7/12/26 - Captivity, Deliverance, & Captivity / 2 Chronicles 26, Jeremiah 29

God of recovery. >> We laid our hearts upon the widows. There we were in a distant land. Remembered what we lost and if only we had listened. If only we had a baby, our story would be so different. But instead, we're living like slaves. Sometimes you have to lose it all to find everything and to discover it's at your home. You should lift up your voice and sing. times when your home is gone and you've lost your family too and the enemy has control. You'll discover that God is true. He knows the thoughts he thinks towards you. Thoughts of peace and not of harm. But your pain is the process. and tears work on your part. He brought you here for a season and every season brings change. You will find him when you seek him and life will never be the same. God has promised to bring you back to the place where you belong. So take your hop off the willow now and sing that joyful song. God is a God of recovery. Can be no question about that. He restored the joy of my salvation. And I'm going to stay right where I'm at. He brought you here for a season. And every season has changed. You will find him when you seek him. And life will never be the same. He brought you here for a season. And every season brings change. You will find him when you seek him. And life will never be the same. Your life will never be the same. Never the same. Amen. So, we'll go ahead and and pray and we'll speak to the author of the book. That's always the best thing to do before you read the Bible is to speak to the author. So, let let's pray to the author of the book right now. Let's pray. Our God and our father, we thank you tonight for your word. We are so privileged that you have placed the word of God in our hands. Now, we want to transfer that word or we want you to transfer it from the written page into our hearts and minds. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So, we uh a couple weeks ago uh I'm not sure who was with us, but we were looking at the nation Israel and they were brought out of captivity in Egypt. So, we saw last week that when they crossed the Jordan River, they went into the promised land. And uh we talked about the 12 stones that were taken and put in the Jordan River. And 12 stones were taken out, put on the Canaan side, picturing our death with Christ. in our resurrection with him. So now they're in Canaan, but they forgot their identity. They forgot they were the people of God. So here is a people God delivered out of uh Egyptian captivity and bondage. Now, because of their sin, they're going to go into bondage again. And I just want to read something that's very insightful as to why they go into uh uh captivity and how long it's going to be. It's in uh u the last chapter in 2 Chronicles. This is in in uh Chronicles, we get the history of Israel. And at the very end when Zedekiah, who's king, and that 490 years is over and God's going to take him into captivity into Babylon through a king named Nebuchadnezzar, who you might have heard about if you've read in the book of Daniel. Well, he's going to take him captive for 70 years. 70 years. I'm going to read it for you in 2 Chronicles chapter 36 and verse 20. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia. Now verse 21, listen to this. To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. For as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath 70 years. So the Sabbath, why is it significant that Israel went into captivity for 70 years? Well, for 490 years, they had not kept the 7-year Sabbath rest of the land. And that is what you find in Leviticus 25 is that God had told them that every seven years that they were to let the land rest. They weren't to farm it. So in the sixth year they would have a bumper crop. The seventh year they didn't work. Sounds pretty good. And the eighth year they would eat from what they had grown the sixth year. And then they the eighth year they would replant and then uh go ahead from then on and the cycle would continue. So for 490 years every seven years they were supposed to let the land rest. They didn't. So that comes out to 70 years of sabitical years when the land should have rested. So God said this in Leviticus 25 and verse 23. He says the land is mine. The land of Israel where Israel is right now is not Israel. It's Jehovah's. It's God's. And he will re he will return once again through the Lord Jesus. And he's going to claim that land. But that's a that's a that's another story. But right now, uh, he, uh, he says, "This is my land, and now you have not honored me by keeping the Sabbath and letting my land rest. So, I'm going to let it rest. I'm going to send you into captivity for 70 years into Babylon because of your sin against me." Now, the sin against them, as we read in in Acts 7, was that they were worshiping foreign gods and that they had joined with the Canaanites in their worship. But the reason it's 70 years is just because what we said about the Sabbath. Now the point I want to make is this. Whatever trial you might go through or I might go through is perfectly every day, every moment is perfectly numbered by God. He has a purpose, a perfect purpose. And it requires a perfect amount of time for him to accomplish it. Now obviously if we cooperate with God that kind time might be shortened but God knows exactly what we need and uh it may not be pleasant as uh Peter says in 1 Peter uh uh 1 and6 he says now that for a season you know you're in a trial and it may not be pleasant in fact it it may be uh uh bring great heaviness upon you and if you're in trial, you know that that brings heaviness upon you. But just remember, it's ordered by God. It's exactly ordered by God. And I'm going to turn to Jeremiah now in uh Jeremiah 25. Uh I'm going to read uh just to give a connection in verse 8. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, because ye have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, sayeth the Lord, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and I will utterly destroy them." Now, verse 10, listen to this. