Word & the Wild

This is Word and the Wild. It's the one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide, delighted to be together with you on this 12 month journey as a podcast plus community where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves.

It's week 32. Only 20 weeks to go! Feeling like the story has stalled out? Waiting for God to make his next move? He already has… And in His own words, what happens next is “unbelievable.”

So... hello and welcome in. And, a special welcome to our Word and the Wild PLUS community members. Their support of this non-profit endeavor is making space for all of us on this Bible reading adventure. As part of the Word and the Wild PLUS tribe, they enjoy access to our private, safe online space where no honest question is a dumb question... along with a weekly livestream Q&A, and bonus content like articles, interactions, meet-ups, and even some livestream teaching gatherings with yours truly.

If you've been craving a way to dive into the Bible and understand what it's about... now is a great time to jump in. We'll be hitting the New Testament before we know it. Check the show notes for how to become a member yourself. Or get all the details over at wordandthewild.com.

We're going to be hitting the new Testament soon. So join the Word & the Wild PLUS community now get a running start at it.

Check the show notes for how to become a member of the word and the wild plus community for yourself or you can get all those details over at word and the wild. com.

Now, lets take a look back... at Habakkuk and God's next unbelievable step in our story.

UNBELIEVABLE
As we look back at what happened last week, I can't help but chuckle at a comment by one of our WORD & THE WILD PLUS community members. When I asked her how things were going for her on the journey so far, she just let out a big sigh and said:

"I'm READY for the New Testament!"

No doubt! And if YOU feel that way, imagine how the Israelites feel right about now. In fact, one of the voices in last week's section of the story was a man named Habakkuk. Remember him? In the face of all that he sees happing in the culture of his day, all he can do is walk up to God with two perfect questions:

"How long?" and "How could you?" How long must we watch the downward spiral of God's people before God intervenes? And... when he hears God's response, his shocked reaction is, "God, how could you EVER let that happen?!"

I absolutely LOVE Habakkuk and his honest questions. So real and so relatable. We have all be at the place where we're desperate for God to do something... ANYTHING to get us unstuck. Get us back on track -- whether as an individual or even as a nation.

That's Habakkuk's headspace. But, what God reveals to Habakkuk buckles his knees. God tells him:

“Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.
I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands.
They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like.
Habakkuk 1:5-7 (p. 1019)

Habakkuk has a good perspective. He sees what's wrong with his culture. God is moving to solve the problem. How? God is about to let the bad guys win. Or, at least it's going to seem that way for a while.

The Bad Guys are the Babylonians. They are a powerful, cruel, and violent people. The Babylonians are about to bring this season of our epic story to an end. Not only is God allowing them to do it. God is "raising them up." And that is a shock.

We've been in this season of the show called "a house divided" Civil war split the Israelites into two struggling, scrappy kingdoms: Israel in the south and Judah in the north. Assyria knocked out Israel a while back. Babylon will soon finish the job of prying God's people out of the Promised Land.

More on the why behind God's methods for "solving the problem" of his people's disloyal relationship with him in a minute.... But first, we have to give a shout out to Isaiah.

If it weren't for the fact that Isaiah has already given us a big window into plot points of the whole story, we would be tempted to think that what mighty Babylon is about to do to the tiny kingdom of Judah is the end of it all. But, thanks to Isaiah along with guys like Micah, Habakukk, and Zephaniah we know that what's about to go down is only the end of this chapter.

And what a view out it is out Isaiah's window.

I know that we're all hungry to get to the New Testament, but do you realize that what's "New" in the New Testament isn't a new story. And it's certainly not a new God.

It's just new detail on HOW the Old Testament story happens.

You don't need to look any further than Isaiah to zoom out and see the entire plot. Seriously. Isaiah is a real pivot point in our adventure. Up until Isaiah, we've been unraveling the mystery of where the story is taking us. Isaiah shows us where. He lays out the whole storyboard.

And from this point forward, we're not going to be asking as many of those "where" questions. We're going to be asking more of the "how" and "when" and "why" questions. How will God pull this story off? When will things happen? When will it all go down?

Isaiah doesn't give us everything in a linear fashion, for the most part. It's like he gives us the road map to the future, but before he hands it to us, he chops it up into a dozen pieces and throws it on the floor. But, with a little patience, we can put it all together and get the major moments in the epic story the Bible wants to tell. Let me tape all the pieces together and stick it to the wall for us. Isaiah's roadmap from his lifetime to the future looks like this:

1. Dark times are ahead... the Israelites will eventually go into exile, but they will return
2. A Son will be born... this "son" will have a virgin birth, will come to Galilee, will bring God's presence to his people, and will rule as king forever.
3. The Son will give birth to a family... and that family will be non-biological. Not related to the Son by blood.
4. Someone known as "God's Servant" will arise. He will be sent by God, he will suffer, and he will save his people from their sins -- thus repairing the broken relationship between God and God's people.
5. Then, God will pour out his Spirit on his people... we don't get much detail from Isaiah on this, but it's there
6. The next point on Isaiah's roadmap is out there in the future somewhere and it's a dusey: The Earth will be destroyed. The whole thing. And, the sins of humanity will be the cause of the destruction.
7. Then, at the end of the road, Isaiah tells us... God remakes the earth rules forever as its king. Jerusalem will be his capitol city. Every knee will bow from every nation. The earth will flourish again. Death will be defeated. Sorrow will disappear. God's people will be redeemed and resurrected to live and party with him forever.

