor who is to measure the length and width of Jerusalem. And you have to ask yourself, why is that included here? Chapter 1.16 indicated that the point of Zechariah’s talks, his clear message was to get the Jewish people focused on the rebuilding of the Temple. And as a spoiler alert, you should know that the Temple was rebuilt, even in his day, and that it saw a significant increase in the times of the Romans. That Temple is the one where Yeshua visited and from which he spoke many times. That Temple took 46 years to build, and Yeshua prophesied that if people destroyed “The Temple”, he would rebuild it in three days. (John 2.19) The people mocked him at that, but he was insistent and of course, he was speaking about his own body. 

Back to Zechariah. The man in the vision says he is off to measure Jerusalem. That’s it. That’s the end of the encounter. 

Verse 3. One angel exits and another one enters. Nothing of these visions seems elaborate to me. In fact, they are highlighting one thing, over and over. That is, that the Jewish people have hope, and it’s wrapped up in being in Jerusalem at that time, and getting down to work on the building project at hand. 

You have to remember that 70 years before, or so, under the guidance of the then prophet Jeremiah, God had instructed the Jewish people something very different. Chpater 29 read as follows:

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,  ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their ¹produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’ For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the LORD.” (29.4-9)

Back in Jeremiah’s day, the way to ‘salvation’ was clear and very different to the words in Zechariah’s day. For the Jewish people to survive and to succeed in 587 BCE we had to move to Babylon, to build cities and seek the welfare of that city. We had to settle down and get married. We had to build gardens and cities and listen to few prophets. We had to pray for the welfare of Babylon!

But the vision and the accompanying oracles are now telling Zechariah and thus the people of God that our hope is now moving back to Jerusalem. Get out of Dodge; get out of Babylon. Stop seeking the welfare of that city. Move, in fact, the angel says, “Run!” in verse 4 and in verse 6, “Flee” from the land of the North (Now that used to be a reference to Assyrian, but since Babylon captured it, Northland implies Babylon. Again in verse 6, the ‘four winds’ speak of whirlwind and thus quick motion. And in verse 7, ‘escape’ says the same to me. It’s about getting out of town quickly. 

Does that remind you of the Exodus? We’d been there 400 years and in a few days we are told to spoil the Egyptians and get out of Goshen and out of Egypt. 

So back to the vision. Angel #2 comes out and tells retiring angel #1 to go back to the “young man.” That’s a reference to Zechariah. 

The message? Go and tell him that Jerusalem will be inhabited. Significantly. Massive numbers of animals and people will be in town. Not only for a festival or a pilgrimage. They will move in. Don’t delay. Don’t require the fences to be established first. Get with the housing industry, let ‘er rip!

You know when a construction site is established here in Australia, around a new metro station or when a bit of demolishing is going to take place, someone sets up a perimeter. They establish the limitations as a wall. Then the signage goes on indicating ‘no handbills or else there will be consequences.’ We really don’t know what is being built or demolished, but we know there will be action. 

Zechariah is being told to get on with the work, without the required fencing. Don’t build a wall. You don’t need to spend energy protecting what is not yours. You need to get the housing contracts and the main site to be the Temple. Walls will be rebuilt by Nehemiah some 75 to 80 years later. Your job? Get that Temple built again!

God will take care of protection. He will be a ‘wall of fire’. 

ח֥וֹמַת אֵ֖שׁ

Personally, he will see to us. Our role: build that Temple. That will lodge him as significant inside the walls. It will be a daily reminder of God’s grandeur and significance. He is not yet so to the people of God. He wants to be to you and to me.

More in verse 5. I will be the glory in her midst. This promise of God’s majesty is the centrepoint of this message to me. All the stuff, the walls, the fire, the angels …they all help me see that God wants to be all in all. He is NOT YET all in all. He wants the relationship with Israel and Judah to be complete. Yes, get the Temple built, but it’s not about the Temple. Yes, get back to the Land, but it’s not about the land. It’s about God himself!

Now in verses 6 and following, God speaks to those exiles still living in Babylon. Get out. Yes, in verse 6, I dispersed you. Some will argue, the Babylonians did it. Some will say the Assyrians before them caused the removal of the Jewish people. God says, “I did it.” Judgment begins with the house of God. We had sinned and the warnings were clear. Stop and if you don’t stop, I will judge you. And so we as Jewish people were judged significantly. 

But now the 70 years are up, like the 400 years were up in Egypt, and God says ‘get out.’ 

