2 Kings 25 (Part 2) Bible Study (Fall and Captivity of Judah) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

I'm excited for what God has in store for us this bible study, and I hope that you have a copy of God's word with you. There's something about physical bibles that, that is much more helpful than any other medium. Not against any other medium. I use them. But I hope you have a physical copy of the bible with you.

Let's turn now together to second Kings chapter 25. Second Kings chapter 25. What we have before us is a historical record of the final deportation of the people of Judah and the ultimate destruction of their kingdom. To say that this is an important section of scripture would be a massive understatement. Because in actuality, this is a watershed moment for the history of God's people and the overarching narrative of redemption.

And before we read any verse, I'd like for us to briefly think back to some of the greatest highlights of our study in the Old Testament so far. The miraculous exodus from Egypt. The incredible patience of God in the wilderness journey. The conquest of the promised land in the book of Joshua. The variety of challenges in the days of the judges.

The amazing covenant that almighty God makes with David and his descendants. And who can forget the establishment and the construction of the temple, which would be the earthly dwelling place of the glory of God in a more permanent way than the tabernacle? What great investment God made for this people. What tremendous long suffering and steadfast love throughout their failures. What amazing hope is attached to this nation.

And throughout our study of the Hebrew scriptures, we have consistently recognized the Lord's pardon and protection and preservation of his people namely and and especially towards Judah and Jerusalem. It's almost left us now to be expected expecting that God's gonna continue to do that. But what we're about to discover is that this time is different. This time is different. The Northern Kingdom Of Israel has already been exiled by the Syrian empire.

And now we're about to discover that Judah is going to share in their faith, but it's going to be more devastating devastating because of their connection to the Davidic dynasty. And so I want us to look at second Kings 25 verse eight down to verse 10, and we'll continue at that pace for the rest of the evening. In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Nebuzeradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and he burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every great house he burned down.

And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Father, you are the teacher, and we are your desperate, hungry students. We are your disciples. And we ask that you would illumine our minds. We ask, Lord, that you would fortify our faith And that, Lord, you would cause us to fall deeper in love with you as you showcase the sophistication, the majesty, the brilliance, the wisdom, the glory of your word.

So, Lord, we pray that there would be nothing that would interfere with the transmission of truth and that we would only hear your voice. This is our longing. That is why we have gathered and we trust that you, oh God, see us here as we've come to receive from you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

If we consider the date that is given back in verse three of this chapter, then we we realize here that it's been about a month since Zedekiah attempted to escape the Babylonians who were surrounding Jerusalem, only to be captured, blinded, and then taken to Babylon to be killed. And what's highlighted here is that the death of the king was clearly not enough for Nebuchadnezzar. He was determined now to bring total destruction to the holy city, and to take away anybody that is remaining in the city. And what's so significant is that the destruction was so severe that every edifice, every meaningful structure has been burned down to ash. This was a massive blow.

This was unthinkable, inconceivable, and yet it's true. It finally happened. Everything that was known, that was held together by God's grace has now been brought down to rubble. And there are so many things we can comment about that, but what caught my eye is what we find in verse 10. We see here that the Babylonians are identified as the Chaldeans.

Now why would that be important? It may not seem like anything worth underlying, but Chaldeans here don't just appear in this verse, but a total of seven times in this single chapter. And it seems as though this repeated identification of the Babylonians as the Chaldeans is a strong reminder of how far the people of God have fallen from their original calling. What do I mean by that? Well, do you recall what God said to Abram Abraham before he was ready to make a covenant with him in Genesis 15?

Here's an important verse. Genesis 15 verse seven. It says here, the Lord spoke to him, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. And so the Lord is reminding Abraham in this text that I revealed myself to you. I called you from a specific location.

And for us, reading this, we are reminded where Israel's story began. It began in this place. God calling the father of this nation from the Ur of the Chaldeans to this new promised land. And here's what's so striking. Centuries go by, and now we find the same God who is calling the Chaldeans to come to this promised land, and to remove Abraham's descendants and to bring them back to where it all began.

It's as though, in an indirect way, it's as though the spirit of God is giving us hints to recognize how massive this exile is, how significant. And I began to meditate when looking at this, thinking what was it that brought Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans to begin with? Why would he leave his home, his idols, his family to follow God into the unknown? And the Bible actually gives us an answer. It's actually found in the New Testament.

