JERIMIAH FOR TOMORROW CHAPT. 10 - 15

 

Jeremiah For TOMORROW!

Chapters 10 - 15

CHAPTER 10 God now addresses a prophecy to the HOUSE OF ISRAEL. They had gone into captivity about 80 or so years before Jeremiah was sent to Judah to warn them of their coming punishment. We need at this point to stop and explain some phrases. A key to understanding the prophets is to keep in mind the phrases "house of Israel" and "house of Judah" or "Israel" "Judah" - they are NOT meaning the SAME people though all of them are technically Israelites, coming from Jacob who had his name changed to Israel. In the time of the prophets Israel and Judah were SEPARATE KINGDOMS - Israel or the House of Israel was just that Israel or House of Israel, comprising 10 tribes. Judah or the House of Judah was indeed Judah or the House of Judah, three tribes. All scholars recognize the DIVIDING of the 13 tribes of Israel AFTER the days of Solomon. In type a prophecy concerning the House of Israel MAY apply also to Judah and a prophecy concerning the House Judah in type MAY apply to the House of Israel. The lessons for the one MAY apply also to the other. Sin is sin and often the SAME sins are practiced and committed by the same brothers or sisters - the same sins can run in the family, as we say, "Like father like son" - "Like mother like daughter." The prophets NEVER confused the TWO kingdoms. Certain prophets were sent to Israel in the main and certain prophets sent to Judah in the main, with also prophecies to the other and/or many Gentile nations also. Whatever may be said about "phrases" BEFORE the dividing up of the 13 tribes of Israel, the prophets NEVER confused who they were speaking to - either Israel (the 10 tribes) or Judah (the 3 tribes) or other nations as God gave them utterance. Yet the lessons for the one could well apply to the other. Here we come to a somewhat famous section of Scripture - the first verses of chapter 10. The section on the "Christmas tree" as some would claim. Then others, probably more correctly, would argue this section has no specific bearing on our modern Christmas tree. The section deals with taking a tree and fashioning it, painting and decorating it and making it into an idol to bow down and worship gods before it. That being said, the fact of history is that some "trees" were worshipped or had special mystical powers to some pagan nations. Other nations would worship UNDER certain trees because of some magical power those peoples gave them. The fact is also that trees were often by some nations cut down and placed here or there at certain times of the year, again for magical purposes in mind. Then we should ask the question: "What has a decorated tree in a home or church building got to do with the birth of Christ anyway!?" For that matter what has a jolly fat fellow with a long white beard and a ho, ho, ho, got to do with Jesus' birth? And again, what has a bunny and eggs got to do with the death and resurrection of Christ? What has dressing up in weird costumes of demons and devils and witches and dead men's bones at Halloween (many Christians and even "churches" practice this custom) got to do with Christianity per se. Where did the phrase "trick or treat" come from? A little time on the Internet will surely tell you that all of these "customs" have nothing to do with true Christianity, but come from pagan nations in various worship rites of their various false gods. I have given you articles on this Website that cover the origin of many of these customs. So it is unimportant arguing over these first verses of Jeremiah chapter ten, as to whether they are specifically talking about our modern Christmas tree or the wooden upright idols nations have had for thousands of years. The truth of the matter is that either way or BOTH ways, our nations are full of PAGAN RITES - full of false customs, traditions of devils and demons, and that MOST of so-called Christian religion has ALSO EMBRACED these false HEATHEN idols in one form or another. GOD SAYS THEY ARE VAIN, THEY CANNOT SPEAK, THEY CANNOT WALK, THEY ARE USELESS. YOU NEED NOT BE AFRAID OF THEM, THEY CANNOT BRING EVIL OR BRING GOOD; THEY ARE GOOD FOR NOTHING!!! And the sad truth also is that such customs OFTEN REPLACE the TRUTHS of God's true religion. Modern BABYLON THE GREAT (as we see in the book of Revelation) has DECEIVED AND BLINDED the minds of tens of millions around the world, nay, now it is well over a BILLION, with her false customs and doctrines of demons as the apostle Paul told Timothy would come in the last days. Not only are over a BILLION people who call themselves by the name of "Christian" deceived but many of these false customs branded on the Western world by Babylon the Great, have been accepted by tens of millions in the EASTERN world have also now adopted them, even if they do not specifically call themselves "Christian." BUT it is the LORD GOD, who made the heavens and the earth, who formed the land and the sea, who made the creatures in the sea, on the land, and that fly in the air. It was the wisdom and care and power of God that made all that is made throughout the universe. It is GOD, the true Holy One, that makes the thunder, the lightning, the hail, the rain, the snow, the wind, the stars, and all that there it. The false gods have made none of this. They are truly useless and can do no good or evil, they are made only by the hand of man out of the physical material that the Eternal made and brought into being. All people who make and worship these idols of their hands are STUPID and BRUTISH in their knowledge, the formed image is FALSEHOOD AND THEIR IS NO LIFE IN THEM. THEY ARE VAIN AND THE WORK OF ERROR. THEY WILL ONE DAY PERISH. BUT HE WHO CALLED JACOB, ESTABLISHED ISRAEL FOR A GREAT PURPOSE TO THE WORLD, HE IS THE TRUE GOD, HE IS THE ONE TO BE CALLED THE LORD OF HOSTS!! (verses 1-16). Now God turns His attention once more to proclaiming that Judah and Jerusalem will be CAST AWAY - DEPORTED - PUNISHED IN CAPTIVITY! One of the reasons for this punishment is that the "pastors" have become BRUTISH; THEY HAVE NOT REALLY SOUGHT THE LORD. It is as Jesus said it would be, that MANY FALSE PROPHETS (pastors and prophets [there is a glut of prophetic books on the market today]) would come in the last days and DECEIVE MANY, not the few, BUT THE **MANY**!! Because of the many false pastors and because the people love to have it so, love to be told what they want to hear, so they can lead their Christian life according to their own will and desires, their own customs and traditions (see Mark 7 and Jesus' words on customs and traditions of men) ... because of this, God says His people will be CAST OUT - SCATTERED ABROAD! Again we are told the NOISE OF THE GREAT BRUTE to come and destroy is from the NORTH. This mighty force will come sweeping down and make all the cities of Judah DESOLATE (verses 17-22). Last night (August 28 - 2008) I was watching the reported concern that Iran is close to having nuclear weapons! How Iran has already sent a space ship into outer-space. I was watching the reported concern that the Jews in the Holy Land ARE HAVING OVER THIS PROSPECT of Iran with the nuclear bomb! I was watching the technology - space age technology that the people of the land we call Israel, HAVE! It is MIGHTY indeed. I was watching how the Jews over there in the Holy Land will need to make sure they have a defence system that can answer to the war machine Iran is now close to having. It is somewhat hard to figure that a defence and counter- attack system that the Jews have could be OBLITERATED - could be DESTROYED - could become useless, and that such a nation could be DESTROYED in any easy manner. Yet the prophecies of your Bible tell us that when the time is right, when God decides that enough is enough, that sins and wickedness IN HIS PEOPLE have come to the full, an ENEMY, OUR LOVERS, IN A EUROPEAN CONFEDERATE EMPIRE, WILL SWEEP DOWN FROM THE NORTH, NOT ONLY TO DESTROY THE KING OF THE SOUTH, THE ARAB CONFEDERATE, BUT WILL MARCH INTO PALESTINE AND THE CITY OF JERUSALEM, TO LAY IT DESOLATE, AND TO EMPTY ALL THE CITIES OF JUDAH IN THE HOLY LAND. AND FURTHER MORE, THIS BRUTE POWER FROM THE NORTH WILL THEN TURN ITS ATTENTION TO ATTACKING AND DESTROYING THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. IT WILL SUCCEED! THIS BABYLON THE GREAT, THIS LAST RESURRECTION OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, WILL THEN RULE THE WESTERN WORLD! AS IMPOSSIBLE AS ALL THIS MAY SEEM TO US TODAY, WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, WHEN THE LORD ALMIGHTY SAYS IT MUST BE SO, THEN HE WILL BRING IT TO PASS, JUST AS HE HAS FORETOLD BY HIS PROPHETS! But back now to the foolishness of man and the idols he makes for himself. Jeremiah says, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh to DIRECT his steps" (verse 23). Man, left to himself, without any guide book, is a LOST SOUL! The world that has more and more in the last 100 years, thrown God and the Bible out the window, told God to "get lost" - "I'll do it my way" - will find that doing it on their own will only bring death and destruction. In the long run of it all, man without God is LOST! Jeremiah says, "O LORD, CORRECT me, but with JUDGMENT, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing" (verse 24). Do YOU cry out those words? Do you WANT to be CORRECTED? Do you desire God to GUIDE you, to LEAD you, to WALK with you, and in LOVE and kindness, to CORRECT you where you are wrong? Do you hunger and thirst after righteousness? Do you SEARCH the Scriptures daily to prove what is the right and acceptable way of the Lord? I hope you do, but I can tell you the VAST MAJORITY, even those who call themselves by the name "Christian" DO NOT utter the words of Jeremiah as in verse 24. Their mouth is far from speaking those words, and their mind-set is even FURTHER way from the heart of those words. Jeremiah finishes this section by asking God to avenge Jacob - Israel, for the destruction the enemy has brought on Judah, Jerusalem, and as we have seen in other prophecies, indeed ALL the tribes or nations of Israel (verse 25). CHAPTER 11 Jeremiah is again to speak unto the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Have you noticed? Have you seen throughout the prophets so far? God does not even mention the "good intentions" of Israel or Judah's leaders. As I write in 2008 we are into an election for a new President of the United States. The candidates have, as far as the ears of the world is concerned, given some pretty up-beat, and dynamic speeches, they even throw the name of "God" into the talk at times. Oh, they say they will do this and do that and promise this and promise that, and how the United States will move forward into the once again "good times" if they and their party are elected to sit in the White House. And it is possible that "some" good times may come again, for the USA and other Western nations. But the Holy One of Israel does NOT EVEN TAKE NOTE OR SAY ANYTHING ABOUT those positive promises from the leaders of Israelite nations. When you stop and think about it there is a VERY GOOD REASON God takes no note of these "positive things" and "positive promises" from leaders of our nations. THE SIN AND CORRUPTION AND WICKEDNESS is FAR HEAVIER in our lands, than a few dynamic speeches