The Truth in Print Vol. 27 Issue 4, May 2021
A Publication of the Valley church of Christ,
2375 W. 8th Street, Yuma, AZ 85364 (928-782-5058)
Website
Address ~ http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com
Three Stages of the Babylonian Captivity (Part
Three)
An End! The Babylonian Captivity
(Part Three: Focus on Jeremiahs Lamentations)
Eze
7:2 And you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: 'An
end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
Eze
7:3 Now the end has come upon you, And I will send My anger against you; I will
judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your
abominations.
What End?
THE 70 YEARS BABYLONIA CAPTIVITY THREE STAGES:
§ 605 B.C.
First Stage: ELIAKIM (JEHOIAKIM) made king by Pharaoh Necho (Egypt) -- became
Nebuchadnezzars servant for three years then rebelled -- Daniel and friends
taken. *Ezekiel 18 yrs. old *Pharaoh
Necho was defeated by Babylon in 4th yr. Jehoiakim.
§ 597
B.C. Second Stage: JEHOIACHIN
(*JECONIAH, CONIAH) son of Eliakim - Ezekiel and 10,000 captives taken.
§ 586 B.C.
Third Stage: ZEDEKIAH (MATTANIAH) Destruction of Jerusalem, Temple destroyed.
Notes:
The
Divided Kingdom (931 B.C.).
1)
The Northern Kingdom (10 Tribes) God gave to Jeroboam (Capital Samaria) was
taken captive by King Shalmaneser V of Assyria in 722 B.C. * Lasted 209 years).
2) The Southern Kingdom left to Rehoboam,
Solomons son, (Benjamin and Judah, capital Jerusalem) would last about 117
years until it is taken captive by Babylon.
Ezekiel
(593-559 B.C.)
WHY
ISRAEL AND JUDAH PROVOKED GOD TO ANGER
·
Jer 32:29 And
the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set fire
to this city and burn it, with the houses on
whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to
other gods, to provoke Me to anger;
·
Jer 32:30 because the children of Israel and the
children of Judah have
done only evil before Me from their
youth. For the children of Israel have
provoked Me only to anger with the work of their
hands,' says the LORD.
·
Jer 32:31 'For
this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My
fury from the day that
they built it, even to this day; so I will remove it from before My
face
·
Jer 32:32
because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of
Judah,
which they have done to provoke Me to angerthey, their kings, their
princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem.
TAUGHT
AND HAVE NOT LISTENED TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTION
·
Jer 32:33 And they have turned to Me the back, and
not the face; though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them,
yet they have not listened to receive instruction. ί Pr. 19:27
·
Jer 32:34 But they set their abominations in the
house which is called by My name, to defile it.
·
Jer 32:35 And
they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of
Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire
to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that
they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.'
Notes:
Pro 19:27 Cease listening to instruction, my son, And you will stray from the
words of knowledge.
JEREMIAHS
LAMENTATIONS
Lam 4:6 For the punishment of the iniquity of
the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom,
that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
The book of Lamentations, of course, is
written by Jeremiah. It puts him in the city of Jerusalem at the time
that it was utterly destroyed. It was written soon after the fall of Jerusalem
in 586 B.C. He saw Jerusalem destroyed by Babylon and her people killed,
tortured, or taken captive.
WHY?
BECAUSE OF THEIR TRANSGRESSIONS
Lam 1:5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies
prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her
transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
Notes:
1.
Their punishment now is the yoke of their transgressions (1:14).
2.
All they have is a memory of the precious things they once possessed (1:7).
3.
The Lord is righteous because they have rebelled against his commandments
(1:18, 20).
4.
God did not relent or pardon (3:42). He fulfilled his Word of warnings given in
the days of old (2:17). He did it in his fierce anger (1:12). Well be reading
about the results of this anger in our study. He destroyed the tabernacle and
worship places (2:6).
BRIEF EXCERPTS
ON VARIOUS CATEGORIES OF PERSONS:
THE
KING
Lam 2:6 And he hath violently taken away his
tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the
assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten
in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the
priest.
