Babylon, Jeremiah and You

Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for that art. Fantastic. I always feel inadequate coming up here after you sing. I did note how polite our pastor is, mentioning that he turned the air conditioning colder. He was polite enough not to say it's because people nod off when I speak. So thank you for that. Welcome to all our visitors. It's good to have some new faces with us. We always enjoy welcoming new people here, so we're glad to have you here and hope you'll enjoy your time with us.

You know, there's a saying in the IT world. Maybe some of you have heard it, and the saying goes like this, it's not a bug, it's a feature. Has anyone heard that before? Yeah, okay. So usually programmers, or nowadays people who write apps, come up with that when somebody finds something wrong with what they've done. There's a glitch in a game that they wrote. There's a program that's supposed to work a certain way and it doesn't. They say, oh no, it's not a bug, it's not broken, it's a feature.

Something special we designed into the system just to keep you on your toes. And it's an apt saying, I think, as we reflect on our world and living as Christians in it, and I want to spend a little time today talking about that. We had a congregational survey going back a month or so ago, and I found it interesting reading through the comments and some of the suggested topics, one of which was talking about different situations in the Bible, especially the stories that we read in the Bible, and trying to understand how they relate to things going on in our world today.

So in whatever way I can, I'd like to tackle that for a bit today. And the title is Babylon, Jeremiah, and You. Babylon, Jeremiah, and You. So what is Babylon? We've probably heard of it. We might be able to quote a scripture or say something about it, but where did it start? What is it?

What does it mean? We've given it much thought. If you will, turn with me to Genesis 10, and we'll look in Genesis 10 at the biblical Genesis, no pun intended, of Babylon. Start in verse 8. Genesis 10 verse 8. Here we read, Cush begotten Nimrod, and he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and therefore it is said, like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of this kingdom was Babel, Eric, Akkad, and Kalna in the land of Shinar. And from that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehobothir, Kala, and Resin between Nineveh and Kala.

That is the principal city. And we know also from this area, especially Babel, was where the famous tower was built, and Nimrod is associated with that tower. So what is it that's so special or extraordinary about this that it ends up continuing to appear throughout the rest of the Bible all the way into the book of Revelation? What's distinctive about Babylon and how it started? A couple things I'd like to call out here. Cush might be a name you've heard before. Cush was a grandson of Noah, one of the grandsons of Noah.

So what we're talking about here is really the first larger civilization or empire that started up after the flood. So the flood came, eight people on the ark, got Shem, Ham, and Japheth with their wives. They resettle the earth, and by this time we've got the grandson Cush. And Nimrod, the son of Cush then, begins to become mighty. And this phrase in verse 9, he was a mighty hunter before the Lord, doesn't really read the same in English as what it's intended to say in Hebrew, because what it's actually meant to say is that he is somebody who put himself as mighty before God.

He put himself before or above or outside the power of God. So what we have here is a person in the person of Nimrod who, first of all, is mighty. He was probably a big guy, probably very strong, able to conquer and battle, and he was so strong that he said, I am your God. Essentially said, I am greater than any other God that's there. And he began to build an empire.

So we see all of these different cities that are named that come into his sphere of influence, and it's a template that we see carried forward. We'll see more of that as we talk further about this all the way through history. The idea of a strong leader coming up, usually physically strong, asserting military might, conquering multiple cities, and setting up a system that grants prosperity and protection, free commerce to people who are part of that system.

But if you're not part of that system, if you're not supporting it, probably not going quite as well for you. It also is interesting to note that he built the Tower of Babel. Now, sometimes we don't really understand what is it, you know, why build a tower? And I think for that reason, Siri's going to let us know why we should build a tower.

For that reason, we should think about it a bit. What was it? Why would people want to build a tower? And it's noteworthy for that reason to think about where we are relative to the Flood. We're talking about the great-grandson of Noah. Noah might even have been alive at this time. I didn't calculate the years here in some of the genealogies, but the Flood would have been fresh in people's memory.

And many commentators believe what was actually happening with the Tower of Babel was building a tower that was going to be tall enough so that if God flooded the earth again, man could escape from it. Because when the Flood waters would rise through what Nimrod, in this case, was accomplishing in Babel and his greatness, he was going to create a tower high enough so that man was out of the reach of God. And so again, a way to assert that power, that system, the authority that he had in his greatness in order to provide protection to people so that even God with a Flood would not be able to overwhelm them.

Let's flash forward a bit then because Babel came and it went. It was destroyed. But the Babylonian Empire, in different ways, continued on through different parts of time. Some of you might have heard the name of Hammurabi.