So turn with me to Acts seven because this is worth seeing with our own eyes. And looking at Stephen's speech, his sermon, really, he gives us an insight as he recalls the history of the people of Israel. Look here in acts seven verse two. And Stephen said, brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran and said to him, go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.

Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed them from there into this land in which you are now living. Stephen was so specific. He was clearly led by the spirit. Out of all the ways that he could have referenced God, he chose the God of glory.

The God of glory appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia in the land of the Chaldeans. So what happened though not explicitly explained to us is that at some point in Abraham's older age, God manifested his glory to him. Was it one encounter? Was it repeated encounters? We're not told, but it served as a catalyst for this man to pick up everything and to head into the horizon of the unknown, to follow the true God and to worship him alone.

And here's what I wanna argue. That Abraham's descendants, after so many failures, so many offenses, have clearly proven that they have lost sight of the glory of God. And this is why they are where they are now. This is why they are collapsing. This is why they are paying a very high price for their disobedience.

As Romans one tells us, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for idols, for created things. Here's the lesson for you and I. If you and I want to avoid regressing spiritually, you must be determined to be fixated on the glory of God. Always. His holiness, His love, his goodness, his justice, his purity, his faithfulness.

Keep that ever before you. Keep discovering it. Keep tasting it. Keep asking the Lord to make it real to you because the moment your vision of his glory diminishes, the more temptation will become alluring and will convince you that there is something greater than savoring his glory. Abraham came out of the land of the Chaldeans because he got a glimpse of God's glory.

And now his descendants are going back to that land because they have lost sight of that very same glory. This is remarkable. But then we come back here to our main text, and we read in verse 11. Babylon not only destroyed the temple, the homes, and the city walls, we read how they dealt with the people who survived the previous deportations. It reads here in verse 11, and the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile.

But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen. So the king of Babylon says enough is enough. We're gonna take every single person out and bring him to our land. Now what's interesting is that he chooses to leave behind a certain demographic, the poorest of the land, those who had nothing to offer, those who had no noble standing in society, And we're left to wonder, why would he do this? And I don't think there's some deep mysterious truth to it.

I think it's political. It's economic. Babylon, who was already in control of Jerusalem, might have wanted this place to remain as an agricultural asset. And so he chooses, the unfortunate to remain in the land and to tend the land and to maintain it so that there would be produce and things that they can benefit from. So that's what it's been reduced to now.

Most of the people are taken out. A small population stays back. They're just managing the property, really, to the benefit of the Babylonians. And yet there is one person I'm thinking about, wondering what happened to him. A person that we have referenced many times, at least his writings, Jeremiah.

Remember him? If we read here that everybody was taken, you might be wondering, did Jeremiah follow in the same direction of Daniel in the first deportation? Ezekiel in the second deportation? Is it Jeremiah's turn now? Is he now going to Babylon to join the other prophets with a new chapter in his ministry?

Well, the scriptures again give us an answer, and the answer actually might surprise you. But the only way you'll discover it is if you go to Jeremiah 40. Look what happens here in Jeremiah 40 beginning in verse one. Jeremiah 40 verse one. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had let him go from Ramah, when he took him bound in chains along with all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon.

Pause. So what happens here? Well, Jeremiah was mixed in the crowd. He was included among the captives. And after some distance, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

And this is something significant because God is obviously superintending this. He's obviously working providentially, but the captain of the guard now singles out Jeremiah, and he says something quite remarkable. Look at verse two. The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, the lord your god pronounced this disaster against this place. The lord has brought it about and has done as he said because you sinned against the lord and did not obey his voice.

This thing has come upon you. Now we can keep reading on because he's about to give Jeremiah an offer, but it's worth pausing here and examining some of these comments. Notice that this leader, a pagan leader, looks at Jeremiah and he admits that he acknowledges God's hand behind Judah's defeat. How did he arrive to this conclusion? I think the most logical answer is that both he and the other leaders in Babylon were very well acquainted with Jeremiah's prophecies.

And you can make that case from chapter 39, which we won't turn to, because Nebuchadnezzar himself heard about Jeremiah. He, in fact, gave instruction that he would be left alone. So Nebuchadnezzar himself knew about this prophet. And surely, he and the others understood what he proclaimed against his own city. Here's why this is so striking.

