Jeremiah

 (A bit of review, and then we’ll get into Jeremiah)

We also noted that:

The Old Testament has been divided into the following divisions:

 The first 5 books get us through the life of Moses:

The book of Joshua basically gets us through their new leader Joshua.

The book of judges basically covers the period of time Israel was ruled by judges, and God was their King.

This arrangement is called a Theocracy

 (1 Sam 8:4-7 NKJV)  Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, {5} and said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." {6} But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD. {7} And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.

Theocracy Ends!

Israel will be ruled by kings!

 We can outline the time of kings by books as follows.

What about the rest of the O.T. books?

They were written during the time we are talking about in the books we have covered.

With that brief overview, we want to return to the end of II Chronicles – practidcally the end of the Old Testament.

(2 Chr 36:14-20 NKJV)  Moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the LORD which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

 {15} And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.

 {16} But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy.

{17} Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand.

 {18} And all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon.

 {19} Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions.

 {20} And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia,

70 Years of Bondage in One Verse!

 (2 Chr 36:21 NKJV)  to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

Lots of background, but I’m trying to tie these Old Testament books together.

(Jer 25:11-12 NKJV)  'And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. {12} 'Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,' says the LORD; 'and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

Did it Happen!  Did God do What He Said?

Of course it happened exactly as God said!

 (Dan 5:1-6 NKJV)  Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. {2} While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. {3} Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.

{4} They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. {5} In the same hour the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. {6} Then the king's countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.

After searching frantically for someone who could read the message, Daniel is found and brought in. 

(Dan 5:17-31 NKJV)  Then Daniel answered, and said before the king, "Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

In verses 18 – 21, Daniel tells Belshazzar how God had dealt with his father.

Then he continues:

{22} "But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. {23} "And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. {24} "Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written. {25} "And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

{26} "This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it;

{27} "TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting;

{28} "PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."

29  Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

30  That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain.

31             And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

What did Daniel do?

Daniel was a prophet, but he also read and studied as is evident from this statement:

(Dan 9:1-2 NKJV)  In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; {2} in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

It is interesting to note that we really don’t have instructions from Daniel as to what to do with prophecy, but we do have his example.

(Dan 9:3-10 NKJV)  Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. {4} And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,

{5} "we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. . . .

And this lesson ends as we just begin one of the greatest prayers in all the Old Testament. 

 But who was Daniel?  Was he guilty of all these things he was confessing?

Consider what his enemies said about him:

(Dan 6:5 NKJV)  Then these men said, "We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God."

(Ezek 14:14 NKJV)  "Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness," says the Lord GOD.