Hear now God's holy word. In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, that was the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the bodyguard, who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord. And the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem, every great house, he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. And Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, carried away captive some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the artisans. But Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, left some of the poorest of the land to be vine dressers and plowmen. And the pillars of the bronze that were in the house of the Lord and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried all the bronze to Babylon. And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the basins and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service. Also the small bowls, and the fire pans, and the basins, and the pots, and the lamp stands, and the dishes for incense, and the bowls for drink offerings. What was of gold, the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. As for the two pillars, the one sea, the 12 bronze bulls that were under the sea, and the stands which Solomon the king had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these things was beyond weight. As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was 18 cubits, its circumference was 12 cubits, and its thickness was four fingers, and it was hollow. On it was a capital of bronze. The height of the one capital was five cubits. A network and pomegranates, all of bronze, were around the capital. And the second pillar had the same with pomegranates. There were 96 pomegranates on the sides. All the pomegranates were 100 upon the network all around. read this far in God's holy word. You might wonder, why does that have relevance to me? These ancient descriptions of a temple having been destroyed. Please give me a few minutes to try to show you just how extremely relevant this is. To appreciate the loss in today's passage and the next book of Lamentations, we need a reminder about the splendor of that ancient temple built by King Solomon to which we've been referring. It was a truly glorious building. It had become world famous for good reason. It was made of gold, silver, bronze, and copper. Let me just take one moment to describe one aspect so you get a sense of the entire building. Inside that temple was a 12,000-gallon giant basin of water. You can read about this. I thought about reading it, take a minute. 1 Kings 7, 23 to 26. It was about two-thirds the amount of water in an average suburban swimming pool. It was about 15 feet around in diameter and 8 feet tall. And then that whole pool was a raised basin. This religious basin was raised high off the ground, sitting on 12 statues of oxen made of bronze to hold it up. It was magnificent and beautiful, decorated on all sides with pomegranates and networks and so on. The water basin was so big, they called it the sea. It held the water for many required religious cleansing and purification rites of the priests of the temple. It symbolized God's cleansing for our sin. It symbolized God's grace. This is what we're talking about that's being dismantled. So more about that in a moment. But our main point, if you're looking at your bulletin handout, it says, God provided hope despite the loss of city and loss of temple through his promised restoration of both. First we'll see the burning of the city, verses 12 to 16, then verses 17 to 23, the dismantling of the temple. Then we'll talk about how that applies to us. Learning to live like an exile in this world ourselves, means the same thing it did for the ancient exiles, waiting for both the city and the temple to be rebuilt different and better than before. So first, the burning of the city. Verse 12, The burning of the king's house publicly signified the end of his kingship. It's like burning the White House down signifies the end of rulership there. Continuing in verse 13, the burning of every great house, which means the houses of all the nobles, the homes of every official of importance. And in verse 14, the breaking down of the walls around Jerusalem signified the end of the city. and the end of the nation because it was the capital. Verse 15, some of the poorest people were carried away captive so that they wouldn't raise up and cause a mutiny, right? It was the poorest people, perhaps then also the weakest, not being soldiers and not being nobles and so on. And verse 16, some farmers were left to care for the fields. So the stage is set for a new thing that Babylon's preparing to do there. But we're not interested in Babylon. The stage is set for a new thing that God is preparing to do there, so more about that in a moment. Then our second point, the dismantling of the temple, verses 17 to 23. There's a concentration in the last chapter of Jeremiah on how this temple is being dismantled, and we're given a detailed report. It might strike you as boring, but please think differently. God wants us to concentrate on how this temple is being dismantled by Babylonian soldiers. There's pay dirt here. Come with me on this. Remember, this is not chronological. So now go to verse 13. The commander from Babylon set about burning Jerusalem, but where did he start? Let me go back now and read verse 13. And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house. Where did the commander of Babylon start? With the temple. But did he burn the temple right away? No. You see here in verses 17 to 23, we're given the understanding of what happened before the temple was burned. So we get thrown off because it's not listed chronologically. Now we're going before they burned it, what did they do before they burned it? The commander could burn the temple, but why burn silver, gold, bronze, and valuables? They're not that dumb, right? They want the value. Don't you think that's part of why they surrounded Babylon and starved him out for the last year and a half? They had a plan. They want the