Wednesday Night Service 7PM - 2 Chronicles 35-36 - The Conclusion - Pastor Ryan Nichols

Thank you so much for your love.

We just don't deserve anything that you've done for us, and yet you still gave your son to die on the cross for us. You really can't boast anything but that, because nothing that we do will ever compare to what you've done for us. And I just pray that we won't let that become something that we forget in our day-to-day lives, but that we remember and take through our entire lives with the same sense of wonder that we felt when we first learned of it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Chronicles, chapter 35. 2 Chronicles 35. Well, tonight we will finish up our study in 2 Chronicles. And boy, we've spent a lot of time with these kings, haven't we? I'm kind of tired of them at this point in time, if I'm being completely honest. But... I'm just kidding. But tonight we look at not only the conclusion of Josiah,

but ultimately the conclusion of the nation of Israel. And it will end on a hopeful note, because remember our theme through this book has been a faithful God to an unfaithful people. And so we pick up in chapter 35 with the Passover. And again, let's build a little bit of context. Josiah has come to the throne, and his father was probably one of the worst kings that Judah had ever seen.

The man Manasseh. And so Josiah comes to the throne at 8 years old. When he comes to the throne, everything's really bad in the nation. And something happens in his life at about the age of 16. We don't really know what it was, but at the age of 16, he really started pursuing the things of God and started about a spiritual process in his life that first led to his cleansing of the temple,

doing away with all of the idolatry, which led to them finding the book of the law, which no one had seen. For a very long time. And so when he read the book of the law, his heart was broken over the fact that the nation had sinned so badly against God. And so he tore his clothes and he said, someone needs to seek the Lord for us. And so they sent a prophet to seek the Lord.

And the prophet brought back word from the Lord. And he said, since your heart has been so tender to the things of God, judgment will be stayed for a while. But because of the sins of Manasseh, judgment will come upon the nation. God's judgment will come, but it will not come in your time. And so Josiah began a process of revival within the nation. It was one of the greatest revivals that they've seen.

But what we'll find out tonight is that while the revival was great, it was more of a revival in name and not necessarily in heart. But Josiah's heart was truly right before the Lord. And so he's been going through and doing work in the temple and getting rid of the idols and all those kinds of things. Well, now it's time to do what the nation is always supposed to have done.

And that's to get back to the Passover. So in Chapter 35, verse one, it says this. The Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem. They slaughtered the Passover animals on the 14th day of the first month. And he set the priests in their offices and he encouraged them in the service of the house of the Lord. And he also said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the Lord,

put the holy ark in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, built. It will be a burden. It will be on your shoulders no longer. Now serve the Lord your God and his people, Israel. And so he institutes this Passover. Remember, this was supposed to be one of three feasts that they were supposed to celebrate every year. And yet what you find is that they were not actually doing this.

As a matter of fact, there's really only two main Passover sacrifices or celebrations that you really see in the books of the Kings and the Chronicles. One was under Hezekiah and then this one under Josiah. And so... And so he reinstitutes this. He says it's time to celebrate the Passover, to remember the deliverance of God. And so he gets everybody arranged and he does it on the 14th day of the first month,

which is when they were supposed to, which is where his Passover is going to be a little bit superior to the one that Hezekiah had. Because Hezekiah, they had to do it in the second month because the priests were not prepared. But the work that Josiah did to prepare the priests, which is what we'll read about in just a moment, was fantastic. But we read one little commentary in here that's kind of interesting.

I'm going to read it to you again. It says in verse 3,

Now, I read this and I don't know why sometimes things stick out to me. In this particular time, this stuck out to me. It stuck out to me that the ark had not been in the house of the Lord this whole time. And so the question I had is, why did they have to bring it back into the house of the Lord? Well, there's two explanations, these main explanations that were given.

One is that during the rebuilding or during the remodeling of the temple, they removed the Ark of the Covenant in order for it not to be damaged and all of the remodeling of the temple. I don't know that I fully go along with that one. I actually agree more with the second explanation that I'd read. And that's that while most of the priesthood had become somewhat corrupt, there was enough purity within the priesthood that during the time of Manasseh, remember he was establishing idolatry within the temple even, that there was enough purity within the priesthood that they said, you know what, the Ark of the Covenant cannot be in a place where idols are.

And so they removed it. Well, now that God has been put back in the center of the nation as he was supposed to have, God will now symbolically be put back where he belonged in the temple, in the holy place where he could be sought after by the people. And so the Ark of the Covenant is put back into the temple and it's very symbolic that God is back where he belongs within the nation. That God is once again at the heart of the nation because he is at the heart of their worship.

