Book of Jeremiah - Part 20

Well, good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Bible study this evening. And we said that we would start in Jeremiah 34 and verse 14. In Jeremiah 34 and verse 14. The Babylonians had come, and they had taken a lot of the people captive and had taken a lot of the things out of the city.

And before they came, and I don't know if it was right before they came or after they came, that the king said, I'm going to free all of the servants of the various households, those who are in some kind of situation in which they are paying back their debt. We're going to talk about God's economic system in just a moment. But God's economic system is not like the system of today. It provides for relief that at the end of seven years, there was at the end of six years, and really the seventh year, there was a release of indebtedness and a return. But then in the 50th year, as we're going to talk about, the 50th year was the first of another seven-year cycle.

That'll become clearer in just a moment. So we're in Jeremiah 34.14.

At the end of seven years, let you go. Every man is brother in Hebrew, which has been sold unto you.

And it wasn't a type of servitude, but it wasn't slavery in the sense that slavery existed in the United States back in the 17-1800s. It was a system whereby if a person could not pay their bills, they could sell themselves out to someone else and work off the debt. So when he has served you six years, you should let him go free from you. But your father's hearken not unto me, neither incline their ear. And you were now turned and had done right in my sight and proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor. And you had made a covenant before me in the house, which is called by my name. Of course, we can talk about covenant-making a little later as well. When God makes the covenant with someone, he doesn't take it lightly. It is a binding agreement. The parties agree that they're going to abide by the covenant.

And so apparently, in this covenant that was made with the king, that God said, I'm going to slack off of sending the waves of the Babylonians against you if you will do the right thing. So the king made this decree to free all of those who were indebted. But then he turned around and broke the covenant. Verse 15, and you were now turned and had done right in my sight and proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor. And you had made a covenant before me in the house, which is called by my name. But you turned and polluted my name and caused every man, his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure to return, and brought them into subjection to be made unto you servants and for handmaids. Therefore, that says the Lord, you have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty, everyone to his brother and everyone to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, says the Lord, to the sword.

In other words, God said, I'm going to back off for a while liberty from the sword, and you you proclaim that liberty to those that are under your indebtedness, but they didn't do it.

To the pestilence, to the famine, and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

So they broke their promise, and I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof. The princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf.

So in the Old Testament, covenants were made by what was called cutting, and it involved the cutting of animals in half, and then God passing through to between the parts of the animals to show that He was going to keep His word that they promised to do. Let's go to Exodus 24 right now.

Exodus 24, and we'll see Israel entering into the Old Covenant. This covenant that was made, of course, was a covenant much, much later that God said, I'm going to back off to some degree from sending the waves of armies against you if you let everybody go free, and they agreed to do it. So in Exodus 24, verse 4, Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up early in the morning and built an altar under the hill and twelve pillars according to twelve tribes of Israel, and he said, Young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of auction unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar, and he took the book of the covenant and read it in the audience of the people, and he said, All that the Lord has said will we do.

And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord had made with you concerning these words. So that covenant was ratified with blood, and the new covenant was ratified with the blood of Jesus Christ. But God also, when those animals were divided, he in effect swore an oath that he would lose his own life if he did not keep his end of the covenant. So he would pass through the cut parts in a figure, and that would bind the covenant, and it was called cutting a covenant. And that's what it means when it says that he passed between the parts of the calf. And then continuing in verse 20, I will even give them into the hand of the enemies, into the hand of them that seek their life, and their dead body shall be for meat and the fowls of the heaven and the beast of the earth.

And Zedekiah, the one that he had made the covenant with, he said, you're going to be given over to the king of Babylon. Zedekiah's sons were killed right in his sight, and then eventually Zedekiah's eyes were put out. We want to go now back to this what God had inaugurated at the end of seven years, that there would be a release. And we want to go to Leviticus 25, where this is covered. In fact, all of Leviticus 25 deals with the proclaiming of the seventh year of release and the jubilee. This is very, very important to God, very important, far more important, and also has spiritual significance and symbolism, as we shall see as we go through this. We're not going to read every last verse. There are 55 verses here that deal with this economic system that God had introduced. So in Leviticus 25, verse 1, and the Lord spoke unto Moses and Mount Sinai, saying, speaking to the children of Israel, and to say unto them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep it Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years shall you sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyards and gather in the fruit thereof.

