Handed Over
Under siege, government takeover, economic collapse, gender issues, defiled food supply, slave labor, immigration, competing visions, and uncertain futures. How do we live in and through this?! These are not new problems. The book of Daniel gives us the hope and future where we are all invited to discover The God of Daniel.
Starter
What is something that was outside your control that God has allowed you to be Handed Over to endure?
Pray
Lord we thank you that you are The God of Daniel. You have a plan that you have been carrying out since the beginning of time. We like the people in Daniel’s day are living in captivity waiting for you to restore us to the promised land. Help us to learn from you and each other. May we represent you regardless of what is Handed Over to us so that others might see that you are The God of Daniel. Amen
Study Questions
- This was the first of 3 sieges of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar because Jerusalem refused to surrender to Babylon and wait as God commanded them to do through the prophets.
- Why were Jehoiakim and the people Handed Over to King Nebuchadnezzar?
- King Manasseh’s story is told in 2 Kings 21:1–18 and 2 Chronicles 32:33–33:20. After being drug off by hooks to Assyria and then crying out to God, Manasseh repents, is restored, and calls the people to repent.(33:10-17)
- How does Manasseh’s story help us to better understand God’s righteous judgements and disciplinary love even when being handed over?
- How does all of this help us to better understand that even though we are forgiven and things may get easier for us our sin effects others much longer than we think?
- How might these stories, especially Paul’s wisdom to the church in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, help us understand what handing over ourselves, our family, and others means?
- READ **Ezra 6:3-5** How do these verses help explain why God would allow Nebuchadnezzar to carry away the valuable temple vessels “to the land of Babylon, to the house of his god, and put the vessels in the treasury of his god.”?
- Has God ever handed over something of yours to someone else that later you were grateful He did it?
- At fxchurch we talk about the differences between…
Promised Land theology- IDEA: We currently live in the promised land that we are trying to keep or a promised land that we are trying to create on earth through our works.
Wilderness Theology- IDEA: We are just wandering around living until we die and the next generation takes over so there isn’t much we can do but complain and wait.
Captivity Theology- IDEA: We are captives, strangers, and aliens telling people about our coming King, His kingdom that He is building, and how to get ready for the promised land He will bring on a new earth with new bodies. We are captives in Babylon until He returns.
- Discuss how the passages we read from Jesus, Paul, and Peter help us to better understand Captivity Theology?
- How should our understanding that we are living in Captivity in Babylon practically effect us as we are handed over to things in this life and things are handed over to us?
- Jeremiah’s letter was written after this first wave of captives went to Babylon. Jeremiah wrote to God’s people in Babylon between the 597 B.C. exile and the 587 B.C. destruction of Jerusalem.
- How does Jeremiah say they were to live and wait in Babylon?
- Do you find that strange given the circumstances?
- 70 years in Babylon is literally a lifetime. How are God’s words through Jeremiah helpful to us as we live in Captivity and are handed over to things out of our control?
- How is Jeremiah 29:11 still the promise for us as we wait for Jesus to return in judgement and restoration?
- How is Jeremiah 29:11 often misused or taken out of the lifetime in captivity living in Babylon context? Why?
- These young men became Eunuchs. How would you deal with God handing you or your loved ones over to something like this?