My wife will never stop bothering about Hammurabi because I learned in history class when I was a kid that the Code of Hammurabi was one of the first organized statements of law. It stands for basically the rule of law. And there's a stone, I think it's probably about four feet tall or so, called the Code of Hammurabi. And that law is laid out on that stone. It happens to be in the Louvre in Paris. And I insisted when we were in Paris one year that we go and see it. And my wife felt like I didn't spend enough time contemplating the Code of Hammurabi once we got there.

Because we went through the entire museum trying to find it. And once we found it, I said, wow, pretty neat. All right, let's go. I haven't heard the end of that yet in 30 years. But the Code of Hammurabi is actually well known. It came out of Babylon. And you'll actually find Hammurabi in the U.S. Capitol with some of the other great lawyers who are commemorated. You'll find reference the Code of Hammurabi in the United Nations headquarters, as well as other places. And it's generally believed to be a source of the way that we approach modern Western law. Because it codified a rule of law in society. And as we experience, even in our society, when the Supreme Court comes down, there's nothing that can be done after that to strike down a law. The rule of law is something that we value as a society. Now within Babylon, probably the best known biblical emperor is Nebuchadnezzar. Most of us have probably heard the name of Nebuchadnezzar at some point in time. Historically, he's credited with the great hanging gardens of Babylon. For those of you who've searched and looked and seen some of the ancient wonders of the world, the hanging gardens of Babylon were considered just incredibly magnificent. Water coming in, all kinds of incredible plants and foliage that were growing there. What I found interesting, looking at Nebuchadnezzar, which I hadn't noted before, was he is said popularly to have rebuilt the Atemunanki ziggurat. The Atemunanki ziggurat is actually the Tower of Babel. And I hadn't realized that until I was preparing for this sermon, but Nebuchadnezzar, when he built Babylon and strengthened it, was also reputed historically to have rebuilt the Tower of Babel. Interesting symbolism there as he's carrying this way of being forward. And so he continued to hold on to the idea of empire, of power, of exerting ultimate might over the known world, as well as himself being a deity. We think about the book of Daniel, the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Why were they thrown into the fiery furnace? They were parading a statue of Nebuchadnezzar. And all of those who would not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar as a god were going to be thrown into the furnace. So it's very clear from the biblical accounts that he very much did consider himself a god. And that's also a feature that's been through human empires all through history. If we even look up into the Roman Empire, the Roman Caesars were considered to be gods. Many Christians came to persecution because they would not worship the emperor. That's something that continued all the way through. Let's go to Daniel 4. We'll read just a little bit about it. You know, we probably know the story about the curse that was proclaimed on Nebuchadnezzar. And I never really spent a lot of time thinking about why this curse would come onto Nebuchadnezzar in particular.

But when we think about this system of Babylon and what it stands for and what its approach is, I think it becomes more meaningful to understand why it is that this curse was spoken. Let's start in verse 25 with Daniel 4. This is Daniel interpreting a prophecy from God, talking to Nebuchadnezzar in verse 25. They shall drive you from men. Your dwelling will be with the beasts of the field, and they will make you eat grass like oxen. They'll wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you till you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he chooses. So here we had the ruler over Babylon, a deity, thought of himself enough that way to make a statue of himself and to force his subjects to bow down to it. It wasn't just a matter, as we'll read in the next part of the account, that he said, hey, I'm a pretty good guy. That's not what God took exception with. God was making a very specific point here about his power and his might. You can build the biggest empire you want to build. You can have the largest army. You can rule the greatest cities. You can have taken all of these people captive, but it's God who decides whether you're in your position or not. And if I want to turn you into a human cow for seven years eating grass, that's what I'm going to do. And he did.

