5-25-20 The Weeping Prophet
The Weeping Prophet: Prophecies Given Jeremiah :: By Denis Bowden
Commencing his prophetic life at about seventeen years of age, Jeremiah (sometimes known as the Weeping Prophet) was directly called by God to bring to His people the plea for repentance before The Lord’s forbearance came to an end.
Jeremiah’s life as a prophet extended over Israel and Judah for about forty years. It was a ministry delivered at great personal cost, and he was brought low with discouragement. And amidst his tears, he attempted to fall away. The Father was, however, not done with him and called him back to personal repentance to continue the mission of prophecy given him. He served God as His called & chosen prophet during the reigns of five Hebrew Kings of both kingdoms.
There is no biography written about him from these times, but the Biblical account tells us of his life and his personal hardship. That is shown by the account of the derision and ostracism by his fellow Jews of the ruling class and priesthood and his subsequent imprisonment. It appears he was also born into the ruling class, but any such affiliation was subsequently lost as he began to deliver prophetic messages that boded ill for both kingdoms.
Treachery charges were made against him because he brought to the people the message from God that they should bow their pride and submit to the rule of their Babylonian overlords. Allegedly, his ministry was finally brought to an end when his fellow countrymen (exiled in Egypt) stoned him to death: many of the major prophets met similar fates, a fact that did not go without notice or mention by Jesus.
Jeremiah had more to say about repentance than any other prophet. He called upon men to turn away from their wicked ways and dependence upon idols and false gods and return to their early covenant loyalty to Yahweh (God). Repentance can thus be seen to have had a strong ethical background because, to the Hebraic Jews, it meant living in obedience to Yahweh’s will for the individual and the nation.
Jeremiah brought the news of what was to befall the sinful, turncoat, split kingdom which had become the splinter nations of Israel/Judah. The two nations within one had arisen following the death of King Solomon and the subsequent debacle of the reign of his son, Rehoboam. The prophetic messages he delivered were to little avail as the kingdoms sunk further into the morass of sensuality and idolatry.
The Prophet is Called (Jeremiah 1:4-10)
“Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’ Then said I: ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.’ But the Lord said to me: ‘Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,’ says the Lord.
“Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”
The Hebrews, during the latter stages of their bondage, had borne witness to the prophetic judgments against Egypt delivered through Moses. Finally, the spirit of Pharaoh was broken when all the first-born of the Egyptians, both human and animal, were slaughtered as the Angel of Death passed throughout the land. And the Hebrews saw how their own first-born were spared as death ‘passed over’ them.
You would think that after that, they would never again doubt God, nor question his love for them!
Led by Moses into the desert, they trekked out of Egypt. They went, laden with treasure heaped upon them by the fearful Egyptians. Then, pursued by a wrathful Pharaoh now seeking revenge, they became terrified of their impending fate.
How amazed they must have been when, then, they saw how God gave Moses, acting as His agent, the power to part the waters of the Red Sea. And he was able to lead them across into safety whilst the pursuing chariots were destroyed by the released waters.
Recent marine archaeology at the presumed site on the Gulf of Aqaba has revealed the coral encrusted remains of chariot wheels scattered across the floor of the ocean. YouTube has some interesting clips on this.
However, the Hebrews were stiff-necked and failed the test of faith when, at Mt. Sinai (Mt. Horeb in Saudi Arabia), their rebellious nature was revealed to God as they committed idolatry against Him. They forced Aaron to smelt them a golden calf (as an object of worship). And yet, God forgave them.
Trekking towards the Promised Land, again they locked into denial. They sinned by believing the false report of the spies sent into the Promised Land and refused to go up and fight as the Lord had directed.
Having witnessed the great miracles performed by God as He led them to the promised land of Canaan, their faith in God was compromised by their lack of true faithfulness.
(I recommend this clip. It is true to Scripture).
We forget easily that when you have implicit faith in something, it implies ‘that you trust completely in any outcome that you believe must flow from it.’
The Hebrews practiced the religious rites given them through Moses. However, although they made the ritual sacrifices called for, their hearts were unconvinced; therefore, they remained unfaithful. They could not bring themselves to commit and follow through when God demanded of them faithful worship.
Faithful worship in this sense can only relate to worshiping God in obedience. The master of any household sets the rules; the servant abides by the rules, or else his services are rejected.
Even today, I am moved to say that we are very much the same. We know what God demands of us but the god of ‘self’ goads us invariably to respond in a contrary way. I see little difference between the early Hebrews, their later generations in the kingdom/s, and we of this present world of self-consuming depravity.
God then decreed that none of that rebellious generation should ever see the land. Indeed, Moses himself sinned, and as God decreed, died before they ultimately crossed the Jordan to take possession of the land forty years later.
How infinitely sad it must have been for the Patriarch to have ascended the mountain to view the land, but be ever forbidden to cross over the Jordan and enter it.