Think about it, though. Jerusalem was not in repair. It was not flourishing. There were no gardens. It did not look the land of milk and honey. It was destitute. No Temple. No gardens. Where were the gardens? Babylon. Where was there money and comfort? Babylon. Where were most of the Jewish people living? Babylon. God is calling his people to exit comfort and walk with him in discomfort. That’s a stretch. That’s a tough call. God is calling us out of comfort to chaos, but it’s ordered chaos, under his lordship!

Verse 8 has a tough phrase to translate. Very few agree on this one. It’s three words

אַחַ֣ר כָּב֔וֹד שְׁלָחַ֕נִי

Smith in his commentary says, “is the most puzzling clause in the book. Is it to be taken as a purpose clause to mean that Yahweh sent Zechariah to get glory; or as a temporal clause “after the glory i.e. the vision, Yahweh sent me. . .”? Does “glory” refer to Yahweh as the RSV indicates; or to the vision (KJV); or to heaviness or insistence, as Chary and Baldwin believe? כּבוֹד basically means “to be heavy.” Baldwin suggests “with insistence he sent me” (p. 109). Others emend or transpose the text in order to get a clear reading.”

I agree with Michael Stead, bishop of South Sydney, who translated it as, “For this is what the Lord Almighty says, who for the sake of his honour sent me against the nations that have plundered you,”

That makes sense. It’s the purpose. God is sending Zechariah for his own sake. But the Hebrew is a bit tough; I’ll give everyone that. 

Listen to the rest of verse 8. “Touches the apple of God’s eye.” This is the soft spot in God’s vision. It’s the Jewish people. Don’t mess. Like Genesis 12 taught from the beginning. Bless Israel, you will get a blessing. Curse them, you will be cursed. Babylon? You are going down for what you did to Judah 100 years ago. 

Verse 9. God is about to act for his name’s sake. I almost see a magician waving his hand over a scene. Or maybe I should stay with the Egypt motif and see the hand of God’s judgment falling on the Egyptians. 

Verse 10. Sing and rejoice. Hey, Jewish people, it’s not yet done, but it will be. It’s as good as done. Yes, you are right, it’s incomplete, but the eyes of faith see the end from the beginning. God is about to act on your behalf and for his name’s sake. Now it will happen, then it will be done. Now and not yet. What is our job today? Sing and rejoice. Why? God is coming and will dwell with us. 

Where will that take place? Jerusalem. Where? In the Temple.

Verse 11 is shocking. Who will be there in the Temple? Who will be there with God? Many nations!

גוֹיִ֨ם רַבִּ֤ים

It won’t only be the Jewish nation. This is shocking. In verse 8, God’s judgement is coming against ‘the nations’ (el hagoyim), but now only moments later, the word of the Lord will make clear that Gentiles will be welcomed in God’s Big Tent. There is room for all peoples. The measuring rod and line at the beginning hearkens to Ezekiel chapter 40 and the immense measurement of the City and the Temple. It’s not only for Jews; it’s for all nations. Whoever will! And we will see that in Zechariah 14 at the end of this prophecy as well. 

Who is included in that? There might be Babylonians. There might be Assyrians. It’s not the entire populace of Mesopotamia or Shinar. But there will be people from every kindred, tribe and tongue in the Family of God in the largesse of God, in God’s glory. Wow, what a vision!

Verse 11 says when those nations join, you will know that God is who he claimed to be. And those nations will be joined to us in such a way that together we are ‘My people.’ Wow, if only Peter had known that verse when the vision of the heavenly sheet dropped in Joppa. If only the disciples had understood that when Yeshua spoke to a Canaanite woman and healed her or others who were not properly Jewish. God’s people includes all who name the name of the Lord. Jews and non-Jews. Men, women, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free. Whoever names Yeshua as Lord… they are God’s people.

Verse 12. God again highlights the geography about which he’s speaking. The English phrase ‘holy land’ is only used here, but it’s not ‘eretz’, but rather ‘adamah.’ Holy ground. Holy dirt. Same phrase as when Moses met God at the burning bush. Take off your shoes. Holy ground. 

No wonder the chapter ends with the silence required in verse 13. Habakkuk ends chapter 2 of his prophecy with that same thought.  “But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” (2.20)

We who encounter the Lord, in Sydney, on Zoom, in our local church, in our neighbourhood, in a paddock, or wherever, when we do, let all the earth be silent before him. 