gold, they want the silver. Do you notice that there was a delay from verses six and seven, where they breached the wall, to verse 12, where they entered Jerusalem? Let's look at verse six. It doesn't work like this, but it's as if it's from April 10 to May 9, right? It's a month of time. There was a month between when they breached the city wall and then when they burned everything. I'm asking you, what were they doing for a month? They're dismantling the temple. That's exactly what we're being told that they're doing. This month is not spent on mindless partying. Instead, this month was a well-planned Babylonian operation. Starting at verse 17, we're told what they were doing. The commander was methodically packing up the valuables from the temple for shipping back to Babylon. The gold and silver in these verses, and the people in verses 28 to 30, we'll look at next time, Lord willing. Both the things from the temple and the people from the city were taken back to Babylon. They had been planning and organizing this for a long time. Verse 17, pillars, the bronze, the stands, the bronze sea. Remember that sea I've been describing? The snuffer is just to put a candle out, snuff it out. Basins, dishes for incense, vessels of bronze, using the temple service. They're packed up and taken to Babylon. Verse 19, small bowls, firepans, basins, pots, lampstands, dishes, bowls, packed up to be taken away. Special mention is made in verse 19 that whatever was gold was not recognized as this or that special thing for the temple. How did Babylon see it? Gold is gold, silver is silver. That's what these verses mean. They didn't recognize it as something important to the God of Israel. They said, that's money, we're taking it. Everything was monetized in the value system of Babylon, the value system of the world. It's Babylon-centric view of the world. And God is ignored, the worship of God is ignored, the fact that these were used in the temple of the Holy God, who's the creator of all, is not entering their minds. And the temple of God is being dismantled as mere loot. Verse 20, two pillars, one seed, 12 bronze bulls underneath, three facing north, three facing south, east and west, and the stands that King Solomon himself, not himself, but his workers had made for the house of the Lord. There's no mention of their significance, just the amount. Look at verse 20, the amount of bronze was beyond weight. They stopped weighing it. It's just so much. and they had to figure out how to carry it back. Imagine the wagon train it took to take all this stuff, bronze, gold, silver, over to Babylon. Verse 21, there's more. Pillars this high, this big around, this thick. Verse 22, the top of each pillar, a top of bronze. What did the top of bronze look like? This network, maybe a lattice sort of thing with pomegranates. all made of bronze, were expertly made and decorated back in the day, all the way around the top of each pillar. How many? Verse 23 tells us 96 pomegranates on each. It's like an accountant is dealing with this and listing out exactly what's there. Which things are we taking now? List this, list that, 100 pomegranates all around. Everything's taken down, tallied, packed up, carried off to Babylon. Silence, could you let this hit you kind of emotionally now? You're in exile and you're reading what they did to the temple. You kind of silence, if it's your turn to read and you're reading out to the family, everybody's just kind of like undone. That's our temple, that's our God's temple. This reads like the Good Friday of the temple. The grief that strikes you. Think of Good Friday and all seems lost. It's kind of like you imagine the disciples going, I can't believe what's happening. Our Lord Jesus is dead up on that cross. And it's as if you're seeing the people who are visualizing this as they read it going, I can't believe all this happened in the temple. They let Babylonians in there? And then they took it all apart? The loss is not about the money. The loss is not about the loss of workmanship, although that would be significant. The loss is about the loss of the place to worship God and therefore the loss of relationship to God because it was all caused by their sin. Fascinating that this last chapter of Jeremiah has so many concentrated verses about basins and pots and snuffers and shovels of gold and silver. So many of these items were broken up into scrap metal, melted down and made into Babylonian little gods. But some of the items, significantly some of the items, remained as they were and were taken off to Babylon and used as they were. For example, the goblets, you know, the places, the cups from which they could drink. Some of the items lasted 70 years in their exile. In fact, you fast forward to the time when the exiles were returning and it's amazing what God did after reading this passage today. What's the next chapter of the story? They got to take home more than 5,000 items of gold and silver. Listen, I'll read to you, God revealed this to us over in Ezra, chapter one, verses seven to 11. Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. Cyrus, king of Persia, brought these out in the charge of Midradath, the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazar, the prince of Judah, and this was the number of them. Here we go with the accounting stuff again. 