by political leaders. THE SINS OF OUR LANDS HAVE NOT BEEN TURNED BACK. AS A PEOPLES WE HAVE TOLD GOD TO GET LOST!!! We really do not, when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, when the rubber meets the road, want to LIVE by EVERY WORD OF GOD! So, as it is for Judah, so it will be for ALL Israel. If we do not want to live by the COVENANT of God, which is LIVE by the WORDS of the Eternal, and be His people, and so inherit the land of milk and honey. He tells Jeremiah to go and proclaim it in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. And so it is today, the words of the Lord are going forth via the open Internet and Websites of the true servants of the Almighty. God told our fathers to serve and obey Him, but they would not. They wanted to do their own thing. They wanted to walk and live according to their own heart and mind, what they thought was right and good. So it is today, and so the CURSE of the covenant will come upon us as it was to come upon Judah in Jeremiah's day. God says BOTH the house of Judah and the house of Israel have BROKEN the COVENANT (verses 1-10). EVIL will then come! What a man sows that shall he reap. It is really just that simple. The people of Judah, the Jews, are sowing sin and wickedness, and so they will reap evil. It will make no difference if Judah and the people of Jerusalem seek after false gods, the gods of war and war machines. The day is coming when none of those things will save them. The Holy One says the gods of Judah are as many as their cities. The day so comes that God says to His servants like Jeremiah, do NOT pray for this people, for God will not hear such prayers! The Lord God HAS PROMISED that evil WILL COME on the house of Israel and the House of Judah (verses 11-17). The people of the land would not hear Jeremiah. They even tried to get rid of him. So today, the Jews will not listen, the people of Israel will not listen. They have moved so far from the Lord of hosts and His truth contained in His word, that the true prophet of God is thought of as a crack-pot, a fanatic, a crazy- man. If such a man was to speak before the Congress of the United States and was to SHOW MY PEOPLE THEIR SINS, he would be declared a false prophet. The false prophets today (as in Jeremiah's day) would claim to be the true prophets of the Lord and the true prophets would be declared to be the false prophets. Surely the people and the leaders of all Israel have it up-side-down and in- side-out. They call black, white, and white they call black. For this, God says they shall die by the sword, their sons and daughters shall die of famine; there is no way out! It is just a matter of time, the time when God says they have sinned enough, punishment and destruction must now come (verses 18-23). CHAPTER 12 Jeremiah pleads to know how long the land will mourn. God does not here directly answer that question. The Lord just says He has forsaken it and given His dearly beloved to the enemy. His beloved is like a speckled bird with all the birds around against it. It is the fault of the pastors, whom God says have trodden down His beloved and made it desolate. Yes, the spoilers are come against it; it is the Lord's doing and no flesh will have peace. They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns. Then, the enemies shall not escape, the ones who have caused Israel and Judah to inherit sorrow. God will cause His people, even Judah, to come OUT of the hand of the enemy. Then God's people will come back to the Holy Land, and if the other nations will diligently learn the ways that His people now live, and to swear by the holy name of Israel's God, as the enemy taught God's people to swear by Baal, then they, those nations, will be built into what is right and good; but if they (those enemy nations) will NOT obey the Lord then they shall come under destruction (verses 1-17). These last few verses are some of the verses in the prophets that tell you the beginning of the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth may not go smooth for some nations who refuse to obey the commandments of God. We also see this in Zechariah 14 concerning those nations that will not keep the Feast of Tabernacles. CHAPTER 13 Jeremiah is told to get a linen girdle, soak it in water and wear it. Then he is to put it in a hole in the rocks at Euphrates. After many days he went back and found the girdle marred and worthless. So we are told, that in like manner God will mar the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. The Eternal says the evil people, who walk after their own imagination of heart, will be as the girdle, good for nothing. As a wet girdle will cleave to the lions of a man, so God caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cleave to Him. They were to be a light for God, praise for God, a glory to God, in the eyes of other nations (see Deut.4), but they would not hear and obey (verses 1-11). We are given the example of the bottles filled with wine. All the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem will be drunk as with wine. They will not know right from wrong, and so the Lord will have to punish them, there will be no pity, no mercy, only destruction (verses 12-14). Jeremiah calls out for people to put away PRIDE and SIN! They are to give God glory otherwise there will be darkness, death and even gross darkness. If they will not hear then Jeremiah will weep, because God's flock will be carried away as captives. He cries out to the king and queen to humble themselves. If humility does not come then Judah will be carried away captive. He tells them to lift up their eyes and see what is happening in the NORTH. If they say, "Why is this going to happen?" The answer is simple ... for the greatness of thine iniquity. If the Ethiopian can change the color of his skin, if the leopard can change its spots then you also can do good that are accustomed to do evil. It just will not be possible! So, they will be scattered as stubble blown away by the wind. It is going to be Judah's pay-day, for they have forgotten the Lord their God, and trusted in utter falsehoods. So they will be as a shamed women, skirts upon the face and nakedness appearing. It is not pleasant the way God puts it to Judah. Listen O Jews of Jerusalem, your Holy One says, "I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! Will you be clean? When, after what?" (verses 15-27). The answer is that Judah and Jerusalem shall be clean, but it will take the Great Tribulation to come on the earth, to come on Jacob Israel, and Judah Jerusalem. All that is written in the prophets will need come to pass before Judah and Jerusalem are spiritually clean and acceptable in God's sight. CHAPTER 14 Judah is beyond deliverance Jeremiah gives us the lament of mourning because of the punishment of Judah. He calls out that God will rescue them. The answer given is: "They have loved to wander from Me. I will for now not accept them. I will visit upon them their iniquities. You will not pray for this people. When they fast I will not hear their cry; I will consume them by the sword, by famine, by the pestilence" (verses 1-12). Jeremiah tells God that their prophets say to them that evil will not come, only peace will come. God answers that "Their prophets prophesy lies in My name. I sent them not! I did not give them a commandment not did I speak to them. They prophesy a false vision and the deceit of the human heart. So, to the prophets that come in My name, when I sent them not, that say sword and famine will not come; it is by sword and famine that I will consume them. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast into the streets of Jerusalem, and there will be none to bury the dead wives, sons, daughters: their wickedness shall come upon them. You shall cry, tears will run down your face, for in the field will be they who are slain with the sword and in the city those who are sick and dead with the famine" (verses 13-18). Judah is then personified as a person asking God to forgive, to heal, to do good; as a person confessing their wickedness and their sins. To remember the covenant made with their forefathers. As a person acknowledging that it is God only who rules the elements of nature(verses 19-22). CHAPTER 15 What a shocking reply God gives. Though Moses and Samuel stood before Him, His mind cannot be changed. If they should ask how it will be, the answer is: "Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to the captivity. Appointed over them is four things: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. and I will cause them to be removed into the kingdoms of the earth. Jerusalem will indeed mourn. You have FORSAKEN ME! You have gone BACKWARDS, therefore I will stretch out My hand and DESTROY you, I am WEARY with your false repenting. I will fan you with the fan. Swift will come your punishment ... even the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies" (verses 1-9). Jeremiah will have protection God promises Jeremiah that the enemy will entreat him well in the time of evil to come. He is to pass into a land that he knows not. Jeremiah tells God he did His will, he spoke His words, the Lord's word was a rejoicing to him. He tells God he did not stand in the assembly of the mockers, he was willing to stand alone and be counted as faithful to the crying out of God's indignation. But now Jeremiah is doubtful if the Lord will help and heal the pain he feels (verses 15-18). God answers: "And I will make thee unto the people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I an with thee to save and to deliver thee. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible" (verses 20-21). What a section of Scripture! Jeremiah is to lay it all out, tell it as it is! Judah will feel God's indignation, so will Jeremiah be there when it all begins to happen, for the destruction of Judah was like that of Israel, it took place over a number of years. For Judah it would take from 604 B.C. to 586 B.C. when the city of Jerusalem finally fell in death and destruction. But Jeremiah was promised to have protection through it all, and he was given assurance that God was with him as he continued to preach the truth and warning from the Most Holy One. The truth of what is yet to come at the end of this age upon Judah and Israel is being proclaimed near and far. The warning is going out. The SINS of Israel and Judah are being made clear. The chances of them as nations REPENTING is just about zero. So the anger of the Lord and the punishment He has promised to visit them WILL COME TO PASS! In the last 42 months of this age, there will be TWO WITNESSES in Jerusalem (Revelation 11) - they will have protection from God, none will be able to hurt them until the appointed time. They will BOLDLY PROCLAIM the truths of the Eternal One. Many will hear and many will REPENT! Their work will not be in vain. That is for then, NOW is for the present. YOU can at this time choose to REPENT OF SIN, humble yourself, confess your sins, accept Jesus as your PERSONAL Savior, and be a part of God's work and a child in His family now, today! Then in the age to come you can have a part in bringing the entire earth and the nations upon it under the rulership of the Kingdom of God. ........................................... To be continued