Now, we may not think it very important, but God thought it very important that they keep the land Sabbaths, because they did not have the systems that we had today.

You know, when the Big Sanity campus was opened, there was a farm established here, and they endeavored to keep the Levitical laws of the land Sabbaths and also purebred cattle and so on, just as it is outlined in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch, various places. Now, also this ties into the Holy Days, and when it is proclaimed, 29 days from now approximately, we will be observing the Feast of Atonement.

And sometimes we don't appreciate the Feast of Atonement as we should, because it too is a time in which God is going to proclaim liberty and apparently the time in which Satan is bound.

We shall see this as we read from the Scripture now. In Leviticus 25, in verse 8, and you shall number seven Sabbaths of years unto you, seven times seven years.

That's 49 years, and the space of the year shall be unto you 49 years.

Then shall you cause the trumpet. Now, this word for trumpet is shofar, and the word jubilee literally means the ram's horn. Once again, the word jubilee literally means the ram's horn. By that, I mean the Hebrew word for jubilee, not the English word.

The word jubilee literally means ram's horn, so we could read this.

Then shall you cause the ram's horn, the shofar of the jubilee, the ram's horn, to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month. What is the tenth day of the seventh month, the tenth day of the seventh month, is the Feast of Atonement. In the day of Atonement shall you make the trumpet sound the shofar's horn throughout all your land, and you shall hallow the fiftieth year.

Now, the fiftieth year was not a year added into it. The fiftieth year was proclaimed at the Feast of Atonement in the forty-ninth year. In one place in the scripture it talks about, in the eighth year, you'll eat of the land in the eighth year. So, that began, that is, when the jubilee year began, which was the fiftieth year, but also it was the first year of a new jubilee cycle. Let me say that again, that when the trumpet sounded, it introduced the fiftieth year, which is the jubilee year, but it was also the first year of a new seven-year cycle.

You remember Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy. In Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy, you got seven times seventy to complete it, 490 years, not 497 years, by adding one year between each one of the cycles. So, Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy is for 490 years, seven times 70, not 497, because at first year the jubilee marked the new count on another seven-year cycle.

And to a large degree, this parallels, of course, the weekly Sabbath, that you have seven days, and on the seventh day is by Sabbath the year of rest. And so, on the 49th year, on the day of atonement, that jubilee was declared.

It was, you could call it the fiftieth year, as it says here. Verse 10, The jubilee was a year of release beyond the seven-year release. The seven-year release was more in the personal sense, but in the jubilee it also included personal property.

A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you, you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather the grapes in it of your vineyard undress. For it is the jubilee, it shall be wholly unto you, you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

So, this ensured that people will not be indebted forever, and that the poverty cycle would not last for generations. We have the poverty cycle in so many situations throughout the world, including the United States today, that it is unbelievable they virtually will never get out of debt. Now, there's much more to this year of a jubilee than what meets the eye just by reading this.

Let's go now to Isaiah 61 and the first three verses there. Isaiah 61.

We'll also read this from Luke chapter 4 where Jesus quotes it in Isaiah 61 and verse 1.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. And of course, that's speaking of Jesus Christ. And we'll see when we read Luke 4 beginning verse 16 where this is fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Because the Lord has appointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn.

To appoint unto them that mourn, the church is going to be in mourning during this time.

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes.

That reminds you of the hymn that Mary Beth Felt wrote concerning this.

Beauty for ashes, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of Heaveness, that they might be called trees of righteousness.

The planning of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Now we go to Luke chapter 4, and beginning in verse 16, Luke 4.16, we'll see that Jesus Christ, after he was baptized, came back to Nazareth in Luke 4.16, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and set up for to read. And there was delivered to him the book of the prophet Isaiah.