And again, just a quick personal application. It's a good reminder for us as individuals that if we want things to operate in our lives the way that they are supposed to, God needs to be at the heart of our lives. If we want our household to operate the way that we want it to, God's got to be at the heart of our household. And if we want our nation to operate the way that God has intended for it to, then God has to be at the heart of the nation.

And unfortunately, what we see is too many times God is not at the heart of our lives, therefore he is not at the heart of our households, therefore he is not at the heart of our nation. And so if we want our nation to return to what we want it to be, it's going to start with each individual heart once again putting God back at the center of our lives. And so that's what they do. So he says in verse 4,

I love this because it's a very godly thing to be organized, and that's exactly what he does. He organizes the people. He organizes the people. He organizes the people. He organizes the people. He organizes them. But he doesn't do it according to what he thinks. He goes back to what God's word has to say, according to how David had the Levitical tribe organized,

and he organizes it the way that God wanted it to be. And so he says now it's time to sacrifice the Passover animals. But notice what it says in verse 7, And Josiah contributed to the lay people, to all who were present, flocks of lambs and young goats, all for the Passover offerings, numbering 30,000 plus 3,000 bulls, these were from the king's possessions. And his officers also contributed a freewill offering to the people.

The priests and the Levites, Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the officials of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings, 2,600 from the flocks and 300 bulls. It's interesting to take note of the fact that there was not enough animals within the land that the common person had. Every family was supposed to have one lamb. But because of God's judgment on the land up to the time of Josiah, the poverty had really stricken the land.

And so Josiah said, I will not allow poverty to keep our nation from worshiping God the way that it's supposed to. I will of my own freewill give animals out of my own flocks and herds. And that's exactly what happened. And then all of the other officials saw what he had done, and they did likewise, and they contributed. And it says in verse 9, And Conaniah also, and Shemaiah,

and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, and Jehiel, and Josabath, the officers of the Levites, contributed to the Levites for the Passover offerings, 5,000 from the flocks and 5,000 bulls. So the service was prepared. The priests stood at their stations, the Levites by their divisions, according to the king's command, and they slaughtered the Passover animals. And while the priests sprinkled the blood received from their hands, the Levites skinned them.

They removed the burnt offerings that they might give them to the sections of the households, of the lay people, to present to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses. They did this also with the bulls. And so they roasted the Passover animals on the fire according to the ordinance, and they boiled the holy things in pots and kettles and pans, and they carried them away speedily, all the lay people. Afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the offerings in the fat until night.

Therefore they prepared themselves, and the priests, and the sons of Aaron. And then the singers, the sons of Asaph, were also at their stations, according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and the king's seer, and the gatekeepers. And each gate did not depart from their service, because the Levites, their brethren, prepared for them. So all the service of the Lord was prepared to celebrate the Passover, to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of Josiah.

Thus the sons of Israel who were present, celebrated the Passover at that time, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, seven days. Now the difference between this Passover sacrifice and Hezekiah's, is this was very organized, it was very prepared. Remember, when Hezekiah had his, not enough of the priesthood was prepared, so other people had to come in and help, but these guys were ready. Not only were they ready, but there was great worship that accompanied it.

You should take note of that, that the singers came along as well. That's not typically a part of the Passover ceremony, but Josiah brought them in for this one, because he knew that this was a joyous time, as the nation was coming back to the Lord. And we're given a little commentary by the writer of the book of Chronicles, in verse 18, when he says, There had not been celebrated a Passover like it in Israel, since the days of Samuel the prophet, nor had any of the kings of Israel celebrated such a Passover as Josiah did, with the priests, the Levites, and all of Judah, and all who were present in the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, this Passover. It was celebrated.

Twenty-six years old, and he holds the greatest Passover sacrifice the nation of Israel had seen for centuries. What a fantastic ability to be able to provide something like that for the people. And there was great celebration, and there was great joy, and we sort of end here with the reign of Josiah and all the great things that he did, and then we come to the end of his life, in verse 20. It says, And after all this, when Josiah had set up his house, set up the temple in order, and we wish we could just end right there.

Everything ended great in Josiah's life, and he lived happily ever after, and nothing bad ever happened. But that's not reality. That's not what really happened. It says, After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Necho king of Egypt came up to make war at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to engage him. But Necho sent messengers to him, saying,

What have we to do with each other, O king of Judah? I am not coming against you, but against the house with which I am at war, and God has ordered me to hurry. Stop for your own sake from interfering with God, who is with me, so that he will not destroy you. Now, let's paint the context of what's going on here. There is a new empire that is on the rise. They're called the Babylonian Empire.