JEREMIAH FOR TOMORROW CHAPT. 5 - 9

 

Jeremiah For Tomorrow!

Chapters 5 to 9

CHAPTER 5 We now enter a number of chapters that over and over again DENOUNCE the sins of Israel and Judah. During this time of 2008 as I write, when the election for the President of the United States of America is in full swing, and emotions and expectations are high once more, just as they were for the time when Bush was elected for the White House (he's now going down in history as the least popular President in the popular rate polls since Richard Nixon [when he had to re-sign from being President]); to say that our leaders are FAR from God, far from turning our nations back to the true ways of the Lord, far from taking away some gross sins such as abortion and same sex marriage, would seem to most people as FANATICAL in perspective. That perspective is still mild when you listen to how the Eternal speaks to Israel and Judah through the book of Jeremiah. God asks us to run through the streets of Jerusalem (hence Judah - the Jews in the Holy Land) and see if you can find a man that executeth JUDGMENT, that SEEKS TRUTH; if you can God says He will pardon that city and the Jewish people. God says many may say He lives, but in practicality they talk with falsehood. The Lord's eyes are on the real truth of the matter. He has at times stricken them, consumed them, in many different ways, BUT they still will NOT be CORRECTED, they have made their faces harder than a rock; they REFUSE to RETURN to Him. They are FOOLISH, they know NOT the WAY of the Lord, nor the judgment of God. Some of their old famous men did know the way of God, but the moderns have broken that knowledge, they are corrupt and simply do not know the ways of the true God of Israel. They have transgressed in many ways and their backsliding has increased. God cannot pardon them. The children have also forsaken the path of truth and righteousness, and have moved into sexual sins as never before, like neighing horses they have fallen into adultery and into the harlot's house. God says, "Shall I not visit with punishment for these things; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" The answer is obviously YES He will punish (verses 1-9). The DESTROYER is to come! But not to make a full end. Her battlements are to be taken away, there will be no defence in that day. Is this just said to Judah? No, it is said to BOTH the House of Israel and the House of Judah, for BOTH have dealt treacherously against the Lord (verses 10-11). Oh, you Jews, and you people of North-Western Europe and the British Commonwealth and the United States of America, you may say NO EVIL will be upon us, neither shall you see the sword or famine: but your prophets shall become as wind, the word of truth is not in them, so indeed they shall be taken away as with the wind (verses 12-13). This prophecy is for BOTH Judah and Israel. Listen O house of Israel, a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a nation you do not understand, they are mighty as their past history has shown only too well during the 20th century, with starting two world wars. They shall eat your fruit, they shall impoverish your fenced cities with the sword (verse 17). This is the nation of Assyria (the German people today) and God will again use them to punish Israel and Judah (see Isaiah 10). There will not be a full end. When they ask as to why this punishment, it is for your serving false gods and forsaking the holy ways of the Lord. So in serving strange gods you will serve strangers in the land that is not yours (verses 18-19). All this is to be declared in the House of Israel and published in Judah (verse 20). Ah, yes, as Israel had already gone into captivity decades before Jeremiah walked the streets of Jerusalem, this is a prophecy not so much as for his day, but for the time of the end, when Israel and Judah will FALL TOGETHER under the heel of the modern Babylon the Great. All the tribes of Israel are FOOLISH people, they have no understanding, which means their leaders are just as foolish and just as much without understanding. They are a people with eyes but they see not, with ears but they hear not. Will you not fear the God who sets the bounds of the sea and the sand? You are a people that have a REVOLTING AND REBELLIOUS HEART! You will not fear the One who gives the rain. Your iniquities and sins will hold the good things from you; among you are found WICKED men, like those who set a trap. You have perverts and bi-sexual, you have homosexuals, you have child molesters, and all who seek after the sins of wrong sexuality (verses 21-26). We as a people are full of DECEIT, whereby many become waxen rich in material wealth. We are FAT, we pass-over the deeds of the wicked; we judge not as we should the cause of the fatherless and the needy. Yes we do some things for such people, but obviously it is not enough as God sees it. We will spend trillions of dollars in Space exploits while we do not enough for the needy and the widows and the orphans. Shall God not visit with punishment such a people? Yes, He says He will! Your prophets O Israel and Judah, do give false prophecy. Your priests bear rule out of their own mind, and you love to have it so. They tell you what you want to hear; the truth of God they and you do not want. So what can you do to stop the end result of it all? Nothing! (verses 27-31). It is only a matter of TIME, the WHEN of God's punishment is up to Him, but the certainty of it is only a matter of time. If our nations will not REPENT of our sins we WILL face all that is written. God is no respecter of persons. Many nations in past history have FALLEN because of their sins and wickedness. It shall come upon us as it came upon them! CHAPTER 6 A prophecy directly to Zion and Jerusalem, hence the people of Judah. The daughter of Zion is to prepare for WAR, the dark of the night is come and she is to be destroyed. It is Jerusalem that is to be visited for as a fountain cast out its water so she is casting out her wickedness; there is violence; before the Lord there is continual grief and wounds. God cries out for her to be INSTRUCTED, lest He make her DESOLATE, a land not inhabited. But the Eternal One knows their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot harken to Him. The Word of the Lord is a reproach to them; they have no delight in it. So the Lord is weary of holding back His fury, He will pour it out. All, young and old, man and woman, will feel His anger. It must be so for from the least of them to the greatest of them all are given to covetousness; from the prophet to the priest every one deals falsely. They have tried to heal the bruise of the people by saying, "Peace, peace; when there is no peace" (verses 1-14). The people of Judah and Jerusalem, are NOT ashamed of the ABOMINATIONS of sin that they practice; they do not even blush; so they shall indeed fall with those that fall: at the time God says it is to happen it will come to pass (verse 15). I have said it many times already. The people of the land we call Israel today are SECULAR!! They are not even trying to follow the ways of the Lord. They have rejected Him and His word, they will not accept Jesus the Christ as Messiah, as their Lord and King. Some, like this Website, try to tell them to TURN and to serve the Almighty, to walk in the good and perfect way so true peace and rest they can have, but they WILL NOT DO SO! God then says, "Hear, O earth: behold I will bring EVIL upon this people, even the very thing they think about (war and death) BECAUSE they will NOT harken unto My words, nor to My LAW, but they REJECT it! (verses 16-19). There will come a people from the NORTH country, a GREAT NATION from afar. They will have the weapons of war; they are cruel; THEY WILL HAVE NO MERCY; THEY ROAR LIKE THE SEA, THEY WILL COME AS MEN OF WAR TO DESTROY JERUSALEM, to lay bare the daughter of Zion (verses 22-23). God tells the daughters of His people: "Gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make ready to mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the SPOILER SHALL SUDDENLY COME UPON YOU" (verse 26). Why will the spoiler come? Because, "They are all grievous REVOLTERS, walking with SLANDER: they are as BRASS and IRON; they are all CORRUPTERS ... the WICKED are not plucked out of them. People round about shall call them REPROBATE SILVER, because the Lord will REJECT them (28-30). Many may be saying the Lord is too hard on the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Many will look and say are they not just trying to live life as others do in other nations. And maybe that is so, but they are not just anyone in any nation, they are the children of Judah, one of the tribes of Israel called and chosen to be a special people in the world, a people to show all others the true ways of the true God. They are to be a light of righteousness in a dark world. But they have REJECTED the teachings of the Lord; they go about doing their own thing; they have like the rest of Israel, thrown God out of the window, rejected His LAW. They just live according to what seems right to them, but that way ends in death and destruction. It will come, for what a man sows that shall he reap. CHAPTER 7 Jeremiah is now commanded to stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim: "Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, that have some resemblance of religion. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, AMEND YOUR WAYS AND YOUR DOINGS, and you will continue to live in this place. Trust not in lying words, 'We are the temple of God, the temple of God.' It is only by THOROUGHLY AMENDING your ways and doings, executing JUDGMENT one with another and your neighbor. If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, if you shed not innocent blood, neither walk after other gods to your hurt. Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers. But you trust in LYING words, that cannot profit you. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and worship and serve gods that are no gods, then come and say to me, we have the freedom to do these things, we will do anything we like to do" (verses 1- 10). The CONTEXT of this chapter is in the time of Jeremiah, what was taking place and what God was going to do to Judah and Jerusalem, but it is still a lesson for us today. As they say history often repeats itself IF people will not learn the lesson of history. So as we read this prophecy set in the time frame of the days of Jeremiah we still need to take it to heart, for the same overall lesson applies to the Jews today who live in the temple of God, the holy land, we call the State of Israel. From the New-Living Translation: 11 "Do you think this Temple, which honors my name, is a den of thieves? I see all the evil going on there," says the LORD. 12 "Go to the place at Shiloh where I once put the Tabernacle to honor my name. See what I did there because of all the wickedness of my people, the Israelites. 13 While you were doing these wicked things," says the LORD, "I spoke to you about it repeatedly, but you would not listen. I called out to you, but you refused to answer. 14 So just as I destroyed Shiloh, I will now destroy this Temple that was built to honor my name, this Temple that you trust for help, this place that I gave to you and your ancestors. 15 And I will send you into exile, just as I did your relatives, the people of Israel." Yes, the House of Israel had already gone into captivity when Jeremiah was sent to warn Judah and Jerusalem. God is no respecter of persons. Sin eventually brings destruction and death. All empires, large or small, have faced the result of their sins and their rebellion. In the original captivity of Israel and Judah we had about 100 years between each of their captive punishments, but in the last days, at the time of the end, all prophecy shows BOTH Israel and Judah will fall TOGETHER! We see here that PHYSICAL anything, does not win favor with God over heart-felt obedience and walking in His true ways and commandments. Judah's Persistent Idolatry 16 "Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, and don't beg me to help them, for I will not listen to you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing throughout the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 No wonder I am so angry! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build sacrificial fires. See how the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. And they give drink offerings to their other idol gods! 19 Am I the one they are hurting?" asks the LORD. "Most of all, they hurt themselves, to their own shame." 20 So the Sovereign LORD says: "I will pour out my terrible fury on this place. Its people, animals, trees, and crops will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger." 21 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Away with your burnt offerings and sacrifices! Eat them yourselves! 22 When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not burnt offerings and sacrifices I wanted from them. 23 This is what I told them: 'Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Only do as I say, and all will be well!'" Here is one of the key sections of Scripture that show "animal sacrifices" were NOT originally a plan of God for Israel to have as part of their worship towards the Lord Almighty. It was ADDED because of their hard-heart and to give emphasis to SIN and to that which is WRONG and CORRUPT and EVIL. The shedding of animal blood was to give emphasis to the fact that SIN can only be cleansed and washed away by the blood of the Messiah Savior. 