So what we have just read, Isaiah 61.1 through 3, is what Jesus Christ read.

Remember those seven things that he said he had done?

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, is appointed to preach the good news, and so on, as we shall read here. So they delivered him the book of Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and he closed the book, and he gave it to the minister, the keeper of the synagogue, and sat down. In the eyes of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on them, and he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your eyes. So Jesus Christ begins his official ministry there, and notice this part. See the 70-weeks prophecy of Daniel, and the Jubilee, and the release has spiritual significance, because in the ultimate sense, Jesus Christ has come to set the captives free, and the ultimate setting free of those captives seems to be in the ultimate sense on the tenth day of the seventh month on the day of atonement.

Now, let's notice this further back in the Old Testament. So now we're going back to Zechariah chapter 3 and verse 9. We're going to... well, we'll start before then. We'll start probably in verse 6 or 7. So in Zechariah, one of the minor prophets, in Zechariah 3, verse 7, Thus says the Lord of hosts, If you will walk in my ways, this is God speaking to Joshua the high priest, if you will keep my charge, then you shall also judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you places to walk among them that stand by. Now quickly, let's review that Israel went into, or Judah went into captivity under the hands of the Babylonians. After 70 years, God allowed them to return to build a temple under the hands of Zerubbabel, who was the governor in Joshua the high priest.

And they came back and started on it, had a good start, but they bogged down, and then God raised up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to stir them up so they would finish building the temple, and that they did, the second temple. Now verse 8, which is symbolic, Here now, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows that sit before you, for they are men. King James says, wondered at. The Hebrew word is mofest, m-o-p-h-e-t-h.

M-o-p-h-e-t-h, it means men of sign. They are men of sign, for behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch. And last time we talked about the servant the branch, that he was the one who built the temple in Zechariah 6.12. For behold, the stone that I laid before Joshua upon, one stone shall be seven eyes. Now this stone probably represents the church and the seven churches. That is, of course, the Bible doesn't say that directly, and I'm not going into further discussion right now. I will engrave the graving thereof, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will remove the lawlessness of that land in one day. Notice that I will remove the lawlessness of that land in one day. In that day, says the Lord of Hosts, shall you call every man his neighbor under his vine and under the fig tree. In other words, that is the day that the millennium begins in that one day. Now we're going to Isaiah 27, and notice what happens here on the day of atonement. In Isaiah 27, anytime you see the expression in that day in the Old Testament, that is what is called a prophetic utterance, and it introduces a prophecy. In that day, the Lord with his sower and great strong sword shall punish Labyothan, that crooked serpent. Now Labyothan is Satan the Devil. In Revelation 12, verse 9, he's called that old serpent Satan the Devil. Hold your place there, look at Job 41. In Job 41, Labyothan is identified further in the various characteristics of Labyothan, who is symbolic of Satan the Devil, is given. Job 41, cast you, can you draw out Labyothan with a hook, or his tongue with a cord, which you let down? Can you put a hook into his nose, or bore his jaw through with a thorn? And so on it goes about talking about Labyothan.

I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I encourage you to read it, and I'm going to now go to the last four verses here, 31. He makes the deep to boil, that is, Labyothan like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. The sea can represent the troubled masses of humanity.

He makes a path to shine after him. One would think the deep to be hoary. Up on earth there is none is like, who is made without fear. He belongs, he beholds all high things. He is king over all the children of pride. He is Satan the devil. Labyothan is Satan the devil. So we see, once again, Isaiah 27. In that day the Lord with his sword and great strong sword shall punish Labyothan, the piercing servant, even Labyothan, that crooked serpent, and he shall slay the dragon, that old dragon, Satan the devil. Revelation 29. That is in the sea. In that day, seeing you under her, a vineyard of red wine. Remember in Isaiah 5, God likens Israel to his vineyard.

I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day.