Let's go on to verse 29. At the end of 12 months, as you think, a whole year went by after this proclamation was made. Nebuchadnezzar was walking about the royal palace of Babylon, and the king spoke, Is this not great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power, and for the honor of my majesty? So it's that attitude coming out. And while the word was still in the king's mouth in verse 31, a voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it has spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. And they'll drive you from men, your dwelling will shall be with the beasts of the field, and they'll make you eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you seven years until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men, and he gives it to whomever he chooses. It's interesting to think of what it would have been like to be in that kingdom at that point in time. You've got this king that for every reason that you've grown up with and been led to believe is God, and now he's struck down. There's some other power greater than him that's able to do this incredibly demeaning thing to him and basically turn him into a dumb beast of the field. Imagine what that was like in the greatest empire in existence at that time. Now we might also remember that Daniel, the book of Daniel, includes the image in Daniel 2, and it's not my purpose today. You go through that image or talk about what it might mean, but what he does is Daniel talks about an image, and he talks about that Babylonian empire being the head, and it talks about a lot of other in symbology empires coming out of it. And what we've seen over time is exactly that. However you want to define them, there's been a system of world ruling empires, a succession of them, and they have these similar things in common. Most of the empires, up through at least the time of the founding of the Catholic Church when the popes began to crown the emperors, the emperor would claim to be God. It was one of the ways to hold sway over the people. And they followed a fairly similar template, which was somebody was in charge, they ruled by power and by might. If you dissented politically, you would either be marginalized or probably killed in most of these empires. They also built incredible infrastructure. You look around the world today at what the Romans have built, find Roman structures all across the western world in unlikely places like the deserts of Morocco, all the way out to England where Hadrian's Wall was built. That empire went far and wide and everyone who participated in it prospered a lot from it as long as you were in the right position within that empire. Roads were built, people were protected, commerce traveled smoothly across all of that empire. And we've seen it all the way through history. Think of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire that was built back up, they had prince electors that would elect the emperor, and they were trying to recreate that reach of empire.

You know, Jesus Christ even warned against this. We won't turn to it, you could look it up later in the scriptures, but what was it that he told his disciples? He said, my kingdom is not like the kingdom of this world, not like this Babylonian system. Those who will be great among you should not rule over you, they shouldn't seek titles, they shouldn't seek the highest places, they should seek to be your servants. And so what Jesus was implicitly saying was that this system, this system of ruling over people and the way of governing people and grabbing power to yourself, is not what should rule within the church of God. It's not the expression of his spirit, in fact, it's against it. So this way of being, this way of ruling, continues through the ages. Let's go to Revelation 18. Many of us probably associate the word Babylon with the book of Revelation, and Revelation 18 will start in verse 1. We'll read about a similar system that exists at the end times before Jesus Christ's return. Revelation 18 verse 1, after these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority. And the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Battle on the great, his fallen, his fallen, has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean hated bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. So it's a system that enriches.

It's a system that has a great amount of power. And at its core, the problem with it is it sets itself in opposition to God. It sets itself above God and says the way it does things is the way that things need to be done, whether or not it's in concert with the Word of God. Let's go on in verse 15. The merchants of these things who became rich by her will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, her weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing. Every shipmaster, all who traveled by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea stood at a distance. And they cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What is like this great city? So we see an economic system that trades and moves goods and brings things to people. And people aren't complaining when it's gone. I'm sorry, people aren't complaining with what happened. People are complaining that it's gone because it enriched them, because it enriched their lives and it gave them so much. And so we see this march from the book of Genesis all the way through the book of Revelation, of this idea of a system of being, a way of being and ruling, a template, if you will. And it's amazing even if you look at the most idealistic political philosophies. Maybe I'm just getting old and becoming a bit of a fatalist, but you know, even look at the most utopian socialist type of regimes, and what is it that happens? Over the course of time, this is the type of system that comes into play. If you want to look at the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, these people came into power in the early 1900s, and there were great ideals. The workers were being very poorly treated under the czars, and they needed relief from it. But what is it that happened only a few short years after that came in? This same type of system came into play. It's like it's wired into us as human beings, that as soon as we've got a bit of power, it starts to be about how can we hold on to that power? How can we gain more for ourselves? How do we use the system to reward those that support us and to marginalize those that don't? And we can see that work its way through all the different parts of human history. So that's Babylon. Where do we go from there? Well, let's transition a bit and talk about Jeremiah. Now, what is it that Babylon has to do with Jeremiah?

Jeremiah was a prophet. He was there after, we might remember, the 12 tribes of Israel divided into a northern kingdom, the House of Israel, and a southern kingdom, the House of Judah.

The House of Israel went into captivity long before the House of Judah did. The House of Judah, which was made up of tribes of three tribes, Benjamin as well as Ephraim and Manasseh. Judah, parts of Judah were, sorry, Judah and Benjamin, were the southern tribe and they were still there. Jeremiah was prophesying to Judah at that point in time and Babylon was the world ruling kingdom that came to power during the time of Babylon. Eventually, Babylon conquered Judah and the Jews were taken captive and taken back to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah remained in Judea, though. He was not one of those taken captive. Some were left behind and he was among them. And he continued to prophesy. Now, his early prophecies were all about turning to God and the need that the people had to go back to God, which they did not eventually do. But then he wrote a letter specifically to those who were captive in Babylon. And that's in Jeremiah 29. I'd like to spend a few minutes looking through that and seeing what it means for us today. We'll start in verse 1 of Jeremiah 29 and then we'll read the first half or so of the letter that Jeremiah wrote to the Babylonian captives.