24 "But my people would not listen to me. They kept on doing whatever they wanted, following the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They went backward instead of forward. 25 From the day your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my prophets - day in and day out. 26 But my people have not listened to me or even tried to hear. They have been stubborn and sinful - even worse than their ancestors. 27 Tell them all this, but do not expect them to listen. Shout out your warnings, but do not expect them to respond. 28 Say to them, 'This is the nation whose people will not obey the LORD their God and who refuse to be taught. Truth has vanished from among them; it is no longer heard on their lips. 29 0 Jerusalem, shave your head in mourning, and weep alone on the mountains. For the LORD has rejected and forsaken this generation that has provoked His fury.'" The Valley of Slaughter 30 "The people of Judah have sinned before my very eyes," says the LORD. "They have set up their abominable idols right in my own Temple, defiling it. 31 They have built the pagan shrines of Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom, where they sacrifice their little sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing! 32 So beware, for the time is coming," says the LORD, "when that place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They will bury so many bodies in Topheth that there won't be room for all the graves. The corpses of my people will be food for the vultures and wild animals, and no one will be left to scare them away. 34 I will put an end to the happy singing and laughter in the streets of Jerusalem. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard in the towns of Judah. The land will lie in complete desolation. CHAPTER 8 1 "In that day," says the LORD, "the enemy will break open the graves of the kings and officials of Judah, and the graves of the priests, prophets, and common people. 2 They will dig out their bones and spread them out on the ground before the sun, moon, and stars - the gods my people have loved, served, and worshipped. Their bones will not be gathered up again or buried but will be scattered on the ground like dung. 3 And the people of this evil nation who survive will wish to die rather than live where I will send them. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken! When God decides to punish there is no messing around as we say, it is punishment that will bring much sorrow, pain, and finally full and deep repentance. Deception by False Prophets 4 "Jeremiah, say to the people, 'This is what the LORD says: When people fall down, don't they get up again? When they start down the wrong road and discover their mistake, don't they turn back?' 5 Then why do these people keep going along their self-destructive path, refusing to turn back, even though I have warned them? 6 I listen to their conversations, and what do 1 hear? Is anyone sorry for sin? Does anyone say, 'What a terrible thing I have done'? No! All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse rushing into battle! 7 The stork knows the time of her migration, as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane. They all return at the proper time each year. But not my people! They do not know what the LORD requires of them. Knowing the ways and commandments of the Lord, knowing His mind, having the mind of Christ in you, is the key to having God walk with you. It would seem that when Israel and/or Judah fall into sin they just cannot turn out of it. It seems to be our nature that makes it extremely difficult to turn from sin once we are deeply caught in its clutches. It would seem only HARD PUNISHMENT gets the Israelites out of deceptive sin and a stiff- hard-heart, towards correctly serving the Almighty One. 8 "How can you say, 'We are wise because we have the law of the LORD,' when your teachers have twisted it so badly? 9 These wise teachers will be shamed by exile for their sin, for they have rejected the word of the LORD. Are they so wise after all? 10 I will give their wives and their farms to others. From the least to the greatest, they trick others to get what does not belong to them. Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that. 11 They offer superficial treatments for my people's mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when all is war. 12 Are they ashamed when they do these disgusting things? No, not at all - they don't even blush! Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered. They will be humbled when they are punished, says the LORD. 13 I will take away their rich harvests of figs and grapes. Their fruit trees will all die. All the good things I prepared for them will soon be gone. I, the LORD, have spoken!" The ones who are supposed to be wise, the ones who are to teach the way and law of the Lord, have FALLEN SHORT, they have MISSED THE MARK, they have REJECTED THE TRUTH, they are as Jesus said the blind who lead the blind, and both shall fall into the ditch. Death and destruction shall come on all the leaders and those who follow them, in their wrong way of life. 14 "Then the people will say, 'Why should we wait here to die? Come, let's go to the fortified cities to die there. For the LORD our God has decreed our destruction and has given us a cup of poison to drink because we sinned against the LORD. 15 We hoped for peace, but no peace came. We hoped for a time of healing, but found only terror. 16 The snorting of the enemies warhorses can be heard all the way from the land of Dan in the north! The whole land trembles at the approach of the terrible army, for it is coming to devour the land and everything in it - cities and people alike.' 17 "I will send these enemy troops among you like poisonous snakes you cannot charm," says the LORD. "No matter what you do, they will bite you, and you will die." Such is death, such is knowing you are sent to die for your sins and rebellious ways. God will eventually punish the children that He loves, to correct them, to bring them back to serving Him in spirit and in truth. It is one of the great written lessons of God dealing with Israel and Judah through the centuries. SIN finally brings DEATH! Jeremiah Weeps for Sinful Judah 18 My grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken. 19 Listen to the weeping of my people; it can be heard all across the land. "Has the LORD abandoned Jerusalem*?" the people ask. "Is her King no longer there?" "Oh, why have they angered me with their carved idols and worthless gods?" asks the LORD. 20 "The harvest is finished, and the summer is gone," the people cry, "yet we are not saved!" 21 I weep for the hurt of my people. I am stunned and silent, mute with grief. 22 Is there no medicine in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people? Do YOU weep at times for the sins of Israel and Judah today? We have many terrible and huge sins ... crimes, killings, drugs, drunkenness, sexual immorality, adultery, abortion, homosexuality, lesbianism, same sex marriage, broken homes, hate, violence, child abuse, and on and on it goes. We have an outward form of religion but it has no power to make our nations live closer to the way of the Lord. We have doctors, medicine, hospitals, but there is no real healing of our hearts and minds. The overall of the way our nations live has angered the Holy One. He will have to punish us, a very severe punishment, to bring us back to Himself in humble repentance. CHAPTER 9 1 Oh, that my eyes were a fountain of tears; I would weep forever! I would sob day and night for all my people who have been slaughtered. 2 Oh, that I could go away and forget them and live in a shack in the desert, for they are all adulterous and treacherous. Judgment for Disobedience 3 "My people bend their tongues like bows to shoot lies. They refuse to stand up for the truth. And they only go from bad to worse! They care nothing for me," says the LORD. 4 "Beware of your neighbor! Beware of your brother! They all take advantage of one another and spread their slanderous lies. 5 They all fools and defraud each other; no one tells the truth. With practiced tongues they tell lies; they wear themselves out with all their sinning. 6 They pile lie upon lie and utterly refuse to come to me," says the LORD. 7 Therefore, the LORD Almighty says, "See, I will melt them in a crucible and test them like metal. What else can I do with them? 8 For their tongues aim lies like poisoned arrows. They promise peace to their neighbors while planning to kill them. 9 Should I not punish them for this?" asks the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself against a nation such as this?" 10 "I will weep for the mountains and wail for the desert pastures. For they are desolate and empty of life; the lowing of cattle is heard no more; the birds and wild animals all have fled. 11 "I will make Jerusalem into a heap of ruins," says the LORD. "It will be a place haunted by jackals. The towns of Judah will be ghost towns, with no one living in them." 12 Who is wise enough to understand all this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it to others? Why has the land been ruined so completely that no one even dares to travel through it? Are you friend wise enough to understand what the God of Israel has here written and preserved? Can you see behind and beyond the nice sounding politics of those who would desire to be your leader of your Nation, your State, your Province, your Town or City. Yes, they may be sincere, they may want to see good things coming to pass, a better future, better prosperity, better health, equal pay for equal work, a greener economy, peace and not war. They may say all this, promise all this, yet they do NOT have the heart or the mind to TURN our people BACK to serving the Holy One of Israel in spirit and in truth. No matter who comes to lead your nation, the downward slip into more sin and a moving away from the Word of the Lord, is and will be, ever heading down. Are you wise enough to see the picture as God sees it? Why did it come on Judah in the days of Jeremiah? Why will it come on us, at the time of the end? Here is why! 13 The LORD replies, "This has happened because my people have abandoned the instructions I gave them; they have refused to obey my law. 14 Instead, they have stubbornly followed their own desires and worshipped the images of Baal, as their ancestors taught them." 15 So now, listen to what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink. 16 I will scatter them around the world, and they will be strangers in distant lands. Their enemies will chase them with the sword until I have destroyed them completely." They were to be destroyed completely, the destruction was to be full and complete, but not every single person was to be destroyed. Weeping in Jerusalem 17 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Think about what is going on! Call for the mourners to come. 18 Quick! Begin your weeping! Let the tears flow from your eyes. Hear the people of Jerusalem (Heb. Zion) crying in despair, 'We are ruined! Disaster has come upon us! We must leave our land, because our homes have been torn down.'" 20 Listen, you women, to the words of the LORD; open your ears to what he has to say. Teach your daughters to wail; teach one another how to lament. 21 For death has crept in through our windows and has entered our mansions. It has killed off the flower of our youth: Children no longer play in the streets, and young men no longer gather in the squares. 22 And the LORD says, "Bodies will be scattered across the fields like dung, or like bundles of grain after the harvest. No one will be left to bury them." 23 This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man gloat in his wisdom, or the mighty man in his might, or the rich man in his riches. 24 Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know Me and understand that I am the LORD who is just and righteous, whose love is unfailing, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!" Are you coming to KNOW the Lord more and more? Are you growing in grace and knowledge? Are you understanding the mind of God more each day as you study His word? 25 "A time is coming," says the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised in body but not in spirit 26 the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the people who live in distant places, and yes, even the people of Judah. Like all these pagan nations, the people of Israel also have uncircumcised hearts." Truly God is no respecter of persons. All nations will be punished in time for their sins and for the way of living that seems right in their eyes but which are the ways of death. This is the lesson we need to get from the passages we have read about the original destruction that was to come on Judah in the days of Jeremiah. It is written for our instruction, it was recorded (see Jeremiah 30:1-3) for the time will come once more that Israel and Judah will need to be punished for their sins, to again go into captivity, to once more be delivered from the lands of their enemies, to be brought, with weeping and crying, with a humble repentant heart, back to the land of promise, under the mighty arm of the Messiah Christ Jesus, to be the delight of God forever more. ............................................ To be continued

JEREMIAH FOR TOMORROW CHAPT. 1 - 4

 

JEREMIAH For Tomorrow!