The empire that is declining at this point in time, is the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrian Empire, in order to protect itself against the Babylonians, had aligned themselves with the Egyptians. And so, Pharaoh Necho is on his way to a battle, and just wants safe passage through the land of Judah. He has no battle with Judah at this point in time, but he is on his way to fight against the Babylonians.

Well, Josiah sees him, and sort of gets a gumption to have a fight. Why? We don't really know. Perhaps because everything was going so well, and maybe Josiah was struggling with the battle of success, the temptation of success. And he sees Pharaoh Necho coming, and he says, let's have a battle. And Pharaoh goes, no, no, no, no. I don't have a fight with you.

This is not the battle I want to fight today. As a matter of fact, you should not fight against me. God told me to tell you not to fight against you. Now, did God really tell him that? Hard to say. But it was a bad idea on the part of Josiah, and he should have listened to wise counsel at this point in time. But all of these things were from God, and God would use them.

It says, however, Josiah would not turn away from him, but he disguised himself in order to make war with him. Nor did he listen to the words of Necho from the mouth of God, but he came to war in the plain of Megiddo. It's kind of interesting. We've seen this story. Before, I feel like, where a king was warned not to go to battle. And in order to try to get out of the warning, he disguised himself.

The first king we read about that did that, his name was Ahab. And we remember how Ahab ended, that he had hidden himself and disguised himself. Only a random warrior made a random shot of a random arrow just into the air that happened to hit right between the chinks of the armor of Ahab. Well, we come to a similar situation here. The archers shot King Josiah.

And the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am badly wounded. For his servants took him out of the chariot, and they carried him in the second chariot which he had, and he brought him to Jerusalem where he died. And he was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah chanted a lament for Josiah, and all the male and female singers,

speak about Josiah in their lamentations to this day. And they made an ordinance in Israel. Behold, they are written in the lamentations. Not the same one that Jeremiah wrote, a different one. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his deeds of devotion as written in the law of the Lord, and his acts, first to last. Behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

And I've given this a lot of thought. Why would Josiah go to battle when he should not have gone to battle? What prompted him to do that? We're not told here that Josiah was necessarily overly prideful in anything that he did. We're given no bad mark on Josiah. But it was an unwise move on his part. And we are reminded that while Josiah was at his best a man,

he was a man at best, right? And he just simply made a mistake, a mistake that cost him his life, and a mistake that will ultimately lead to the downfall of the kingdom. But remember, the downfall of the kingdom was only being stayed through the life of Josiah. So God used all of this to get Josiah out of the way because it was time for judgment to come upon the nation.

And that's what brings us to chapter 36, the conclusion of the nation. Then the people of the land took Joahaz, the son of Josiah, and they made him king in place of his father in Jerusalem. Joahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he reigned forever. He lived three months in Jerusalem. It was the best summer of his life. I tried to determine if that was the shortest reign,

and I think there might have been one that was one month. But it was the shortest three months of his life. It was a happy three months, but it was a short three months. Then the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem and imposed on the land a fine of 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold. Then the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

And changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Necho took Joahaz, his brother, and brought him to Egypt. We find that Joahaz was not actually the rightful heir to the throne. He was not the oldest. Josiah had three, maybe four sons. Three of them will rule in some way, shape, or form. But Joahaz wasn't actually the rightful owner of the throne. He was kind of elected by the people.

And isn't it amazing that a fantastic man like Josiah has this son that's a loser, right? Has this son that's a terrible king and ultimately is only on the throne for three months and ends up getting deposed. And we're reminded that just because Josiah was a good leader and was leading the people in the right way didn't mean that the people's heart was right before the Lord. As a matter of fact, if you go back and read the writings of Jeremiah, you will find that that's exactly what he keeps saying about the people.

Your hearts aren't actually right with God. You're going through the right motions, but you don't have the right heart behind it. Which is why when Josiah died, the revival died with him. And this is where we have to be careful as believers in Jesus Christ. That our walk with God is not dependent upon some leader. It's not dependent upon some person. It's not dependent on some man.

But that your walk with God is yours so that when the leader dies, you stay strong with the Lord. So that when the mentor dies, you stay strong in your walk with the Lord. This is the problem that there was in the nation of Judah at this point in time. And so they did not continue on with the things of God. So they put Joahaz in there and he reigns for three months.