Jeremiah 29 verse 1. Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive, to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. So it's very clear who this letter is being written to. It's being written very clearly to the people who were taken away in order to give them instructions of what they should do. And in verse 4, Jeremiah Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives to your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I've caused you to be carried away captive. And pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace you will have peace. Does this sound weird? We know what Babylon is. We know that Judah was taken captive there. Interesting instructions that he gives. For thus says the Lord of hosts in verse 8, the God of Israel, Don't let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you caused to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely to you in my name, I have not sent them, says the Lord. Verse 10, For thus says the Lord, After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. And then you'll call on me and go and pray to me, and I'll listen to you. And you'll seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I've driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. Now most of us have probably heard this passage in Jeremiah 29 11. I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Many people will actually quote that as their favorite scripture, but how many will attach it to a letter written from Jeremiah to captives in Babylon and how they should live their lives and the fact that they're going to be left there in captivity for seven decades, and they should get on with life while they're there? It seems a little odd, doesn't it? In effect, Jeremiah is saying, Judah, captivity in Babylon? It's not a bug, it's a feature. It's not a mistake. You're going to be there for 70 years, and in fact, if you go back on your own later today and read the second half of that prophecy or the letter, Jeremiah really unloads on some of these false prophecies, prophets condemning them, telling them, you know, they have no business saying what they're saying, and most commentators or historians will say that there was a movement afoot in Babylon at this point in time trying to overthrow the empire.

And essentially what Jeremiah is saying is, look, God has put you there for 70 years. You're going to be there. Don't get involved in movements of sedition. Don't try to overthrow this society that you're in the middle of. Instead, what he said very clearly is, get on with your life, pray for them. You're going to find your peace by doing that, and live productive, normal, day-to-day lives. They were to find peace in that city. So what does this have to do with us? To bring us to the end of the story, we've talked about Babylon. We've talked a bit about Jeremiah and his writing. We've talked about the fact that this system of Babylon continues to exist. I think actually when we consider it even briefly, we can see a lot of parallels between the lives that we live as Christians living in a world that really has nothing in common with our values and beliefs and having to decide how it is that we live our day-to-day lives. We think of some of the words that Jesus Christ said, how is it that that goes along with what we read here? How is it that we view the society around us, which we realize doesn't have much of anything redeeming to offer us, at least below the veneer that's there? I often think of it as how many people have ever been to Las Vegas? I've been there a few times for work, conventions, and things. If you go to some of the casinos in Las Vegas, you look at them and they're built very differently, aren't they? There's one that's built with an Egyptian theme, there's another one built with another theme, and you go there and from the outside it looks really different. You go and say, wow, this is an Egyptian theme. I'm going to go check this out. And what you realize is it's just a thin veneer over the same thing, which is what, roulette tables, blackjack, poker, slot machines. It's all the same thing underneath. It's just different sort of veneer and covering over the top of it. And really, as we look at the world as it's gone by, from society to society, culture to culture, what we've done humanly is just build different veneers over this same system of being, which is essentially mankind trying to figure out for ourselves what's best, often falling prey to people who want to take power and rule over other people and do it with varying degrees of success. Jesus Christ actually told us the same thing that I started with. This is not a bug in the system. It's a feature. He said it in his own words in John 17. Let's turn there. John 17 verse 15. John 17 verse 15. This is in the prayer that Jesus is praying before he's taken captive and crucified.

And in these last moments of his physical life in John 17, he says, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, talking about his children that will come after him, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world. So we're told very specifically, very similarly, to what Jeremiah was saying to the Jews who went captive to the physical empire of Babylon. Jesus is telling us, you know, those who I call later, I'm not calling you to go hide in some compound somewhere. I'm not calling you to go up into the mountains and get away from everybody. I've deliberately set you out into this world, this system that's very different than my own, and I've done it for a reason. It's not a bug. It's a feature. It's there so you can grow, it's there so you can develop. And I would maintain that the same things that Jeremiah wrote in his letter to the captives about getting on with life, building houses, having children, marrying, being a blessing to those around us is exactly what it is that we should be doing until that ordained time comes. 70 years is specifically what was told to the captives in Babylon. We're not told specifically when Jesus Christ will return. We are told what we should be doing in the meantime, and it can be a challenge. It can be very difficult, I know, to focus on those things because it's easy to get distracted and see all the things that are going around us and how awful they are. But the simple fact of the matter is every Christian who's lived in any age could say their version of the same story because every society has had its own brand, its own veneer of the same thing going on. I think often of a boss that I had a few years ago, and he would ask us to do some really challenging things. He'd say, why don't we do this?