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels. All the vessels of gold and silver were, draw the line underneath, you see the big number, 5,400. All these did Sheshbazaar bring up when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem. Ezra 1, verses 7 to 11. Put it all together, what does it mean? Yes, the temple was dismantled, but we still have a sovereign God. So the valuables are being carried off by the enemy, but because we know the end of the story, we consider our verses again here in Jeremiah 52, and there's something encouraging here about our God. Under the sovereign hand of God, the valuables from his temple were just checked out like library books on their way back here. They're on loan to Nebuchadnezzar. Later, as I read in Ezra chapter one, some of those valuables returned and checked back in to the place where they actually belong. Why? Because those valuables, those gold or silver goblets would again be temporarily used for the worship of the living God in Jerusalem in a rebuilt temple for 500 more years before the true temple would come. even Jesus himself. Later in that second temple and these very same valuable vessels would all be rendered obsolete by the once for all sacrifice of the temple of God himself, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the temple, and he's the priest, and he's the prophet, and he's the Lamb of God. It's the Lord God of Israel whom we worship. And he is God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We worship God just like the exiles did during their stay in Babylon, worshiping in personal, loving, trusting, obedient contact with the living God that's not restricted to one holy place, one holy building, or even one holy land. You can worship God from Babylon. You can worship God from anywhere that his people gather under his word and his spirit, proclaiming his message of grace. We worship God through the temple Jesus. We worship God based on the destruction and rebuilding of the temple Jesus. We worship God through the death and resurrection of the temple Jesus. Through the exile and return, if you will, of the Lord Jesus, who did more than chastise our sins, he's cleansed us. of all of our sins. Forevermore, we're fit to enter the New Jerusalem of heaven. Listen to what God says about the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21-22, where the Apostle John wrote, For its temple is the Lord, God the Almighty, the Lamb, and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Revelation 21, 22 to 24. This temple dismantling prefigured the dismantling of Jesus on the cross, every wound, Every whip strike, every piercing in all different parts of his body should be in slow motion described to us so that we can stand in awe of what God is willing to do to save us from our sins. He would allow his temple to be dismantled. This temple's nothing. he would allow his son to be taken apart, but rise again, resulting in the entire previous glorious temple being obsolete. That brings us to our third point. How do we learn from this story? How do we learn to live like exiles? It means waiting for this city and waiting for this temple to be rebuilt, but different and better than before. We need something different or we'll go right back into the same sins. We need God to secure us from our own sins. The temple valuables were not taken away to Babylon in order to make the exiles feel more at home during their stay. No, they didn't have access to those goblets. The temple vessels were being taken away to be used by Babylon's officials to symbolize their victory and gloat over them. Ha, this used to be used in the worship of your God. I think I'll take some wine from it, thank you very much. Stop me if you can. You know, that sort of thing. Meanwhile, for the next 70 years, the Lord's people would have to figure out how to worship their God without all these gold and silver pieces that they had been told for so long were necessary in order to correctly approach the true God in worship. They had to figure out how to worship far from the place, the place where God had placed his name and said, in this place, I will meet you for worship. They had to go and worship God without the things that were in that temple. They had to worship God without the sacrifices that had been offered in that temple. The temple was utterly destroyed and dismantled. Yet at the same time, the era of the temple wasn't over. Just as the exiles would later eventually return to their own land, the city would rise again as it were from the dead. The temple too would rise again and be rebuilt as it were. They wouldn't have a political king again. There would be no king of Israel in the line of David until coming of Jesus. Only with Jesus would the new kingdom arrive, but significantly, the day of Jerusalem temple wasn't over after the exile. Until Jesus came and until the new covenant was established, the temple and its sacrifices started up again after the exile. It's so crucial for us to understand that we have Jeremiah 52. What it means is that the exiles need to do a lot of new thinking. We're exiles, we need to do a lot of thinking because our past and present and recent sins, God chastises. The exiles needed to learn to repent. They were surprised to learn that God was this serious about His holiness, willing to dismantle His entire temple. The captives have yet to learn that God would rebuild it as He promised. These Jerusalem prisoners of war over in enemy camps had to learn that something about the temple is necessary and something about the temple is not necessary. While in exile, they're being deprived of the temple building, deprived of these gold and silver vessels. What do we learn from the fact that the whole time they live in Babylon for 70 years, they're deprived of this temple? For 70 years, they learned they could know the presence of God, they could know the blessing of the covenant Lord God in a remote and foreign land, surrounded by enemies, without temple, without priest, without altar, without sacrifice. And this is where we turn to Daniel. One of those exiles was a godly man named Daniel. Over in his book, called by his name, he never forgot the Lord and he never forgot his temple. He prayed three times a day, we're told, in Daniel 6, verse 10, facing Jerusalem, and the Lord's temple precincts now destroyed. In all those times of praying, three times a day, Daniel never had a sacrifice, he never had a priest, he never had an altar. Why is that significant? It's significant because what God was teaching Daniel, God was teaching all the exiles then and he's teaching all of us as exiles now. The lesson of the exiles is that we can trust this personal loving God and have relationship with him that is not restricted to a place, is not restricted to a particular set of religious rituals surrounded