Because the people of God here are humbled by this. They should be at least. These Babylonians demonstrated more faith in the word of the Lord than those who claimed to be in covenant with God. Hey, Jeremiah. You know what you said?

You know what God said ultimately about this place? It happened. It happened. God kept his word. This this is humbling.

Why? Because the crowd in Jerusalem were mocking Jeremiah. They were lining up to the prophets who were saying, there is no way Babylon's gonna take over this place. And yet in contrast, you have these unbelievers who say, yeah, God's word said it, and he did it. What a strange sight to see the word of God making a deeper impression on those outside of covenant with God than those who claim to be in relationship with him.

This is startling. But moreover, what's even more shocking is how this unbeliever who worshiped false god false gods and maybe he recognized that every land has their own deity or deities. Sure. But he looks at Jeremiah, and he speaks to him as a representative of this people, and he calls them sinners. Look again at verse three.

The Lord has brought it about and has done as he said because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey his voice. This thing has come upon you. If the destruction of the holy city weren't humbling enough, how much more humiliating is it for a pagan to call out the disobedience of those who claim to follow the true God? You've sinned. We recognize that this is a consequence of your disobedience.

Who's speaking here? A prophet? No. An unbelieving ruler of a different nation. And this is yet another example of how the scriptures in various places cause believers to live in such a way that the world cannot accuse us of contradiction or hypocrisy.

If the world is gonna confront us about anything, let it be because of our consecration to Christ, not our clear inconsistencies. Let it be because we take holiness seriously, not because we say one thing and live another. I wonder what the faces of these captives look like when this man said in their presence, you're here because you sinned. This is coming from the mouth of a person who does not worship a true God, who does not fear him, who does not submit to his decrees. And he says, you sinned.

Oh, may God protect us from ever receiving a comment from an unbeliever that says, wait, wait, aren't you a Christian? Oh, wait, wait, didn't you just invite me to church, like, a couple of months ago? Is this what you guys do at your church? The embarrassing contrast between the Babylonians and the people of God only grows more striking as we continue to read. Are you still there in Jeremiah 40?

Look at verse four. He continued to speak to the prophet, Now behold, I release you today from the chains on your hands. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you well. But if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, do not come. See, the whole land is before you.

Go wherever you think it good and right to go. If you remain, then return to Gedalia the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon appointed governor of the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people, or go wherever you think it right to go. So, the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a present and let him go. What's the captain of the guard essentially saying? We recognize that you're a prophet.

We recognize that you speak on behalf of Yahweh, and so we wanna make you an offer. If you'd like to come with us to Babylon, you'll be taken care of. You'll be honored. You'll be provided for. But if for whatever reason you want to stay back here with your people, you're free to do that as well.

It's your choice. You know what shook me when I read this? How the Babylonians treated Jeremiah better than his own kinsmen. How are we to make sense of this? From a divine standpoint, it's clearly an act of God's mercy.

Granted to one of his servants who suffered throughout his ministry. But from a human standpoint, this shows how the Babylonians held more respect for this prophet than the people of God. Read Jeremiah, if you haven't. Read that book, and you'll find one despicable act of mistreatment after another towards this precious servant of the Lord. Coming from who?

His own. Even from those from his own hometown. And yet, once the Babylonians meet him, they show such honor and respect. Hey, you come with us, we'll take care of you. You wanna stay back here?

Here's an allowance and here's a gift. Far be it from us that the world could out give, out serve, out respect, out love, out honor those who have been forgiven by God and sealed with his Holy Spirit. May it never be that one Christian, from this place or any other place of faith, would wrestle with his experience because he receives kindness and respect and pardon and grace from those who are not connected to the truth than those who are. The Babylonians here are respecting this man of God. What a refreshing thing it must have been for this prophet who had received so many bruises and scars from his own.

So he's given a choice. Do you wanna stay or do you wanna go? What choice is he gonna make? Look at verse six. Then Jeremiah went to Gedalia the son of Ahikam at Mizpah and lived with him among the people who were left in the land.

What? You chose to stay? I mean, what did that look like as they're having this conversation, and behind Jeremiah, as he's facing Babylon? Smoke is rising up to the atmosphere. Flames and embers are still burning.