Israel and Judah in the End-time

Chapter 1 - 4 Introduction I give you the introduction taken from my old KJV Study Bible. "The book of Jeremiah has preserved the message and writings of the prophet who served as God's messenger throughout the last four decades of the kingdom of Judah, 627 - 586 B.C. With the decline of Assyrian power after 650 B.C., Josiah had the opportunity to assert himself politically and religiously. By 605 B.C., the Babylonians advanced to Palestine and ultimately the city with its temple was destroyed. Jeremiah's warning that judgment was coming was favorably received until 609 B.C., the date when Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo. After that many of the civil and religious leaders openly opposed Jeremiah. As a messenger of God faithfully warning his people, he was subjected to much suffering and narrowly escaped death as the pressures mounted. His message was primarily concerned with the national and international involvement facing his people at that time. He assures them, however, that they would be restored after 70 years of Babylonian captivity. Likewise he predicts the ultimate restoration of Israel (chap.31). Since the book is not arranged in chronological order it is difficult to outline....." You are going to notice from the CONTEXT that MUCH of this prophecy in the book of Jeremiah is for the LAST DAYS, THE END TIMES, AND INTO THE AGE TO COME,----  WHEN THE MESSIAH SHALL REIGN ON EARTH AS KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. This will not be a commentary on every single verse, but a main overview of the prophetic events that concern us for the end times up to the coming of the Messiah Christ to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. CHAPTER 1 Jeremiah is one of the VERY FEW in the entire Bible that was called and chosen for his prophetic ministry before he was formed in the womb, and was sanctified, set apart for the work of the Lord before he came forth from the womb. He was ordained to be a prophet to the nationS - plural, not just Judah and the Jews (verse 5). The House of Israel had already gone into captivity by the Assyrian power from 745 to 718 B.C. Yet you will find Jeremiah giving prophetic warnings both bad and good to those people who had long disappeared from the land of Palestine. Indeed, the context of much of Jeremiah's prophecy is for the end of this age and into the coming new age of the Kingdom of God on earth under Jesus Christ. Jeremiah was not pleased with God calling him to be a prophet to the nations. He made the excuse that he was too young - a child! What age Jeremiah was is not given to us, but he may well have been a young teenager when he was to warn the nations. God did not accept the excuse Jeremiah gave and he was told that the Lord would send him and that he was to speak what the Eternal commanded him. He was to be NOT afraid of their faces: for God would be with him and deliver him from death. The Lord then put forth His hand and touched the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, "I have put My words in thy mouth" (verses 6-9). Once more in verse 10 God tells Jeremiah that he is set over the nationS and over kingdomS, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to BUILD, and to PLANT. He is told God will hasten His word to perform it (verses 11-12). Interesting how God looks at time. The book of Revelation also tells us that Jesus will come quickly. The prophecies are in the main yet to come to pass, so with the Lord a few thousand years or more is less than nothing, I guess when you compare it to eternity it is less than nothing. Also, when the prophecies DO take place, it will be a relatively very short time to Christ's return. The book of Revelation gives us 42 months, 1260 days, a time, times, and half a time - about THREE and a HALF years! It is from the NORTH that an evil will come upon the land of Palestine. The families of the North kingdoms will come against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah for their wickedness and sins in departing from the true God (verses 15-16). The original captivity of Judah by the Babylonian power was not from the north but from the EAST - Babylon is EAST of Jerusalem, not the north. The context of the first chapters of Jeremiah is the time of the end, the punishment to come upon Judah (the Jews) and the house of Israel (a good portion of the Western world). The armies to come against Jerusalem and the Jews will come from the northern kingdoms of the Europe Beast power now rising in the nations of Europe. It is that Empire that will rise up and eventually sweep down into Palestine, defeating the "king of the South" (Egypt and her Arab confederacy) as told to us in Daniel 11:40-45. That Europe Babylon Beast power, led by a false prophet and his great religious church that is drunk with the blood of the saints, shall surround Jerusalem, make it desolate, and cause the Great Tribulation to come upon the Western world. All this is covered in many in-depth studies on this Website. Jeremiah is to be STRONG, and to speak unto the nations and to Judah. He will be like a iron pillar towards the whole land of Judah and her people and her leaders (verses 17-18). Jeremiah will have mighty opposition but God will be with him. CHAPTER 2 The word came to Jeremiah, God said go and tell Jerusalem: He remembered them in the wilderness, Israel was holiness to the Lord, and protected her (verse 19). They are the firstfruits of His increase and those opposed to them would offend God (verses 1-3). Now ALL the families or tribes of Israel are to HEAR! God asks them what iniquity have they found in Him to make them depart far from Him. He tells our nations of the Western world that they have become vain and walk after vanity, things that will have no lasting character of righteousness in them. They do not ask where is the God that brought them up out of Egypt and worked miracles for them. God brought them into a land of milk and honey, to eat the bounty of it, but Israel, all 13 tribes, defiled themselves and made the heritage of God an abomination (verses 4-7). So it has been in modern times. The peoples of Israel have spread abroad, were given lands of milk and honey in the new world of North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and part of North-west Europe. But in time we forgot our God and have gone a whoring after that which is evil and sin. We have departed greatly from the days of the founding fathers who established the new world on the Word of God. We have thrown God and the Bible out of the window of just about every institution we have. We have become more and more secular, more pleasure seeking, more entertainment seeking, more sports crazy, more of all that can keep the mind off our God and His Word. Then there is the religious leaders of our day. They have not really sought where the Lord is. Those that should be handling the law of God, have not known the true Lord God; the pastors have transgressed against Him, the prophets serve Baal and do not speak the true prophetic words of the Eternal, they speak what the people want to hear, they work in religion for to make money and a profit (verse 8). That is the true state friends of our Western world religion, it is a false Christianity. Jesus said that the days would come when MANY false prophets would arise and DECEIVE ... not the few, but the MANY! THOSE DAYS ARE HERE NOW! God will plead with Israel, but in no uncertain way. Do pagan nations change their gods to other gods that are not gods, the Almighty asks. No, is the answer, BUT the people of Israel HAVE CHANGED their glory in the true God for that which is useless and will profit nothing. Israel has committed TWO EVILS: 1. They have FORSAKEN the true fountain of LIVING WATER, and then 2. gone and hewed out water containers that have cracks and holes in them, that cannot hold pure true water, that comes only from the pure true God (verses 11-13). Why has Israel become a spoil asks God. Why is it that Israel must become a spoil for others to capture and destroy? Why is it that they must go again into Egypt and Assyria as captives. They were there once before but now they must go again. It is because of their WICKEDNESS and their BACKSLIDING - that way of life shall indeed REPROVE them. It is finally an evil result they will face because they have forsaken God, and no fear of the Holy One is in them (verses 14-19). From the old time God delivered Israel and they said they would serve Him, but then went a whoring after other gods and ways of sin. God planted our people as holy ones, with good and right laws, but then our people have turned to be a degenerate plant of a strange vine (verse 20-21). Our iniquity is so deep that even strong soap will not wash it away. God is amazed that we can still say to ourselves, "I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baal" (verses 22-23). We are deluded into thinking we are Christian nations, that our religion is good and right and pleases God. We have got into the mind-set that "let's do our own thing." But even though all from priest to prince are following the easy natural way and even evolution as truth, though they have turned their back towards God, yet in their time of trouble, that will surely come on them, they will then say, "Arise, and save us." God will for a while answer, "But where are thy gods that you hast made yourself, let them arise, and let's see if they can save you in your time of trouble. Judah, you have as many gods as there are cities in your land" (verses 225-28). Indeed, most people do not seem to realize that in the land of Judah, the Holy Land, the people, from prince to average Joe, as SECULAR! They do not as a nation have STRONG DEPTH of RELIGION per se, let alone the true religion of God. The time has come says God that it is useless to plead with Him. He has allowed your children to see and face evil, to be CORRECTED IN VARIOUS WAYS, BUT THEY WILL NOT BE CORRECTED.   