And basically, the king of Egypt comes in and says, I don't really like you. I'm going to take you out. And so he leads him captive to Egypt and he installs another brother. Did you notice the name of the brother? It says, The king of Egypt, verse 4, made Eliakim, his brother, king over Judah in Jerusalem. Indicating that the people had no choice in who was king.

They had been stripped of their power. Not only does he make Eliakim king, but he changes his name. He's like, that's not your name anymore actually. We're going to call you Jehoiakim. It's like, but that's not my name. It is now. But that's not the name my dad gave me. It is now because I'm your dad. So, verse 5, Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king.

And he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord. And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him. And he bound him with bronze chains to take him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also brought some of the articles of the house of the Lord to Babylon. And he put them in his temple at Babylon. The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim,

the abominations which he did, which was found against him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. And Judah and Jehoiachin, his son, became king in his place. This is the first of three invasions that Nebuchadnezzar will make against the nation of Israel. And in this first invasion is when Daniel and three boys that we refer to as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, even though that was not their given Hebrew names.

Those were the Babylonian names that were given to them. It was at this point in time that those four were among that first group of the royalty that was taken captive to Babylon. The best of the, not only treasures, but the best of the young men were taken captive at that point in time. And this is one of the reasons why we believe that Daniel and those three boys were actually probably a part of a royal household.

They were probably very wealthy, well-to-do. And so it's at this point in time that those guys are taken captive. And it's not long after this that false prophets in the land of Babylon start saying, hey, listen, this is gonna be a pretty short-lived thing. Don't worry about it. We're gonna be delivered soon. And Jeremiah will go on to write a letter to the captives,

and he will say, build a house, start a family, get a job, because you're gonna be there a while. Matter of fact, you're gonna be there for at least 70 years because you did not give up. You did not give the land its rest. You see, every seven years, they were supposed to give the land a year off, a sabbatical year. And they were within the land of Israel for 490 years,

and they never gave the land the rest that it deserved. And so God said, you're gonna be captive there in Babylon for 70 years. But this is where everybody's favorite verse comes in. But I know the thoughts I think towards you, declares the Lord, thoughts of good and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Therefore, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart,

and I will be found of you, declares the Lord. All of that kind of took place during this first 10-year stretch when they are taken captive. It says in verse 8, now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, we read that already. Verse 9, Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned three months, listen, and 10 days. Way, way better than his brother, right?

Three months and 10 days. Most believe that this is actually a copyist error that says that he was eight years old, because I believe in another account it says he was 18 years old. So most believe that's a copyist error that he was probably 18 years old when he became king. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but he always had that extra 10 days that he could hold over his brother's head.

And so it says, at the turn of the year, the king of Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the valuable articles of the house of the Lord, and he made his kinsmen Zedekiah, king over Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God, but he stiffened his neck and he hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel.

When you get to the last half of the book of Jeremiah, which you're going to eventually in our reading, when you get to the last half of the book of Jeremiah, what you find is that Jeremiah just keeps telling them, submit to the Babylonians, okay? This is what you're going to do now. You can either save your life by submitting to the captivity, of the Babylonians, or you can lose your life by rebelling against the Babylonians, which is why Jeremiah continually gets accused of being a false prophet, why he continually gets accused of being one who has defected from the nation, because he's telling them, look, this is God doing this. This is God bringing these Babylonians against you, which is why it says that Zedekiah would not submit

to the word of Jeremiah. He would not submit to what he was saying. That's what it means when he says that. And so he won't submit to it, and then he rebels, and he hardens his heart against the Lord and rebels against the king, and it says in verse 14, Furthermore, all the officials of the priests and the people were very unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the Lord, which he had sanctified in Jerusalem.

And the Lord God of their fathers sent word to them again and again, and again by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place, because they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, until there was no remedy. There's a handful of things I'd like to point out to you, maybe three. I suppose that constitutes a handful. It's more than two.

There's a few things I'd like to point out to you. First of all is that what it refers to there is that the people were very unfaithful to the things of the Lord. They were unfaithful to the things of the Lord. And throughout the prophetic books, again, if you get into some of these prophetic books, you'll start to see this, is that continually over and over again, disobedience, idolatry, the sin that they gave into was always characterized as unfaithfulness.

Speaking of a marriage relationship, that it was almost like they were cheating on God with the other gods that were around them, because ultimately that's what the idolatry is. That is, it is unfaithfulness to the Lord. And so that's what it says that they were. They were continually unfaithful to the Lord. But the second thing that I want to point out to you is this.