Before you rush into a prayer meeting. Before you share your prayer list with the Almighty, be silent. Consider his purposes. Consider his love. His mercy. His intention to all people, even to you… consider and be grateful. Be and then speak. 

God’s plans will be accomplished. Listen and learn. And then sing and rejoice. And welcome others. So be it. Amen.

Remember, you who are watching today, if you are not yet a follower of Yeshua, and see his love for you, his kindness extended, his offer of forgiveness available, right where you are, submit to him, to his lordship, to his care, and your life will take on new meaning, new substance, and you will have mates on this call, and in your neighbourhood and wherever you travel… the Kingdom is advancing under the King. Chaos is subjugated, life is available.

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Resource on video

To see a fun video overview of the book of Zechariah see this from Bible Project:

https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/zechariah/

 

Bibliography:

Smith, Ralph, Micah to Malachi: Word Biblical Commentary (Volume 32), Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1984.

Stead, Michael, Zechariah: The Lord Returns, Aquila Press, Sydney, 2015.

Webb, Barry, The Message of Zechariah: Your Kingdom Come, Intervarsity Press, Nottingham, 2003.

Wiersbe, Warren, Be Heroic: Demonstrating Bravery by your Walk, David C. Cook Press, Colorado Springs, 1997.

 

Jeremiah 49: More of the nations of the world

  Truth and Consequences: 

A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah

Chapter 49

By Bob Mendelsohn

Given 25 November 2022

 

Lesson Forty-eight:   Ammon and others

 

INTRODUCTION

The Bible is a big book, with information about nations and individuals, with info about transportation and what to make happen when a person is well settled. It contains stories and long lists; it features marital advice and tells us how to conduct ourselves in many social situations. 

1)   The problem of Those People

One of the mistakes we make as we read it, certainly the first few times, is to read a passage and think about a possible linkage with a similar-sounding other passage and put those two passages into a relationship. Forever. We marry ideas and peoples and our own thoughts with regularity. 

Here's the problem. When you hear the name “Egypt” for instance, sometimes the country is in view and sometimes, it’s a symbol for an empire, while at other times, say in the Book of Revelation, it’s a code word substitute for Rome-occupied Jerusalem. (Rev. 11.8) What about ‘frogs?’ In Egypt at the time of the Exodus, frogs were a plague brought by God on the nation as they refused to let our people out, a similar usage in Psalms (78.45, 105.30), but in Revelation the unholy Trinity (The Dragon, The Beast, The False Prophet) had demons/unclean spirits that were like frogs. 

The reason I’m telling you this today is that in today’s chapter, we see nations like Ammon and Edom, Qedar and Assyria. While at times in the past, and into the future, their reputation and their relationship with God has been bad, at times, even in today’s reading, there might be hope. But not for all. 

Think of Nineveh, which during Jonah’s time was in God’s plan for salvation but by the time of Nahum, just decades later, was out of God’s graces. This is NOT an attempt by me to make a cavalier God into some reputable deity. This is simply a description of the reality. There are times when we push the envelope too far, when God’s kindness has met its limit. The King James authors used the term ‘longsuffering’ to mean ‘patient.’ There are two NT words for patience and the difference is worth noting.

“The difference of meaning is best seen in their opposites. While hupomonē is the temper which does not easily succumb under suffering, makrothumia is the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong. The one is opposed to cowardice or despondency, the other to wrath or revenge (Prov. 15:18; 16:32) ... This distinction, though it applies generally, is not true without exception.” (Joseph Thayer)

Now this notion of God’s patience is critical, as we read three times in Peter’s letters. 

“Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” (1 Peter 3.20)

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3.9)

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you.” (2 Peter 3.15)

All that to say, longsuffering is real and I’m a grateful recipient of God’s patience. In light of our chapter today, longsuffering is not permanent. LONG, not forever, suffering. God’s patience has limits. Much longer than mine. Much longer than anyone’s, but has a terminus. The ark’s door closed. The rains fell. The world was destroyed. 

OK, back to our text. 

2. The people of Ammon (1-6)

The first nation in today’s list is Ammon. Remember, he was the son of one of the daughters of Lot. And he was the grandson of Lot. Ah, the details the Bible gives us. Lot’s daughters got him drunk, they had sex with him, and each produced a child, one Ammon and the other the focus of last week’s study Moab. 