Everything has been reduced to nothing. And the other option is a new life, a promised inheritance, wonderful favor, comfort, maybe even luxury, and Jeremiah determines, I'm gonna stay. I'm gonna stay. What choice would you make? I wonder, whether you think Jeremiah did the right thing or not, I can't help but compare him to Zedekiah in this moment.

Remember two weeks ago, we looked at King Zedekiah? When Jerusalem was surrounded, and finally the Babylonians made a breach, what did he do? He packed his bags, he got the army to surround him, And he evades the scene, leaving behind his people, the very same people he was called to shepherd, to watch over, and to protect. A clear example of a coward, a failure of a leader. Yet, when Jeremiah was given an opportunity to move on ahead, imagine how tempting that is.

You guys didn't listen to me after years of preaching. This is what you get. I'm moving on. Instead, he chooses to remain with the remnant. He chooses to stay back.

Why? Because he's a true shepherd. He's a true leader. Here's what I want to remind us about. A mature and genuine servant of Christ does not walk away from their ministry when it becomes difficult or unattractive.

He or she will remain at their post until they receive marching orders from heaven. Too many people give up easily. I've seen it. And if you know that you have the tendency to just abort the call, move on from the mission, hop from church to church to church to church, let me encourage you with this truth. God honors and rewards loyalty.

He does. And as I was thinking about this text and this truth, my mind went to what Jesus said about his own disciples before he was arrested. After instituting the Lord's Supper, let me read to you this one verse in Luke twenty two twenty eight. Jesus says, you are those who have stayed with me in my trials. You are those, in Luke twenty two twenty eight, who have stayed with me in my trials.

When I read that, I said Lord, I want you to be able to say the same about me. I don't want to be faithful to Your Word, faithful to the calling You have given me, faithful to the gifts that you have deposited in my life. When things are easy or when they are celebrated, I want to stay close to you when it's hard. When it doesn't make sense, when it doesn't really benefit me, I wanna stay close to you even in trials. Jeremiah made that decision.

He didn't take the easy road out. He said, you know, thank you, but I'm gonna stay back. And we're gonna hear maybe another reason why he did that. But let's come back to our main text and see what happens next. Look here at verse 13.

And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon. And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service. The firepans also, and the bowls. What was of gold, the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver as silver. As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight.

The height of the one pillar was 18 cubits, and on it was a capital of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits, a lattice work, and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capitol. And the second pillar had the same with the lattice work. So now the writer goes into greater detail about the desecration of the temple. It's almost like he wants the reader to feel, not just speaking in general, but looking at significant things in the house of God, being stripped down, being confiscated.

But what's in focus here more than anything else are the pillars. The two pillars that Solomon built and planted at the entrance of the house of worship. Here's a question for you. Does anybody remember the name of those two pillars? If you do, you can lift your hand.

Who remembers the names of the two pillars that Solomon built? Anybody know? Boaz is one of them. What's the other one? Say that again.

Close. I'm not gonna give you the answer right away. I want you to turn to see with your own eyes in first Kings chapter seven. Obviously, these pillars are important for them to be mentioned even at the final part here of second Kings. Look at verse 21 of first King seven.

He set up the pillars at the vestibule of the temple. He set up the pillar on the south and called its name Jaken. And he set up the pillar on the north and called its name Boaz. So those are the two names. Now, I understand that these are important pieces to the structure, but why name them?

Why were they named? Well, the first one, Jaikin, means he will establish. Boaz means in him is strength. That's widely accepted as the interpretation. He will establish in him his strength.

And clearly, the Lord wanted to convey that this truth was as reliable and stable as the pillar themselves. And so, anytime someone entered into the courtyards of the temple, they would stand in the shadow of those wonderful realities. God has established the people of Judah in the temple. And God alone can sustain the people of God and this sacred place of worship. And the irony, right?

You come to second Kings, and what do you realize? That the Babylonians come and pull it apart. They throw it in a cart, and they transport it to a new land. Did God betray his people? No.

The people betrayed their God. Big difference. And the next question is this. Has God forsaken his people by allowing this? And the answer is yes and no.

Clearly, He has. He has removed Himself, His protective mercy, His guiding grace. He didn't allow for any miraculous intervention to take place to shoo away the enemies of Israel and Judah. But is this permanent? Is this a permanent defeat?