God still had compassion on them and continued to send prophets to them over and over again. Have you noticed that we're at least 22 and one half years and 10 days since Josiah has died? Now remember, Josiah was told that when you die, judgment will come upon the land. But God was so gracious that he was still withholding the full judgment on the land. He was still just sending the precursors

of the judgment on the land and continuing to have compassion on them. But they would not listen. They would not listen to the warnings that God had brought into their lives. They would not listen to the continual warnings that were given to them by the people, which is why we are reminded in the book of I believe it's 1 Corinthians that we should pay attention no, it's 2 Corinthians that we should pay attention to the warnings in the Old Testament.

Because if God did not spare his people in the Old Testament, how much more will he not spare us who have been given his spirit as a down payment? You know, we have to be reminded of these things. And so as we read these accounts in the Old Testament, let them be warnings to us. That God means what he says. And then when God says something is sin, he means it's sin.

And when he calls it unfaithfulness, it's unfaithfulness. Don't dabble in sin and don't dabble in unfaithfulness. And then the last thing that I want to point out to you is this, and I have this both underlined and highlighted. I don't highlight a lot in my Bible because it gets on the pages and I don't like it. But I highlighted this because this is a stark word,

at least this is how it's worded in the New American Standard. I'm going to read verse 16 to you again. It says, But they continually mocked the messengers of God. They despised his word. They scoffed at his prophets. Until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, this is where I started highlighting, until there was no remedy. I don't know why when I read that today,

that was one of the most sobering statements I think you can read in the Bible. Until there was no remedy. In other words, there was no going back. That's a scary statement that God makes about a place where someone can reach with sin until there's no remedy left for the sin. It reminds me of what we read in Hebrews chapter 6 a couple of weeks ago with the warning that was given

until there was no remedy. Brothers and sisters, we can never, ever, ever allow ourselves to get to a place where there's no remedy left. Where there's no remedy left for the rebellion that we have in our life. Do you notice how long it took though? It took them mocking the messengers of God, despising the word of God, scoffing at the prophets of God until finally,

the wrath of the Lord arose against them. Until there was no remedy. I believe that this is the place that we are beginning to get to in the world that we live in today. That God is going to have to bring judgment against us. Against the world. Because there's just no more remedy. Because people continue to to put themselves in the place of God. Until God finally deals with it.

It says, therefore, verse 17. He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans. It's now the third time. Who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. Had no compassion on young man or virgin. Old man or, or infirm. He gave them all into his hand. All the articles of the house of God, great and small. And the treasures of the house of the Lord.

And the treasures of the king and his officers. And he brought them all to Babylon. And then they burned the house of God. And they broke down the wall of Jerusalem. And they burned all of its fortified cities with fire. And they destroyed all its valuable articles. I'll remind us again, of who this is being written to. This is being written to those that are returning

from exile to Babylon. And he is reminding them what got them in this place. This is what it was like at the very end of the nation of Judah. Why does he do this? Because he wants there to be an incredibly fresh reminder in their minds and in their hearts of the consequences of sin. Because if you don't understand the deadliness of sin, then you'll never understand the importance of holiness.

And I believe this is a problem in the Western culture church today. Is that we have stopped believing that sin is deadly. So we've stopped believing that holiness is important. We are so grace filled that we have stopped understanding that grace was never supposed to be a license for sin. Grace was always supposed to be an avenue to holiness. And he wants them to be reminded

that the grace that God is showing in bringing them back to the nation is not now an excuse to return to sin. It is an avenue for them to live holy. And so he tells them of the distinct judgment that God brought on the nation. It says in verse 20, and those who escaped from the sword, he carried away to Babylon and they were servants to him and his sons until the rule of the king and the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths all the days of its desolation it kept Sabbath until 70 years were complete.

If you want to know a little bit about what took place during that time you can read the book of Daniel that gives a lot of the history of what took place in Babylon at that time. If you want to read a little bit about what it was like under the kingdom of Persia we'll get there very soon but we'll read the book of Esther that'll tell us a little bit about what it was like under the kingdom of Persia. And so there's a lot that's in the prophetic books that gives us more of the history but for 70 years they just live within the land. They had to live away from home.

They had to live away from the promised land until not only God had changed their hearts but until God had given the land its rest. And if the book of 2 Chronicles ended here it would be the saddest ending that you could ever imagine. Can we all agree with that? It would just be incredibly tragic. But remember the theme of this book is yes it's an unfaithful people

but he is a faithful God to an unfaithful people. And because he is a faithful God we have verses 22 and 23. It says now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also put it in writing saying thus says Cyrus king of Persia the Lord the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah whoever there is among you of all his people may the Lord of God may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. You can just imagine them all reading this on the way back right?