Today we zoom in first on Ammon. He lived east of the Jordan, north of Moab, between three rivers. On the west the Jordan river, and his territory generally bound by two others, one on the north, the other on the south, which he shared with his cousins in Moab. Ammonites were destroyed long ago, and do not exist any longer as a people. But in Jeremiah’s days, they did exist. And their existence was an annoyance to the people of Judah and Israel who were more their immediate neighbours. 

One more historical note. Back in chapter 40 Gedaliah was murdered. (40.14-41.15) He was the one whom Nebuchadnezzar had installed as mayor of Mizpah and the entire area, and who was a good guy. The Ammonites were ok with his being the top man and came ‘to him’ it said. Then Jeremiah records for us this in verse 13

“Are you well aware that Baalis the king of the sons of Ammon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life?” But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam did not believe them.”

Baalis sent an assassin named Ishmael to kill Gedaliah, who was both naïve about the hostility between the nations and dismissive of the warning given him by Yochanan. 

Ishmael’s murder was successful and along with 8 other men ran back to the safe haven of the king of Ammon. (41.15)

Ammon is also shown to be trouble when other OT prophets mention him. (Amos 1.13-15, Zeph. 2.8-11, Ezek. 25.1-7)

In our section today, we see in verse 1, Gad, (the tribe on the east of the Jordan occupying this turf) owns the area, and the battle lines have now been crossed. God will vindicate his people and ruin the cities of Ammon.  What is their sin? Pride and arrogance. Look at verse 4. “Mi yavo ailai?” Who will come against or upon me?  And at the first, 

“מַה־תִּתְהַֽלְלִי֙

What self-praise you demonstrate!

Pride always has a result, and it’s not one you want to be given in your life. 

Even so, look at verse 5. Keown says, “The judgment against Ammon was the initiation of terror from every side, or perhaps from all its neighbours. The clause “you will be driven out single file” suggests the departure of prisoners of war, through the breaches of the destroyed city, for exile.”

Then the shock again comes in verse 6. 

אָשִׁ֛יב אֶת־שְׁב֥וּת

Ashiv et sh’voot. I WILL RETURN THE RETURN. I will restore the captivity. I will make them come back to me. God is ever the God of mercy. He will initiate it and cause it to happen. For the Ammonites. For that time. For some of those people. Amazing.

3. The people of Edom (7-22)

We turn quickly to the Edomites. Remember Edom (meaning ‘red’) is the new name of Esau, brother of Jacob and grandson of Abraham. 

In verse 7 we see they are the intellects of the area. Full of wisdom and cleverness. God says, even so, in verse 10, I will strip Esau bare. But in verse 11 there seems to be a hint of God’s care on the widows and the orphans, and you have to wonder how that will play out. But Jeremiah makes no mention of who will be the agents of such care. 

Verse 13 shows the complete ruin predicted for the Edomites. 

Verses 14 and 15 are a direct quote from Obadiah 1 and 2. Someone is reading the other’s mail. 

Verse 16 highlights the pride and arrogance of Edom, same as all those who are judged by God.  They thought they could hide in enough places and manipulate the situations, but they could not.  Compare Sodom and Gomorrah. No chance to wiggle out of that one. 

Verse 19, the three questions are rhetorical. The answer? No one!

The answer? Devastation which is comprehensive and the capacity to fight? You will be like a woman in labour. Incapacitated. 

But listen—is there any hope listed for Edom? Not a lick. Ouch.

4. Assyria and their conquest (23-27)

Next we turn to Damascus which is the capital of Assyria. The people whom the Babylonians had already conquered. 

A brief summary is given by Jeremiah of the ruin and the inability to resist by Assyria. No reason is given for the fall and no hope is given for restoration. This may simply be a geographic inclusion as Jeremiah is summarizing the neighbours’ troubles leading up to the final summary against Babylon.

5. Kedar and Arabia are the next nation in focus. (.28-33)

Again, no mention is made of the cause of ruin to these nomadic tribes who made the peninsula their home.  Verse 30 shows them as nomads and yet they are open prey to their enemy of Babylon. 

מָג֖וֹר מִסָּבִֽיב׃

In verse 29, we see this phrase we have seen again and again in Jeremiah’s prophecy. Terror on every side. 

As to Kedar, he was the son of Ishmael, listed back in Genesis 25.13. The point I’m making is that all these neighbouring towns and peoples were formerly at the family reunions. But were never welcomed, or never welcomed us and thus a tribal split occurred, and the voice of hostility overtook the voice of family. Shame.