And we would come back to him and say, well, you know, great idea, but there's this problem, there's this barrier, these people are against it, there are all these ways that it's not going to work. And he'd say, okay, you know what? I can also name all the ways it's not going to work. What I need is people who can tell me ways that it can work. They're not going to be perfect, but I want you to come back and you tell me two or three ways that you can make it work, even if it's not going to work all the way. And he did a really good job of making us turn our heads around and stop thinking about all the reasons why nothing is going to happen. And his view was, let's make something happen, even if it's small. Let's think of a way to do one or two things and make headway and make progress. I think as we view our viewpoint as Christians in this world, we have to think very carefully about that as well. Because again, like Christians who've lived in any age of mankind, there's always a ton of ways we can find where everything is wrong, where everything's not going to work. But what God is looking for is people who will put his spirit to work, who will do the things that Jeremiah laid out in his letter, to be a blessing to those around them, to live upstanding Christian lives, be lights as we see written about in the New Testament. So how do we do this? Balance of our time. Let's look a little bit at how we do it. I'll talk by analogy here, and I want to use the analogy of a tree because I think it's a very apt way to think about this. I talked a little bit the last time I spoke about trees. I'll try not to repeat myself too much, but trees have three basic parts, at least for amateurs like me who don't know a lot about them.

Roots, trunks, and then we'll kind of lump the leaves and branches together in the third category. Right? Roots, the trunk, and the leaves and branches. If we think about the roots for a moment first, turn with me, if you will, to Colossians 2 verses 6 and 7. Christians, the people of God, are likened in many places in the Bible to trees. Like I mentioned the last time I spoke, I think it's one of the more frequent analogies that are used. Sinking down the roots, somebody who's godly is talked about as a tree that's next to a brook, where the roots can go down and draw water, and the tree can be big and healthy. Colossians 2, we see in the New Testament, verses 6 and 7.

Paul, writing to the Colossians, says, What is the hallmark of a root system for a tree?

You know, even today, in the days of modern engineering, we plant trees on hillsides, don't we? You ever watched highway construction be done? Perhaps there's a new interchange that's built. It's all put in, dump the dirt in there, and then what do they do? Not only put in grass, but they'll usually put in trees, in addition to retaining walls. And why is that? Because the root system from those trees, it grows and helps to hold everything in place. And of course, it holds the tree itself in place. We don't have to be very old as human beings to understand the fact that trees are not going to move. You might hear fantasy stories about walking trees and the Ents and the Lord of the Rings, but we all know that's fantasy, right? Because it doesn't happen. Trees are rooted there in one place. Cars drive down the road when they hit a tree. The tree usually survives if it's on any size, and the car is usually in rough shape. Because that tree is firmly rooted in the ground. And we think about our lives living in Babylon. The reason I go to the analogy of the tree is that the fundamental thing that we need to do is to be firmly rooted.

Firmly rooted. Drinking in of God's Word. We won't turn to Matthew 4, but there when Jesus Christ was facing Satan and the temptation, he said in verses 3 and 4 that man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. That's why the fundamental thing that we need to do before we do anything else is to know God's Word, to know it thoroughly, to come before him regularly in prayer, occasionally in fasting, and also taking advantage of other things like meditation, like fellowship with other Christians, in order to strengthen that root system, to build ourselves strong and fully established so we can remain close to him.