Now we come down, and it shall come to pass, and other prophetic utterance shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off. This is verse 12. It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel the river under the stream of Egypt, the Nile, and you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet, the great shofar, this word great means loud blast, shall be blown, and they shall come, which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and outcast the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount of Jerusalem. When is the day of liberty proclaimed? It is proclaimed on the day of atonement. Now look at Revelation chapter 20.

Before the millennium begins, just as it begins at the beginning, what happens in Revelation 20, verse 1, and I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season. So you can see the significance of the 70-year prophecy, but the greater significance of the 70-year prophecy is that, as Jesus Christ said in Luke 4, 16 through 20, that he has come to free the captives, the bind up, the brokenhearted. And so when God binds Satan and puts him away, Leviathan, that old serpent, the dragon, then liberty is going to be proclaimed throughout the nations.

Now some have figured out the Jubilee cycle, and there's variance on exactly how to figure out the Jubilee cycle. You can look up Jubilee cycle, or Google Jubilee cycle.

Interesting to read. I'll read one of the things that I found. It says, although Christ's ministry started in 26 AD, his public proclaiming of the gospel began in 27. That is basically what we have said as a church, that Christ was, that his ministry began in 27, and he was, of course, crucified Passover of 31 AD after a three and a half year ministry, probably being born sometime in September of 3 AD. His quoting, his quoting of Isaiah 61 could be taken as referencing he was preaching within a Jubilee year.

Now remember we read Isaiah 61, where it says to set the captives free, and what this writer is doing, speculating that he was saying this within a Jubilee year, which would have been on atonement in 26 AD. That's when the Jubilee would have occurred.

If this is the case, it means the next one will begin in the fall of 2026 and run to the fall of 2027.

Now I also read another source that said it would begin in 2021, which is September 2021.

It's very difficult to figure out exactly because the Jews are all over the place with regard to the Jubilee year, but you get the essence of what is being said here that the Jubilee year is very, very important to God. Even the land Sabbaths are very important to him, and when he restores Israel, the land Sabbaths will be observed, and probably the economy will be an agrarian-based economy. I want to go back to Leviticus and show you this from Leviticus 26 now, and we'll break in on the thought of Leviticus 26. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are called the blessing and curse in chapters of the Bible. We'll break in on the thought. If you don't obey me, this is verse 30.

I will destroy your high places, cut down your images, cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you, and I will make your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the saviour of your sweet odors.

So once again, of course, with the coronavirus, the whole world is being tried. There was a special on last night and news items with regard to hospital beds in East Texas are filled. They're sending children out to, first of all, sending them to Dallas Fort Worth, and they were full.

Then they started sending children with COVID out, too, and I don't think it was just for COVID out of state for treatment because there were no beds for pediatrics.

Verse 32, I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies, which dwell therein, shall be astonished at it, and I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate in your cities, shall be waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbath, as long as it lies desolate, and you shall be in your enemy's land. Even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbath, as long as it lies desolate, it shall rest, because it did not rest in your sabbath when you dwelt upon it. So even the land sabbath and its rest, much less people, and the fact that those captives of sin, and everyone was once a captive of sin, are set free by Jesus Christ. So we continue here with Jeremiah, and Jeremiah 34. We'll read verse 18 again. So let's go to Jeremiah 34.18.

And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant, which they made before me when they cut the calf and twain, and passed between the parts thereof. The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf. Of course, that's the covenant that they broke, and made the people go back into servitude. And I'll give them into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of them that seek their life, and their dead body shall be for meat, food, for the fowls of heaven, for the beasts of the earth. And Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, will I give into the hand of their enemies, and in the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which are gone up for you. Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and cause him to return to this city, that is, the Babylonians, and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire.

And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant. Now chapter 35.

The word which came unto Jeremiah before the Lord in the days of Jeholachim, of course, this event happened before the event of 34. The son of Josiah, king of Judah. Remember, has Kim, Chin, Zed, Josiah, Jehoah has Jehoachim, and Zedekiah, the last five kings.