The Biblical account sets out, book, chapter and verse, their continued idolatry and rebellion under both Judges and Kings. And it is clear that the Bible has confronted us with the Hebrew history of nationally ingrained stubbornness. When ‘we’ of this present generation cannot humble ourselves to beg forgiveness of the evils we commit, we are joined to ancient Israel hip and thigh. We also display our lack of faithfulness.
There is no place for the faithless in the kingdom of the Lord. Those who are destined to pass to judgment without repentance (sought through faith in the saving Grace offered by Jesus Christ) may think that the ‘welcome mat’ lies at the door. That belief is not sustained by relevant Scripture.
I find this assumption (that the faithless and unrepentant have no place at the banquet of the Lord) to be particularly telling. We presently have the most ‘eminent’ religious ‘leaders’ of the fallen church telling us that ALL will have a place at the table. Scripture is implacably direct and needs no clarification. The faithless are to be denied by God the Father (because of their denial of their sin, thus their failure to seek the Grace of forgiveness through Jesus Christ).
The ‘fallen’ church now preaches a gospel of reconciliation for ALL. Let us be clear on this. The ‘reconciliation’ of which (in their sinful delusion) they speak is the fire of everlasting Hell! And those preaching this gospel of the anti-Christ will await them there. For if ever a ‘first-serving’ of this particular pottage was deserved, surely those preaching this falsity have earned it.
Not even the ‘crumbs under the Banquet table’ of the Wedding Feast of the Christ will denial earn you.
WHERE UNGODLY WISDOM FAILS THE TEST OF GRACE:
Many of the alleged great minds of this world have (past and present) used wonderfully devised logic to back their denial of all aspects of the Grace offered by Jesus. That includes the veracity of His actual existence and whether or not He actually performed the miracles Scripture claims. They will not be afforded a chance to validate their denial before the Great White Throne of God.
Suffice that their denial simply stands and the verdict must be ‘guilty as charged.’
Historically, we, of the nations have sanctimoniously and hypocritically condemned the latter day Jews as the epitome of faithlessness. How one-eyed is that? We fail to discern the ‘mote in our own eye.’
What does Scripture teach us in prophecy still to unfold?
The present-day nations have taken ‘pride of place’ at the head of queue of the worst generation of the faithless the world has yet brought forth. And what awaits us is, to say the least, not pleasant.
Few of the later emergent Kings after David could be called ‘God-fearing.’ With or without the connivance of many of their Kings, the tribes within the nation (that had subsequently split into two separate halves) went their own evil way.
The faithlessness of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, was so bad that the Lord God decided that the ten tribes comprising its peoples should be warned. Jeremiah warned them that they faced invasion and destruction and that they would be destroyed. Such was to be their ultimate fate if they remained unrepentant.
The great message that God brought us through Jeremiah is that there is no sin that He cannot/will not forgive, bar faithless denial. And yet, through the depth of these prophetic warnings, we can still clearly see the love of a deeply grieving God.
PRESENT DAY (Unreconciled) ISRAEL:
Today, the two tribes of Jacob and Joseph are believed to comprise much of the restored but still unreconciled people of modern Israel.
The fate of any existing remnant of the ten tribes taken in captivity out of Judah and Samaria and then dispersed in lands to which Assyria was overlord, cannot be identified. Amazingly, we are told, Biblically, that God knows where and who they are. And restoration/reconciliation is mooted for them also.
Jeremiah (himself native to the Northern Kingdom of Israel) was sent to the Northern kingdom time and time again to call them to repentance and to let them hear God’s plea for them to return to His worship. In turn, He, their loving Father, would forgive them yet again and restore them to His favour.
It was all to no avail. Like us today, they no longer knew God nor had a place in their hearts for Him. The false god of ‘self’ interest occupied the throne of their respective souls. That throne that should have been rightfully occupied by the Holy Spirit.
Israel is Shameless (Jeremiah 3:1-5)
“They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man’s, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,’ says the Lord. ‘Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see: Where have you not lain with men? By the road you have sat for them Like an Arabian in the wilderness; And you have polluted the land With your harlotries and your wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no latter rain. You have had a harlot’s forehead; You refuse to be ashamed.
‘Will you not from this time cry to Me, ‘My Father, You are the guide of my youth? Will He remain angry forever? Will He keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and done evil things, As you were able.”
For many chapters of Jeremiah, we hear God calling for both nations to repent. Nowhere in any other literature or book of devotion belonging other man-made gods, do you read its like.
This is the Almighty One Himself, the Father-Creator who, grief-stricken, is literally begging his chosen ones to come home.
These scriptures give us an intimate understanding of our Father God. He is humanity incarnate. He is love personified. And just as we humans can deeply love each other, no one is capable of loving us to the depths that our Father creator does.