Your own ways have brought the sword on them, and your ways have devoured the true prophets. Some people like the maid does not forget her ornaments, or a bride her fancy attire, but MY PEOPLE says the Lord, "Have for FORGOTTEN ME DAYS WITHOUT NUMBER!" (verses 29-32). We have as a people of the Western world, taught others that are wicked our wicked ways. It is out in the open for all to see, not in some secret dark corner. We of the Western world deport to Eastern nations many of our evil and wicked ways of life. Yet in it all, we say we are innocent, and surely God's anger will not come upon us. But God will plead with us in no uncertain way, because we say we have not sinned. We shall be ashamed when in Egypt again, just as when the Assyrian power took Israel slaves, and they then became ashamed of their sins. It will all come back on us. Our days of captivity once more to our lover enemies, will show us our evil and sins and wickedness. We shall hang our heads in shame as we enter captivity and disgrace (33-37). CHAPTER 3 It was a law in ancient Israel that a wife being put away and becoming another man's wife, the original husband could not marry her again if she became available to marry once more (see Deut.24:4). Yet God says we have played the harlot with many lovers, and He will take us back if we turn again to serve Him. He wants us to look and see clearly the ways we have whored ourselves and our wickedness. Note verse 3. "Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there has been no rain, and you have a whore's forehead, you refused to be ashamed." I can not tell you that this or that "natural disaster" has come directly from God, certainly the Lord has ALLOWED it to come, yet this verse would seem to indicate SOME natural disasters were given or allowed to come upon us to CORRECT us, to turn us back to REPENTANCE and to serve God in spirit and in truth. But it has all had little deep effect on us in any spiritual way. The Lord asks Jeremiah if he remembered the backsliding of Israel, going after other gods, leaving the truth of the Lord. If he remembered how God asked Israel to "Turn unto me. But she returned not." God put away the spiritual adulterous Israel and gave a bill of divorcement (captivity by the Assyrian power) from 745 to 718 B.C. Yet with all this her SISTER JUDAH FEARED NOT! But also went and played the harlot. She also defiled the land with spiritual whoredoms and spiritual adultery with false gods. So Judah has also not turned to the true God with her whole heart. Israel could be looked upon as being justified more than her sister - treacherous Judah (verses 6-11). Israel did get a new heart for a while in our modern times over the last 3 and 4 hundred years. Many of our nations were founded upon the Word of God, we proclaimed to be "Christian." Judah was brought forth, allowed to return to the Holy Land, allowed to form a nation in 1948. But did she seek to find the true God and His true holy word as contained in the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. NO! Judah, the Jews of the land we call Israel today is MAINLY SECULAR! It's leaders do not search for the truth of God. It's religious population (of Jews) in the main will NOT accept Jesus as the Messiah and Savior, and the New Testament as the word of God. In the modern world of today, looking at it from a certain point of view, it can be said that Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah. Now the prophecy moves to the time when Israel shall in the future be in captivity once more to our lover enemies, when we shall be scattered as slaves in the land of the NORTH above Jerusalem, in many of the lands of Europe, under the heel of the Beast of Europe, during the last three and one half years of this age. God will call, He proclaims, "Return, you backsliding Israel, I will cause my anger to stop and be merciful, I will not keep my anger going forever. Just acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and that you have not obeyed my voice. Turn, O backsliding children, for I am married to you; I will take you one of a city, two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. I will give you PASTORS according to my heart, and which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding" (verses 12-15). WHEN WILL THIS BE? WHEN IS THIS PROPHECY FOR? The next verses make it plain, the context clearly tells us. It was not for the days of Jeremiah. It is for a punishment captivity in the LAST DAYS of this age! God will send Israel into captivity and bring them out of it once more, right at the very end time of this age. They will once more be RESTORED and be INCREASED. They shall no more be seeking any "ark of the covenant" - it will not even come to mind. AT THAT TIME THEY SHALL CALL JERUSALEM THE THRONE OF THE LORD; and all nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they go any more after the imagination of their evil heart. In those days the HOUSE OF JUDAH SHALL WALK WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, and they shall come TOGETHER out of the land of the NORTH to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers. But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? And I said, You shall call me, MY FATHER; and shall NOT TURN AWAY from Me. Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the Lord (verses 16-20). Read those verses again. Get the CONTEXT! It is clear, this prophecy is for the very END TIME, when Jerusalem shall be the throne and capital city of the earth. When Israel and Judah shall be ONE again in the land of promise. It is a prophecy for the yet FUTURE, JUST AS GIVEN IN EZEKIEL 37, where the two sticks become ONE. The prophecy moves back in verse 21 to 25 to Israel's lament. To her shame and wickedness and sins. To God calling her to TURN, to REPENT, to CONFESS her sins. TO REALIZE SHE HAS SINNED AGAINST GOD EVEN FROM HER YOUTH. It is our nature to FORGET our God when we are in a time of plenty. It is our nature to then saturate ourselves with pleasure and physical goods, and party with wine, women, and song. Yet in times like that the Eternal God still has those who serve Him and call out the truth of the Lord and shout out that we need to TURN BACK and love and serve our God. CHAPTER 4 If Israel (the Western world) will RETURN unto God, IF they will put away their abominations out of His sight, then you will not have to go into captivity and destruction. Then God speaks to Jerusalem and Judah ... circumcise the foreskins of your heart; lest the FURY of your God comes as like a fire, and burn that none can put out, to dissolve your evil ways. God's warning is to go to Jerusalem and Judah. It is to go to Zion, that an evil from the NORTH, and a GREAT DESTRUCTION is to come! The lion is come out from the trees, the great destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is coming to make the land DESOLATE, to lay waste the cities, even without an inhabitant. The hearts of all people will faint in that day, from the prince to the priest to the prophet (verses 1-9). Jeremiah sees how God has allowed mighty deception to come upon Jerusalem, as they think "peace" will be a reality, but the truth is only a SWORD is to come - like the wind it will come to fan the people. The enemy from the NORTH shall be as the chariots of a whirlwind: his war machines swifter than the eagles. A great WOE is to come, a mighty SPOILING! A cry is going forth to Jerusalem to wash her heart from WICKEDNESS, that she may be saved from this time. From afar the watching voices of God's true servants cry out against the cities of Judah, because of her rebelliousness against the Lord. It is because of your wickedness that this destruction is to come on you. The servant of the Lord is pained in heart, he cannot hold his peace, he must shout out, for the sound of the war trumpet comes, the alarm of war is sounded. Destruction upon destruction is upon the whole land. Oh how long must this be the servant of the Lord cries out, the sound of the war trumpet. It is because the people are foolish, not knowing the true God; they are children of no understanding: they are wise to do EVIL, and to do GOOD they know not how (verses 10-17). The destruction to come is mighty, upon the land and heaven, no light will shine, and the mountains will tremble, and the hills be moved. Men will hardly be there, the birds of heaven will flee. The fruitful place will be as a wilderness, the cities broken down at the PRESENCE OF THE LORD, and by HIS FIERCE ANGER! (verses 23-26). The time setting is thus clear, it is the time of the end, when God shall shake the earth. The land will be indeed DESOLATE, yet not a full end of all people (verse 27). The purpose of God is to be fulfilled, the heavens will be black, the Lord will not change His mind (verse 28). The whole city of Jerusalem shall flee for the noise of the army, they shall flee to the hills and woods as Jesus said they needed to do, when they saw in the last days, the city of Jerusalem surrounded by armies and the desolation was close at hand (see Mat.24; Mark 13; Luke 21). The cities of Judah will be forsaken. It will be no good to deck yourselves out in your fine clothes and jewels. It will be in vain to try and win the peace of your lover enemies, they will only despise you, and they will indeed seek your life. It will be a time of anguish and travail as a woman who brings forth her child, the voice of the daughters of Zion will cry out; they will spread their hands saying, "Woe is me now! For my soul is wearied because of murderers" (verses 28-31). All this prophecy is in context, a prophecy of the very end time, the last three and one half years, or 42 months, or 1260 days of this present age. Judah (the Jews) of the Holy Land, Israel (the peoples of North-Western Europe, the British Commonwealth and the United States of America) will be under the heel of the German-led Beast power of Europe, the Babylon Woman of the book of Revelation. The Beast-man and the False-prophet of Revelation shall lead and direct a mighty 7th resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire in Europe. It will come against an Arab king of the south in the last days. It will defeat the king of the South and then march into the holy land. It will surround Jerusalem with its armies and bring destruction on that city and all the cities of Judah. It will then turn its might against the British Commonwealth of nations and the United States of America. It will crush the Western world. It will rule the Western world with its false Christian religion. It will impose the "mark of the Beast" on all its citizens. It will persecute and kill many true saints of God. It will reign until the day of the Lord comes. It will turn to conquer the Eastern world, the East will counter-attack. The war that comes would obliterate every human life from off the planet if not stopped by the coming of Christ. Jesus will come, to fight against those who will be destroying the earth. He will destroy the armies of the West and the East in the battle of Armageddon, at Megiddo. Israel and Judah will be restored, they will come with weeping and a repentant heart from the lands of their enemies, to be united as ONE people back in the land of promise. So will begin the 1,000 years of the Kingdom of God on earth, under the leadership of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. ....................................... To be continued