And we should know our Bibles well enough to say absolutely not. You know, as much as Jeremiah proclaimed judgment and exile, interwoven in those warnings were promises of return and restoration. And God's desire to communicate that hopeful future was so important to him that he no longer had Jeremiah just say it, as important as his word was. He actually had Jeremiah demonstrate it in one of the most unique passages in the book of Jeremiah. He actually has Jeremiah act out a sermon.

To actually display with an act. An act of faith ultimately to show just how dependable this word is of return. It's gonna happen. This is disciplinary. This is not total annihilation.

And so here's the scene. Jeremiah, in the tenth year of the the king at the time Zedekiah, there's a siege, they're surrounded, and he's imprisoned. Like, they're so sick and tired of this guy that they just put him behind bars. And while he is in prison, God speaks to him a very strange word. It's in Jeremiah 32.

Look at this with me in verse six. So, remember the setting. Remember where Jeremiah is. And it says here in Jeremiah 32 verse six, Jeremiah said, the word of the Lord came to me. Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, buy my field that is at Anathoth.

For the right of redemption by purchase is yours. Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, buy my field that is in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. Why is this a strange offer?

Any idea? He's in prison. That's one thing. But think of the the wider reality. Well, you can sell it if it's in your family.

If there is the necessity of transferring it within your tribe, that is permitted. But think about the wider context. What's going on in Jerusalem and around Jerusalem? A siege. They're at war.

They're surrounded by an enemy. This is not the time to to do real estate. More than that, Anathoth, geographically speaking, was a few miles outside of Jerusalem, so it's likely that Babylon had already taken it over. So you're offering me a piece of land that has been already conquered. It's not very helpful.

So, you can imagine how troubling this was for Jeremiah. In fact, he even says it here at the at the end of verse eight, then I knew that it was the word of the Lord. It's like, this word was so unbelievable. I didn't know if it was me or God until my cousin showed up to my jail cell. Okay.

Now I know this is God. And his cousin obviously probably wanted to make some kind of money in the dire situation that the city was in. So he chooses to honor God's word as much as possible, and give that right of redemption to a family member, so he offers it to the Prophet. And Lord says, buy it. That's foolish, humanly speaking.

It makes zero sense. The thing that makes most sense is to keep as much money to yourself as possible, not to give it for something that you can't even enjoy, that might not ever be yours. Especially for Jeremiah. He knows that the people are going to go into exile for decades. There is no sense in this whole thing.

But he's trusting God. So, scroll down to verse 12 and notice what happens. And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch, the son of Neriah, son of Masia, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard, I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, take these deeds, both the sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land. Do you see what he's saying here?

Jeremiah, I want there to be witnesses of this truth. You're buying a piece of property because you believe what I have told you to say to everyone, that although they are going to be removed from this land, they will one day return. That's how much God wanted to drill into the hearts of these people, even in their discipline, that He still has a hope for them, a future for them. It's not going to remain this way. There are too many covenants made, promises made, over and over again for God to break them.

God is trying to say here in another sense, I have not forgotten, and I want to put a down payment on my promise. Now, even in a text like this, there are wonderful, practical, personal lessons. Here's the first thing that we can take from this. In order for our message to the skeptic, to the compromising, to the unbeliever, to be more persuasive, we must be willing to practice what we preach. Up to this point, Jeremiah has been saying God is going to bring you back.

God is going to take you away, but He will, in His grace, bring you back. And that's, it's as though the Lord says, I want you now, Jeremiah, to actually live out that message. You've been preaching it. Now I want you to prove it. I want you to show your audience that you believe what you're saying from the pulpit.

So buy the land. Buy it. And he did. If you were not allowed to say a word for a few weeks, maybe months, your family, your friends, people who know you, watching you, would they be able to conclude this person serves God? Would they be able to even say this person lives for eternity?

The proclaimed word is vital. God uses it to win souls. God uses it to transmit his truth. But what is necessary is that whatever is proclaimed is backed up with practice, is performed. And so Jeremiah, prove it.

Let people see where your money goes. Let people see that you actually trust in the word that I give to you to give to them. And there were witnesses there. This was a public act. But the second thing here to be reminded of is that the Christian life is very much about making events, invest, investments that don't make sense to the world around us.