To me, this is one of the strongest elements that we preach as a church. That before all else, we must be based on the Bible. We have to have a close relationship with God. We have to be led by his Spirit, and we need to understand his Word and drink in of it regularly and daily. We think about surviving in Babylon. That's why the analogy of a tree to me is so very important because nothing successful is going to happen for us as Christians if we aren't firmly and solidly rooted and rooted properly in the Word of God. So let's go from the very bottom of the tree to the very top, to the branches and to the leaves that come out of that. Now, again, as any of us know, looking around, especially this time of year, any healthy tree as it grows up is going to have more and more of these branches and leaves, and they're going to grow out in all kinds of different directions. And when I think of that in terms of our lives, and I also examine the letter that Jeremiah wrote to the Jews, I think of us as Christians and as fruitful Christians when we start to grow and develop our branches, if you want to use that analogy, reach out in all kinds of different places like we heard in the sermonette, into our communities, our families, of course, as the starting point, our neighborhood, the places we work, of course here within the church. And what are we to do? We're to grow in every possible way. And the Bible doesn't really qualify that in terms of saying, just grow in certain parts of your life. I think of the parable of the talents probably as the most clear place that this is laid out. It's in Matthew 25. I'm not going to read through the passage, but if you want to jot it down, Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30.

And so for those of us who don't remember the details of that story, it's about somebody who went away. It was a businessman. He went away for a long time, and he had servants. And he gave one servant one talent, gave another servant three, gave another servant five. And the story is all about what those servants did during the time that the master was gone. And what's interesting to me about that parable is the parable says nothing to us about what those talents really represent in our lives. So there are other parables. If you go to the parable of the sower, there's a very clear definition at the end of the parable of the sower where Jesus Christ is recorded as saying, exactly, the sower is this, the seed is this, the ground is that.

Jesus Christ never lays out for us exactly what the talents mean. But I think if we read it, and we understand the context of the analogy, the talents that are given is the whole array of resources that we have. Spiritual gifts, physical gifts, simple things like money and financial means that we have, our personalities, our strengths and weaknesses, all of the things that package of resources that God has given us to act in our lives. And what is it that God says through that parable? Use them, right? The wicked servant was the one who was given one talent and did nothing with it. What I find incredibly encouraging is that the reaction to the person with three talents who doubled it and the person with five who doubled it is exactly the same.

So what does that tell us? We don't have to accomplish what that other person is accomplishing.

We don't have to accomplish what that person is accomplishing. What we need to understand is what do we have, each of us individually, as resources? And are we multiplying those resources in the way that we should? So we look at that really, really tangibly. What does that mean? Maybe you have time.

Maybe you have time. How are you using that time to provide benefit to others? If we look at the language of Jeremiah, in what way are you being a blessing to society with the time that you have?

Whether it's with your prayers, whether it's with kind deeds that you do for people, whether it's looking after a neighbor, which I know a number of people in this congregation do, all of these things. We have certain resources. We all have different resources, and we can use them in different ways, but we are expected to use them and to multiply them and continue to do them. If we're young and we have energy, we have intellect, getting our education, spreading our twigs, our branches out into all these places, learning, growing, developing, creating the way to make a living. There's nothing wrong with developing our talents and our interests if we like music, if we like sports, spending time doing those different things, developing those skills and abilities that God has given us, and finding ways to use them that are going to enrich the lives of other people, developing, cultivating hobbies, joining clubs, getting to know your neighbors. All of these things can be directly in line with what Jeremiah wrote to the Jews about, with multiplying our talents, because we all have different things that we can do. Now, we've got people here who are incredibly handy working with their hands, they're able to fix just about anything. They spend incredible amounts of time helping other members, helping neighbors to fix things that are broken, might not be able to afford to fix them. What a fantastic example that is of exactly this. You take what you have, whether it's much or little, and you look for ways to put it to use with other people. I'd like to encourage everyone to take some time to read the stories of Daniel and Joseph, consider some of the things that they accomplished.

Joseph, even in captivity, he was in jail, he was in prison, and he used the talents that God had given him to become a trusted member of the staff. He was trusted by the jailers and given responsibility, and he took that and he moved it forward. Daniel lived within Babylon itself, and what a great example of roots and branches. What did we learn about Daniel? Every day, three times a day, he prayed to God. Never sacrificed that, built a very strong root system, even the middle of that entire society. At the same time, his branches grew out far and wide. He was in a very strong position as a counselor with the wisest men of Babylon, giving advice to not only Nebuchadnezzar, but three different empires that came through there during that time. I don't know if we've read that closely in Daniel, but there are three different world-ruling empires that Daniel served. He remained in his position despite those changes in administration and who ruled. So, life in Babylon is not about our limitations. It's about our possibilities. And God said so through Jeremiah and in so many other ways. Think of words like, he who is faithful and little will also be faithful and much. What that tells me is that this idea of being a faithful steward, of taking the things that God has given us as resources, and multiplying them and using them, is something that should work its way through in every different part of our life. In small ways and in large ways, because it's a way of being. It reflects the way God's Holy Spirit is, wanting to multiply, develop, grow, and bless others.