I find this so wonderfully interesting. Deniers cast our Father as an angry, spiteful and hateful God, wrathful and jealous if He doesn’t get his way and we fail to comply to His will.
Yes, God is jealous (as our creator) of anyone or anything daring to move onto His own turf, but that is only because of the great love He has for us, His creation. And as our creator (the master potter who rendered us from the clay from which was spun our personal creation), He retains the ‘rights’ to our souls. This is particularly so as it impacts upon our ultimate destiny when, brought to our own resurrection, our faith or denial is to be judged.
A splendid example of the Father’s love for us, as the sons of God, is told in the story of the ‘Return of the Prodigal Son.’
We see a broken and contrite son, who had lived sensuality to his fill. He had asked for and been granted his share of the family inheritance, and he spent it lasciviously in a distant land in order to pleasure his flesh. Finally, destitute, starving and broken in spirit, the desire came upon him to return to his father and throw himself at his feet to beg his forgiveness.
The father, on seeing his son returning, bedraggled, covered in filth, is beside himself with joy and overcome with tearful emotion, and races to fete the young man’s return.
How can this faithless, unloving generation fail to grasp the point of this gospel message?
This is a story of how a loving God is prepared to treat his chosen people and we who presently have come back to Him through Jesus.
We see then what Judah and Israel could have reasonably expected from God after their long, sinful sojourn into depravity and Godlessness. The gift of reconciliation was offered. It was scorned and refused.
What man, woman or child of faith can hear this story of the return of the prodigal and not break up? It always brings me to tears as I am reminded of the love of my Father God towards me and remember what he has done for me through the sacrifice of our paschal lamb, His own Son.
Israel & The Nations of Today:
True Christian believers wait for the joyful restoration/reconciliation of God’s chosen people to their Liege Lord, our Savior King. We pray it will be soon.
What joy when that glorious day arrives.
Our King will descend upon the Mount of Olives at the exact place from whence he ascended. And then, He will walk into Jerusalem to occupy His throne for a thousand years. He comes as the head of a vast army for he had to finally deal with the denial of the nations.
We, the ones given Him through faith and repentance, then (subsequently raised and changed to immortality as He promised) comprise the members of this vast entourage.
What Is the Present State of Play?
The nations, soon to be led by the Anti-Christ appointed by Satan, have not repented en masse. Indeed, they are worse.
And yet, the cry out of Jeremiah is still resounding as these last cruel days come swiftly to their close. And the people of the nations, soon to be chastened by the wrath of the Tribulation, are prepared for judgment. I urge you to read Jeremiah and substitute your own land for ancient Judah and Israel.
Using prophesy as my beacon, I can be blunt. As God was ultimately forced to deal with the ancient Hebrew kingdom/s of the Jews, we can expect not less, but more.
I am convinced that we have outdone them, even to the extent of child sacrifice (per the medium of wholesale merchandising of aborted babies). And as we now move from recognition and endorsement of the homosexual lifestyle by the State, we have confronted our Maker (who decreed and made both man and woman) with our belief that there exists multiple genders.
As Christian believers, we do not believe the alleged godhead that worshippers of other world-created religions may claim for their special deity. Yet, outside of Christianity, do you hear of any other religion bearing similar insults against their deity, as is made against the Holy Spirit of our Father creator?
Sure, many may lapse or be converted to other faiths. Yet hatred and contempt of our God and His Son burns brightly against us, His disciples. It even now extends to the mention of His name. Indeed, many claim the mention of God is highly offensive.
We have become the living epitome of recalcitrant Israel and Judah. And as they were finally swept away until their recent, as yet, partial recall back to the land (as God prophesied they would be), so are the nations to reap the whirlwind of the ages of mankind’s denial and the depravity of our idolatrous flesh.
“A voice was heard on the desolate heights, Weeping and supplications of the children of Israel. For they have perverted their way; They have forgotten the Lord their God. ‘Return, you backsliding children, And I will heal your backslidings.’And the chorus that the nations should offer is surely the refrain shouted at us from the pages of the book of Jeremiah.
‘Indeed we do come to You, For You are the Lord our God. Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, And from the multitude of mountains; Truly, in the Lord our God Is the salvation of Israel. For shame has devoured The labor of our fathers from our youth—Their flocks and their herds, Their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame, And our reproach covers us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, We and our fathers, From our youth even to this day, And have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.” (Jeremiah 3:21-25).
“If you will return, O Israel,’ says the Lord, ‘Return to Me; And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, Then you shall not be moved. And you shall swear, ‘The Lord lives,’ In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; The nations shall bless themselves in Him, And in Him they shall glory” (Jeremiah 4:1-2).
Would that I would live to see such a Revival. One to make the work of the late Billy Graham pale into insignificance. The Word of God tells us plainly that repentance and an end to denial is not in the songbook from which we, of the nations, sing. Particularly so, at this point in our woeful history. Therefore, are we to be judged for our denial.