Again, no hope mentioned for the Arabians of that generation.

6. Elam/ Persia (.34-39)

The final grouping in view today is the Persians of Elam. 

Verse 36, the ‘four winds’ refers to the four directions of the compass which they already had been using. But don’t miss this, the scattering reminds me of Israel’s scattering to those same four corners. (Deut. 28.64, Leviticus 26.33)

And you have to ask yourself…why did God need to mention the Elamites? And why give them hope (.39) like he did with Judah and with Ammon? 

For that fulfilment, let us quickly check one last Bible verse today. From Acts chapter 2.

^“They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs — we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” (Acts 2.7-11)

God’s people, from Egypt and Rome, Mesopotamia and Elam (verse 9) are there in Jerusalem 600 years later and listening to God’s word and they were among the 3,000 who got saved in Jesus’ name on Sh’vuot. Awesome, eh? 

When God promises he will restore us, He does it. When he offers us salvation, let us not be like those arrogant ones who bring ruin on our families or on our houses or on our land. 

In a moment we will lead you in a prayer, if you would like, to be restored, personally, to the Almighty. He longs to help you. God has initiated this whole process. He reminds you of your sin, your arrogance, and your ruin SO THAT YOU might come to him. Are you willing to do so? 

CONCLUSION

God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life. 

 

PRAYER

Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up. 

We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 50. Until then, Shabbat shalom!

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, Albert, Commentary on the Old Testament. (Published by many, from 1880 on)

Henry, Matthew, Commentary.

Keown, Gerald, Scalise, Pamela, Smothers, Thomas, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah (Part 2).  1995. 

McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary. 

Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.

 

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Egyptian idolatry and the Jewish people (Jeremiah 44 A)

  Truth and Consequences: 

A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah

Chapter 44a

 

 

Lesson Forty-three: Egyptian idolatry 

 

INTRODUCTION

 How often did you actually hear the cry of the upset teacher or parent in your life, “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you 100 times, …”? Was it to clean up after yourself or to put the homework in your backpack or to turn in the assignment into the yellow folder on her desk or… Sometimes we simply forgot, to be fair, due to increased other responsibilities or other concerns rising to the top of our limited thinking. But the teacher or parent is evidencing what Jeremiah, our weeping prophet, must have been thinking in this final warning and prophecy to the Jewish people after 40 years of proclamation. And we have recorded in his and Baruch’s writings, dozens of such warnings, so maybe he had told them 100 times. 

What does someone think who in exasperation declares this “If I’ve told you once…”? I imagine, something like “I really want you to do well. I really want you to heed my warnings. I really want the best for you.” To me, this is not a matter of anger, so much as a matter of desire, a longing for betterness and a hope for a future. When you consider not brushing your teeth tonight, maybe this hope will be realized. When you keep your homework assignment in your locker instead of turning it into the proper location on the teacher’s desk, maybe you will suddenly realize what you didn’t make happen and you will quickly make your way to the locker, open it, find the assignment, and submit it to the authority. 

This is the feeling I’m getting when reading chapter 44 of Jeremiah.

 

Let’s dig in and see what this final pronouncement has to say to us as 21^st Century people. 

Verse 1: this ‘word’ is for “all the Jews” now living in Egypt. Of course, not all the Jews were there. Some remained near Jerusalem and were tending flocks and lands. They were under the scrutiny of people like Nebuzaradan, and perhaps their activity was providing for the occupiers of the land of Judah. Other Jews were already in Babylon, the dreaded enemies of the Jewish people in 586 BCE, who had either been taken captive at the fall of the city and the destruction of the Temple in that year, or the Jewish people who had taken Jeremiah’s advice and surrendered to the Babylonian invaders years before and were making the best of it, living in captivity in Babylon. 

Jeremiah’s word in chapter 44 is not written to those on home soil nor to those held captive in Babylon, but rather to the Egyptian visitors. The warnings of chapters 42 and 43 went unheeded, and the remnant that sought their own way, who sought to save themselves from sure destruction, escaped Judah and travelled south into the land of Egypt. Not a good place for Jews then, and with the memory of the Exodus 900 years earlier, not a good place back then as well. 

Jeremiah lists the cities where he preached, so I’m guessing he travelled a fair bit. Remember, he was under house arrest, by his own people, taken captive to travel to Egypt. Did he actually get to Memphis and the land of Pathros? We’re not sure, but if not, they would have likely had representatives where Jeremiah was speaking, so he could give them godly advice about their future. 