by animal sacrifice. God was the one who set that all up. God was the one who required all that animal sacrifice. The whole system was his commands. But the lesson is so much deeper than the entire animal sacrificing system. The truth is that the entire temple system had always been a pointer beyond itself. The lambs and goats were never going to be sufficient to have you actually be cleansed and enter the gates of heaven. They were pointing to something that would, the only thing that would. The time of the exile gave them 70 years to think, to relearn, to seek the Lord. of the temple. They forgot this deeper lesson. Remember chapter seven, when they were saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, they were so close. And Jeremiah said then, famously in the temple sermon, chapter seven, the main point is that the people had failed by making that subtle error by trusting in the temple of the Lord instead of the Lord of the temple. The temple of the Lord versus Lord of the temple, it's like us. Do you trust in the church of the Lord or do you trust in the Lord of the church? It's that subtle, but it's life or death. The time of the exile gave them time to think. The chastisement of the exile was profoundly instructive to get God's people back to the basics. There's something more important than this temple building. Fast forward, New Testament, words of Jesus. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. It's all about Jesus. Christ is the king who would fulfill the promises of the new covenant in his own death. He spoke of that at a ceremony, celebrating his kingship and the new covenant. In Luke 22 20, the cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. We celebrate that next Sunday. Everything takes on a new dimension in the New Testament because Jesus has come. The king, the priest, the sacrifice, the temple. New cups of blessing, everything made new. So what do we conclude? What have we seen? God provided hope despite the loss of city and temple, the burning of the city, the dismantling of the temple. We learn to live like exiles. The city will be rebuilt and the temple will be rebuilt. He is the mediator of a new covenant. He's building a new Jerusalem in heaven. He himself is the temple. It's all re-rebuilt in Jesus. So there's one application. It's very simple, very straightforward. Grace in the end. There's judgment in this passage, dismantling the temple, but it gets restored, grace in the end. It ends well, grace in the end. Let me fill that out. To think like an exile, to think like somebody who belongs in heaven, belongs in the New Jerusalem, will be in the temple with Jesus. but we're not there yet. We're in exile from home. To think like an exile, like a Christian in this world, in moments of apparent loss, when you're staring at a temple being dismantled, when you're staring at Jesus dead, when you're staring at the human condition, we must be confident in Christ's resurrection victory, grace in the end. The story of God with his people means grace in the end. Exiles, always keep in mind how our story ends. Where are we going? And in our study today, we stood in the temple and watched with our mind's eye as soldiers took apart the ancient temple. We felt the loss. Over the last few decades, we hear of various denominations in our country moving away from scriptures. They voted on what? And we feel the loss in another whole denomination. Feels like loss. This month, I was in a public place. I saw a bridal party going by. Oh, that's so nice, it always warms my heart. I love weddings, I love marriage, I support, I think the church should be integral in supporting marriages. Oh, that's so nice, I just love to see it. Until I saw there's two brides. And I feel the loss. I know you've had this experience. We have missionaries on the field in Haiti, for example, had to leave the field because the field is so violent that we can't keep a man or a family on the field to preach the gospel to them. I feel the loss, that loss, other losses. I could go on and you know your losses. What are we supposed to do as exiles experiencing loss? You're already off in Babylon, you get this book of Jeremiah and you're reading what they did to the temple. You're already receiving personal loss, then you're reading about loss of the temple. What are you supposed to do with tons of losses? You remind yourself, Mr. or Mrs. Exile, that in Christ's resurrection, all of them are reversed. That's what we do. His resurrection is our only source of confidence and living hope, because he was coming one day to die and rise, meant the exiles who had died could rise. The temple that died could rise. It all hinges on Jesus' resurrection. When it seems like the church and missions are being opposed by our culture, when it seems like our nation is morally crumbling, take heart. Be confident that Christ has overcome the world. Remember that the dismantling of the temple, preserving of the gold vessels for 70 years, tells us something about God's ability. Remember the later homecoming of those same gold vessels to be used again in the worship of God shows us his victory. Remember the captivity of the captives and how they were brought home again. What today looks like loss of temple. defeat and dismantling of the things of God will uniformly turn out to be victory for the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember when we read of suffering Christians in the time of the book of Acts, in the early church, in the Middle Ages, in the time of the Reformation, in the modern church, or even in our lifetime, when we read about the suffering of Christians, Remember Christ will get the victory in every story in every life. We sing these words in our closing hymn, Be Still My Soul. Thy God doth undertake to guide the future as he has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake. All now mysterious, shall be bright at last. In moments of apparent loss, we remain confident of Christ's resurrection victory, and for us who place our faith and hope in Jesus alone, there's always grace in the end. Let's pray.