ISAIAH FOR TOMORROW CHAPT. 61 - 66 END

 

Isaiah For ToMORROW!

Chapters 61 to 66

From the New-Living Translation CHAPTER 61 Good News for the Oppressed 1 "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, because the LORD has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the LORD's favor has come, and with it, the day of God's anger against their enemies. 3 To all who mourn in Israel (Heb.Zion) he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the LORD has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory." This was quoted by Christ at the beginning of His ministry (Luke 4:18) but He stopped as it is in the KJV with verse 1, for verse two begins the prophecy of the end time for this age. 4 "They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities long ago destroyed. They will revive them, though they have been empty for many generations. 5 Foreigners will be your servants. They will feed your flocks and plow your fields and tend your vineyards. 6 You will be called priests of the LORD, ministers of our God. You will be fed with the treasures of the nations and will boast in their riches. 7 Instead of shame and dishonor, you will inherit a double portion of prosperity and everlasting joy. 8 For I, the LORD, love justice. I hate robbery and wrongdoing. I will faithfully reward my people for their suffering and make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their descendants will be known and honored among the nations. Everyone will realize that they are a people the LORD has blessed." This cannot be said about Israel/Judah/Zion/Jerusalem today. There may be a part fulfilment but it has not reached its final and forever accomplishment of reality. 10 "I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels. 11 The Sovereign LORD will show his justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise him! His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, filled with young plants springing up everywhere." At the final end of this age and the restoration of Jerusalem and the peoples of Israel and Judah, truly these will be the words that will echo in the holy promised land. CHAPTER 62 Isaiah's Prayer for Jerusalem 1 "Because I love Zion, because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch. 2 The nations will see your righteousness. Kings will be blinded by your glory. And the LORD will give you a new name. 3 The LORD will hold you in his hands for all to see - a splendid crown in the hands of God. 4 Never again will you be called the God-forsaken City or the Desolate Land. Your new name will be the City of God's Delight and the Bride of God, for the LORD delights in you and will claim you as his own. 5 Your children will care for you with joy, O Jerusalem, just as a young man cares for his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride." This has not yet taken place, but it will when the Messiah comes in glory to claim Jerusalem and Israel-Judah to dwell with them forever more. 6 "O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray to the LORD day and night for the fulfilment of this promise. Take no rest all of you who pray. 7 Give the LORD no rest until he makes Jerusalem the object of praise throughout the earth. 8 The LORD has sworn to Jerusalem by his own strength: "I will never again hand you over to your enemies. Never again will foreign warriors come and take away your grain and wine. 9 You raised it, and you will keep it, praising the LORD. Within the courtyards of the Temple, you yourselves will drink the wine that you have pressed." Once more this cannot be said to have taken place in Jerusalem and the holy land. 10 "Go out! Prepare the highway for my people to return! Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the nations to see. 11 The LORD has sent this message to every land: Tell the people of Israel (Heb. the daughters of Zion) 'Look, your Savior is coming. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.' 12 They will be called the Holy People and the People Redeemed by the LORD. And Jerusalem will be known as the 'Desirable Place' and the 'City No Longer Forsaken.'" It is the coming of the Messiah Christ in power and glory; that is the whole context; He comes to free Jerusalem from the Beast power of Europe, and to set up the Kingdom of God on earth. CHAPTER 63 Judgment against the LORD's Enemies 1 "Who is this who comes from Edom, from the city of Bozrah, with his clothing stained red? Who is this in royal robes, marching in the greatness of his strength? 2 Why are your clothes so red, as if you have been treading out grapes? 3 'I have trodden the winepress alone; no one was there to help me. In my anger I have trampled my enemies as if they were grapes. In my fury I have trampled my foes. It is their blood that has stained my clothes.'" This is the mighty power of Christ as He returns to earth as a warring King, to smash His enemies, to destroy those who are destroying the earth. The great battle of Armageddon from the plain about 70 miles north-west of Jerusalem to the south of that city down to the ancient land of Edom. A flowing river of blood it will be, as I have shown in other in-depth studies on this Blog concerning that mighty battle. 4 "For the time has come for me to avenge my people, to ransom them from their oppressors. 5 I looked, but no one came to help my people. I was amazed and appalled at what I saw. So I executed vengeance alone; unaided, I passed down judgment. 6 I crushed the nations in my anger and made them stagger and fall to the ground." Yes, with the angelic armies and the saints raised by a resurrection at the coming of Christ, Jesus will wage war on those who will fight against Him, the armies if the Europe Beast power and the armies of the kings of the East. It is the time to free the captives of Israel and Judah, to restore them to the Promised Land, to deliver them from their enemies. All I have explained in detail in other prophetic studies on this blog. Praise for Deliverance 7 "I will tell of the LORD'S unfailing love. I will praise the LORD for all he has done. I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel, which he has granted according to his mercy and love. 8 He said, 'They are my very own people. Surely they will not be false again.' And he became their Savior. 9 In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years." Yes, it will be a PERSONAL delivery He will do to restore and redeem the whole house of Israel (all 13 tribes). They will be false to Him no more. This cannot be said of the tribes of Israel today, but when this prophecy comes to pass it surely will be said of them that they will never again be false in any way to the Lord their God. The Almighty was not joyful in having to punish them, it grieved Him to do so, to allow their enemies to destroy them and take them captive, but it was needful to be done to bring them to deep and full REPENTANCE. Their God will personally come and rescue them from the lands of their enemies. 10 "But they rebelled against him and grieved his Holy Spirit. That is why he became their enemy and fought against them. 11 Then they remembered those days of old when Moses led his people out of Egypt. They cried out, 'Where is the one who brought Israel through the sea, with Moses as their shepherd? Where is the one who sent his Holy Spirit to be among his people? 12 Where is the one whose power divided the sea before them, when Moses lifted up his hand, establishing his reputation forever? 13 Where is the one who led them through the bottom of the sea?' They were like fine stallions racing through the desert, never stumbling. 14 As with cattle going down into a peaceful valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. You led your people, LORD, and gained a magnificent reputation." At the time of the end of this age, when the Great Tribulation will be upon this earth, and the mighty Day of the Lord has come, Israel and Judah will be reminded of the super- natural deliverance of the Exodus under Moses. They will turn and cry out to the Lord to once more use His glorious power to deliver them from their enemies. He will hear and He will come to deliver them. Prayer for Mercy and Pardon 15 "LORD, look down from heaven and see us from your holy, glorious home. Where is the passion and the might you used to show on our behalf? Where are your mercy and compassion now? 16 Surely you are still our Father! Even if Abraham and Jacob (Heb. Israel) would disown us, LORD, you would still be our Father. You are our Redeemer from ages past. 17 LORD, why have you allowed us to turn from your path? Why have you given us stubborn hearts so we no longer fear you? Return and help us, for we are your servants and your special possession. 18 How briefly your holy people possessed the holy place, and now our enemies have destroyed it. 19 LORD, why do you treat us as though we never belonged to you? Why do you act as though we had never been known as your people?" The people of Israel and Judah will indeed for a time wonder why their God (though they did not follow or look to Him in their latter years) turned away from them. He delivered them from TWO World Wars, BUT the third one (yet to come at the close of this age) they found they were not delivered. They will question if their God still loves them. In the thought of it all they will come to realize their sins, their terrible sins, were the reason their God had to punish them. They will begin to walk the pathway of REPENTANCE. CHAPTER 64 1 "Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence! 2 As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil, your coming would make the nations tremble. Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame! 3 When you came down long ago, you did awesome things beyond our highest expectations. And oh, how the mountains quaked! 4 For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him! 5 You welcome those who cheerfully do good, who follow godly ways. But we are not godly. We are constant sinners, so your anger is heavy on us. How can people like us be saved? 6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away. 7 Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins." Israel and Judah will remember the might of the true God. They will remember the Lord welcomes them that do good, who are willing to follow Him. They will remember all this punishment that has come on them is because of their sins. They will feel they deserve no mercy. They will realize that any good they had and did was as filthy rags. They will realize that for a time no persons (in the majority - only a very few) called on God with a true heart of turning from sin, and so they will come to understand why it seemed that their God had turned His back on them. For those in Israel today, who will read their Bibles and who will search for the commandments of the Lord, to them, it is obvious as to the many and grievous sins of our nations. To them it is clearly seen that we have no political leaders, no religious leaders, that will lead the people out of our sins and back to the pathway of the Holy One. So, we shall in the appointed time, be turned over to the penalty of sin, which is death and destruction. It is written only ONE in TEN of our people shall remain alive by the time of Christ's coming again to earth. 8 "And yet, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are all formed by your hand. 9 Oh, don't be so angry with us, LORD. Please don't remember our sins forever. Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people. 10 Your holy cities are destroyed; even Jerusalem is a desolate wilderness. 11 The holy, beautiful Temple where our ancestors praised you has been burned down, and all the things of beauty are destroyed. 12 After all this, LORD, must you still refuse to help us? Will you continue to be silent and punish us?" Yes, for a while, it will seem there will be no hope for the children of Israel. Judgment and Final Salvation 1 "The LORD says, 'People who never before inquired about me are now asking about me. I am being found by people who were not looking for me. To them I have said, I am here!' 2 I opened my arms to my own people all day long, but they have rebelled. They follow their own evil paths and thoughts. 3 All day long they insult me to my face by worshipping idols in their sacred gardens. They burn incense on the rooftops of their homes. 4 At night they go out among the graves and secret places to worship evil spirits. They also eat pork and other forbidden foods. 5 Yet they say to each other, 'Don't come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!' They are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away.'" Sometimes it is others who are not Israelites who are more ready to accept the pathway of the God of Israel. The Almighty has always had His servants proclaiming His truths and way of life to the people of Israel and Judah, but for the most part those people would not hear, they wanted to follow their own ways, they did not want God telling them how to live, even how to eat. They wanted to serve their own passions and desires in their religious life and in their physical life. They had their own self-righteous ideas and thought and just wanted to do their own thing their own way, the way that seemed right to them, which was the way of sin and death at the end of the road they wanted to walk. So great the sins they chose they became a STENCH in the nostrils of God, an ACRID SMELL that never goes away. 6 "Look, my decree is written out in front of me: I will not stand silent; I will repay them in full! Yes, I will repay them 7 both for their own sins and for those of their ancestors, says the LORD. For they also burned incense on the mountains and insulted me on the hills. I will pay them back in full! 8 But I will not destroy them all, says the LORD. For just as good grapes are found among a cluster of bad ones (and someone will say, 'Don't throw them all away - there are some good grapes there!'), so I will not destroy all Israel. For I still have true servants there. 