The northeastern Egyptian villages of Tahpanhes and MIgdol, then travelling south to Memphis, the historic capital of Egypt since about 3000 BCE, and then down to the southern sprawl of the land of Pathros. Remember, Upper Egypt is south and Lower Egypt is north and contains the delta of the Nile and famous cities like Alexandria and Rosetta. 

Verse 2, Jeremiah invokes the Lord using two different appellations. First he is the Lord of Hosts. That’s a military term. Hosts (Ts’vaot) means armies.  Speaking of God in this way, reminding the people who are in trauma, in fear, having abandoned their homeland, and who think that God doesn’t see or care, this is Jeremiah’s chutzpah. It’s as if he’s saying, “You thought God’s arm was too short that it couldn’t save you, and thus you sought to save yourself. But God is the general over all the armies of heaven, and you didn’t trust him.” 

Remember, earlier warnings were dismissed by Yochanan and all the commanders of the forces that were with him (42.7ff). God and Jeremiah are saying, “I’ve told you 100 times…”

The 2^nd appellation in verse 2 is “The God of Israel.” For those who are new to our study today, Judah, that is the southern 2 tribes of the divided land, has been Jeremiah’s focus for 4 decades. Why? Because Israel, that is, the northern 10 tribes, was taken into captivity 150 years earlier in 722 BCE, taken by Assyrian forces and then slowly those tribes have trickled back into what we call Samaria and other northern parts of today’s Israel with intermarriage and syncretistic religion. There really was no Israel at that time, at least not until some further repair happens in the Land after the Babylonian exile terminates about 70 years hence.

Thus when Jeremiah tells the Judah remnant that the Lord is the God of Israel, he’s highlighting God’s own faithfulness, and I’m reminded of one of Paul’s lines to his mate and fellow apostle Timothy, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Tim. 2.13)

We have often lacked the very thing that would keep us in God’s presence, in His care, in His love and that is simply ‘faith.’ So you would think that after a certain amount of time and a certain number of warnings that the Almighty would say, “Enough. I’ve had enough of you people. I’m going to reboot my hard drive. I’m going to wipe the disk of you people and I’m going to start over with others. Maybe the next team will be faithful.” Maybe you have thought that God would be done with you; I certainly have thought that at times. 

But when you think in those terms, you are making you the senior partner of the relationship. You are deciding that your destiny and your relationship with God is based on your performance and your beliefs and your actions and you. That’s exactly NOT what God is saying by using Jeremiah to speak to the escapees in Egypt. He’s saying, “I’m faithful. And I’m the God is Israel, even.” Or as the apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” (1 Thes. 5.24)

Our relationship with God is based on God, and God’s call, not on our performance. Dear friends, if that doesn’t give you goose bumps or at least a sense of relief, then I’m not a very good communicator. 

Verse 2 continues with the indictment. 

You have seen. All of you. Or in the American south, all y’all have seen. No one can say they didn’t know. You have been eyewitnesses of the ‘calamity’ (Hebrew: ra’ah, that is wickedness or bad stuff) that I HAVE BROUGHT on the cities of Judah and on Jeruslalem. Whoa! Wait a minute. Who is responsible for the fall of Jerusalem? God takes the credit! That cannot be. He told us to build and to dwell and to make the land of milk and honey ours, and, oh, um, to make it his, too. Now he says he pushed us out and caused the desolation which to this day continues to stand in both Older and Newer Testaments as a line in the sand, as a warning, as an historical marker of the Worst Day Ever for the Jewish people. 

Exile, which began for the people of God back in the Garden of Eden, will continue to be the warning and the destiny of all who know God but refuse to live as His people UNTIL Yeshua’s 2^nd coming to make all things right on this earth. 

Note, in God’s commentary that he says “Behold!” meaning “Don’t miss this.” God is getting serious with us at this point. He even exaggerates a bit with the “no one lives there” even though we know some still remain both of the Jewish people and the invaders from Babylon. 