Lam 2:9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath
destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles:
the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
Notes:
1.
What was the kings duty before God? He was to read Gods Book and uphold His
law (De. 17:18-20). Am I among the brethren who understand the idolatry of
Israel and Judah but dont apply the lesson to themselves? What will happen to
me if I dont read the Bible to keep and uphold His law!
PRINCES
Lament. 1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her
beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and
they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
Lament. 2:9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he
hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the
Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.
Lament. 5:12 Princes are hanged up by their hand:
the faces of elders were not honoured.
You will find a long list of what they did in Ezekiel
22: 6-12, 27.
PRIESTS
Eze 22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have
profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and
profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean,
and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
Lament. 1:19 I called for my lovers, but they
deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while
they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
Notes:
They died in the streets of starvation while looking for food!
WHAT
SHOULD THE PRIESTS HAVE DONE? (Malachi, circa 433 B.C.)
Mal 2:7 For the priest's lips should keep knowledge,
and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD
of hosts.
Mal 2:8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have
caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi,
saith the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible
and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have
been partial in the law.
Note:
They are corrupt again 153 years later! (586 B.C. 433 B.C. = 153 years)
GODS
PURPOSE IS NOT WHAT MAN THOUGHT WOULD EVER HAPPEN!
Lam 4:11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he
hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath
devoured the foundations thereof.
Lam 4:12 The kings of the earth, and all the
inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the
enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. ί THE WORLD NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD
HAPPEN!
Lam 4:13 For the sins of her prophets, and the
iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of
her,
Lam 4:14 They have wandered as blind men in the
streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch
their garments.
Lam 4:15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch
not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall
no more sojourn there.
Lam 4:16 The anger of
the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the
persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
Lam
4:17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have
watched for a nation that could not save us.
Lam 4:18 They hunt
our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are
fulfilled; for our end is come.
Notes: The ungodly and mockers today mock the Flood
and laugh at the thought of the end of the world and their eternal punishment
in hell (2 Pet. 3:5-13).
PROPHETS
Lam 2:14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish
things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy
captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
Lam 2:20 Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou
hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long?
shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Lam 4:13 For the sins of her prophets, and the
iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of
her,
Eze 22:25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in
the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured
souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her
many widows in the midst thereof. ί AGREED
TOGETHER TO DO THESE!
Notes:
1.
Lament. 2:9
Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath
destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles:
the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.
WHAT
SHOULD THEIR PROPHETS HAVE DONE?
Jer 23:21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they
ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
Jer 23:22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and
had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from
their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. ί SHOULD HAVE CAUSED PEOPLE TO HEAR
AND TURN FROM THEIR EVIL WAYS!
ELDERS
Lament. 1:19 I called for my lovers, but they
deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while
they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
Lament. 2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit
upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads;
they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down
their heads to the ground.
Lam 4:16 The anger of the LORD hath divided them;
he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests,
they favoured not the elders.
Notes:
1.
They shut up because they now have no respect after all of their deceit,
murder, covetousness and lies!
2.
What do you thinks going happen to the virgins?
WHAT
SHOULD THE ELDERS HAVE DONE?
Lam 5:14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the
young men from their musick.
They sat at the gate for judgment and to put away
the evil from among the people (De. 21:19-21; 22:18).
Lev 19:32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head,
and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD. (Cf.
Prov. 16:31)
MIGHTY
MEN
Lament. 1:15 The Lord hath trodden under foot all
my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to
crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as
in a winepress.
YOUNG
MEN
Jer 18:21
Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their
blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their
children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men
be slain by the sword in battle.
Lament. 2:21 The young and the old lie on the
ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword;
thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not
pitied.
WOMEN
Lament. 2:20 Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom
thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span
long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Lament. 4:10 The hands of the pitiful women have
sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the
daughter of my people.
Lament. 4:3 Even the sea monsters draw out the
breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become
cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Lament. 5:11 They ravished the women in Zion, and
the maids in the cities of Judah.
Notes:
They ate their own at birth tiny size.