All that is strictly from Isaiah. No other voices. No other places in the Bible. Just Isaiah.

Like I said, "WOW." Those waypoints on the trail... that roadmap of the future... Going forward, the Bible's story will follow them. That's where we're headed. We'll get more detail as we go, but that's the plot. That's the path.

Isaiah shows us what will happen. From this point, we're looking for more clues on...
- how God navigates history down this path while staying true to his promises and his character
- when we can expect the next waypoint on the journey
- and why the story unfolds like it does. The reasons and motives behind it all.

To use the old cliche.... The plot thickens.

JEREMIAH

And that sets us up for what's ahead in our adventure this week.

That first waypoint on the trail? The first stop on Isaiah's roadmap of the future? It happens now.

Dark days are ahead for God's people.

Time is up for the tiny Kingdom of Judah. For the past few decades, they've have been kicked around like a political football. The Assyria and Egypt -- two powerful neighbors in the north and the south -- have put the squeeze on God's people like a slowly tightening vise.

But, in this week's episode

In the epic movie that is the Bible, this is a scene that plays in slow motion. An unsuspecting village. Laughter as children play. Chatter as women draw water at the well. Unsuspecting. Is that thunder in the distance?

It's the hammering of horse hooves. Thousands of them. At full gallup, they glide across the fields. The determined shouts of soldiers. The ring of swords drawn.

Screams of shock. Cries of pain. The woosh of razor sharp blades. The roar of fire.

No laughter. No chatter. The sizzle of cooling embers. The sickening, lifeless silence.

The unthinkable has become the inevitable. The cruel armies of Babylon roam the Judaean countryside. They won't be satisfied until Jerusalem itself is destroyed.

How did it come to this? How did we get from Eden to Babylon? How did things spiral so far down from Sinai and the Promised Land to dungeons and wastelands?

Jeremiah, God's prophet, makes the answer as simple as can be:

“Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention. Each time the message was this: ‘Turn from the evil road you are traveling and from the evil things you are doing. Only then will I let you live in this land that the LORD gave to you and your ancestors forever. Do not provoke my anger by worshiping idols you made with your own hands. Then I will not harm you.’

“But you would not listen to me,” says the LORD. “You made me furious by worshiping idols you made with your own hands, bringing on yourselves all the disasters you now suffer. And now the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Because you have not listened to me, I will gather together all the armies of the north under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whom I have appointed as my deputy. Jeremiah 25:4-9 (p. 1038)

God's people have relentlessly set their hearts on their own plans, dreams, and desires. They have walked their own path.

They continue to give more value, weight, and drive to objects of their own creation than to their relationship with the Creator God.

The same attitude that closed the gates of Eden have now collapsed the walls of Jerusalem. God's people where once enslaved in Egypt. Now they walk the long road to Babylon in chains.

God keeps his promises. All of them. Even the ones we wish would not come true.

Hope is lost. But not gone. This week, we will meet a remarkable young man named Daniel. A reminder that a faithful few remain. And God will use him to deliver hope not only to his own people, but to you and me as well.

Plus, though the Babylonians take many Israelites captive, Jeremiah stays behind in Jerusalem. God uses him to predict a future and a hope for his people. Best of all, God uses Jeremiah to show us all the core problem with his people...the problem that keeps them stuck in their pattern of failure in their relationship with God... And God's incredible plan to fix that problem once and for all.

OUTRO
Enjoy the journey this week, my friend. How's it going for you so far? I'd love to hear from you. Hit me up on facebook. If you're not already part of the "Word & the Wild" facebook group, search for it an join. Or, look for thewild.us on insta. And.. be sure you've subscribed to this podcast. Apple Podcasts...spotify... youtube... all the places.

Word and the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. I'm loving it and I hope you are, too.

All you Word and the Wild PLUS community members, thanks again for making this journey a reality...

I'll be seeing you in THE WILD... our private online community space. Everyone else, don't be a stranger. Subscribe to this podcast and follow Word and the Wild on Facebook for some interaction there.

Word and the Wild is a LineHouse Community. It's part of the LineHouse Community Network, a nonprofit organization with a mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the Bible.

Because friendship and God's Word change lives and change cities.

And... presented by the LumaVoz podcast network.

And with that, we're out. I'm Owen, I'm your host and your guide. Until next time, I'll see you out there on the trail in the Word and the Wild.