Now, there's something incredibly important though to remember in all of this, and that is roots and branches are different. Has anyone ever tried to prune the roots on a tree?

You probably won't find an article about it, right? Because what happens if you start severing the roots on a tree? I guess if you're really good at it, you can create a bonsai tree.

I tried maintaining one of those once, and it did not work. That's not for me. So in the most extreme example, which sometimes people bring to me, I think you can clip the roots on a tree and create a bonsai tree, but everyone agrees, I think, that a bonsai tree is a really neat, unique little thing to look at. But in terms of what a tree is supposed to do, you're not going to, you know, grow a crop of apples on a bonsai tree, right? It's not what a tree is meant to do. But what do I mean by roots versus branches? You know, branches on a tree can sometimes grow out of control, and you have to prune them back. And in fact, the tree is a lot healthier when you're done pruning, isn't it?

Our lives are that way as well, and I think that's why we need to recognize the difference between our roots and our branches. We don't prune back our roots. If we're running out of time in our lives, things are getting crazy. The right solution is not, I'm going to pray less. You know, I'm really busy, so this God stuff, I'm going to set that aside for a while, and I'll come back to it later on.

Those are our roots. You know, we see this every year when trees get blown over. We get some of the windstorms coming through over the last year or so. We've seen it in our neighborhood, and you'll see these trees, and sometimes you'll look at them. Maybe the roots are rotted out because they were in soil that was way too wet, or maybe it was just an incredibly powerful storm. They couldn't withstand it, and those roots are completely upturned, and they're up there facing the air, and that tree is going to die because its root system was not strong enough to support it.

So we're running short of time, we're frazzled when things aren't going right in our lives. What we have to think about is how do we maintain that root system, and what branches do we need to prune off? You know, that idea of pruning is certainly in the Bible. Jesus talks about the vine dresser, the vine and the vine dresser, and pruning things off. We have to consider that. Our lives go through seasons. There are times when we do and are able to do certain things because we're young and we have the energy. There are other times we don't have that, and that's what a tree is like. It grows in different directions. It's pruned back. A tree has dry seasons, and the dry season, that tree might shrink back and not be able to do much. It might not be able to accomplish as much, but it still relies on that strong root system. And so when the seasons are better, when there's more rain, it can grow out and flourish again because the root system is strong. So we have to recognize that difference. And when there are things going wrong in our lives, when we're being overwhelmed, when there's too much going on, when we've over-committed, whatever it is, we need to be honest about the difference between the roots and the branches. Make sure we're not starting to cut our roots. Can't make it to church this week. Can't fellowship with other people because I got all this stuff going on. It is just too busy. Not the right answer, right? Just like it's not the right answer to give up on our connection to God. And so we have to consider those two things and how we differentiate between them. Let me go to Philippians 3. Paul spoke about this in his own words. Philippians 3 verses 8 through 11.

It's a matter of priorities and understanding when there's not enough time for everything, what has to go. Philippians 3 verse 8. Paul here writing to Philippians says, Yet indeed I also count all things lost, for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I might gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God, by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead. So Paul had a really solid sense of priorities. He realized all these other things that he relied on. In his case, his lineage, his background with the Jewish religion, being a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he realized that that was not as valuable. Those were branches. Those could be pruned away. What was valuable was being rooted in Christ, fellowship in his sufferings, understanding what Jesus Christ's crucifixion did and carrying out the mission that God gave to Paul. And that's an example for all of us to think about. We're not called to the same mission that Paul was. We all have our own set of talents and resources, but what we all have to do the same as what Paul did was understand that difference.

What is it that we can and should be ready to give up in order to make sure that we're nourishing that root system? Let's move on lastly to talk briefly about the trunk of the tree, the connection point between our roots and our branches. The trunk is everything that's in between, right? I liken this to wisdom and discernment that we need to develop over time. You know, when you think about it, and I hope I'm not pushing the analogy too far, but you know, we think about the roots and how we're connected to God. We think about the branches and how we're dealing with the world around us. And the connecting point between God's Word and His way and His Spirit and how we act in day-to-day life and interact with people, that's what wisdom is about, isn't it? It's how we take the things that we know. It's how we take the knowledge of God. It's how we take His Spirit living within us and how we put it to use out on the edge on those branches. And we've got to continue to grow that trunk stronger and thicker, right? Growing in wisdom. Bible talks about growing in grace and growing in knowledge.