You get to the end of verse 21 and they're like oh so sad to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah that guy was so negative let's call him the weeping prophet he was always so sad in everything that he said until the land enjoyed its Sabbaths and the broken heartedness that you come to at the end of verse 21 but then you get to verse 22 and you remember hope you remember that no matter what God is still a God of grace that God is still a God of mercy and God provided a king named Cyrus Isaiah calls him my servant Jeremiah prophesies that this is exactly what's going to take place Daniel says that he's going to give out a proclamation to go back and rebuild the kingdom and in that moment this Cyrus comes along

and it wasn't even long into the Persian reign that Cyrus king of Persia in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by who? by the weeping prophet Jeremiah in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah stirs up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia you can imagine as Jeremiah is writing his incredibly sad book by the way he'll go on to write the book of Lamentations right? it's another happy book to read he'll go on to write the book of Lamentations and yet he's the one that it says it was fulfilled by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet you can imagine Jeremiah writing this 70 years previous and going I don't know how God's ever going to do this I can't imagine God's not just completely done

but I guess I'm going to believe what God told me to write you can imagine the people reading it going I don't know how God's going to do this how's God ever going to get us back there yeah right like some king that comes over and takes over a whole other country is going to just be like oh yeah you guys just go back and rebuild the temple but do you remember what sparked that entire thing? what sparked it is that we're told in the book of Daniel that Daniel said I Daniel was reading in the book of Daniel was reading in the words of Jeremiah the prophet and I discerned from the time that the captivity was about to come to an end and so what did Daniel do in that moment? Daniel started praying and do you know what he did when he started praying?

he started confessing his sins which by the way we don't read any record of any of Daniel's sins in the Bible and he started confessing all of the sins of the nation to the Lord in preparation of God bringing the kingdom back of God sending them back to rebuild the temple well you know we live in a little bit of a similar time now can we be honest about that? and we're not reading right now that it seems like we're getting close to the time to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple what we're reading about now is that it seems like it's getting close to the time when Jesus is going to come back and we can either be the people that hunker down and build a compound and arm ourselves and make sure that we're ready for that

or we could do what Daniel did because this feels more right to me we could start praying we could start confessing our own sins and start confessing the sins of the nation and we could start praying for God to move to bring as many people with us as we can into the kingdom of God that feels like a more right thing to do can we just be honest about that? and so because of that we end this book on a very high note that this faithful God is sending them back to rebuild the temple and can you imagine reading this? we are an answer to that prayer that's probably what they were thinking we are the answer to that prophecy that prophecy is the reason why we're here and we're going back to rebuild the temple we are the picture of God's faithfulness

and so it ends on a very high note interestingly enough if you were to read the Hebrew Bible this is the very last book in the Hebrew Bible and so while the book of Isaiah says this and so while the book of Malachi which is the end of our Old Testament ends on an incredibly sad note of warning the Hebrew Bible ends on this very high note of the fact that this faithful God showed himself faithful on behalf of the people amen let's pray Father we come before you and I just thank you for the time that we have in your word and Lord I thank you for how good you are to us and how much you minister to us and Lord I thank you that you are a faithful God and so Lord I ask that as we go throughout the rest of our week

as we continue to get into your word for ourselves and as we continue to seek you with all of our hearts I just pray that you would continue to show yourself faithful on our behalf Lord I pray that as we see the areas of our lives that need dealt with the areas of unfaithfulness the areas of idolatry Lord the areas of weakness that we have in our lives may we continue to take those to you and watch you redeem them and make them something beautiful watch you redeem them and do something amazing with us in spite of who we are and so Lord may we continue to see your faithfulness on our behalf and Father right now I feel compelled to pray for our nation I feel compelled to pray that you would forgive us for being a nation who has turned against you

who has turned leaders into idols who has made pleasure the highest point in our lives and who has Father made life something that's disposable and Lord I ask that you would forgive us and that you would move in this nation again and Lord may it start in each individual heart that's here tonight and may it continue to spread through our households and through our towns and through our nation Lord throughout our world Father I pray that you would move by the power of your Holy Spirit to not only draw us to a place where we are Lord so close to you that we won't notice that we've been in heaven but Lord to a place where where we are passionate to share the truth of who you are with the world around us

so Lord move as you see fit in our hearts and lives we pray in Jesus name Amen be blessed