9 I will preserve a remnant of the people of Israel and of Judah to possess my land. Those I choose will inherit it and serve me there. 10 For my people who have searched for me, the plain of Sharon will again be filled with flocks, and the valley of Achor will be a place to pasture herds." There it is. There is a REMNANT in Israel and Judah, a called out, a chosen group, by election and grace. There will be 144, 000 as mentioned in the book of Revelation, that will REPENT and TURN to serve the true God, and they will be in the first resurrection at the coming of Christ. There will be others in Israel and Judah who will see the errors of their ways and who will be spared. Utter destruction will not happen to the children Israel and Judah. A prophecy in another book of the prophets tells us ONE in TEN will be alive at the coming of the Messiah to rule the earth. Those will go into the new age to come as physical human beings to inherit the Holy Land, to re-build the towns and cities and to enjoy the blessings of the 1,000 year age of the Kingdom of God on earth under Jesus Christ, and the now immortal saints of all ages. 11 "But because the rest of you have forsaken the LORD and his Temple and worship the gods of Fate and Destiny, 12 I will 'destine' you to the sword. All of you will bow before the executioner, for when I called, you did not answer. When I spoke, you did not listen. You deliberately sinned - before my very eyes - and chose to do what you know I despise." The true way, the true temple of the Lord, has been proclaimed to Israel and Judah. This is ONE of the world-wide blogs devoted to proclaiming that truth. But though it is there, shouting out the righteousness of the Lord and showing the people their sins, calling out to REPENT and turn and be converted to the pathway of the most High and Holy God, it is sad to know it will ONLY BE A FEW that WILL REPENT and turn from their sins. God has His servants out there! They will be telling the people of Israel and Judah their sins and the way of salvation, but most have shut their eyes to truth, they will deliberately want to continue in the way that seems right to them, which is mainly what the Eternal God despises. 13 "Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: 'You will starve, but my servants will eat. You will be thirsty, but they will drink. You will be sad and ashamed, but they will rejoice. 14 You will cry in sorrow and despair, while my servants sing for joy. 15 Your name will be a curse word among my people, for the Sovereign LORD will destroy you and call his true servants by another name. 16 All who invoke a blessing or take an oath will do so by the God of truth. For I will put aside my anger and forget the evil of earlier days.'" Eventually the righteous will win the day. They will be vindicated, while the willful sinners shall meet destruction. Yet in the final end all who remain alive shall KNOW the true God and His true ways of life and blessing. The Lord will put away His anger and turn the evil days into good days for all people. 17 "Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth - so wonderful that no one will even think about the old ones anymore. 18 Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more. 20 No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred! Only sinners will die that young! 21 In those days, people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards. 22 It will not be like the past, when invaders took the houses and confiscated the vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees and will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains. 23 They will not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune. For they are people blessed by the LORD, and their children, too, will be blessed. 24 I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking to me about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers! 25 The wolf and lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Poisonous snakes will strike no more. In those days, no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain. I, the LORD, have spoken!" What a wonderful prophecy of the good to come on this earth and to the people of Israel. It will indeed be a new heaven and earth in that new age to come at the return of Christ the Messiah. People will live as long as trees, the nature of wild animals will be changed. We saw this already in chapter 11. There will be no more destruction in the Holy Land. The world will experience peace as never before in its history. Children in that age will not be doomed to the sorrow that many face today. The Lord will be so close to people that even before they ask He will answer them. All this has never happened before in the way it is given here. It is a prophecy for the age to come. CHAPTER 66 1 This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you ever build me a temple as good as that? Could you build a dwelling place for me? 2 My hands have made both heaven and earth, and they are mine. I, the LORD, have spoken! I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word." Ah, one of the key verses in the Bible to tell you how to be acceptable to God. You need to be HUMBLE (teachable, repentable, loving truth, willing to search and hunger for righteousness, correctable) and you need to FEAR the WORD of God. It is not the ways or ideas or opinions of men or women you need to fear, but it is the very word of God that you must fear. These two attitudes of the mind and heart are a MUST if you want to walk with the Eternal God, if you want to be the friend of God, if you want to be His son or daughter. 3 "But those who choose their own ways, delighting in their sins, are cursed. Their offerings will not be accepted. When such people sacrifice an ox, it is no more acceptable than a human sacrifice. When they sacrifice a lamb or bring an offering of grain, it is as bad as putting a dog or the blood of a pig on the altar! When they burn incense, it is as if they had blessed an idol. 4 I will send great troubles against them - all the things they feared. For when I called, they did not answer. When I spoke, they did not listen. They deliberately sinned - before my very eyes - and chose to do what they know I despise." It is very plain. God does not delight in those who decide to choose their own ways, to do their own thing. Many, most today, do not want to listen to the call of God. They shut Him out, they will not be corrected; they will not repent of sin; they want to serve the Lord in "their way" as they see fit, how they see fit, when they see fit. All this is an abomination to the Holy One. 5 "Hear this message from the LORD, and tremble at his words: Your close relatives hate you and throw you out for being loyal to my name. 'Let the LORD be honored!' they scoff. 'Be joyful in him!' But they will be put to shame. 6 What is all the commotion in the city? What is that terrible noise from the Temple? It is the voice of the LORD taking vengeance against his enemies. 7 Before the birth pains even begin, Jerusalem gives birth to a son. 8 Who has ever seen or heard of anything as strange as this? Has a nation ever been born in a single day? Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment? But by the time Jerusalem's (Heb. Zion's) birth pains begin, the baby will be born; the nation will come forth. 9 'Would I ever bring this nation to the point of birth and then not deliver it?' asks the LORD. 'No! I would never keep this nation from being born,' says your God." It will only be in a very short time frame that the good promised to Jerusalem/Zion will be accomplished, as a baby born before labor begins. 10 "Rejoice with Jerusalem! Be glad with her, all you who love her and mourn for her. 11 Delight in Jerusalem! Drink deeply of her glory even as an infant drinks at its mother's generous breasts. 12 'Peace and prosperity will overflow Jerusalem like a river,' says the LORD. The wealth of the nations will flow to her. Her children will be nursed at her breasts, carried in her arms, and treated with love. 13 'I will comfort you there as a child is comforted by its mother.'" Yes, much good and blessings are promised to come upon the city of Jerusalem in the new age to come. 14 "When you see these things, your heart will rejoice. Vigorous health will be yours! Everyone will see the good hand of the LORD on his people - and his anger against his enemies. 15 See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his swift chariots of destruction roar like a whirlwind. He will bring punishment with the fury of his anger and the flaming fire of his hot rebuke. 16 The LORD will punish the world by fire and by his sword, and many will be killed by the LORD." There is promised GOOD to come on Jerusalem, but at the same time, there is promised DESTRUCTION on the enemies of the Lord. The end of this age is BITTER and SWEET. BITTER for those who desire to ignore the Lord and disregard His commandments and holy way of life, and SWEET to those who will REPENT of sin, who will humble themselves and who will fear the word of the God. 17 "Those who purify themselves in a sacred garden, feasting on pork and rats and other forbidden meats, will come to a terrible end," says the LORD. 18 "I can see what they are doing, and I know what they are thinking. So I will gather all nations and peoples together, and they will see my glory." This is a prophecy clearly for the end of this age, when God shall come in His GLORY! You will notice the Lord STILL has His laws of clean and unclean foods in action. They have never been "done away with" as false prophets like to tell you. 19 "I will perform a sign among them. And I will send those who survive to be messengers to the nations - to Tarshish, to the Libyans* (Heb. Pul) and Lydians (who are famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to all the lands beyond the sea that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. There they will declare my glory to the nations. 2 They will bring the remnant of your people back from every nation. They will bring them to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD. They will ride on horses in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels," says the LORD. 21 And I will appoint some of those who return to be my priests and Levites. I, the LORD, have spoken!" Not all people on earth will be destroyed by the Lord when He comes again. Here we have Spain (Tarshish); Pul (West and Central Africa); Lud (North Africa); Tubal (North Russia); Javan (Japan); and other lands of the earth where Israel and Judah have been scattered, nations that for different reasons have not heard the fame and glory of the Lord, and those people will help bring back Israelites to the Holy Land. Those nations shall come to KNOW the true God, and they shall be part of the people who shall send missionaries to other nations of the earth to inform them of the God of Israel. There will be MUCH true education going forth to those who live into the 1,000 year age to come. It will take some time to bring the world under the rulership and way of life of the Messiah and the resurrected saints now with Him. It is the will of God that the Kingdom of God take a number of years to spread around the world and rule all nations with a righteous and a holy rod of iron. 22 "As surely as my new heavens and earth will remain, so will you always be my people, with a name that will never disappear, says the LORD. 23 All humanity will come to worship me from week to week[sabbath to sabbath] and from month to month. [new moon top new moon] The translation is poor here, the KJV gives a better translation of the Hebrew as it is, "from new moon to his new moon, and from sabbath to his sabbath." The weekly Sabbath and New month day have never been "abolished" - they were, they are, and they will be, at least till the new heaven and new earth of Revelation 21 comes into reality. 24 "And as they go out, they will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me. For the worms that devour them will never die, and the fire that burns them will never go out. All who pass by will view them with utter horror. " 66:19a[Libya]; Hebrew reads Pul. 66:19b Hebrew Lud. 66:19c Hebrew Javan The last verse is sobering. God will one day judge the people of the earth. Those who rebel, who will not put themselves under His laws and way of living, shall be destroyed. There will be a fire even in that age to come, to devour the rebellious sinners. The Beast man and False prophet will be cast into it at the coming of the Messiah (Revelation 19). The worms that eat the dead bodies turn into flies, the worms die not, and the fire will not be put out till all is ended with the coming of the new earth and heaven as given in Revelation 21 and 22. All the plan of God will come to pass. The prophecies of old in the book of Isaiah concerning the FIRST coming of the Messiah were fulfilled exactly and literally as given in Isaiah. So all the prophecies concerning His SECOND coming in glory and power to rule over the nations of the earth for 1,000 years, will also come to pass, just as literal. A new age is to come. All you have read about in this book and prophecy of Isaiah is as sure to take place as the rising of the sun, nay even more sure. There is WARNING and there is PUNISHMENT for many nations of this earth, including the peoples of the House of Israel (most of the Western world) and Judah (the Jews in the Holy Land). But there is also GOOD NEWS of SALVATION and RESTORATION for Israel, Judah, and for all nations. There is to be a re-newing of the earth, a transformation of the earth, a changing even of the nature of the animals, so the lion will eat straw as like the ox. We have seen the HIGHS and the LOWS of what is yet to come on this earth, but the END of the matter is GLORIOUS and WONDERFUL - BEYOND what the human mind can imagine at this time. The picture we get from Isaiah is just a shadow of the reality of what it will one day be like on this planet we call earth. So we continue to pray, "Thy Kingdom COME, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." .....................................................