We'll read in a moment a passage about growing in wisdom. We know that we're to be lights. We know we're to stand for God in His way in a world that's not like Him. And we're to do it in a way that people might be inclined to listen to. I always think of Jesus Christ and, you know, there was something about Him, if we can just figure it out, we'll make such a big difference in our lives. Children were drawn to Him, right? He's walking down the road and kids just come flocking to Him.

He ate with sinners that we would never dream of being with. And somehow they didn't feel like He was belittling them. It talks about Him, you know, eating with thieves with prostitutes. And they felt accepted in doing that, but they knew at the same time that He did not condone the way that they lived their lives. How do we knit that together? You know, we talk about binding together mercy and truth. Somehow He had that ability to do that. He was able to reach out to people to make a human connection with them without condoning the things that they were doing and saying that sin was okay. There are ways that we can reach out and have appropriate relationships with other people without condoning sinful things that they're doing and being a light.

Turn with me, if you will, to James 1.

As we think about growing that trunk stronger, the wisdom, some of that unfortunately comes through trials and the difficulties that we go through in life.

Just like a tree, weathers winters, weathers dry seasons, goes through good times and grows much stronger during that time as well.

James 1, talking here about wisdom, James says, My brethren, in verse 2, Counted all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

And let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose he will receive anything from the Lord. He's a double-minded man and unstable in all his ways.

Wisdom, becoming a perfect man, and we've talked before about the fact that the word perfect here, doesn't mean without any failure of any sort. It means mature. It means complete. We're to grow into being complete Christians. You know, think about that tree that's well-balanced. You know, great foliage, strong trunk, deeply embedded root system is not going to go anywhere. We treasure those trees, don't we, especially when they grow right on the edge of our deck and give us shade in the evening. We like to sit outside during the summer so we don't have the sun beating down on us. It's nothing like that, a well-balanced tree. And that trunk here that we're talking about in wisdom. One of the things that deal with a lot at work, I have a lot of young people that work with me. They're mostly, you know, 25 to 35 years old. The thing we talk about a lot is learning from our experiences. And we talk in professions. We talk about the fact that if you want to move forward, a lot of ambitious people who work with me, and what I tell them, if you want to move forward, learn from what you did. Sit back and reflect on what you did. Don't just think about the X's and O's of what you were doing, but think about what it means. Learn the concepts and understand them in a way that you can apply them in the next situation that comes along, even if the facts look different. And I think about that in our Christian lives as well. Whether it's our relationship in our family, whether it's a relationship with a neighbor, whether it's a contention we might have with somebody in church, what is it that we're learning from these things as we reflect back on those experiences? How are we growing and gaining wisdom through those things? Because one of the most meaningful quotes that I read a little while ago when I was reading an article, it's actually an article about foreign affairs, and said that just because countries, nations, go through similar experiences does not mean they learn the same lesson. I think that applies to people as well. Just because we go through the same experience does not mean we learn the same lesson. You come up with whatever difficulty or tragedy it is you want to deal with, whether it's severe illness in the family, a loss of a job, or something else, and you think of different people. They might go through the same situation, but they carry very different lessons away from it. And that comes from whether they're drawing on God's Word, and on His Spirit, and how they deal with them. That might be other things that they allow to come in.

But there's very much a matter of how we approach these things, how we think them through, how we take them before God, how we pray about them, how we deal with them, that we can learn the lessons. That's how we gain wisdom through reflection and through putting things before God. So in conclusion, we've talked today about Babylon, Jeremiah, and you. We've seen that throughout history, Babylon is a way of being, and it's as old as the history of man since the flood. And we're told it's going to be there all the way to the end of this age. It stands for a system of opposition against God, setting up authority over others and ruling over them. But Jeremiah teaches us that Babylon is not a bug, it's a feature. God knows we're here. He expects us to get on with our lives, even though there's adversity in the world around us, and a system that's not like the one that he's going to build. But I'm in Babylon, God, is not an excuse. Every Christian that's ever lived has been able to say that to God. We have to find a way to work through it and find ways that we continue to grow and put God's spirit to use in our lives despite that. And lastly, as we think of ourselves as a part of this equation, let's be strong, vibrant trees. Growing that deep root system and nourishing it daily through prayer and study, growing our branches as we look to have an effect on other people using our God-given skills and having a positive impact on everyone that we come into contact with. And lastly, that trunk, growing in wisdom, by always more effectively connecting God's word and spirit in our lives to the day-to-day actions and experiences that we have.

Babylon, Jeremiah, and you. It's not a bug. It's a feature.