Verse 3 tells us the cause of this calamity. God owns the action of exile, but what is the cause? It’s clear as crystal. Burning incense to foreign gods, foreign in their activity and foreign because no one of us, neither you, they, nor your fathers. There is no historical connection with the Egyptian gods or the foreign gods to whom your people were making offerings in the shadow of the Holy Temple. How ridiculous! With true religion right in front of them, they still chose to commit idolatry. Glaring hypocrisy. Glaring and “in your face” resistance to the plans and the worship of the Living God. God calls it “wickedness” (It’s the same Hebrew word “ra’ah”). I hear the echoes of Romans chapter 1, don’t you? There the apostle Paul said this, with the same heartbreak as Jeremiah, 

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth ¹in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not ¹honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and ¹crawling creatures. (Romans 1.18-23)

 

What a waste! Keep reading later today in Romans 1 and see the result of their idolatry, and that God had to turn them over to more and more sin and lawlessness. Why? Because they exchanged the glory of God for an image. That’s idolatry. That’s the exact opposite of the First Commandment. And the 2^nd and the 3^rd.  God is #1 and he will not be allowing his people to substitute false or fake gods in his place. That’s what love does. It intervenes. Judgment is God’s penultimate activity to bring us to love. 

Verse 4. God says through Jeremiah that he sent warning after warning after warning through the prophets. 

You know the story that is being told often in our days during the heights of floods the last couple of years, say near Lismore. A man is approached by the SES as the rains are coming, but he refuses the help of the SES. He says, “God will save me.” After several rescue attempts in the face of approaching floodwaters, each time the man keeps telling the would-be rescuers that God will save him. After turning down the last, he drowns in the flood. After his death, the man meets God and asks why God did not intervene. God responds that he sent all the would-be rescuers to the man's aid on the expectation he would accept that help.

Imagine the frustration of God who sent the prophets, who had the people living in the shadow of the worship centre called The Temple, and yet, they still chose fake gods. 

The same burning of incense to fake gods caused the burning anger of God (verse 6) to destroy Jerusalem. Now don’t get me wrong. The people who actually levelled Jerusalem will get theirs in subsequent chapters. 

Verse 7, a new declaration from heaven. Now your sins are yours, there in Egypt, so we don’t really know how long they have been in the territories of the south, but a significant time. Verses 2-6 related to the Judah people’s time in Judah; now the proclamation is against their activities in the land of Egypt. Verse 9, have you forgotten? 

Forgot what? The sins of five teams, your parents, the kings of Judah, the wives of the kings, your own, your own wives. This is comprehensive evil. No one is doing right; nobody has withdrawn from the evil and as a result, God will bring evil on us in Egypt. How could we have repaired this?

Verse 10: be contrite (duk’oo ), fear God, walk in his ways. We did none of those three. And that’s the order of things, too. You can’t walk in his ways without fearing him, and you cannot fear him without being in a humble mode. 

Verse 11-14, the pronouncement of judgment. The verdict is in. And the sentencing is made by the judge. Guilty and guilty. The noun in verse 11 “for woe” is the Hebrew for “evil, again ra’ah” It’s the cut off. None of you escapees from Judah now living in Egypt are going to survive. You will fall by the verse 13 “sword, pestilence and famine.” Natural and unnatural problems will cause us all to die. None will survive, except (verse 14) maybe a few. 

Think about a man named Apollos whom we meet in Acts chapter 18. He was a Jew born in Alexandria several hundred years later than Jeremiah’s prediction. Either some Jews moved to Egypt again under the Ptolemys or running away from Rome or his family might have been one of those who would survive the comprehensive death order from heaven in Jeremiah 44. 

Verse 15 begins the final decree by the people of Judah now living in Egypt. Your honor, may the defendant be able to speak one last time? Yes, the judge says. And this is when you want the Jewish people to line up with Jeremiah’s considered prophecy and to admit, to be contrite, to say some Yom Kippur prayers and admit error, and sin, and ra’ah. But what do we hear?

We hear boasting and confession of how the religion worked back in the day. We had plenty of food and drink. We not only survived; we succeeded. Listen to their admission.

“As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you! But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of ³food and were well off and saw no misfortune.” (.16-17)

Not only are they are slightly resistant. They are completely defiant and brazen. Think of the adulteress that Agur mentions in Proverbs chapter 30… “This is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wrong.”” (.20)

I’ve done nothing wrong. That’s when your conscience is seared. That’s when all hope for repair is gone. 

Verse 17 is full of misinformation and misapplication of history. When were the Jewish people ‘well off?’ And what was the cause? These escapees are attributing their success to idolatry and the queen of heaven, likely Isis of Egypt or even the Ishtar cults of Mesopotamia. Some today cite Lotto or SportsBet; others their ‘lucky stars’ or such. But God is jealous and wants us to get this right. Our good fortune is not based on luck or happenings, but rather to His sovereignty. 