You've got to remember the context. This looks foolish. Why are you purchasing land? You're never going to know it. In fact, whenever an exile like this would take place, the revival of a nation was miraculous if it ever happened.

Unlikely. Yet, Jeremiah is showing something here by way of principle. Though it may not look like this is the best way to utilize your time, your energy, and your resources. God said it, so I'm gonna show that it's worth it. The people that know you may look at you and say, what are you doing?

You only have one life. Use it well. Live it up. Why are you spending your Friday nights like that? Why are you spending your money like that?

Why do you even waste your mornings like that? There's much more that you can do with that hour or twenty minutes or thirty minutes that you spend in your room talking to God and knowing his word. And this is a miniature illustration of how whatever we are called to invest in, that's in alignment with God's word, is never in vain. God always vindicates us. Those who watch us may mock us.

They may never understand. But Jeremiah shows here that it's always worth it. And this also may give us insight to why he decided to stay back instead of going into Babylon. I believe Jeremiah's heart was so much for the people that he chose to remain as a physical demonstration and message of hope. I'm gonna I'm gonna choose to plant my feet here, even though there's nothing left for me, really.

So that the exiles and even the remnant here would be constantly reminded that there is a future. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go on and indirectly communicate that this place is over with. I'm gonna stay here. Now, what I love about this too is that Jeremiah had the choice to say, Daniel didn't, right? You know, how God works in each of his servants is so amazing.

And God didn't love Daniel or Ezekiel less than Jeremiah, because he gave Jeremiah the ability to remain, and the others, no choice. Be careful of comparing God's dealings in your life. What He gives to others and what He doesn't give to you, what He gives to you and what He doesn't give to others as a sign of the measure of His love or affection. God is incredibly wise, and He knows what is beneficial for you in terms of openings and closings. As much as you might want that gift that you see somebody else operating in, God may know you way better than you know yourself.

He does know you way better than you know yourself. And he knows how that gift can actually crush you instead of bless you. He just knows. And I was thinking about that, you know, what would it have been like for Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah to be all in one place? But the Lord knows how to distribute his resources.

He knows how to position his servants well. And he doesn't owe us an explanation. Let's read the last verses of our study here. Second Kings 25. Let's look at verse 18.

And the captain of the guard took Sariah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold. And from the city, he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and five men of the King's Council, who were found in the city, and and the secretary of the commander of the army who muster the people of the land, and 60 men of the people of the land who were found in the city. So here are the notable leaders that remain. They're collected, and notice what happens in verse 20. And Nibu Zedadan, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Ribla, and the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Ribla, in the land of Hamath.

And here's the most sobering part of this section of Scripture. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land. You would think that this is where second Kings would end, but you are well aware that there are still a few verses that remain. We will touch on these verses in next week's final study of this book. But for now, I want us to just step back and to really take in some of these truths that were explained, and to ask God to make them real in our lives.

Can we do that? Lord, we thank you for this study. And we ask, oh, God, that these truths would come alive in each of us in a way that actually changes things. Lord, for every person here who desires to serve you wholeheartedly, in these very turbulent moments in our culture, even for the church, May we always remember your watching eye. And Lord, what you said of the disciples, we wish you would say to us.

You are those who have stayed with me in my trials. And Lord, give each of us the wisdom to know when to remain and stay and when to pick up and go. But Lord, would you please inspire loyalty in each of us? To not give up so quickly. To not be frustrated to the point of quitting.

Oh, Lord, we even see here a great contrast between the Babylonians and their treatment of Jeremiah, and the truth, and the people of God who should have known better. Thank you for the reminder that it's possible, even for those who are walking with Christ, to have a dimmed light. Lord, we pray that you would add more fuel to the flame in our hearts, and that what we do and how we act and respond would burn brighter and would back up what we say. Thank you for these practical realities. Thank you for the wisdom of this text.

Thank you, oh God, for the glory of your word. Captivate us again, lest we reverse and go back to a place that you brought us out of. Keep your glory before our face every day and every night. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

If you want to stay seated and pray, and speak to the Lord, confess, rejoice, you can do that. If you want to stand and you want to sing, you're free to do that as well. But let's just take our time in worshiping him.