VIRGINS
Lament. 1:18 The Lord is righteous; for I have
rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my
sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
Lament. 2:21 The young and the old lie on the
ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword;
thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not
pitied. ί WERE NOT SAVED JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE VIRGINS.
CHILD,
SUCKLING
Lament. 1:5
Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath
afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone
into captivity before the enemy.
Lam 2:11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are
troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the
daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the
streets of the city.
Lam 2:12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn
and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when
their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom. ί DEATH BY STARVATION YET THEY WERE
NOT CAST INTO ETERNAL DESTRUCTION AS THEIR IDOLATROUS MOTHERS WERE.
Lament. 4:4 The tongue of the sucking child
cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and
no man breaketh it unto them.
Lament. 5:13 They took the young men to grind, and
the children fell under the wood.
PEOPLE
IN GENERAL
Eze 22:29 The people of the land have used
oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they
have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
Eze 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that
should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I
should not destroy it: but I found none.
Eze 22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine
indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their
own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.
WHO WAS
THE REAL ENEMY?
God caused Judahs friends who became her enemies to
rejoice over her destruction (Lament. 2:17).
THE REAL ENEMY WAS GOD HIMSELF (LAMENT. 2:1-5).
Lam 2:5 The Lord was as an enemy: he
hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath
destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah
mourning and lamentation.
Gods mercy and compassion is yet there for a few
who trust in Him (Lament. 3:22-26).
The matter of turning and being restored (Lament.
3:40).
Gods power to renew days (Lament. 5:21).
Note:
Lamentations is hard book; it should disturb you to see what God did to Judah
for their idolatries and iniquities. Consider what Jesus said about the
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. in Mat 24:21 For then there will be great
tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this
time, no, nor ever shall be. Make the application to the terror on the
Judgment Day at the Lords coming, and the wicked cast into an eternal lake of
fire, hell:
Rev
20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face
the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
Rev
20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were
opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the
dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in
the books.
Rev
20:13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and
Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged,
each one according to his works.
Rev
20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second
death.
Rev
20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life
was cast into the lake of fire. (Cf. Matt. 25:30; 2 Th. 1:3-10)
BRIEF REMINDERS FROM
PART ONE
WHAT DANIEL PRAYED AND
CONFESSED
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF
DARIUS THE MEDE (539-525 B.C.)
THE OATH HAS BEEN
CONFIRMED
Dan 9:9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and
forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.
Dan 9:10 We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD
our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the
prophets.
Dan 9:11
Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey
Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the
servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.
Dan 9:12
And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our
judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole
heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.
THE CURSE AND OATH
WRITTEN BY MOSES
*Moses,
the Wilderness and the Law (Ca. 1445-1405 B.C.)
The Curse Written in the Law:
* The culmination is written in Lev. 26:27-33.
The
Oath Written in the Law: De. 4:25-28; in De. 30:18 it is stated with the
curses (De. 27-30).
Deu 4:25
When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and
act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in
the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger,
Deu
4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness
against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you
cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but
will be utterly destroyed.
Deu 4:27 And the LORD will scatter you among the
peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD
will drive you.
Deu 4:28 And there you will serve gods, the work
of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
HOW MANY YEARS?
Moses, the Wilderness and the Law (Ca. 1445-1405
B.C.) *They carried their idols with them (AMOS 5:25-27).
The Northern Kingdom (10 Tribes) God gave to
Jeroboam (Capital Samaria) was taken captive by King Shalmaneser V of Assyria
in 722 B.C. * Lasted 209 years).
The Southern Kingdom and the Destruction of
Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
1405-586 = 819 YEARS
*SEE THE TRUTH IN
THESE STATEMENTS:
Deu 9:6 Therefore understand that the LORD your
God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness,
for you are a stiff-necked people.
Deu 9:7 "Remember! Do not forget how you
provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you
departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been
rebellious against the LORD.
Deu 9:24 You have been rebellious against the LORD
from the day that I knew you.
Valley Church of Christ
2375 W. 8th Street, Yuma, AZ 85364
(928) 782-5058 ~
http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com
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Wednesday evening 7:00 pm
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