Rubble to Return – Week 1 (7-23-23)

Rubble >>>> Return
July 23, 2023
An Autopsy of Israel

What do you do when your world crumble around you?

Israel’s story:
Saul —> David —> Solomon —> Rehoboam
Northern Kingdom (Israel)
Southern Kingdom (Judah)

Jehoiakim

2 Chronicles 36:6-7
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon articles from the temple of the Lord and put them in his temple there.

Jehoiachin

2 Kings 24:12b-14
In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner. ¹³ As the Lord had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed the treasures from the temple of the Lord and from the royal palace, and cut up the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the temple of the Lord. ¹⁴ He carried all Jerusalem into exile: all the officers and fighting men, and all the skilled workers and artisans—a total of ten thousand. Only the poorest people of the land were left.

Zedekiah

He thinks he is the exception to the rule!!!

Jeremiah 38:2-3
“This is what the Lord says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians will live. They will escape with their lives; they will live.’ ³ And this is what the Lord says: ‘This city will certainly be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’”

2 Kings 25:3
By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.

Jeremiah 38:17-18
Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live. ¹⁸ But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from them.’”

2 Kings 25:4-12
Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah, ⁵ but the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, ⁶ and he was captured.
He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him. ⁷ They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. ⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. ¹⁰ The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon. ¹² But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

What do you do when you wake up one morning in the ashes and rubble?

Khata/ Hamartia
To miss the goal —> Image of God

They belong to him
He has a plan for them
———————–
You belong to him
He has a plan for you

God doesn’t discipline to pay you back.
God disciplines to bring you back.

Big question: Is it possible what you thought was meant to destroy you was actually meant to save you?

Hope after Exile:

• Future Messiah
• New Temple
• God’s new kingdom
• Promise to Abraham

The book of Ezra/Nehemiah the Rebuilding of Jerusalem, not just physically; rebuilding the temple, the city walls but also a call for a nation to return to its true identity as the people of God.

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