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle. What is he saying, friends? It's not going to be fun. I I am going to bring upon you a judgment and it's going to be painful, but as we said, it's going to be a time to learn from God. And while there, in fact, I hate to do this, you know, but in in the Psalms, there's a psalm that connects with this very point that God just made in Psalm 137. Now, listen. So, we just heard that God told the people he's going to take them out of the promised land, bring them into captivity into Babylon, and while they're there, it's not going to be fun. He's going to take away all the joy and mirth and singing. This is what it says in Psalm 137. This is the people that are in Babylon and they write about their experience. By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down. Yay, we wept. I I just want you to I pause there. I want you to think about it. Times are hard when we disobey the Lord. And they wept because they're away from home in captivity. It says when we remembered Zion, they remembered home, they remembered Jerusalem and and they remembered what they had lost. And you know, many times we have to lose what is really valuable for us to realize just how valuable those things are. We hanged our, this is verse two of Psalm 137, we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. So that's a picture uh sadness. They hang their harps upon the willows. For they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion." And listen to this. They answer, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" Now, I went to this psalm just just to reinforce uh the the sensitivity that you will find in the Bible that connects with your own personal experience. This book is a present book for today, for your life and my life today. And God said, "I'm going to bring judgment upon you, and it will be sorrowful for you. But nevertheless, nevertheless. Now I'm going to go back to Jeremiah to fill in the nevertheless in Jeremiah chapter 29. Now remember he already told him it would be 70 years. So now in Jeremiah chapter 29:10 and some of you may be familiar with this scripture. For thus sayeth the Lord that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you. Hallelujah. God had not given up on them because of their sin. No. Uh he was a he was with them the whole time though uh not in a way that that he could draw near to them. Because when you're under discipline, God stays at a distance. He says, "After 70 years, be accomplished at Babylon. I will visit you and perform my good word toward you." Listen, in causing you to return to this place, hallelujah. God's a God of restoration. Oh, my friend, he's going to take them back after that this uh work of of discipline has has finished. He's going to take them back home. And that's what you can read in the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah and uh other books too. But anyway, so verse 11. Now, this is the verse you might have heard before. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, sayeth the Lord. Now he's talking to them who are in captivity in Babylon because of their sin. I know the thoughts that I have toward you, sayeth the Lord. Thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end. You see, God is accomplishing something in the in in the lives of of the people of this nation. He's drawing them back to himself. And listen what he says. Then after the work of discipline's been accomplished, then ye shall call upon me and shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall call upon me and ye shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart and I will be found of you, saith the Lord. The worst thing you can do is harden your heart toward the Lord. Is to blame God for the circumstances of your life. No, you remember that he has a good expected end for you. That he is working in your heart. You know, our hearts become hardened over a long period of time. As we live in sin, uh the wheels of the carts of sin run over uh our hearts like a uh like a roadway that becomes hard and that doesn't change overnight. God has to deal with us in very definite and sometimes very hard ways just like with Israel here for 70 years in order that their hearts might be changed that that hardness of that roadway might be broken up as God plows their heart. and and he says, "And I will be found of you, sayaeth the Lord." Hallelujah. So, this is this is so wonderful. God is going to bring them back to the land. And God has something for you, too. Uh he's not going to take you back to the same circumstances that you were in, but if and if he does, he's going to change you. You will not be the same person when you go back. They weren't the same people when they went back to Jerusalem. God had changed them. And just one final thing I want to say, only a remnant went back. Only a small number. The majority of Israel had become comfortable in Babylon, had developed lives there, businesses, and families, and they didn't go back. When the king of Babylon or king of Persia Cyrus said that they could return, only a small number returned. So while you're under God's discipline, you make sure that you're seeking the Lord and asking him to soften your heart and you don't become comfortable comfortable in the circumstances that you're in because God is working to soften your heart and to draw you closer and closer to himself. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Oh God, we want to thank you for such mercies and kindness. You are so good. Bless each one listening tonight. We pray, oh God, as uh you have these good plans toward us. All things work together for good. People might mean it for evil as Joseph's brethren did, but you mean it for good. Praise the Lord. Just as with the Lord Jesus, they hated him, crucified him, but through that evil act, now there's a savior for every sinner like myself. And like those listening that can be saved, my friend, if you're not saved, you trust Christ in this moment. Receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in his name. Amen. Amen.