God teaches us that He measures our worth to Him. Faithfulness Vs Denial. Either is integral to the future of our existence. Without faith we have no future existence in a loving relationship with our God.
The end of the long forbearance of our Father has been prophesied throughout the entirety of His Word. We are shortly, once again, to see the Hand of the Father as He actively engages in His creation.
The signs of the imminency of prophesied impending judgment have never been more apparent than at present, as I put this plea together. I say ‘plea,’ because it is given for the benefit of those who are spiritually dying.
And do you wonder why we are concerned enough to call out to this dying world?
We want that no man, woman or child should die without the saving Grace offered by Jesus. Yes, we hate what the present world personifies and stands for, but we wish no man ill. Rather, we echo the call of Jeremiah, “Repent, repent, in the name of the Lord!”
Many are so consumed within denial that, in fact, they have reached a point wherein they are now almost spiritually dead. Some even having passed to that state and belong entirely to Satan. Their stubborn refusal to countenance Jesus as the Christ of God and the Master of the Grace that leads to salvation of our souls, testifies against them. They will, however, see their souls resurrected as will those of us whom the Lord is to shortly bring Home to sit at the banquet long promised them.
The resurrection of the faithless, personified in denial, carries them not to eternal life serving the Father, but to a judgment that few of us could contemplate.
In this sense, my ‘plea’ should not be construed as a Commentary or Article. It is instead, the cry of one of the watchers on the wall who see the dreadful enemy approach. It is a warning given that you might soon be consumed – if you heed not the plea.
Today, the world expects believers to roll over, to shut our mouths and not deliver up this ‘hurtful’ rhetoric. The world doesn’t want ‘hurt’ – only what it understands to be ‘love.’ Even that has to be on its terms entirely, leaving no room for God.
So to those reading this who find it offensive and hurtful, I remind them that a pus-filled canker is also offensive. It quite often smells dreadfully from the poison within the polluted core of its long-accumulated sac.
It must be lanced, the poison washed out and the wound cleaned and dressed. And irrespective of sedatives, generally speaking, it can be a dreadfully painful procedure.
The nurse or doctor excising the core will probably apologize for any residual hurt they inflict upon you. They don’t, however, apologize for doing the job. And neither do I.
All of God’s family, given Him through Jesus, are tasked as physicians to the soul. Our task is, however, to show you how to heal yourself through Jesus, the Christ of God.
The Lord Will Not Relent (Jeremiah 15:1-2)
“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord: ‘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 the captivity, to the captivity.'”
For the present world is soon prophesied to go into death and destruction. It will enter its portals, still locked into hatred against our Father and hatred of His Son. The punishment of Israel and Judah are simply a pale shadow of the fate that awaits most of the multitudes comprising the people of the nations.
Present Day denial is illustrated, along with its decreed punishment in the form of the earthly judgments that God will shortly call down upon all human flesh. I speak to those who remain following the Rapture of the faithful and the commencement of Tribulation. This is set out fully in the Book of Revelation.
Many pastors won’t touch the subject, deniers don’t believe it, and neither do most of the comfortably padded backsides occupying the Sunday pews.
Simply, they have never had this strong meat served to them. And I venture that had it been so put, local Parish Councils would have been entreated by their congregations to take steps to ‘get rid’ of that firebrand because he is making folk uncomfortable. Worse, they might leave and take their tithe with them.
Let then the emergent Churches of ‘Social Justice’ deliver them. For indeed, I think it doubtful that any of us who say ‘we didn’t know this,’ will be able to enter a plea of innocence, claiming that this should exonerate our unrepentant guilt.
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited.
‘Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
‘The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind,Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:5-10).
This is that which is to follow the rapturous calling Home as the Trump of God is sounded. We, the repentant and faithful have been shriven: we are gone! We are no longer the mote in the eye of the deniers who, revelling in their wickedness, saw us as the bane of their existence, for they believed (foolishly) that we condemned them.
We did not condemn them. Appalled at their behaviour but lovingly concerned for their souls, We only ever had prayed for their redemption. We are therefore, no longer a restraint. And when we are removed in Rapture, are we the spoken of ‘Restrainer’? Or is it the Holy Spirit Himself? I cannot answer that, so I’m having a personal bet each way.
I have delivered these words unto you in the sure and certain knowledge that too many have been deprived the sustaining ‘meat’ so necessary for real spiritual growth and the understanding that leads to true wisdom. And what is wisdom in this sense? Surely, it is full and certain knowledge of how God expects (nay, demands, as is His right) that we will worship Him.
May the love of God and the peace beyond all human understanding be upon us all, through faith in Jesus Christ in these horrific and appalling times.
Denis Bowden
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