Verse 18 highlights the blame, the accusation by the Egyptian Jews, on Jeremiah. He’s the cause of our troubles. Or maybe Josiah’s renewals some decades earlier, “we stopped burning…” was taking place in those days. 

Even the women join in the chorus in verse 19 and say they had it better back then. We had it made. 

But Jeremiah holds firm to the end. We will pick this up next week as we cover 44b and 45 together. Where he tells them once, even the 1000^th time, “IF I told you once, I’ve told you 100 times, repent, be contrite, fear God, walk in his ways and listen to him.” 

Gerald Keown says, “It is interesting to note that Jer 29:18–19 presents almost exactly the same picture of Yahweh’s judgment, but in a context that nevertheless holds out hope for the future. The same can be said for Jer 32:29–35, with the added dimension in Jer 32:29 of virtually the same sins against Yahweh as those committed by the Jews who fled to Egypt. Jer 32 concludes with a glowing word of hope and promise on the other side of terrible judgment. In striking contrast, no hope at all is offered to the recipients of the judgment oracle of Jer 44. The Egyptian community seems to carry with it a special level of guilt that annuls any such hope.”

To what or to whom do you attribute thanks when things go your way? To what or to whom do you cling when things are not going your way? Who is Lord of your life? Whether you live as an alien in Egypt in 565 BCE or as a foreigner in Sydney in 2022, the message remains the same, who is God in your life? And will you be 1) contrite, 2) fearing God and 3) walk in his ways? Yeshua is God’s answer for all our considerations about God. 

Want to know who God is? Look at Yeshua. Want to know what God thinks of sin, listen to how Yeshua dealt with sin in the lives of those near by.  What does God think of the alleged queen of heaven? See what Yeshua says about all the others who came before him. 

Friends in a moment, Jimmy is going to offer you a prayer to pray to get right with God. Don’t let this moment slip past you. Receive Yeshua today and stay contrite. That’s real hope. That’s real life. No matter the size of your fridge or the amount of goods in your pantry. 

 

CONCLUSION

God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life. 

 

PRAYER

Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up. 

We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 45. Until then, Shabbat shalom!

 

>> Nebu (Nabu) is one of the more important minor deities of the Babylonian–Assyrian pantheon. The god Nebo (Akkadian Nabû, "the called") appears in the Code of Hammurabi in the early 2nd millennium b.c. as son of the national god Marduk and tutelary deity of the city Borsippa (to the south of the city of Babylon) and of its temple Ezida. In later documents he is characterized as the divine scribe, writer, and bearer of the "tablets of destiny" that enshrine the decrees of the gods. In accordance with this role, he was considered patron of the scribal art and of human learning.

>> 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, Albert, Commentary on the Old Testament. (Published by many, from 1880 on)

Henry, Matthew, Commentary.

Keown, Gerald, Scalise, Pamela, Smothers, Thomas, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah (Part 2).  1995. 

McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary. 

Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.

 

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ACTUAL TEXT

 Conquest of Egypt Predicted

 

Jer. 44:1   The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt, those who were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the land of Pathros, saying, ² “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are in ruins and no one lives in them, ³ because of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers. ⁴ ‘Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate.” ⁵ ‘But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods. ⁶ ‘Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day. ⁷ ‘Now then thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, “Why are you doing great harm to yourselves, so as to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, from among Judah, leaving yourselves without remnant, ⁸ provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning sacrifices to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are entering to reside, so that you might be cut off and become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? ⁹ “Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ “But they have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My law or My statutes, which I have set before you and before your fathers.”’

 

Jer. 44:11   “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am going to set My face against you for woe, even to cut off all Judah. ¹² ‘And I will take away the remnant of Judah who have set their mind on entering the land of Egypt to reside there, and they will all meet their end in the land of Egypt; they will fall by the sword and meet their end by famine. Both small and great will die by the sword and famine; and they will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach. ¹³ ‘And I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine and with pestilence. ¹⁴ ‘So there will be no refugees or survivors for the remnant of Judah who have entered the land of Egypt to reside there and then to return to the land of Judah, to which they are longing to return and live; for none will return except a few refugees.’”

 

Jer. 44:15   Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying, ¹⁶ “As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you! ¹⁷ “But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, ¹by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune. ¹⁸ “But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine.” ¹⁹ “And,” said the women, “when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”