Go into the house of the Rechibites. Now the Rechibites, as we shall see, had taken a vow that they would not build houses. They would live in tents. They would be somewhat of a nomadic people, and they would not drink wine. And what God is doing here is He is using them as an example to Judah at that time that they made a covenant with Him, and they kept their covenant.

They kept a covenant with just a man, their father. Whereas God said, I sent you prophets, rising up early and staying up late to warn you and to instruct you and tell you to obey me and keep my word, but you would not. As we shall see at the end of this, God said that there's always going to be a Rechibite before me. There is what is called the independent order of the Rechibites, also known as the sons and daughters of Rechab.

And they have been active in the UK and Australia, and to some degree in this country as well.

So God delights the faithfulness of the Rechibites to their oath, to the unfaithfulness he contrasts to the unfaithfulness of Judah. Of course, Israel would be included as well, because they had already gone into captivity because of their sins.

So verse 2, go into the house of the Rechibites and speak unto them, and bring them to the house of the Lord into one of the chambers of the temple there, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. Then I took Jez and Aya, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habits and Aya, and his brethren and all the sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites. I brought them into the temple, into the chamber of the sons of Hanon, the sons of Edeliah, the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which is by the chamber of Masala, the son of Shalom, the keeper of the door. And I said before the sons of the house of the Rechabites, pots full of wine and cups, and I said unto them, Drink you wine. But they said, We will drink no wine. For Johnadab, the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, You shall drink no wine, neither you nor your sons, forever.

Neither shall you build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyards. So they were like a nomadic people, and had made this promise to their father. Nor have any but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that ye may live in the days in the land where ye be strangers. Thus have we obeyed the voice of Johnadab, the son of Rechab, our father, in the that he charged us to drink no wine all our days.

We, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters, nor to build houses for us to dwell in. Neither have we vineyard nor field nor seed. But we have dwelt in tents, have obeyed, and done according to all that Johnadab, our father, commanded us. But it came to pass when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came into the land that we said, Come and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians, so we dwell at Jerusalem. Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus says the eternal host, the God of Israel, Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, will you not receive instruction to hearken to my word, says the eternal?

So here's the contrast. The words of Johnadab, the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed. They kept their covenant, for unto this day they drank none, but they obeyed their father's commandment, notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early, and speaking, but you hearken not unto me. I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early, and sending them, saying, Return, you know every man from his evil way, ameen your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them.

And you shall dwell in the land, which I have given to you and your fathers, but you have not inclined your ear, nor hearken unto me. Because the sons of Johnadab, the son of Rechab, have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, but these people have not hearken unto me. What a contrast! What a contrast! But here are people who kept the word of a physical father for generations, but the people of God would not keep the very word of the Creator, the one that they had entered into covenant with.

Therefore, thus says the eternal God of host, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all that evil that I pronounce against them, because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard, and I have called unto them, but they have not answered. And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, because you have obeyed the commandment of Johnadab, your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he has commanded you.

Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Johnadab, the son of Rechab, should not want a man to stand before me forever. I don't know if they're still Rechabites that are keeping the word or not, so they had kept their word up to that point, and they had agreed to live as they had promised their father. But of course, Judah and Israel did not obey their spiritual father, the very creator, the very lawgiver of the universe.

In chapter 36, verse 6, And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came into Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Take you a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto you against Israel and against Judah, and against all the nations from the day I have spoken to you from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.

So this book, apparently is the book of Jeremiah, of course, you don't know how much of what was said, or which was dictated to Baruch, who was the scribe, the secretary, that wrote this down, as we shall see.

If every last word was preserved for us or not, probably not, but we don't know for sure.

It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil that I propose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Of course, God had tried just about every tactic in the book to get their attention, so he says, well, maybe if we write it in the book and you read it to them from a book, they will listen, they will hearken, they will obey.

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Dariah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had spoken unto him upon a roll of a book. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up. In other words, I can't do it. They have got me, we could say, in prison. I cannot go into the temple of the Lord. Therefore go you and read in the roll which you have written from our mouth the words of the Lord in the years of the people in the Lord's house upon the fasting day. I think as we shall see, the fasting day was not a what you would call a statutory fast, that is one that was legislated by God. That's one of the feast days of the eternal, but a fast day apparently that they had called.

We shall see. And also you shall read them in the years of all Judah that come out of their cities.

It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord. In other words, when they hear this, maybe they will return everyone from his evil way. For great is the anger and fury that the Lord hath pronounced against his people. Verse 8, and Baruch, the son of Nariah, did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the Lord in the Lord's house. So Baruch read the words in the Lord's house. It came to pass in the fifth year, remember the Jeremiah the word came to him in the fourth year, it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoakim, the son of Tepsya king of Judah, in the ninth month. So there's no commanded feast of the eternal in the ninth month, though the Jews at times set aside Korim and other feasts and fast days that were not listed in Leviticus 23 as the Feast of the Eternal. Proclaim of fast before the Eternal to all the people in Jerusalem, to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem. Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house, the temple, and the temple in the chamber of Jomariah, the son of Shaphan, the scribe, and the higher court as the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house in the ears of all the people.

When Macaulah, the son of Jomariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord, then he went down to the king's house, into the scribe's chamber, and lo, all the princes sat there, even Elisha, the scribe, and the liah, the son of Shimea, and Elnathan, the son of Akbor, and Jomariah, the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah, the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. Then Macaulah declared unto them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people. Therefore all the princes sent to Hootie, the son of Nathanaiah, the son of Shilomiah, the son of Cushion, to Baruch, saying, taking your hand, the roll wherein you have read in the ears of the people, and come.

So Baruch, the son of Nariah, took the roll in his hand and came unto them, and they said unto him, sit down and read it to us. So Baruch read it in their ears. Now it came to pass when they had heard all the words. They were afraid, both one and the other, and said unto Baruch, we will surely tell the king of all these words. And they asked Baruch, saying, tell us, how did you write all these words in his mouth? Then Baruch answered them, he pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book. Then said the princes unto Baruch, go hide you and Jeremiah and let no man know where you are. So they knew that when the king heard this, he was either going to listen or he's going to try to kill them. Of course, he didn't listen as we shall see. And they went into the king, into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elisha, the scribe, and told the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, and he took it out of Elisha, the scribe's chamber, and Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of the princes, which stood beside the king. So the king wanted red word for word to him. Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. So winter time, and he was warming himself by the fire, nice and cozy. And it came to pass when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants had heard all these words. Nevertheless, Elnath and Delilah and Jamaria had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll, but he would not hear them. But the king commanded Jeramil, the son of Hamilak, and Zariad, the son of Azrael, and Silamiah, the son of Abduil, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. So just as they thought, but the Lord hid them so they couldn't be taken. Of course, I guess if they had found them, they would have killed them.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah for the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take you again another roll, and write it in all the former words, including all of what you said, which Jehoakim the king had burned, and you shall say to Jehoakim, king of Judah, Thus says the Lord, you have burned this roll, saying, Why have you written there and saying, the king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from their man and beast. Therefore, thus says the Lord of Jehoakim, king of Judah, He shall have none to set upon the throne of David. Now here is what some scholars point out and try to claim as a contradiction. Jehoakim, as you can read this in 2 Kings 24, Jehoakim was succeeded by his son Jeholachin. Jeholachin has come, so Jehoakim was succeeded by Jehoachin, but Jehoachin only rained for three months, so they counted him as nothing. So they counted his reign as nothing. Therefore, the prophet said, you'll not have a man to sit on your throne to succeed you. Jehoachin was there three months, but he was so bad that he was eventually taken to Babylon.

So therefore says the Lord of Jehoakim, king of Judah, He shall have none to sit on the throne of David. So we've talked about Jehoachin, and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their lawlessness, and I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the evil that I pronounce against them, but they hearken not. They would not listen.

Then took Jeremiah another role and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Nereiah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book, which Jehoachim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire, and there were added besides unto them many like words.